Buying jeans can be a drag. These sisters make it a piece of cake instead.

To ask almost any woman about the experience of buying jeans is to invite a righteous rebuke of the state of shopping—and clothing. The sizing is inconsistent and can swing widely from store to store. Trends change so quickly that it would cost a small fortune to keep up. The pockets represent more of a suggestion than any actual functionality.

“Just being a woman and shopping for jeans, I felt like the clothing never really fit into my lifestyle; it was always me trying to fit into clothes,” says Dominique Schreiner, who earned a master’s degree in computer science from Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences in 2022.

“It was personal for me,” says her sister, Darrel Schreiner, also a 2022 Khoury graduate. “I just started to question why jeans were made a certain way, and why they can be so uncomfortable. Our bodies change throughout the month and throughout the years—it felt like there should be something we could do to address all these issues.”

Finding almost no good options, Darrel and Dominique decided to build a better jean—and a better jeans shopping experience—themselves.

Their venture, Cake Denim, is a sustainable brand that produces both environmentally friendly and ethically conscious denim. Darrel and Dominique, who are only 18 months apart, are co-CEOs and founders. Cake Denim sells jeans, but also tops, dresses, jackets, shorts, and skirts.

Cake Denim utilizes a state-of-the-art woven fabric that will stretch and move along with the person wearing it. The company also uses a variety of fit models to ensure their jeans work well on a variety of bodies.

“Usually, designers will create jeans that fit on one body, or one body type. And then from there, they’ll scale up and down” to accommodate different sizes, Darrel says. “We wanted our jeans to fit a bunch of different body types from the start.”

The name is a nod to that joyful inclusion, as well.

“The idea is celebrating who you are and where you’re at in your life,” Dominique says. “That core celebration is the reason why we fell upon the name ‘Cake.’”

The Schreiner sisters were both recognized among this year’s Northeastern University Women Who Empower Innovator Award winners. The annual awards honor entrepreneurs for their innovative, boundary-pushing work. This year’s recipients—students and alumni from the Northeastern community—were selected by a panel of judges and will receive a total of $500,000 in funding. Dominique and Darrel shared third place among the graduate alumnae award winners, and also took third place in the “powering a sustainable, resilient world” category.

The recognition helps to affirm their place in a male-dominated industry, Dominique says.

“We’ve learned that, even though the fashion industry is definitely a female-dominant industry from the consumer perspective, on the manufacturing side, it’s mostly all men that were running the factories we were working with,” she says. “There’d be times that they would give us their advice—and their advice would be, essentially pushing back on what will sell and how it should be made. And so we really had to find our voice behind the scenes in order to create a product that really served our customers and clientele.”

Beyond that, Darrel and Dominique are just plain problem-solvers. Scientists by training, they’re well versed in an experimental approach to developing solutions—strengths that come in handy when building and sustaining any new venture.

“We just have this mindset that you have a problem, and then you test a bunch of different methods, and to find the best one you study the data. So, we really did approach the whole process that way,” Darrel says. “And then I think we also just have a tendency to question why [the fashion industry has] done things the same way all of these years, and how we can maybe do it better.”

The founders draw upon their science background when they’re doing research and development for Cake Denim, too.

“We’re continually testing,” Dominique says. “We’ll get baseline results and say, ‘OK, I love this. But I want to love this even more. And I want our clients to love this even more.’ The question for us is always: How can we continue to make a product that is an experience and a service—and not just a product where you can take it or leave it?”

While going into business with family can be fraught, Darrel and Dominique have navigated the process gracefully.

“It’s been a dream to get to work with your best friend,” Dominique says. “But there have been times when it was difficult, and we had to redefine our boundaries a lot. We had to test things out and put systems in place so we weren’t clashing in our roles, but that led to both of us being able to bring our strengths to the table.”

Darrel added: “And we trust each other, which is something that’s really difficult to find in business. At the end of the day, I know Dom is going to give me raw honesty about anything. It may be really difficult to hear,” she says, both laughing, “but it’s so valuable. And we help each other grow.”

Like many established brand owners, Dominique and Darrel shifted Cake Denim to be a fully online retailer during the height of the pandemic. They designed an inaugural fashion line, from which they gleaned valuable insight about consumer preferences, they say. And they’re in the middle of designing a second line. For this second launch, Darrel and Dominique plan to offer consumers even more radical transparency in their explanation of why things cost what they do—what goes into the development and sustainability focus of each piece.

“It is possible to have the latest trends and not forgo sustainability efforts and ethical efforts,” Dominique says. “It’s important to us to tell the behind-the-scenes story so you know you’re definitely shopping for value rather than just fast fashion.”