‘If I can do it, you can too’: Apple Valley high schooler launches clothing brand from a storage unit

Teenager Brody Tschida has transformed a small storage unit in Apple Valley into the headquarters of his burgeoning fashion brand, Urban Elite. His latest pre-order drop sold out in little more than a day.

Throughout his young life, Tschida, 16, a rising junior at Apple Valley High School, has fostered an entrepreneurial spirit. He previously operated a small snow removal business.

“I started really just looking at a lot of my peers, and I was seeing a lot of people had dreams and ambitions similar to me, but nobody really wanted to dive into them and do the work,” Tschida said. “I just really want to show young people that if I can do it, you can too.”

Earlier this year, Tschida decided to take his love of streetwear to the next level and start Urban Elite. He initially received financial help from his mother to get the company off the ground, but Urban Elite is now completely financially independent. To date, the brand has generated about $5,000 in revenue.

The biggest challenge facing Tschida is being taken seriously as a teenage entrepreneur.

“I’ve had plenty of obstacles I’ve had to get over,” Tschida said. “Being 16 is a big one. I’ve had many pop-up shops, other brands and manufacturers not take me seriously because of my age.”

Tschida digitally draws his designs and sends them to a distributor to ship. He sets the pricing and manages his online storefront. He used to manage the entire business from his bedroom, but he recently moved Urban Elite to a storage unit a short drive from his house.

“I spent around $27 on each hoodie myself, and I sell them for $50,” Tschida said. “Our products all vary in price so most people can always find something in their range.

When he is not sitting in a classroom, Tschida can be found hosting pop-up shops at vending locations throughout the cities with his friend, Ivan Balandin.

Balandin, who has been friends with Tschida since freshman year, is a newly licensed driver and helps him set up his shop and transport the merchandise.

“Whenever he goes to pop-up shops, he usually likes to ask me if I can come along, and if I can, I do,” Balandin said. “I am liking his steady growth, and I want to see him grow over time to see what his business can become.”

In addition to helping out his friend, Balandin is also a loyal customer of Urban Elite.

For Tschida, Urban Elite isn’t just about selling clothes to make a profit. At its core, it’s about the messaging behind the brand and spreading positivity to young people, he said.

Many of the clothes in his online collection sport encouraging messages like, “If no one believes in you, why not do it for yourself” and “Born to succeed.”

“There are not a lot of clothing brands out there made by young people that are meant to motivate young people,” Tschida said. “All of my pieces have different motivational quotes or different meanings behind them.”

In the future, Tschida said, he hopes to land his clothes in stores and operate his own brick-and-mortar shop. In the meantime, he must balance being a full-time high school student and his part-time work at a local retirement home.

“I have to juggle my work and my business and school all at one time, but I have always been the type of person doing a ton of different things at a time,” Tschida said. “My brain is always moving.”