Ypsilanti-based startup clothing retailer RealKidz plans to shut down, the Detroit Free Press is reporting.

RealKidz founder Merrill Guerra told the Free Press that she plans to liquidate her company's remaining inventory after determining that the company was not a sustainable venture.

RealKidz designed, made and sold plus-size clothes for girls ages 5 to 12. It was a niche market that Guerra believed was underserved.

But the company failed to get traction with a direct sales strategy and turned toward an online sales model a year ago. The firm in late 2009 received a $50,000 loan from the Michigan Microloan Fund, a program managed by economic development group Ann Arbor SPARK.

Guerra could not be reached for comment this morning.

"Everything was going in the right direction and we ran out of money," Guerra told the Free Press. "We have the beginnings of the story we would need but it was not happening big enough and fast enough to convince another investor to come in."

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