No Rivals: Devoted to providing fans with unique, elevated pieces of sports apparel that are made with quality and care.
- KLS
- Jun 26
- 13 min read
For the 195th feature of our "Together Talks" campaign, we collaborated with No Rivals and Co-Founder, Nickolas Hight. Devoted to providing fans with unique, elevated pieces of sports apparel that are made with quality and care. Whether that is new products, new colors, or new styles, we will continue to push towards creating something unique. Something that is in "a league of its own".
To everyone who has bought a hat, followed us on social media, or even just browsed the site, thank you for supporting our dream. We are excited to see where this journey takes us, and we are happy to have you along for the ride.
"Together Talks" feature # 195: No Rivals presented by KLS - Your Trusted Shipping Solutions In The USA
Can you reflect on a goal you set, achieved, and how it made you feel? Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business? What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur?
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most? Share a decision that you made that was detrimental? What is your why?
Story of how it was created?
My partner and I started No Rivals in April of 2023. At the time it was a passion project that him and I had big aspirations for. We grew it out of a townhome bedroom in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. When we started No Rivals, we had the entire mission of creating premium products with a huge focus on the design element and the quality of the product. That started us with a handful of licenses and our pursuit in those. Today that takes us to about 100 licenses around the U.S. We've been able to have the opportunity to outfit major retailers all over the U.S. like Shields and Rally House. Nowadays, we do major corporate partnerships. We've had the opportunity to work with NBC Studios and produce for Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show. The mission was always to change the space and do something that we felt was of value. I'm excited to see where that continues to take us from where we're at today.
What separates you from your competition?
Riley and I, when we started this, we looked at it from a very strategic lens. In any industry, you're going to have the cycles of life of new businesses emerging. We felt like when we started this, there was this kind of niche opportunity to introduce a premium product that consumers wanted to engage with more. I think between providing a premier product and providing a brand that gave more intimacy to the consumer, we felt like headwear was a space that allowed for that. Of course, you've got the big dog players like the 47s and the Fanatics and the Nikes. We just felt that we had an ear to the ground with a demographic that they were losing touch with because we were part of that demographic. With Riley and I both naturally being headwear guys, we just didn't feel like that we were getting service. We decided to just speak for the people that were in our consumer group that wanted to see something exciting.
What have been the biggest challenges?
Scaling with the right intent and maintaining brand integrity and brand identity.
As we continue to grow, we intend to be in the space for a very long time. We intend to be one of these legacy brands with how ambitious Riley and I are. I think we do in some ways have those aspirations to be the next Phil Knight. think if you are familiar with that story, we face similar issues being a bootstrapped organization, you're constantly managing cash flow, you're constantly managing product development, you're constantly figuring out what is going to be the next big trend, the next big wave in the space around you. I think the biggest challenge is just continue to grow and scale an organization and an operation to be at larger scale and to be profitable and to impact as many people as you can. Our focus is to make sure to not lose sight of the core elements of why we started this in the first place.
Can you reflect on a goal you set, achieved, and how it made you feel?
We've been on a constant evolution of goal setting. Maybe we're the wrong people to ask about this because my partner and I don't necessarily do the best about stopping to smell the roses, but initially, the goal was to just start it. And then from there, it was to grow into a couple of the top universities. As we've been able to set these goals and get into major chains of distribution for wholesale and retail and scale our warehouse now into two locations, every time that we've set those goals and gone after them. Riley and I both have a pretty feverishly intense work ethic. Honestly, what we enjoy more than anything is the process, figuring out how does it need to be done. What can we do better than others. What is that step that somebody's not taking to get there. And how can we do it in the most effective and lasting way. Each goal that we've achieved, when we got into major retail, was exciting. When we secured some of the first big licenses and we crossed that 50 license standpoint into 100 now, was exciting. As we grew our social media presence from nothing into over 50,000 followers, also exciting. Just about two years into this and all of those have felt amazing. We're very grateful for those that are around us. But I would say Riley and I are both never complacent.
Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
Right now we've got our sights set on the continual expansion into the collegiate space. There's still a lot of places that we haven't touched. With as much gratitude as we have for what we've done in the spaces we've gotten to be in, we continue to push to saturate more and more of the collegiate space and do it effectively. I would say that's objective one.
From a product standpoint, we want to continue to improv, continue to evolve. Making sure that every time we come to market, we're coming to market with a design and a silhouette and a material that is going to be exciting to the consumer. It's going to be something that they want to hold on to. And it's going be something that they want 5, 10, 15 versions of. As we continue to engage those consumers, they understand that the product that we're creating isn't just something that you want one of, you want 50 of them. You want us to go ahead and drop the next season because you don't feel like you can even get enough right now. I think that's where our head is at for that.
What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business?
We had to look at a lot of different metrics of sustainability. Initially we were just concerned with making sure that every dollar that we made was reinvested into the business. The first concern was sustainability. We were not willing to sacrifice the longevity of No Rivals in its early days of formation, just for the fact that you could make a quick buck on it. It was always about more than that to us. Once we got to a point with the evaluation of mentors and business and people that were in the space, I think really were able to help us grow it and kind of provide some affirmation around what we were doing.
I think I owe a lot of gratitude to the people that were in our corner that have mentored myself and have mentored Riley in different areas of entrepreneurship and business development. They let us know when I finally made the decision, because I became our first full-time operator. I was working very hard at my previous job. I always personally had this whole daydream all the time where it was like, "I'm going to work really hard and be really successful, and then one day I'm just going to figure it out, and I'm going to jump ship, and I'm going to do my own thing." I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but it kind of just quickly came about. For that moment where you realized the time to jump ship and go do this, is now.
It was really the evaluation came down to when we knew what we had from a point of traction and monthly growth, both growth in licensing and media and sales. Once we realized a pretty consistent trend over the span of about 12 months, that was when it was pretty real and recognizing we're doing something here. Now I have to put more time into this or else it won't grow anymore.
What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur?
I've learned a ton. Aside from learning truly business-related tangible skills, you learn how to take feedback better. You learn how to work with others in an evolving space. You learn how to manage work-life balance. You learn how to manage the load and the stressors of what it takes to be able to do this. That's almost a hard question to answer because I feel like I've had the opportunity to learn something new every day. I've gotten to learn about a lot of areas of business that I never, initially imagined myself being in. I never thought that I would be working to run a warehouse or get into the space of doing things like that.
Overall the biggest lesson that I've gotten to take from it is to just be consistently hungry, be adamant about the growth that you want to see. Surround yourself with people who you believe have the same intent and direction in life. Then as you do call on them to help solve problems, be decisive and move on it. Don't just sit there hoping that things will get better.
What is the next thing you need to grow or develop as a leader?
That's a great question, that's tough. I think in order for No Rivals to continue to be moving towards the next level. It requires the focus on the mission. I think the better way to put this is, you've got to stay away from shiny object syndrome. I've heard this from a variety of people that have run their own business, and it's you've really got to put the blinders. You can't get distracted by the fireworks or the explosions or the cool things that's happening around you because everybody's kind of moving at their own pace and doing their own thing. You never really understand the depth of somebody's situation.
Being in a very competitive marketplace, we just have to stay focused on what the mission is ahead. Where do we want to be in the next 12, 24 months, and how does our regressive model, how does my day-to-day impact that. I think for us to get where we want to be, it requires myself and Riley and everybody else that's involved in this to make sure that we are focused on the task. We can't be getting distracted by the good or the bad that is around us in any way.
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?
I really like the pressure. I like the fact that what is done well and what is done poorly is decided at the highest level by myself and Riley. It really is the element of control. I decide how long or how short the days are. This has been a collective thing for Riley and I. We get to decide where the direction of this is. For me, I take a lot of pride and a lot of joy in being able to do that. Being in the greater workforce for a few years, leaving undergraduate, that was something that I always had a little bit of a hard time with that.
I've always been somebody that has a very strong work ethic, and I'm certainly the type to wake up at 4 a.m. and work until the later hours of the evening. I don't really have a hard time with the long workday, but I noticed I did have a hard time with letting go of certain variables that I know that if I was given the chance, I could have done something better than how it was happening. At least that was my personal conviction towards it. I very much enjoy the pressure and the responsibility around being at the helm of what's going on.
Share a decision that you made that was detrimental?
I can give you plenty. As we were doing this, as this has evolved, you're constantly trying to evaluate. When we were in the early days, we were really excited about testing a particular product. We knew that from a seasonal standpoint, we had a lot of competitive weight of other brands that we knew what they were going to be doing. We were testing different points of manufacturing and testing different material blends and testing all sorts of things. Ultimately, we pulled the trigger on ordering a bunch of product that we didn't evaluate to the criteria that we do today. We kind of just let it get by because we felt like it's better to take action than to sit by and wait. Except we weren't doing what we thought we did. Instead, we were just rushing the gun.
Because of that, we spent a lot of money to order in a product that once we had it in hand, we realized this isn't what we want. Because of that, it was an expensive learning lesson, and it required us to take a loss on this decision. At the time it was a considerable chunk of inventory for us. Again, we were a bootstrapped organization. For us, we jumped the gun on it. We ordered something that we weren't super confident in from a product integrity standpoint. Once we got it in hand, we both kind of had to have that solemn moment to realize we're not going to get this money back.
When you are the owner, you're in control of it. There's not really a redo, you just have to accept the fact that you didn't do it right. That was tough. But, it taught us a lesson about always being true to our process and understanding what we're doing, how we're delivering it, why are we delivering it, what differentiates us, and not allowing excitement or pressure in some other area of the market to influence our drive to do that.
What is your why?
I think I have a lot of whys. On a personal side, I drive to build something great to be able to support my family, my fiancé. I have a lot of people in my family and in my corner that I aspire to be able to build things for, to be able to provide. From a brand side, I'm incredibly proud of what we built at No Rivals. It's meant a lot to see so many people impacted by the vision that we had and that we still hold today. There's a quote, and I don't remember the exact extent of it, so pardon me if I butcher it, but it was something along the lines of "you don't need to be disciplined when you're obsessed."
I think I appreciate the message that that is trying to drive because I think that is my why, my obsession with building. I love creating things. I love what we've built. I love the opportunity to be able to support others and help others. I think very much my personal aspirations of being a leader and being able to do things for others is what continues to push me. Knowing that the impact that I make every day has allowed me to hire people with Riley and bring people into our facility, provide a workplace for them. From an influential product standpoint, it's allowed us to give something that. I think consumers are able to relate to the same gap that we wanted to be filled. I'm very proud to know that we can do that.
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
There's definitely been a couple key milestones. Your first sale is a pretty proud moment. I think if I were to be giving a note in any way to any other business owner or entrepreneur that's out there, we are still very early in our journey and I pray that we get to see many more days and many more years of success to the point that we have. Making the first sale was an incredibly proud day. After that, it was getting our first batch of great licenses. it was kind of really starting to roll and accumulate and realizing that we had a concept that made sense. It wasn't just kind of a hit or miss in one or two places. After that, it was our first big push into retail. Then it was our first big campaign that we did where we had a photo shoot with a dozen models or two dozen models and multiple photographers and a videographer.
My note to any of these founders or entrepreneurs or other people that might be reading this is, the more that you appreciate the milestones that you're accomplishing every day, the happier that you're going to be. The more that when you do have the bad days that inevitably will be there, they just tend to sting a lot less because you've accumulated a lot more wins than losses. There's something to be proud about within that. You can always look forward to whatever that objective is ahead of you on the next day.
Piece of Advice
I don't know how qualified I am to give life advice, but I would advise that you cannot attach yourself to one particular thing. I even say that with No Rivals is my reflection. I'm a Christian by faith. I'm a very proud fiancé. My identity is not held in the wins or losses that I have on a day-to-day with No Rivals or at the gym or through contracts that we may win. At the end of the day, I know that there were many great, great things and great people before me. There was a world without No Rivals. I'm very grateful that there's a world now with No Rivals. I'm saying this in the lens of addressing any of these founders and owners, it's work very hard for what you do every day. Don't take any of these days for granted. Don't be so arrogant to think that you have tomorrow to get something accomplished. But also know that in the face of adversity or as things may have some sort of down day or downturn, don't attach yourself to the success or failure of one particular thing.
I would advise to follow that through your life and you'll be a lot happier.
Community Callout
In Closing
KLS wants to thank No Rivals and Co-Founder, Nickolas Hight, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!
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