THE RISE AND IMMEDIATE FALL OF KYZN

(Chapter 1)

Sinx officially started in February 2024, but let’s be real—there were many failed attempts at creating a clothing brand and an art idea before I finally stumbled upon Sinx and SinxCustom. Turns out, trial and error is a lifestyle.

Hockey has always been a huge part of my life. It’s the reason I’ve lived in so many different places and met the people who’ve shaped my journey. In 2019, hockey took me to Buffalo for college, where I started off studying business education. That lasted precisely one semester before I realized I had no interest in it. With no clear plan, I decided to take a mix of computer science and digital media arts courses to see what stuck. Spoiler: it wasn’t coding.

Then COVID hit, and like everyone else, I was sent home. Canada had a 14-day quarantine rule, which meant two weeks of sitting around, trying not to lose my mind. To stay busy, I started making videos—specifically, two hype videos for my junior hockey team. I had no idea what I was doing, but seeing the final results got me hooked. The moment I was free, I went online and bought a GoPro.

Learning how to use the GoPro became my new obsession. I spent hours filming with my brother and a few buddies, getting better at video editing. Naturally, the next step was upgrading my gear, so I set my sights on a drone. Lucky for me, my parents got me one for my birthday. Armed with my new tech, I planned a trip to British Columbia with my brother and a buddy from junior hockey, Matthias Urbanski. We took a ton of footage, and each of us made our own videos with plans to post them on YouTube.  This is when Sinc was born, my first YouTube channel, and the name came from my nickname that I was called in hockey.

Finding a Passion | Kelowna BC | Sinc

This trip also marked the beginning of my first attempt at a clothing brand. I went all in—coming up with the perfect name, backstory, and aesthetic. I was convinced this was going to be something big, something that would really take off. I wanted it to have meaning, something deeper than just slapping a logo on fabric. That’s how KYZN (pronounced Kaizen) was born. It means continuous improvement, which sounded inspiring… until I realized I had no clue what I actually wanted to improve. And in the most ironic twist possible, I completely gave up on the brand after about two weeks. Continuous improvement? More like continuous abandonment.

I designed a logo, ordered three hats with "KYZN" embroidered on them, and that was the entire brand. I never launched anything, never sold a single piece—I just ended up giving all the hats away. And that was the grand rise and fall of KYZN, my first (but definitely not last) clothing brand experiment.

 

Chapter two with the next drop...