Sophomore Talin Bhow ’28 started his own streetwear clothing company, NOUVEAU, with the goal of building a business without needing a college degree.

Six months ago Bhow launched Nouveau because he wanted to make an alternative to the current streetwear fashion. “Everything has, like, the same idea where it’s flashy tracksuits that kind of make you stick out,” said Bhow.

But running your own brand is time-consuming, especially for Bhow, having to balance school and crew. Despite all of it, he’s keeping school in front. “I’ll try to do all my homework and stuff…because that’s still like a huge priority.”

Even so, he carves out time for the brand. “I try to spend maybe like an hour-ish on working on this brand,” Bhow said. “On weekends, I’ll try to take as much time as I can when I’m not at practice or hanging with friends.” Most of that time is devoted to marketing and designing.

For Bhow, everything starts with one idea. “Sometimes it’ll just come to me; I’ll look at something, and I’ll be like, yeah, that’s pretty cool” said Bhow.

Once designing is over, and the print is finalized, he’ll post it on his website.

So far, NOUVEAU has brought in $1.4K in sales, with top sellers including Essential Plus, Bouncin’ Around, and Nouvelles.

“Once you start making money and you get started getting sales, that doesn’t mean you’re making money…I haven’t pocketed anything because everything’s getting reinvested,” Bhow said when talking about his last six months.

His motto is simple, “Nothing comes easy, and nothing comes quick.”

Going with that motto, Bhow is encountering challenges, from marketing to simply sticking with it, “not wanting to quit.” Currently, Bhow is struggling to bring awareness to his brand. A task that can feel nearly impossible for an up-and-coming business.

While his website has seen 1,113 sessions, which is up 770% from Instagram and direct traffic, converting visitors remains difficult.

“The algorithm is just hard to learn for a small brand when there’s so much competition,” said Bhow. The biggest challenge, though, is believing in himself. He’s learned that there are good days and bad days, but if he doesn’t believe he will succeed, he won’t.

Bhow’s long-term goals are to keep improving efficiency, spread awareness, and run it as long as possible. “I pray that Nouveau is able to be around, and if it ends, it ends, and that will suck, but I’ll just redo something else and restart,” Bhow said.