Brennan Agranoff is not your typical teenager.
At age 17, he's busy finishing high school six months in advance and running his million-dollar custom socks business HoopSwagg, where he's founder and CEO since age 13.
How It All Started
Agranoff shared that the inspiration for his socks startup first came to him in 2013 while watching a high school basketball game. He noticed that all the kids were wearing the same boring, plain Nike athletic socks.
He wanted to bring something new and fresh to the table, and see if he can start a sock craze and if it would catch on.
Self-Taught, Self-Sufficient Business Man
But before starting his own business, the Sherwood High School junior did his due diligence. Agranoff spent six months studying and researching on the logistics, machinery, and technology necessary for producing custom digital printing on fabric.
The young entrepreneur also taught himself how to use graphic design software to develop his original designs, despite being colorblind. He also learned how to code to set up and manage HoopSwagg's website on his own.
He then pitched his business idea to his first major investors — his mom and dad. Although hesitant at first, his parents loaned him an initial capital of $3,000 and helped him buy as many white athletic socks as they could get from Dick's Sporting Goods.
"Never underestimate the power and ability your kids have to do something cool," his dad, Brian Agranoff, said.
From Garage To Millions
After four years, HoopSwagg is now a certified startup success story with more than $1 million dollars in annual sales. Today, the online-only business gets an average of 100 new sock orders every day and offers hundreds of cool sock designs — including melting ice creams, blazing fire, and the viral PDX carpet.
From its humble beginnings in the Agranoff family garage, HoopSwagg has now moved to a 1,500-square-foot building on their property, which is where everything happens — from production, warehousing, to shipping.
Agranoff now has his mom working for the business full-time and has added 17 other part-time employees to his workforce. More recently, HoopSwagg revealed that it has bought its competitor, TheSockGame.com, further expanding its design portfolio and customer base.
'Can't Be Too Young To Learn'
Agranoff, who has never taken any formal business class, credited his knack for business to his experience of buying stuff at garage sales and selling them on eBay (which is something he started doing when he was only 8), and the internet.
"I've been learning how to do this for a while," he said "Especially today, with all the information available on the internet, you can't be too young to learn how to be an entrepreneur."
Work And Life Balance
The Oregon teen said he works for HoopSwagg about five to six hours a day every day right after school, admitting that he misses out on quality snooze time because of this.
Nevertheless, Agranoff's parents still want him to have a normal childhood despite the achievements of his sock startup, making sure he doesn't neglect schoolwork and household chores, which include feeding the goats.
Sherwood teen runs million-dollar business selling custom designed sockshttps://t.co/FQOTuF9JvG #LiveOnK2 pic.twitter.com/ZbsLVVkKRn — KATU News (@KATUNews) April 23, 2017
He's a 17-year-old CEO of @HoopSwaggdotcom, but he isn't immune to chores. Check out @BrennanAgranoff's story #LiveOnK2 at 11. pic.twitter.com/8uK9b9Oxdk — Catherine Van (@cat08van) April 23, 2017
