“Letdown means a person, place, or thing that causes disappointment. Something that falls short of your expectations. I’ve got plenty of those,” Savion Taylor, Central Connecticut student, admitted.

After bouncing back from a number of academic, financial and personal struggles during his sophomore year of college, Taylor turned tragedy into triumph with his clothing brand Letdown Apparel. Now as a senior, the brand has grown from baseball caps and beanies to sweatshirts and crop tops, all of which dawn the saying “Letdown: Everyone Has At Least One.”

With an eye for fashion and his mind on business, it seemed only natural for Taylor to become a business owner. Using his brand, he promotes the potential window of opportunity a letdown can open while also creating a sense of community amongst those wearing the clothing.

“When someone wears Letdown, it means that they’ve experienced some sort of letdown in their life.  But it also means that they didn’t let their experiences break them but make them,” Taylor explained while wearing one of his own Letdown hats. “Someone who wears Letdown sees their past letdowns as lessons they should learn from and future letdowns as obstacles they’ll overcome.”

As the sole proprietor of Letdown Apparel, Taylor tackles the reality of what running a business is really all about and experiencing the inside of the business world that no textbook could teach.

“Well getting the paperwork together was the first part, filing for the sole proprietorship and getting a merchant license. Even before that I was busy making designs on Photoshop,” Taylor shared. “I also run the brands social media, not well though and website. If I’m not shipping out orders [then] I make sales from vending at different college events.”

But Taylor uses his sources wisely by recruiting his friends to help in various aspects of the business. Whether it be a photographer, graphic designer or even having them model his clothing for his Instagram page, – Letdown.apparel – Taylor’s friends have been helpful in the process.

“Letdown has been in the works for as long as I’ve known Savion, even a year before his first release of apparel,” Long time friend Ricky Hamilton shared.

“What I really respect about Savion is his ability to sty humble as a businessman. He’s not doing this to prove anything to anyone, he’s doing this because this is deep down what he wants to do.”

While being an independent business owner is hard enough on its own, Taylor also manages to juggle it along with his full-course load of classes and assignments as a student. Yet, the hard lessons of responsibility and discipline have done little to create any regrets of his business.

“Sucks in the sense that I can’t spend much on myself, can’t go out like that because I’m putting every bit I make towards the brand. But I grew up broke so it’s nothing I’m not already used to,” Taylor admitted. “It’s also the best time to be doing this though because I don’t have many responsibilities now and entrepreneurship is all about taking risks. I probably wouldn’t be down for this if I had a wife and kids to take care of.”

“It’s hard as hell but arguably the best time in my life to start a business.”