He started trading them for fun when he was around 12. As a teenager, he didn\u2019t have much money, and he recalled the rush of taking $200 in birthday cash to SoHo to buy a used pair of statement sneakers from a stranger on Facebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTeenage Matt definitely was obsessed with the internet and looking cool,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n
When he came home with his 2003 Nike SBs, his mom \u201cflipped out\u201d at the price he\u2019d paid, he recalled. But as he bought more sneakers to resell or trade for a profit, \u201cshe realized it was me becoming an entrepreneur.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Choon, 26, went on to found multiple businesses: Potion, a CBD brand; Bowery Showroom, a retail space and hub for creatives in Lower Manhattan; and Bowery Agency, a marketing firm. The showroom and agency are part of Choon\u2019s Lower East Ventures LLC and have pulled in five figures of revenue per month in recent months, according to records provided to MarketWatch. Choon said all three businesses are consistently profitable and gross five to six figures per month combined.<\/p>\n
A native New Yorker, Choon grew up on the Lower East Side and went to elementary school in Chinatown and middle and high school in Chelsea. In middle school, he met his best friend Takeshi Fukui, now his business partner and roommate in Bushwick, Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After high school, Choon got into CUNY\u2019s prestigious Macaulay Honors College, which allowed him to study tuition-free at Baruch College. He switched gears there from studying finance to entrepreneurship, and got his feet wet starting an app and hustling through business competitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He tried and failed at day trading, and recalled the pain of losing a hard-earned $3,000 by the time he closed his Robinhood account. <\/p>\n
His luck changed with crypto. Choon told MarketWatch he sold stocks and put the cash in his bank account into Ethereum \u2014 most of what he had at the time. He saw the low five figures he invested soar to more than $100,000 and then fall, he recalled, still landing, at the time, at more than double what he\u2019d invested. He went on to earn much more.<\/p>\n
He worked as an economics tutor during college and said he took $1,000 of his earnings from that job to start his CBD brand, Potion. The brand started in fall 2018 when he bought a bunch of CBD gummies from a local deli, which he repackaged, rebranded and resold for a profit at the Hester Street Fair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He went on to get a 9-to-5 digital marketing job at a crypto firm and sold CBD gummies on the weekends at parties and street fairs, growing the business. He was earning enough from Potion that he decided to leave his full-time job in August 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic era. Choon owned a pair of vintage Air Jordan 4s that he took to a shoe repair shop in Bushwick. He recognized the owner as a shoe designer who used to have a store in the East Village. After a conversation, Choon said the man took him to the back, where he had a slew of vintage designer clothes, and told him there were even more in a warehouse. Choon bought a black garbage bag stuffed with clothes for $300.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking about like $500 T-shirts that are crumpled up, smelled like bleach, dirty, disgusting,\u201d Choon recalled. \u201cBut to me it was like a treasure.\u201d He bought many more bags from the seller, and washed, ironed and tagged them to get them ready for sale. He posted what he was doing on TikTok.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He returned to the Hester Street fair with cannabis products and this time, vintage clothes. Interest exploded thanks to his TikTok posts.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now I\u2019m this micro influencer overnight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As he continued to buy more clothes to sell at fairs, he needed a place to store them. He found a store on Craigslist, \u201creally cheap because it was still during Covid,\u201d and in serious need of repair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He used some of his crypto earnings to get the space ready for a sample sale, and at that sale, he sold enough to fund renovations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These days, the Bowery Showroom is a retail space for clothes and cannabis products, and Choon is CEO. Brands pay to have their clothes displayed in the store, which attracts creatives and influencers. A tattoo artist and a direct-to-garment printer add to the offerings.<\/p>\n
Through his marketing agency, Choon offers services from concept ideation to completion, employing videographers, editors and social media writers to make content. There\u2019s also a hospitality component.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking back, Choon noted he never had business plans for his businesses before he started. He learned as he went along.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest teacher is the experience itself,\u201d he said. \u201cUnderstanding what my customers wanted, what I wanted, what performed well, trial and error, those are all things that got us to this point. But my professional background, things I was interested in when I was young, provided me the foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julia-Barrett-Mitchell contributed to this story.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nRead the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Choon got his first taste of investing with sneakers. He started trading them for fun when he was around 12. As a teenager, he didn\u2019t have much money, and he recalled the rush of taking $200 in birthday cash to SoHo to buy a used pair of statement sneakers from a stranger on Facebook.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-18530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\n
This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Matt Choon got his first taste of investing with sneakers.He started trading them for fun when he was around 12. As a teenager, he didn\u2019t have much money,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses | iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matt Choon got his first taste of investing with sneakers.He started trading them for fun when he was around 12. As a teenager, he didn\u2019t have much money,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-05T21:48:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-05T21:48:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/1686001726_social.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\"},\"headline\":\"This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-05T21:48:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-05T21:48:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530\"},\"wordCount\":862,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530\",\"name\":\"This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses | iFintechWorld\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-05T21:48:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-05T21:48:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"Matt Choon got his first taste of investing with sneakers.He started trading them for fun when he was around 12. As a teenager, he didn\u2019t have much money,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"description\":\"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"width\":558,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Repay Down\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses | iFintechWorld","description":"Matt Choon got his first taste of investing with sneakers.He started trading them for fun when he was around 12. As a teenager, he didn\u2019t have much money,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses | iFintechWorld","og_description":"Matt Choon got his first taste of investing with sneakers.He started trading them for fun when he was around 12. As a teenager, he didn\u2019t have much money,","og_url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530","og_site_name":"iFintechWorld","article_published_time":"2023-06-05T21:48:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-06-05T21:48:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/1686001726_social.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61"},"headline":"This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses","datePublished":"2023-06-05T21:48:45+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-05T21:48:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530"},"wordCount":862,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530","name":"This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses | iFintechWorld","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-06-05T21:48:45+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-05T21:48:48+00:00","description":"Matt Choon got his first taste of investing with sneakers.He started trading them for fun when he was around 12. As a teenager, he didn\u2019t have much money,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=18530#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three money-making businesses"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","name":"Repay Down","description":"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization","name":"Repay Down","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","width":558,"height":90,"caption":"Repay Down"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com"],"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18532,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18530\/revisions\/18532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}