WS Chronicle

The Caldwell Collection, an online retail store selling women’s clothing for the fashionable fan in hard-to-find team colors, has launched its first line of clothing—The Sky Blue Collection—on its website, thecaldwellcollection.com. This line, featuring classic clothes with a trendy flare for the sports fan, is available online for pre-orders now. The Sky Blue Collection, which is geared toward fans whose favorite team features light blue, is expected to begin shipping in July.

The Caldwell Collection is the brainchild of Lisa Caldwell and her daughter, Lauren Caldwell Lea, a mother-daughter duo bonded in fashion, family, business, and sports. As two collegiate cheerleading alums, Caldwell and Lea were inspired by their love for their team and the desire for stylish clothing for Game Day to create a line of high quality, fashionable clothing in team colors. Lisa Caldwell is the chief executive officer and Lauren Caldwell Lea is the chief marketing officer of Caldwell Collection, LLC.

“The idea was formed more than ten years ago, when we were searching for a nice leather jacket in Carolina Blue to wear to a bowl game, and we could not find one,” said Lisa Caldwell. “We realized that there was a market for nice clothes in team colors. Lauren and I are Carolina grads, and I confess that may have influenced our decision to start with a light blue collection. But we chose a version of light blue that would work for more than just Chapel Hill fans. Graduates and fans of Columbia University, Spelman College, and the Tennessee Titans, to name just a few other schools and teams, will find that the Sky Blue Collection aligns with their team colors.”

“The Sky Blue Collection is our first line,” said Lea. “But we will be following it with other collections in additional colors. The clothes are designed to be layered and can be dressed up and down to suit all occasions. They are classic, but also stylish, so they are fun but can be worn for more than one season. The majority of the clothes are manufactured here in the United States.”

The Caldwell Collection is truly a family affair from a family of avid sports fans. Lisa Caldwell’s son and Lauren’s brother Tyler Caldwell joins the Caldwell Collection team as chief financial officer. He played football for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill). Husband and father, Alan Caldwell, also played football for UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as professionally for the Los Angeles Rams and the New York Giants.

Lisa Jeffries Caldwell retired as executive vice president & chief human resources officer at Reynolds American, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and RAI Services in March 2018. She was the first African American to rise to that senior executive level in the companies’ histories. In her role as chief HR officer, Caldwell reported to the CEO and served as the management liaison to the Compensation & Leadership Development Committee of the RAI Board of Directors. She also provided advice and counsel to the CEO and executive management team on all human resources and employment law matters.

Currently, Caldwell is a member of the Executive Leadership Council. She is also a member of the board of directors for Triad Business Bank and a member of the central selection committee for the Morehead-Cain Foundation. A native of Burlington, Caldwell was chosen as the first female Morehead Scholar in Alamance County. While at UNC-Chapel Hill, she served as a cheerleader. After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill with a B.S. degree in business administration in 1983, Caldwell became a Wake Forest Law Scholar, earning a Juris Doctor degree from the WFU School of Law in 1986. Caldwell is a member of United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. She is also is a lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, a member of The Moles, Inc., and a member of The Links Incorporated. 

Lauren Caldwell Lea is a native of Winston-Salem and attended UNC-Chapel Hill, where she was an active member of several campus organizations and a member of the All-Girl Cheerleading team. After graduating with a B.S. degree in business administration and concentration in marketing, Lea moved to Houston, Texas, to begin her marketing career with ExxonMobil. Since 2015, Lauren has served in analyst, commercial sales, and project management roles supporting ExxonMobil’s retail fuels business and is currently a global fuels brand advisor supporting global strategic brand initiatives. Aside from her career in marketing, Lea shares fashion, beauty, and fitness tips on her Instagram blog.

Tyler Caldwell has worked at Frito-Lay North America, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, since 2014. In his time at Frito-Lay, he has served in various roles across the Strategic Finance department, beginning in supply chain and then moving to financial planning and analysis/transformation and customer management roles. After graduating from UNC-Chapel with a B.S. degree in business administration in 2010, Caldwell attended Wake Forest University, where he earned both Juris Doctor and master’s of business administration degrees from the WFU School of Law and WFU School of Business in 2014.

For more information, visit thecaldwellcollection.com.