(The Standard) - What began as just a way to make some extra spending money has grown into a brand with over 29,000 followers and buyers around the country.
Young Black Genius — it’s the name of a clothing brand created by Missouri State University alumnus Charles King. He created the brand in 2013 while still in college. One year, while on spring break with nothing to do, King said he sat down on his computer and researched screen printing and making his own t-shirts.
“I thought I’d make four or five t-shirts, make a couple hundred dollars and be done with it,” King said. “It’s going into my sixth year of doing this, and the last six months have been the most profitable and the most impactful so far.”
For the first five days of March 2019, King said he made $250.
“It takes care of some of my bills, so I’m not going to complain about that,” King said.
King said that he wants the Young Black Genius brand to leave an impact, and said he cares more about resonating with people and sending a good message than making money. King said that he’s always wanted to learn more about black history than he learned in school and wanted to reflect black history with his shirts.
“Being in middle school and high school, we’d talk about history in class, and Africa would be like a 30-page section,” King said.
King said that he used researching for the brand as an excuse to look into African history, and eventually used what he learned about black Egyptian kings and queens in his clothing designs.
Beyond messages about black history, King said he also wants to spread positivity, with messages like one t-shirt that reads: “To all the little black kids, it’s cool to be smart. Cool af.” Another shirt reads: “Black women are everything” — 13 times.
King donated half of the proceeds from the sales of one of his shirts to help fund the Trayvon Martin’s funeral. King said he didn’t want to see other people’s plight and just profit off of them.
“What you see on TV and in the media is rap culture, drugs, money and women,” King said. “I was like, ‘We all don’t do that. Some of us go to school.’ Let me do something more positive.”
King graduated from MSU with a degree in hospitality and restaurant administration, but he’s made the shirt designs himself with help from his fiancée, Tyler Hatten.
Hatten said King works long hours. She’ll go to sleep at a regular time, and by the time she wakes up, King will still be on the computer. King said he wants to get the most out of all his time: He sleeps for six hours, dedicates eight hours to work and then uses the remaining 10 hours as best as he can.
“Before him, I had passions but never really pursued them,” Hatten said. “I never knew how to go about it. Watching him do it, it really motivates me.”
In addition to being the owner of Young Black Genius, King is also the head chef at Whiskey Tango, a bar and lounge, and has spent time volunteering with kids’ basketball.
“I want to do too much,” King said. “I feel like I can do everything. I can cook for the kids, I can fundraise a tournament — I just want to do it all. People are getting famous for not having any skills. At least let me have some skills so when all the glitter and glamour go away, at least I can do something.”
King said a big reason for his brand growth was not just in marketing research he had done, but in the team he had around him.
King said he had people reaching out to him wanting to help build the Young Black Genius brand, and eventually, he hired several on as brand ambassadors.
Young Black Genius has grown in social media presence since its conception. Hatten said King first used his personal Instagram account for advertising the brand. When he first brought up separating the two, Hatten was worried the brand’s account might not gain the same amount of followers.
The brand’s Instagram account, @youngblackgenius.co, was created in September 2018 and currently has over 29,000 followers.
King said creating a new Instagram was one part of many rebrands to Young Black Genius. With each rebrand, he wanted to make sure it was for something meaningful.
Hatten and King have been discussing buying a screen printer to lower the cost of making shirts, but King is worried the quality of the print would lower.
Hatten suggested that it would look the same as other people’s shirts.
“I’m not other people though,” King said.
King said he thinks anyone has the potential to follow their goals in life.
“You’ve got to take a chance on yourself and believe in yourself."
“You’ve got to take a chance on yourself and believe in yourself,” King said.
Some people, King said, are too afraid of failure to try, or will try to do it all themselves without reaching out to other people.
“If you actually try, people will give you a chance,” King said. “If you think you can do it, show me you can do it better than anybody else.”
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