Check Out Austin Fink’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Austin Fink.

Hi Austin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
First, I want to thank Ohio Voyage Magazine for this opportunity to share my story and tell you all about Create Your Wave (CYOW) Apparel. I am so blessed to have started this with my older brother Aaron Fink (28) along with starting a business relationship with a young graphic designer, Trenton Adair (21, @tka.design_).

My name is Austin Fink (25) and I was born and raised in Akron/Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. I was a basketball player and baseball player from a very young age which started my love for sneakers and clothing. Around the age of 10, I looked at my family and told them I was going to open a shoe/clothing store.

Around this time, my brother told me his dream in life is to be my backbone and help me accomplish my dream. As I got older and more knowledgeable, I knew a clothing brand is what I will do in the future. As I was at the University of Akron getting a Supply Chain Management degree, I would lose focus and work on possible designs for the brand.

During college, I had some of my toughest times with losing quite a few friends and family, but the day I graduated in May of 2019 was one of the happiest days of my life. It gave me that extra motivation to start CYOW Apparel in August during the COVID-19 pandemic with my brother Aaron. It was already a dream come true to be able to create a family-owned clothing brand with plans to grow it so we can pass it down to our kids for them to inspire future generations.

Create Your Wave Apparel is a brand that has allowed me to tell my story, express and stay true to myself, how embraced my struggles and failures, and paving my path, and create my destiny. CYOW is a brand that’s message is to inspire you to go after your dreams, inspire future generations, never give up on yourself, your loved ones, and your community, and pave your way in life.

I want the people who join the CYOW family, to not be afraid to make their dream a reality and be a person who can express their true selves when they wear any of their CYOW gear. I hope to build a brand that is much bigger than myself, a brand that brings awareness to Northeastern Ohio and all the talent that goes unnoticed here.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
If you plan on starting any business or plan to be successful at all, you know taking a path less traveled will be the opposite of a smooth road. Everyone would be successful if it was a smooth, easy road. I am not saying this to discourage anyone because I know I am just at the beginning of my journey, and I have a long, difficult road ahead of me.

One of my biggest struggles is finding the time. I have an 8-5 job which I will get into later, but this means I have very long nights and have sacrificed most weekends and Friday nights staying in and working on the brand. Making sacrifices is something you will have to do to get to where you want to be in life and being 25 is hard to do.

Another challenge is as much as I am passionate about CYOW, my story, and what the brand represents, running a business in itself is a challenge. I don’t have family or friends who have a clothing brand. Although I know some who have businesses, filing taxes and other things are different with a clothing brand so I have had to learn quickly.

Lastly, I would say marketing the brand has been an obstacle. A reason this is an obstacle is because of those challenges mentioned above. I am being patient and making sure I understand as much as I can about the business side of things and handling situations such as fraudulent orders and customer service. Being a small business, it takes a long time to get to a point where you can make that your full-time job. I try to put 20+ hours in every week for my brand but a lot of that time is at night which makes it difficult to market.

When you continue to go out of your comfort zone, you will always face obstacles, challenges, and struggles. These are signs you are growing. Like one of my designs that is part of Wave 1 that was a limited release and since has been removed from the site, embrace your struggles. These struggles will make you stronger, just keep pushing and stay true to yourself.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a Senior Buyer (in a manager’s role) at SLC Custom Packaging in Macedonia, Ohio. I overlook the purchasing department and have 2 employees who report to me. They handle our day-to-day tasks. I enjoy my job because it is a smaller family-owned company, so I am heavily involved in all aspects of the business, such as artwork, quality, customer service, and quarterly managers’ meetings.

This helps with my knowledge of how to handle the growth of a business, how to handle situations with unhappy customers, and many more situations that have helped me in my dealings with my clothing brand. I am very proud that I started here in high school and moved my way up. It proves that hard work and sticking to your end goal can help you reach the level you see yourself getting to.

I would say what sets me apart is my work ethic. I have been working since I was 15 1/2 years old. I paid a friend gas money to work at the same place as me so I could work since I couldn’t drive yet. Another thing is I am someone who is very hard on myself but also can recognize when I made the mistake and own up to it. I feel that goes a long way in business. People make mistakes but are you going to blame someone else or own up to it and figure out a way to avoid it from happening again?

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Integrity is one of your most important qualities to success. I pride myself on being an individual that is honest to myself but also to my customers and supporters of Create Your Own Wave Apparel. We are a brand that stands on strong ethical and moral principles at all times.

I also would like to talk about something I have lived by my entire life. First during my time with sports and now with CYOW Apparel. That is… Never Give Up. As Nipsey Hussle said, “Someone has gone through the same if not more difficult struggles, but the difference between you and me, is I just never gave up.” You have to believe in yourself more than anybody else.

I only believe that Create Your Own Wave Apparel will be successful and going into it knowing there is a small chance it happens, to me that chance of success is 100%. I wanted to keep this short because I feel each successful person could tell you a different quality that was important to their success but one similarity with successful people is their mindset and understanding that success isn’t something that happens overnight.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cyowapparel.myshopify.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/createyourownwave2021/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/createyourownwave2021/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cyow_apparel?lang=en

Image Credits
Hope, Alexander, Austin, Lori, and Cody