Anyone who’s been in a college town in the north is familiar with the juxtaposition between harsh winter weather and girls’ going-out attire.

Even as snowbanks line the streets, many opt to ditch their jacket to avoid carrying them around, losing them, or just to preserve their outfits.

Penn State junior Sofia Colonero decided she was tired of picking between fashion and function. She came up with an idea to eliminate the problem: a jacket that converts into a purse in seconds.

The design is simple: the coat functions normally while on, but once you’re inside, it easily folds up into a bag. The coat pockets turn into the purse compartments, and the chain along the back becomes the handle.

The idea stemmed from years of watching girls, including herself, go coatless while out for the night. As a Champs bartender, she saw it especially often.

“People Uber, but it’s expensive,” Colonero said. “You’re always like, ‘It’s one block, why am I going to spend $20.”

She admitted that then Monday comes around, you have a cold, and you’re stuck doing college sick for the next week.

Colonero is a marketing major in Smeal with a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation. Ironically, the minor that has helped launch her business was one she settled on randomly when she first got to school.

“This seemed like the best option out of the Smeal minors,” Colonero first thought while choosing. “Now I wish it was my major, but I’m kind of too late to switch it,” she said with a laugh.

During the fall 2025 semester, she took Engineering 310, which is required for the minor. In it, students must come up with a business idea of their own. She came up with JAQ for her class project, but never imagined it would turn into anything.

“I kind of was like, ‘Oh, I’m never going to do this. I didn’t have the time,” Colonero said.

A few months later, winter break came, and she found herself with nothing but that.

“I got really bored at home, and I was like, ‘You know what?’ I cut up an old jacket and said, ‘Let’s give this a shot,” Colonero said.

Something her ENGR 310 professor, Frank Koe, had said also stuck with her.

“Every great entrepreneur solves a problem that comes from their own personal experience. And your personal experience is something completely unique that no one else can replicate,” Koe told the class.

When she got back to school, she brought the prototype to Happy Valley LaunchBox, a program funded by PNC Bank that helps early-stage entrepreneurs build their businesses.

The LaunchBox hosts programs, advisors, and all their resources are free.

“Being in school in the LaunchBox, they give you such a safety net,” Colonero said.

With both her parents in business, she always knew she would do something along those lines. As she moved through college, though, she started finding more passion in clothing and fashion. She had a merchandising internship with TJ Maxx that helped her realize she wanted to try to find a way to combine the two.

“I realized I wanted to lean more towards the fashion way,” Colonero said.

Her father is an entrepreneur himself, and although the thermal imaging system he created shares few similarities with Sofia’s brand, she said her entrepreneurship classes made her realize just how cool it was that her father started his own company.

She shared a story about one frustrating day prototyping when her father tried to cheer her up. He came into her room with a balloon animal he had made.

“He was like, ‘Look, it’s too long. Its ears are too big. But I’m gonna get better. That’s why you prototype. That’s how you practice,” her father told her.

It helped remind her that things won’t happen overnight and it is important to stick with your vision until the end.

After she cut up her first jacket and got into LaunchBox’s test lab, things were set in motion. She had a clear image of what she wanted JAQ to look like, and she created the first one herself.

“I realized that you cannot pick up sewing overnight,” Colonero said. “That was not a skill of mine.”

Her advisor set her up with a seamstress in State College, and Colonero would Uber or take the bus to her house to work on the coat. They workshopped aspects like collar designs, pockets, straps, and arms because the one thing that Colonero knew for certain was that she needed the product to look equally good in both purse and jacket form.

“I’ve seen puffer jackets that fold into your pocket, but no one wears them,” Colonero said. “It ruins the outfit.”

Once she got set up with her manufacturer, the design flourished with so many new resources and materials to choose from. Each round of prototypes brought new changes; if something wasn’t right, it got cut up and used for a new model.

“Prototyping took a lot longer than I thought. It was very discouraging, and I didn’t tell anyone about it for a very long time until I finally had the product that I was excited about”

Colonero faced the unique challenge of trying to do all this while balancing normal life as a college student.

“I think there’s a lot more bad days than good. Every single entrepreneurship book I’ve read, or podcast I’ve listened to, says the exact same thing. You don’t get it until you do. There are so many days where you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I just worked on this for so long, and it’s still not right.”

Even as she launched on social media to a huge outpouring of positivity, she knows she has more work to do now than ever.

In terms of returning to school this year in the middle of the launch, she is thrilled to be sharing JAQ with the Penn State community.

“Penn State is an amazing school. You can actually do whatever you want there, and I think it’s so important to take advantage of everything around you,” Colonero said.

She appreciated how eager the professors were to help and can’t wait for them to see something out in the world that they helped her create the first idea for. Businesses have offered up their spaces for pop-ups, and girls have messaged her constantly on social media with ideas and content help.

“The community is so welcoming,” Colonero said. “They want to see the students succeed.”

While Colonero hasn’t announced the official launch date, she is working on the campaign with her advisors. Interested customers can check out more information on her website or @wearjaq on social media.

“They should be excited because there’s going to be so many different types of JAQs coming,” Colonero said. “I’m so grateful for all their support.”