Meet Julio Ruiz of Liquidsky in Burbank

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julio Ruiz.

Julio, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, I started working in advertisement during my college years and quickly was upgraded to Art Director. I love to design. Once I got married, my wife and I – we used to skydive at the time-, wanted to develop a company of our own. At first we thought of swimwear, but later on that idea turned into a better one when we came up with designing custom-made skydiving jumpsuits. That was back in 2004 and to this day, we are the top manufacturer of the United States in the skydiving and wind tunnel industry.

Luckily for us, we’ve been able to branch out and not just focus on skydivers, but work next to movie costumers on developing wardrobe for movies, TV commercials and special events.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I consider it’s been a pretty smooth ride as far as business growth, can’t complain but there are always little bumps on the road like having a great product built with a specific material that clients love and suddenly the manufacturers stop making the fabric and now we either stop making it or we now need to restructure the suit with new similar material, that means we need to test and experiment the product again. One that drives me nuts is having one of my large Dye Sublimation printers or Heat Press breaks in the middle of a large job and we have a short deadline… It gets crazy… I get crazy! LOL

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Liquidsky – what should we know?
LiquidSky Inc. is a skydiving and wind tunnel suit manufacturer. We make custom suits for our clients or teams to their specific measurements, colors and design. It`s like a high-fashion tailor but for an action sports.

We`ve been able to expand our business into making Kart Racing suits, specialty suits for film projects like Mission Impossible, TV commercials for Land Rover, Intel, etc., special events like STRIDE Luke Aikin`s jump without a parachute into a net, among many others.

Besides the action sports apparel, we also offer embroidery services along shirt printing services, custom dye sublimated apparel and we create private label clothing for client. We not only manufacture but we also design.

Things that make me really proud is seeing our suits on world champion athletes specially when they go up on the podium, also having the opportunity to work with military teams like the Golden Knight and other military branches.

I think LiquidSky is different from other manufacturers because we not only design a garment, We study the body and create a pieces that will perform well and look great, We are very popular with woman cause we can enhance their body really well.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Well, my wife for sure, she was the one that came up with the awesome name LiquidSky and she is my perfect brain storming partner when we come up with suit names and any creative Ideas.

My first employee, Maria has a lot to do with solidifying my business in the first years, she was an awesome seamstress and pattern maker, thanks to her I learned how to get better in making patterns and grading, also in the fashion design part of the business.

All my staff deserve credit because the bring so much to the table and I learn all those good things to continue growing better and better. most of them have been with me for over 6 years and they are all excellent and I care a lot for them, that’s why our working environment is so awesome.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2704 w burbank blvd. Burbank CA 91506
• Website: www.liquidskysports.com
• Phone: 8183916070
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: liquidsky sports
• Facebook: liquidsky sports
• Twitter: liquidsky sports

Image Credit:
Miguel Fernandez
Jessie Brownlow
Guru Khalsa

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