Tim Sanders has been making moves for a while now. He started his brands, Motivational Art and On A Mission, during the pandemic and both have seen considerable growth since. He has collaborated with the Finals MVP Jaylen Brown and the NBA to create varsity jackets. He is now a licensed designer for multiple HBCUs and has your favorite influencers rocking his gear. He sat down with rolling out to share a few gems and his heartwarming story.
When did you start your brand?
I started in like 2020. I was working at Apple at the time. Because of the pandemic, everybody was working from home, so I finally had the time to sit down and kind of just put everything into motion that I had been journaling over the last four to five years.
Why did you name the brand On A Mission?
I choose On A Mission as my mission statement because the goal is to stay motivated and remember to always complete the mission. I wanted to kind of integrate a healthy lifestyle, mental health, and life balance into fashion. For example, if you got 10 hoodies in your closet, you don’t know which one to put on today, you’re having a bad day, you woke up late and you need an extra push? You might just wear the On A Mission hoodie that day.
How did you get a deal with Clark Atlanta University?
With Clark and all college merchandise really, everybody gets their college merch from the bookstore. I really wanted to bring an impact to the university, bring some fashion, bring some swag. A lot of people have gotten sued for doing this, but I went through the real licensing process. [I] had to do it the legal way, had to get a business plan, an LLC, and that whole process took about 6-8 months.
Are you planning to design clothes and products for other colleges or HBCUs?
We already secured Morehouse and earlier in the week we actually closed a deal with Spelman College. They’re gonna push us through. So, all the ladies, Spelmanites, Spelman alumni, we got some fire stuff coming. I’m gonna get outside of the HBCU market, too. I just wanted to start in the HBCU market because that’s my background right now, where I earned my stripes putting in a lot of hard work and tears. But the next three schools I’ll probably do are Howard, FAMU, and Georgia State.
Who are some of the influencers and celebrities that have worn your brand?
Chris Brown wore one of my shirts with the statement “Keep Going” during a concert in his hometown. The performance had went viral, too. Major shout out to Duke Dennis, because that’s one of the people that has truly showed my brand love. He’s got numerous streams and YouTube videos with the Motivation Art pants on. Also, No Neck Jay. And I kid you not, the tank top that I gave No Neck Jay, he went viral in it on TikTok when he was running away from a shootout.
What has been the most fufilling part about you making clothes?
The most motivational thing about it was my ability to continue to make things happen out of nothing. I started with the bare minimum. Being able to risk it all and spend my last on an idea and then actually seeing people like the idea, seeing the full creative process of like creating, designing on the computer, sending it out and people paying for it, seeing the whole process is beautiful.
