About two and a half years ago, I came up with the idea for Pool Boy — a swim and lounge brand built around that specific kind of summer that feels slow, sun-soaked, and a little bit out of reach. I kept coming back to the idea of old coastal towns, quiet boat days, and the kind of lived-in luxury that doesn’t try too hard. It wasn’t about chasing trends or reinventing swimwear — it was about creating something that felt familiar in the best way. But to explain where my love for creating a business and brand really started, I have to go back to my senior year of high school.
The beginning of my senior year, I enrolled in an incubator entrepreneurship class my public high school was offering for the first time. The point of the class was to build an actual company with a real product, then liquidate it by the end of the year. Making sales wasn’t part of the grade, but my group and I were competitive and wanted to win the competition held at the end of the year. We decided to create an eco-friendly sweatshirt company that called out people who didn’t care about the environment’s well-being. The company did over $3,000 in sales. To us — just high schoolers who had never done anything like this — we were hyped.
As the months went on and graduation came and went, we all found ourselves in different places. During winter break of my freshman year of college, we decided to officially liquidate the company. We had about $1,000 in profit, so we split the money evenly, leaving us with $333 each. As freshman year went by, I felt myself feeling a bit pointless. I had saved up enough money from my part-time summer job to not have to work, my gen ed classes were easy, and now the company I didn’t realize I had poured so much time into was just... gone. I sat on that $333 for a few months. I didn’t want to spend it, because it felt like the only proof I had that I had created something cool.
At the College of Charleston, I spent most of my time outside of class in a bikini. That was when the idea of creating a swim brand slowly crept into my mind. It would be a smaller inventory that could fit in my tiny apartment bedroom, and I had a feeling a lot of girls at my school would love more bathing suits — especially from a brand that didn’t just follow every new trend. I started slowly building mood boards, doing hours of manufacturer research, and trying to figure out how to actually create a brand. Pool Boy, the name of my company, kind of just came to me. I wanted something that sounded cool and subtly reflected the mood and identity of the brand.
I began sketching out design ideas on my iPad and finally decided on a manufacturer for my first suit. My $333 was finally put to use — to buy two samples. The first one I absolutely hated. Everything looked wrong — the color, the logo — it just was not it. The second sample I liked more. Now, you can see it on the site as the Summer Nights Set. That pink bikini was truly the start of the brand. Of course, there were parts of it I wasn’t a fan of — but one of the best pieces of advice I’ve received is to just go for it. The more time I spent waiting around, the more customers, supporters, and momentum I lost.
A lot has happened since I first posted the pink bikini in June of 2023. I knew no matter how slow sales were, or how long the gaps between orders might be, I would do whatever it took to create new collections. I saved up over that summer of 2023 to invest more into the company. All of my nannying money went toward paying off that first bulk order. As sales slowly began to increase, I started to see the possibility of a new collection. Months later, the Seaside collection was born, and just a few months ago, the Silver Spoon collection was released.
I no longer have to put my own money into the brand — I’m now able to recycle company revenue into creating new pieces. We’re still very small — and I’m definitely leaving out details and stories — but there’s more to come, very very soon. Thank you for reading, and thank you for the support and encouragement, always.
xoxo,
Riley