Nicholas Paton (12) got the idea for his business in his math class last year as he was
drawing.

Paton designed t-shirts for his club at Freedom last year and thought it was pretty easy
so he started off just making simple designs and has only grown from there.

“I got inspired by me awakening my vision in Algebra 2 class and I saw the word
no solution as I was drawing skateboards and I just got the idea,” Paton said.

I thought I’ve always wanted to make a skateboarding or shirt company, but
I never thought I could.

Creating the Skateboarding Club shirts last year showed Paton that he was able to make shirts easily.

“I can make T shirts easily for cheap, so then I decided to try it out and then I
just kept going.”

His main source of exposure for his business is through TikTok. He enjoys making
these videos to spread his business around the world.

“I can reach people all across the United States and the rest of the world without having to pay any money for advertising,
which is really cool for me to utilize,” Paton said.

Paton has applied to Florida State University and University of Florida for college.
He wanted to stay near home but also thought it would be great to go to these
schools since they are both pretty impressive to get into.

“I just like both schools and they are pretty and prestigious,” Paton said. “If you go to UF
or FSU – that’s a pretty impressive compliment.

There was one more reason for Paton to apply to FSU and UF.

“It’s not too far from home so I could still visit family, while
it’s also far enough to where it’s something fresh.”