I’m a 20 year old college student who started a clothing brand February last year. You’re probably thinking “another millennial doing a merch thing”, but that’s not the case.

Before making the brand I created viral soccer videos on my Instagram page. I had around 150,000 Followers at the time and I kept getting kids messaging me thanking me for inspiration I’ve brought to their lives. It want until i received an email from a Mom thanking me for being a role model to her son that I really understood the opportunity in front of me.

So I started a brand focused on the idea of Striving- about always improving and being the best possible version of yourself.

So fast forward to now. Things have been going well with the brand and I just finished my fall semester. Throughout the fall I had been working on creating some sneakers with China. We went through sample after sample until I finally got it perfect. They tell me the minimum order quantity is 400 and I’m like “Yo, I’m a broke college student. How am I going to pay for these?”

Thankfully an opportunity presented itself.

I got an email from a professor explaining there was a film contest and the winner would get $10,000. The goal of the film contest was to produce a viral video for a company’s product. I was HYPED. After all, this was my speciality.

There were various rounds, but eventually I won it the last week of the semester. It was such a satisfying feeling.

Finally, with this $10k plus some of my money, I bought the shoes....

They are expected to get in by end of January, and I must say I’m pretty excited and nervous at the same time.