She simply debuted her model at Miami Swim Week due to a robust hospitality class | FIU Information

There’s a lot that made it down the runway at Miami Swim Week 2026. Bikinis, celebrities, influencers. But essentially the most fascinating factor to take the stage was a story that started in an FIU Hospitality class 4 years earlier. 

Bailey Grossenbacher ’23, MS ’25 not too long ago made her Miami Swim Week debut together with her very personal model, Dubs Swim. An idea born from a category taught by FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism professor and entrepreneur David Grutman, the place classes of ardour and authenticity resonated so deeply with this scholar, she took the plunge and have become an entrepreneur herself. 

“It was really cool to see all the successful people he brought and how they started their journeys, and I thought ‘why not do my own,’” the Dubs Swim proprietor mentioned. 

The David Grutman Experience launched in 2022 on the Chaplin School, and it was removed from conventional. What different class can say it featured celeb friends from Bad Bunny to Drake and Serena Williams? It’s the proper format for hospitality college students wanting a direct “in” to the trade, studying from among the biggest success tales. 

Grutman (left), and visitor speaker Bad Bunny at FIU.

For Grossenbacher it didn’t simply encourage her; it catapulted her into a brand new enterprise enterprise. 

“All of them had their own stories of how they became successful, each of their stories were very unique but the one common thing about all of them is that they were very themselves, and passionate about what they do and authentic in what they do, and he [David Grutman] would preach that in all his classes,” she mentioned.

Originally from Englewood, Florida, Grossenbacher was at all times drawn to the seashore, art work and larger-than-life occasions. “I realized that I loved all the cool events that Miami has and I asked myself, ‘how can I be a part of this?’”  

That query and a spot on the softball group led her to FIU. Juggling her hospitality administration diploma and being a student-athlete was a problem. Grossenbacher recounts the time the place she was working at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival® and had a softball sport the very subsequent day. But because the younger entrepreneur places it, “busy people get things done.”

Bailey Grossenbacher

When she graduated from FIU, her dream was to work for a well known surf and way of life attire model, however when she by no means heard again, she stopped switched gears. 

From the alumna’s personal fingers, Dubs Swim was born, a group of 1 doing all of the clothes design, advertising, model orders and web site design. 

But one fixed was the function her lessons performed alongside the best way. “I did my master’s in marketing at FIU, and every single assignment went towards building my brand,” she mentioned. 

That exhausting work appeared to repay as a result of a 12 months after graduating together with her grasp’s, her swimsuits walked a worldwide stage at Miami Swim Week, which welcomed greater than 50,000 friends all through the week. 

Bailey Grossenbacher (left), and one of many fashions featured at her present

“It felt like I was putting on a Broadway show. I’ve been working on it since last November, so finally seeing it be successful and seeing all the models having fun, it was really awesome to be a part of that,” she mentioned. 

To make the second much more full circle, a video posted by @fiuhospitality on Instagram, which obtained over 40k views, obtained the eye of Grossenbacher’s former professor, David Grutman. 

Grutman noticed the video and reached out to the alumna requesting Dubs Swim gear. “That was so cool for me because he was always preaching in his classes about going the extra mile and remembering to do the little things and he did that with me,” she mentioned. 

This is just the start for Bailey Grossenbacher and Dubs Swim. She plans to make subsequent 12 months’s Swim Week splash even larger. And who is aware of, maybe a potential collaboration together with her inspiration may very well be looming close to…