Artist Kate Shu | Live a Life You Love 100% Organic Cotton Hoodie
Live a Life You Love. Five words that quietly refuse the entire starving-artist narrative — the one that says doing what you love and building a life that works are mutually exclusive. They aren't. Pull this one on for the days you need a wearable reminder: the work that lights you up is also the work the world needs from you. The Kate Shu Collective was built on this single mantra, and now it lives across the front, the back, and down the sleeve of the highest-quality hoodie we make.
Kate Shu is a South Korean-born, Iowa-raised artist, entrepreneur, and creative force whose life has been shaped by music, nature, resilience, and an unshakeable belief in the power of art to transform lives. Abandoned at birth and adopted at seven months old, Kate arrived in Minneapolis into the arms of a family who became her greatest champions — and set her on a path of extraordinary creative discovery.
By fourteen, Kate was performing with professional big bands across the Midwest. By sixteen, she had explored nearly every national park in the United States, often assisting her father — a landscape architecture professor and published author — in cataloging the trees, vines, and shrubs of North America. Over the next three decades, her creative life expanded to encompass theatre, painting, design, calligraphy, pottery, culinary art, textiles, and clothing design, alongside a lifelong love of music.
The heart behind the Kate Shu Collective lives in her grandmother, Alda Mae Zahner Hightshoe, who began every single day by reciting a list of things that were “sooo beautiful” — and who, despite being awarded an art scholarship, gave up her dream during WWII to become Rosie the Riveter. It is in Alda's honor, and in the spirit of every artist who was ever told their dream wasn't practical, that Kate built the Collective — to give talented creative people another way, another chance, and another reason to keep going.
“The hardest work is the HeART work — and it's always worth it.” — Kate Shu
About this Hoodie:
• Unisex fit — available in sizes XS through 3XL, every size, every color
• Outside: 100% organic cotton
• Inside lining: 80% organic cotton, 20% recycled polyester — brushed for softness
• Raglan sleeves with a regular fit, ribbed cuffs and hem
• Drawstrings with metal eyelets and stoppers, jersey-lined hood
• Direct-to-Garment (DTG) printing — artwork bonded into the fabric, not pressed on top. Won't crack, peel, or fade.
• Tested in real life: washed many times, still looks like the day it arrived — and it doesn't shrink
• Premium build — the best-quality, longest-wearing hoodie in the Collective
Live a Life You Love. Five words that quietly refuse the entire starving-artist narrative — the one that says doing what you love and building a life that works are mutually exclusive. They aren't. Pull this one on for the days you need a wearable reminder: the work that lights you up is also the work the world needs from you. The Kate Shu Collective was built on this single mantra, and now it lives across the front, the back, and down the sleeve of the highest-quality hoodie we make.
Kate Shu is a South Korean-born, Iowa-raised artist, entrepreneur, and creative force whose life has been shaped by music, nature, resilience, and an unshakeable belief in the power of art to transform lives. Abandoned at birth and adopted at seven months old, Kate arrived in Minneapolis into the arms of a family who became her greatest champions — and set her on a path of extraordinary creative discovery.
By fourteen, Kate was performing with professional big bands across the Midwest. By sixteen, she had explored nearly every national park in the United States, often assisting her father — a landscape architecture professor and published author — in cataloging the trees, vines, and shrubs of North America. Over the next three decades, her creative life expanded to encompass theatre, painting, design, calligraphy, pottery, culinary art, textiles, and clothing design, alongside a lifelong love of music.
The heart behind the Kate Shu Collective lives in her grandmother, Alda Mae Zahner Hightshoe, who began every single day by reciting a list of things that were “sooo beautiful” — and who, despite being awarded an art scholarship, gave up her dream during WWII to become Rosie the Riveter. It is in Alda's honor, and in the spirit of every artist who was ever told their dream wasn't practical, that Kate built the Collective — to give talented creative people another way, another chance, and another reason to keep going.
“The hardest work is the HeART work — and it's always worth it.” — Kate Shu
About this Hoodie:
• Unisex fit — available in sizes XS through 3XL, every size, every color
• Outside: 100% organic cotton
• Inside lining: 80% organic cotton, 20% recycled polyester — brushed for softness
• Raglan sleeves with a regular fit, ribbed cuffs and hem
• Drawstrings with metal eyelets and stoppers, jersey-lined hood
• Direct-to-Garment (DTG) printing — artwork bonded into the fabric, not pressed on top. Won't crack, peel, or fade.
• Tested in real life: washed many times, still looks like the day it arrived — and it doesn't shrink
• Premium build — the best-quality, longest-wearing hoodie in the Collective
Image 1 of 4
Image 2 of 4
Image 3 of 4
Image 4 of 4
