By channeling his creativity onto fabric, Diamond Bar High School senior Jacob Choi was able to have an extremely successful startup with his clothing brand, Walk with Love, among DBHS students of all grade levels. 

Choi said that before school had started, he was thinking about creating Walk with Love, but he had not accumulated the resources to launch clothing or put together a brand name yet.

“It was only recently that I was able to follow through with my plans for the brand,” Choi said. “Earlier this month, I decided it was ready and launched it.”

Although Choi created Walk with Love to express his individuality with style, there is also a meaningful intent and message behind the brand.

“Walk with Love is a brand intended to prioritize love over everything else, especially in a world full of hate and intrinsic[ally] toxic behaviors,” Choi said. “I believe we need to work towards a society that is more pure.”

Initially facing various obstacles along the way, it took Choi various weeks of research to find sufficient manufacturers, blank T-shirt companies and the means to figure out the proper sizing for all his clothes. He spent money to order different T-shirts and try them, and he also had to try different types of prints to find the perfect one.

“Factoring in quality, price, sizing and everything else was definitely a big struggle,” Choi said. “After I invested some time and work, though, I was able to figure it all out.”

Choi faced a long and painful process to relay messages between different companies to actually get the graphics on the T-shirts and receive his final products.

 “I had to communicate with my manufacturer and send them my designs to get them screen-printed on the blank T-shirts, and I also had to communicate with my blank company, and have them send my order to my manufacturers,” Choi said. “After that process is done, my manufacturers call me to come pick up my order.” 

Even through the initial difficulty in establishing his brand, Choi said that this was just the start of Walk with Love and it would become much bigger later on. He said that in the future, he plans on making more than just T-shirts and strives to build upon the initial hype of his brand for its drop date in November.

“After all the support I got from just a pre-order, I believe Walk with Love has potential to become a lot bigger than what it is right now,” Choi said. “I have big visions for this brand and I am going to do my best to reach those goals.”

Choi says students should keep their eyes peeled for future drops, as the release date in November will contain future projects he has been envisioning and working on for a long time.

“I really think my next drop will impress and catch a lot of attention.”