Tough times make young man hungry for success
By Noreen Shazreen
Founder of fashion label, Mr Xavier Tan, shares with NOREEN SHAZREEN how he made his entrepreneurial dreams a reality.
Dressed in a coat, Mr Xavier Tan posed next to designer brand Burberry’s advertisement at Shoreditch District in London. Photo courtesy of Mr Xavier Tan, @xav.tjh on Instagram.
Infographic by Noreen Shazreen.
As he hugged his portfolio and scavenged his surroundings, Mr Xavier Tan, 22, founder of ÜNIK Apparel, was “trying very hard” to convince an elderly man whom he found along the streets of Orchard Road to give him two trash bags.
As his mentor puts it, that was how Mr Tan sourced for protection to preserve his portfolio containing years of hard work when a heavy downpour hit him as he was walking to the MRT station to catch a train home.
That portfolio contained everything from his drawings, designs, and ideas that were supposed to be submitted for a project during his final year as a student studying product design at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
Ms Ming Yow, 46, his mentor and chief customer officer at China Broadband Communications, says: “From that episode, it shows me he has a lot of determination, a lot of drive, a lot of passion and hard work.”
Having founded two T-shirt businesses and currently working for a fashion firm based in London, Mr Tan seems like the successful entrepreneur now. However, life was never smooth sailing for him.
Mr Tan says: “I started out with nothing, really not knowing what I’m doing and also without much support. I [have] always had a passion for fashion and I always wanted to start my own line or to get more people on board
with me.”
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man is very enthusiastic and full of life”. The pair met in 2014 through Halogen Foundation when the foundation asked Ms Yow to mentor him in his entrepreneurial journey.
“He’s a people person. People like him, people want to get to know him, people want to be with him and people want to work with him. I think that sets a big differentiator and a big check mark for Xavier as a person,” says Ms Yow, adding that they still remain in contact to this day.
At 19, Mr Tan founded two T-shirt businesses, Typographic Apparel, a company that offers T-shirt printing services, and Typoholic Apparel, which has been rebranded into ÜNIK Apparel. ÜNIK Apparel is a platform created as part of a youth movement where young budding artists get to express themselves through T-shirts designs.
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His motivation to start the business mainly came from hope to reduce the financial burden on his mother.
Mr Tan says: “It has been tough [for my mother] to grow up in Malaysia, come over here and work for 20 years, and then get the family permanent residence and study over here in Singapore. She is still working as a waitress but ultimately, I would also want to give her a better standard [of] living in Singapore as well.”
Despite all his efforts, Mr Tan never received the full support he needed when he was starting out his business.
“I think throughout this entire journey, there will be a lot of people who say ‘no’ to you, especially your closest friends. That is the reality,” he recalls.
Nonetheless, the negativity never affected him as he lives simply by this quote: you live for yourself; you don’t live for others.
When Mr Tan was just 16, he attended the Network for Teaching Entrepreneur (NFTE) programme by Halogen Foundation, which allows young aspiring entrepreneurs to develop their entrepreneurship skills and pitch their business ideas to various highly-esteemed judges.
As the winner of the NFTE Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (NYEC), Mr Tan was selected to represent Singapore to go to New York City to receive the Global Young Entrepreneur Award in 2014.
“I think that was really a breakthrough for me as that was the turning point where I was very determined to start the business and really want to make it run,” he says.
Ms Yow said that one of the key things she remembered when she first met Mr Tan was that “this young
Mr Xavier Tan photographed with co-founder of Facebook, Mr Eduardo Saverin,
and his wife, Ms Elaine Andriejanssen, at the gala dinner hosted by Halogen Foundation in 2018. Photo courtesy of @unik.sg on Instagram.
As his two start-ups started to flourish, Mr Tan has been able to meet famous entrepreneurs, including the co-founder of Facebook, Mr Eduardo Saverin. Mr Saverin and his wife both received an item from ÜNIK Apparel when they attended the gala dinner hosted by Halogen Foundation in 2018.
“I would never imagine the co-founder of Facebook owning our item. I think it was very rewarding to have such recognisable personalities having our item,” Mr Tan says.
Mr Tan’s success is no surprise to fellow colleague and friend at ÜNIK Apparel, Ms Michelle Goh.
“He is a hard worker, hungry for growth, and he will continue to surprise us with his great achievements,” says Ms Goh, 24, who is the freelance creative executive at ÜNIK Apparel.
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In August 2019, Mr Tan went through the Global Entrepreneurship Internship Programme (GEIP) offered by Ngee Ann Polytechnic to fulfil one semester of internship during his final year. After serving his six-month internship, he accepted a full-time position as Sales, Public Relations Manager and Ad Production at Fashion Crossover London before enlisting for his National Service (NS).
He aspires to be the second ASOS, a popular online fashion retailer based in the United Kingdom, where his platform recognises young budding talents selling their products on a global scale.
ÜNIK’s latest collection State of Mind containing 100 limited edition clothing pieces was sold out within a day on its launch date of Aug 15, 2020.
“I want to make it global and that’s my aim for the next five years. Whether it will happen or not it’s another thing but ultimately, that’s my goal for now,” he says.