Alumnus nurtures an idea and grows a business with the help of his Trojan community

When Jay Perlman rolled out of bed one morning in 2013, he saw a notification in his email that a new order had been placed to California Crown, his fledgling online clothing company. When he logged in to the site to take a look, he immediately thought to himself, “This HAS to be wrong.”

The order was huge.

“I called the person who placed it to confirm that it wasn’t an error, and when I did, they told me they needed even more,” Perlman said. The order had come from a fan group in Taiwan. Rising NBA star Jeremy Shu-How Lin had recently donned a California Crown hoodie, and a photograph of him wearing it ended up on NBA.com, peaking interest in Perlman’s brand.

“The group leader said they loved Jeremy and everything he touches,” Perlman said. “That was a very big day for us; we moved more than 300 units in an hour.”

A thing like that doesn’t happen every day, but it’s an exciting indication that a startup business is headed in the right direction — that someone’s dream is gaining traction.

The 26-year-old Perlman, who earned a degree in psychology from USC Dornsife, currently lives in San Francisco, where he and his former Trojan classmate Misu Minhaz ’12, run the online business. Their product line includes “Signature Snapback” hats, hoodies, T-shirts, tank tops and crew neck sweaters. Designing what they describe as California-inspired apparel for a global community, the company aims to create premium street wear that incorporates authentic styles and high-quality fabrics.

A long time in the making

The seed for California Crown was first planted almost a decade ago when Perlman was a high school student in Palo Alto, Calif. He had been skateboarding for years and was interested in hip-hop and streetwear. He knew some guys a few years older who had a streetwear clothing line and thought, “I could do that.”

After high school, Perlman’s nascent idea sat dormant while he spent a year on the Pomona-Pitzer college baseball team. When his sports endeavors didn’t work out, he decided to pursue a different path and transferred to USC to study psychology.

California Crown’s website describes its clothing line as California-inspired apparel for a global community.

“Everything about USC was a draw: a great reputation for academics, a large and diverse student body, a tight-knit and connected community.”

With baseball no longer occupying his time, he racked his brain about what his path was and what else he wanted to explore. The idea of a clothing line resurfaced.

“I was fiddling around with names and I came up with California Crown,” he said. “What it really meant to me was an appreciation for my home, community and the environment that has surrounded me from a young age. To me, everything about California embodies something great — almost intangible — that people from all parts of the world are drawn to.”

The name stuck. Now Perlman had a name and a mission of sorts, but he lacked formal graphic design skills and had zero knowledge of the fashion industry. So with the assistance of a few friends who were savvy with graphic design software, he developed a few initial T-shirt designs and began to think about how to get the word out.

A chance encounter becomes a fateful meeting

One night at the 901 Bar and Grill near campus, Perlman boldly struck up a conversation with Jurrell Casey, at the time a defensive lineman on the USC football team. Perlman pitched his idea for California Crown and Casey was encouraging. It was the push Perlman needed. He brought on Minhaz, who graduated with a degree in political science, as a business partner.

“Misu was also integral,” Perlman said. “I couldn’t have done much of it without him.” Soon California Crown created its first run of T-shirts and hoodies.

Jay Perlman and Misu Minhaz met as undergraduates at USC Dornsife.

“Jurrell was extraordinarily supportive from the get-go. He bought some of our items, and soon it spread to some of the other athletes, who began wearing our stuff,” Perlman said. Friends and classmates started buying and wearing the items around campus, as well.

Nearing graduation, Perlman decided he wanted to get some experience in the fashion industry as he continued to build his brand and gain knowledge of the field. His first job out of college was in San Francisco with a high-end menswear company.

“That experience really improved my salesmanship,” Perlman said. “I became more in tune with how products should be made and about the composition of garments and fabric. I learned so much. Meanwhile I was doing California Crown on the side, and we were launching our new website, making more collections and connecting with manufacturers.”

As his company gained publicity in the media and sales picked up, Perlman turned his attention to California Crown full-time.

Full speed ahead

Perlman and Minhaz now spend their days planning product launches, future clothing collections and social media campaigns. They’re focused on logistics, online marketing, and working with new designers and photographers. They’ve more than doubled their revenue each year, and they are currently talking with different investors, in the process of opening a flagship store.

“We try and stay diverse in our inspirations and focused on making really good products that have a story behind them,” Perlman said. “We’ve added new accounts with stores in the Bay Area, L.A. and even as far away as Australia. But our very first account was with the USC Bookstore! To this day, just thinking about that makes me love my Trojan Family even more.”