The Girl Who Turned Her Jacket Into a Purse (And Reminded Me What I'm Doing With My Life at 60)

I found out about Sofia Colonero the way I find out about most things now, which is doomscrolling at 11 p.m. when I should be asleep. But this one actually made me sit up.

She’s a junior at Penn State, majoring in marketing and minoring in entrepreneurship and innovation. And she invented a jacket that folds into a purse.

Let me back up, because the idea itself is so obvious once you hear it that it almost makes you mad that nobody did it sooner. You know the moment. You’re out. It’s cold enough that you need a coat to leave your apartment, but the second you’re inside somewhere, whether it’s a bar, a house party, or wherever else, that coat becomes a problem. You can’t check it, you don’t want to hold it, and you definitely don’t want to be the girl standing by the wall clutching a puffer all night like it’s a security blanket. So a lot of girls just don’t bring one. They freeze the whole walk over, freeze the whole walk home, and tell themselves it was worth it for the outfit.

Sofia Colonero wearing the JAQ jacket, via @wearjaq

She Saw the Problem Every Night

Sofia watched this happen for years while bartending at a bar near campus. Girls would go out without coats, catch a cold, and spend the rest of the week doing “college sick” because a jacket wasn’t worth the hassle. Instead of just complaining about it, which, respectfully, is what I would have done, she built the thing that fixes it. The coat works like a normal coat on the way there. Once you’re inside, it folds down into a bag. The pockets become your purse compartments. The chain on the back becomes the handle. She named it JAQ.

Here’s the part that got me, though. It didn’t start as a business. It started as a class assignment.

She took an entrepreneurship course, was told to come up with a business idea, and thought, sure, whatever, I’ll never actually do anything with this. Then winter break happened. She got bored at home and, I love this, she just cut up an old jacket and said, “Let’s see what happens.” That’s it. That’s the whole origin story of something that’s now an actual product with an actual manufacturer and an actual Instagram account full of girls asking where they can buy one.

I think about that a lot, actually: how many of my own ideas have died in the “I’ll never actually do this” stage? How many businesses do I have sitting there right now that I’ve convinced myself aren’t worth cutting up an old jacket for? I am so impressed that she just did it.

The JAQ jacket transformed into a purse, via @wearjaq

The Real Lesson Is to Start Before You’re Ready

I don’t know Sofia. I’ve never met her. But writing this, I kept thinking about the gap between having an idea and actually finishing it. Most of us have the idea. The jacket-purse seems like a crazy idea. But what I love is she just tried it. What separates the person who eventually gets a product onto a shelf from the person with a head full of half-finished ideas isn’t talent. It’s the refusal to stop cutting up jackets. I am honestly inspired by her.

She’s still in school right now, still finishing her degree, still figuring out the official launch of JAQ alongside her advisors. Honestly, that’s the most relatable thing about this whole story: she isn’t waiting until she “has it all figured out” to start. She’s doing both at once, imperfectly some days, and letting that be enough for now.

She Built It Prototype by Prototype

What I respect most is that she didn’t know how to sew at all. She said it herself: that’s not a skill you pick up overnight. Her advisor connected her with a seamstress in State College and she took the bus over to work on it, piece by piece, prototype by prototype. Collar, pockets, straps, arms, over and over, because she refused to let it look like one of those sad puffer jackets that fold into their own pockets that nobody actually wears out. She wanted something that looked good as both a jacket and a bag, not something that just technically does both. That distinction is everything. That’s the difference between an invention and a gimmick.

And she was doing all of this while still being a full-time college student. Still going to class, still working, still having the completely normal, chaotic life of a 20-year-old, except also quietly building a company in the background that almost nobody knew about for a long time. She said the prototyping stage was discouraging enough that she didn’t tell people about it for a long time. She just kept cutting up jackets in private until she had something she was actually proud to show.

That’s the part I want to sit with for a second, because I think we’ve gotten a little too obsessed with the highlight-reel version of “girl entrepreneur.” The version where someone has one lightning-bolt idea and immediately it’s thriving and she’s doing press and it all looks effortless. What actually happened here is a lot less cinematic and a lot more relatable: a bored girl on winter break, a ruined jacket, a lot of bus rides to a seamstress’s house, a lot of prototypes that weren’t right yet, and a dad who cheered her up mid-failure with a lumpy balloon animal and a reminder that getting it wrong is the whole point of practicing.

The JAQ purse in its transformed design, via @wearjaq

If you want to see what she’s building: wearjaq.shop, @sofiacolonero and @wearjaq on Instagram.

And if you’re sitting on your own version of the jacket-purse idea right now, whatever that is for you, consider this your sign to go cut something up. Start with the idea that it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just believe in yourself and start.

This information comes from the Onward State interview.