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“I already navigated a difficult environment to get this job. Why am I throwing it away just to start all over again?” Thoughts like these swam in my head as I contemplated leaving Citi, where I’d worked for 3 years, to pursue a career without guarantees but a promise of the creative freedom I was looking for. Today, I co-run Nimble Made, an Actually Slim dress shirt brand inspired by my Asian upbringing with the goal of helping slimmer guys like me feel more confident in clothes that fit. Looking back on my experiences, all I can say is: I’m glad I took the leap of faith.
My Asian American Upbringing
To me, the term “Asian American” means that I’m neither 100% Asian, nor 100% American. The duality in my identity is a constant balancing act between the traditional values my Taiwanese parents instilled in me and the expectations of the American society I’ve grown up in.
I always wanted to join my local soccer league like most of my “American” friends did while growing up on the east coast. However, my parents urged me to study instead. (You could say I was experiencing FOMO long before that became a thing.) By funneling all my efforts towards academics, I knew I was making an important sacrifice for my parents who left their old life behind to bring our family to the states. My good grades would one day directly translate into a high-paying job that could support them and a family of my own. After all, this is the mentality of the collectivist society my parents came from where the needs of your family outweigh the desire to chase your own dreams. But the heroes in the movies I watched growing up in the U.S. and so many other things showed me that success in America wasn’t the same as the success my parents envisioned. That American success came through individuality. I saw my friends in the soccer league build a social currency of networking skills and confidence – all crucial to succeeding in the American workplace.
A Corporate Wake-up Call
My family saw my finance job as valuable and stable – a reward for all of the sacrifices we made immigrating to the states. In my new corporate life, I was expected to go to happy hours, socialize with coworkers and clients, speak up at meetings, drive sales, etc. As a first-generation Taiwanese American, I quickly realized I had to adapt to climb the corporate ladder and that started with how I presented myself at work. My confidence suffered from one seemingly small problem: I couldn’t find a dress shirt that fit well off-the-rack. Despite all the obstacles I surmounted to get to this next chapter in my life, one of the most important things that could have made me feel confident in my job was working against me. I learned that the clothing industry caters to the mass market, creating sizes for the American man who averages 5’9” in height and weighs 200 lb. That leaves someone like me at 5’5” in height and 135 lb out of luck.
After three years at Citi, I joined a VC-backed startup looking for more responsibility and fulfillment. In this environment, each day offered something new but my motivation began to wane. I always had an itch for entrepreneurship but never understood it as a viable career path. At the end of the day, I realized I was investing my work into someone else’s vision instead of my own.
Shifting Gears
In my career, I lacked the motivation to dedicate 40+ hours a week for someone else’s goal all the while waiting for a shirt brand to cater to slimmer guys like me. It was so simple, but nobody was doing it. Only one thing made sense to me, and that was to take what both worlds taught me and to start my own company, one that allowed me to express myself and find fulfillment in the day to day but also become a source of financial stability for my future family. In 2018, I left my corporate job and started Nimble Made to fill this sizing gap in the menswear industry and created an Actually Slim Fit inspired for slim guys like me. Since then my co-founder and I have expanded to over 21 dress shirt styles across our 6 unique sizes. We’ve been featured by Huffington Post, Money, Forbes, People Magazine, and more. While we’re still in the early stages of growth, our customers tell us that we’re the best slim fit they’ve ever tried and they no longer need a tailor. They say they’ve finally found a shirt brand made for slimmer guys and that already makes the startup grind all worth it.
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This content is brought to you by Wesley Kang.
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