Amid the academic pressures of school, Aamir Tinwala strives to create a high-quality product line for himself and his peers.

Tinwala’s clothing brand Ascynd is his first venture, but he plans to have many more.

“I wanted to do something with the free time I had, and I knew I wanted to start a venture on my own,” Tinwala said. “I never really thought my brand was gonna be something big, but I thought it would be something cool and fun to do.”

With more free time over the summer, he expanded his brand and started planning for production. 

“With school and my business, I fit this around my time for school. I started going heavy on it during the summer because it had to be on the sidelines during the school year.”

Reflecting his own interests, Tinwala’s hoodies and sweatshirts are targeted towards people who love both cars and the gym, which is a market that he believes includes few brands but experiences high demand.

“I saw that gym-goers, especially young boys and those in their 20s to 30s, love cars too. I couldn’t find designs that catered to them, so I decided to create my own.” Tinwala said.

Although Tinwala has been promoting his brand on social media, he has yet to produce his first products — he plans to return to social media once he begins selling his clothing items.

“I was on TikTok mostly and a little on Instagram. I didn’t have as many products to market with at that time, so I was just letting people know what I was doing,” Tinwala said. “I haven’t started selling yet, but I’m trying to market on TikTok and Instagram. My hope is to sell most of my stuff through friends at St. Mark’s.”

As he grows his brand throughout high school, he hopes to eventually hire employees.

“I want to keep this up throughout high school and possibly hire a designer and a marketer to handle those aspects while I manage operations,” Tinwala said. “I’m planning to hire an offshore person to handle customer service. I want to keep margins small because I’m doing this for the fun of it, not for the money.”

Despite his aspirations for growth, Ascynd began as a small side project with a bumpy start.

“I started working on stuff last year at the start of school and have been talking with manufacturers in China and Portugal since then. It’s taken a long time because of all the breaks and lead times.” Tinwala said.

Despite these challenges in the process, Tinwala prioritizes customer satisfaction and quality, with hopes that his products are long-lasting and valuable to buyers.

“I have the capital to buy the clothes outright, so I hope to ship orders within a week. I know that timely delivery and good packaging can greatly impact customer satisfaction,” Tinwala said. “One thing I realized is that having nice packaging and ensuring quick delivery increases customer satisfaction and lifetime value. I want to make sure customers feel good and come back again.”