Moziah Bridges: How Mo’s Bows Began With Fabric Scraps

Moziah Bridges was only nine when a very particular problem sparked his first business idea. He enjoyed dressing smartly, yet could not find colourful, patterned bow ties that suited his style and fitted the family budget. The answer was at home. His grandmother, a retired seamstress, had a room full of fabric offcuts and taught him how to sew. A few years later, Mo’s Bows had generated about US$200,000 in sales.

Why did Moziah decide to make his own bow ties?

From an early age, Moziah was drawn to fashion, especially the way his father and grandfather dressed. At nine, he asked his mother to take him shopping for bow ties, but he faced two issues: he disliked the children’s styles on offer, while the colourful adult versions that caught his eye cost more than the family could afford.

His mother suggested asking his grandmother for help. Having spent decades working as a seamstress, she first made several bow ties for her grandson before teaching him to operate the sewing machine himself. What began as a search for a distinctive accessory became the first step towards a business.

• Moziah wanted colourful designs with unusual patterns;
• The bow ties he liked were too expensive for the family at that time;
• His grandmother had decades of sewing experience;
• He chose to learn how to make his own pieces.

How did his grandmother’s fabric offcuts create Mo’s Bows?

Moziah’s grandmother had a sewing room at home packed with leftover fabric collected during more than 50 years of working at a machine. He was particularly interested in the vintage materials, whose colours and prints differed from the bow ties he saw in shops. Using those fabrics, he made his earliest creations and wore them wherever he went.

When did the first bow ties become a real business?

Moziah’s bow ties attracted attention whenever he wore one out. People asked where he had bought them, so he began making pieces for friends and relatives. Once he realised people were willing to pay for the accessories, he moved beyond sewing at home and began selling them, establishing Mo’s Bows with support from his mother and grandmother.

The business expanded quickly. Its bow ties began selling online and in shops, while Moziah received coverage in the American press as a child. By the age of 13, the company had sold roughly US$200,000 worth of bow ties and other men’s accessories, all stemming from fabric that had been sitting in his grandmother’s home.

• Moziah wore the first pieces himself;
• Friends and relatives began requesting similar bow ties;
• Sales expanded to the internet and retail outlets;
• The company reached about US$200,000 in sales while he was still 13;
• His mother and grandmother remained involved as the business grew.

How did Shark Tank change the young entrepreneur’s path?

At 11, Moziah appeared on Shark Tank alongside his mother, seeking US$50,000 in exchange for 20% of the company. He did not secure the conventional investment he had sought, but he gained something that would prove highly influential for the brand: Daymond John, FUBU’s founder and one of the programme’s investors, became his mentor. When the episode was recorded, Moziah and his grandmother had already made around 2,000 bow ties and generated approximately US$55,000 in revenue.

How far did a company that began with fabric scraps go?

In the years that followed, the venture became more than a small home-based bow-tie operation. Moziah worked as a fashion correspondent at the NBA Draft, was named among influential teenagers by Time magazine twice, and in 2017 secured a deal to make licensed ties and bow ties for all 30 NBA teams. Production also had to extend beyond the capacity of Moziah and his family, bringing in other seamstresses in Memphis.

The story of Moziah Bridges did not start with a factory, major investment or a ready-made collection. It began with a child looking for a bow tie he could not find in shops, a grandmother with sewing skills, and a pile of fabric scraps that appeared to hold little commercial value. By turning those materials into pieces that other people also wanted to wear, he discovered demand before he was old enough to understand every stage of running a company, making his first bow tie the beginning of a business that would reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.