Off-the-hook designs

J.C. Ruffalo of Newport Beach has had his head stuck in the world of design for most of his life.

At 4, he submitted a design to the Laguna Beach Pageant of the Masters, winning a competition that led to his art being made into a postcard. Now, Ruffalo and his partner Nick Gross, both 18, have put up their own money to launch Undrmine, a new clothing line they say is going to be the next hot company.

The two estimate they’ve pumped about $10,000 into the project, which includes a line of T-shirts — with hooded sweatshirts and hats coming soon.

Newport Beach resident Wally Friedman, a 55-year veteran of the apparel industry, signed on to help the pair when he heard about the company.

“That was the best day of our lives,” said Gross, of Laguna Beach, about their meeting with Friedman.

Friedman, 80, said he is just there for support and to tell the guys about the mistakes he made during his career, which included taking three companies public and marketing in the industry as the president of JJ & Winslow.

“These two guys have the ability to take this company to the top,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy, but they have the ability and the talent.”

While their peers are hanging out at the beach before school starts — Ruffalo will start his senior year at Tarbut V’Torah Community Day School and Gross will be attending USC — the two have been working with designers, initiating talks with Chinese manufacturers and creating catalogs.

“Our main thrust is to get the name out,” Friedman said.

The company’s logo, Poncho the mole, alludes to the concept behind the line, which the guys said is about digging and thinking deeper. Each shirt features the character with a different saying, including “uncatchable” and “undefeated champs ’06.”

“The great thing about Poncho is he has a little speaker box inside and we can say different quotes,” Ruffalo said.

With turntables, mixers, subway cars and messages like “from here to fame,” the two are channeling their love of music, skateboarding and surfing into the line, which they hope will soon rival clothing giants like Quiksilver, O’Neill and Hurley.

Gross plays drums for Open Air Stereo, which just inked a deal with a division of Sony Records and will be featured on the third season of MTV’s reality hit show “Laguna Beach,” which premieres today.

Friedman emphasized they are not skimping on quality just to whip out inexpensive and poorly made shirts.

“The taste of poor quality remains much longer than the sweetness of” inexpensive prices, he said.

Gathered outside of the Ruffalo family’s Newport Coast home, the two young entrepreneurs went through some of their shirts, surrounded by family members and “groupies,” including 10-year-old Josh Roossin, who is on an unofficial skateboarding team for the company.

“It’s great,” the curly-mopped Josh said as he watched Ruffalo and Gross talk about their line. “It’s the new thing … we got a lot of kids in my class begging me to get them shirts.”

The pair plans to pitch their line to retail stores soon and thinks their shirts will sell for about $25.