Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nigel Miller. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Nigel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

Being a smaller fashion brand coming up in the social media marketing era as well as the heavily saturated “clothing brand” space, the lack of creativity and a lot of businesses following all the same design models are trending. It’s a lot of young people ranging ages 17-24 right now that see this fashion space as a quick dollar due to seeing major highlight reels from certain influencers in this space, so often times these “designers” end up latching on to designs they’ve seen successful for other brands in hopes of duplicating that success instead of carving out their own brand identity. For instance, right now you can see a lot of guys copying directly from Hellstar and Billionaire Studios, but on the same hand there are some other brands copying directly from Balenciaga. It can sometimes become frustrating/discouraging seeing a lack of authenticity dominating this space, but it’s a part of it I guess.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Nigel Miller, I am the CEO of Hoover Renee’ Clothiers, a brand I would describe as luxury streetwear that moreso focuses on uniform style pieces that are heavily nostalgia based. I began Hoover Renee’ officially in 2023 coming on the heels of being in an Operations Management class in my MBA program at the University of Alabama. The class was so draining that I hit a wall and had the immediate feeling of “this can’t be my life story.”

Fashion has always been a very big component to me and how I express myself and I’ve been big on getting dressed since middle school. I actually had a clothing brand in high school called “Free the Wave,” but that didn’t last very long due to a lack of resources and what I felt was a lack of encouragement. After high school and getting into college, as my fashion on social media started to pick up more, I was asked very often why I didn’t start a brand, but I would always brush it off and say how I wasn’t interested, but realistically I think it was fear. Fast forward to 2021-2022… I was seeing how much money people were making off what I felt were lackluster products and it kind of lit a fire under me, because I saw what was making money wasn’t really that stylish to me. So my test product was a t-shirt for my alma mater, Jackson State University. I coined a phrase “Tigers by Fawdy” in relation to the football season due to just banter and overall confidence in my school’s success. That phrase itself has taken off way further than expected and I really don’t get the recognition for making it hot, but that’s another story for another day. Anyway, I made shirts with the slogan on it inspired by vintage tees that I collect and sold them at homecoming out of a duffle bag. I sold 100 shirts in a day and a half… and with that… I knew I had something on my hands. This was really a social experiment to see if people would respect my ideas… which they did.

I announced my brand on my 24th birthday and I’ve been working on it since. It has been a journey over the last year, but I’ve shipped out over 1,000 orders and I at the time of this interview have made just under 6 figures in sales in the last year. I’ve learned alot and I’m looking forward to where this brand journey takes me. I have goals to be seen on runways and luxury retailers, but I know that takes time. I expect longevity so I am very patient with my trajectory at this moment.

Now a new area I am getting into, is fashion styling/personal shopping. I haven’t quite went public about it, but I have goals to become a stylist for professional athletes. I gain inspiration from my fraternity brother DexRob (@dexrob) who styles Tyrod Taylor, Tim Hardaway Jr., and more. I’ve been asked if I do stylings for years now, but I never branded myself as one. I honestly feel like I have a grandiose amount of potential in the space and I’m going to attack it head first. As a personal shopper I will be able to work with all ranges of budgets and create amazing outfits and make sure my clients are comfortable and stylish for the events they are about to take on. By next year I hope to have at least 5 clients I have worked with spanning the NCAA, NFL, and NBA.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

To be honest, well thought out marketing campaigns and rollouts have been what I think help me the most with my reputation. I get a lot of applause on how it can be seen the patience that I put into my brand and how hard I work on it through marketing. Pair that with the fact that I am making legitimate pieces and I think that’s what’s done me the best.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I pray a lot… like a lot. I find myself getting discouraged sometimes but it seems like God often sends the right words to me through other vessels every time I begin to feel a way, and honestly, that feels divine every time it happens; because it’s like alright God, I hear you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hrclothiers.com
• Instagram: hrclothiers

Image Credits

Frantrell Windom (@francoisvisuals)