Autumn 24 Full The Entrepreneurial Spirit Issue Final

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and the people around them to get to where they are today, but their journey hasn’t been easy. A startup owned by two young Black entrepreneurs may not sound like the poster child of an industry built around luxury and featuring commercials with overinflated budgets and supermodel protagonists. In their own words, there are beard oils, body creams, and headpieces, but no high-end, high-quality fragrances available for regular people. How can that

WHAT’S YOUR FRAGRANCE?

It’s an easy enough question, even if it reads like the start of a bad joke at first. Yet, as simple as it may seem, the answer changes from day to day. After all, we smell and look different after an early morning shower compared to an afternoon at the gym following a long day at work. Or how about a less extreme comparison? Do we dress the same for a first date as we do for a lazy Sunday at home? We do not, so why would we smell the same? At 86 West, Chris and Mike believe fragrance should be part of how we present ourselves. How we smell is just as crucial for them as how we look. “It is also a great ice breaker,” says Mike, who started collecting and learning about fragrances from an early age. “Fragrance is seasonal, situational, and circumstantial.” A brand architect by trade, he realizes the industry may be oversaturated, but there is space to disrupt if you target the right demographic. From a business perspective, the question becomes quite apparent: who are these potential customers, and how will they benefit from adding a new fragrance to their lives? A DEEPER, MORE PERSONAL UNDERSTANDING OF FRAGRANCE TODAY Big brands are unavoidable. Their reach is everywhere. Going against the grain in today’s world is virtually impossible, yet somehow, here’s 86 West, three years into a sixty- seven billion dollar industry and going strong. Chris and Mike started by looking at themselves

“Fragrance is seasonal, situational, and circumstantial.”

Are you ready to experience 86 West and make fragrance part of your own identity?

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