Vance native promotes creativity, positive message with clothing line

The 26-year-old Vance native was once a top football prospect in the state and had played for both North Carolina State University and Hampton University.

“After I tore my ACL a second time, I transferred to Hampton. That’s when I took the clothing thing more serious,” Valdez said.

“Once I graduated Hampton, I came back home. I started coaching, as well, at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School. I started coaching and started getting more into the clothing side,” he said, noting that he serves as a defensive coordinator/secondary coach. 

Valdez graduated with a degree in business communication and had always seen himself as “a clean guy” fashion wise. He decided to put more of his effort into more fully developing his clothing line.

“It’s been doing really great. I’ve been doing it for four or five years. At first it wasn’t doing so great, but since I got my degree and started getting more in-depth into it, it’s been like real good in our community,” he said.

Road2Riches is the clothing business he created and owns. Polo-style shirts, jerseys, track pants, socks and hats are among the items sold under his brand.

“I just started marketing my clothes around O-W, along with the coaching…. I just want to let other people know that it’s different ways to do things instead of getting caught up in being a statistic to our environment,” Valdez said.

“Now I’m getting more into the sports side of it, where I can start making gloves, sleeves and all that for our community so they can have it here and not have to go out and get it,” he said.

Valdez said he wants to be a positive influence on his community, particularly the football players he coaches, and if clothing is the way to do that, then he’s up for the challenge.

“I was like, ‘Maybe I can shine some light into that aspect of my life for people to get a different viewpoint of life,’” he said.

Valdez, who graduated from O-W in 2016, said his clothing line is unique in the sense that it represents his own personal style.

“I’m what makes it unique, just me being who I am. I’ve always been kind of like a clean guy. So what I did was pretty much put my thoughts into it. I always knew I had the talent to pretty much do it,” he said.

“I also think it’s unique because you can’t find it around here, or in the mall. It’s like you’ve got to come to me to get it. I’ve been working on getting a store in Columbia, but everything takes time. It’s a process,” Valdez said.

“I pretty much do a lot of what the big companies do, but I just bring it to Orangeburg. I have a store. Right now I’ve been partnering with my friend who’s in Newberry. So I take a lot of my items there, or I’ll just sell it online,” he said.

Items from his clothing line can be purchased online.

“The hardest thing I would say for me is having more inventory. Right now, I’m just doing it based off what I got and what I can do. I honestly feel like if I had more, I’d be able to do more,” he said.

Valdez continued, “So I would say the hardest thing is money management. When you’re an entrepreneur, you really don’t know when the money’s coming in. But I found my way in that by just having faith in God and just always knowing that he’s going to make a way.”

Valdez said he chose the name Road2Riches for his clothing line for a reason.

“After I got hurt, I was just coming up with a few names that kind of like described myself and the person I always was. Road to Riches just stuck with me because I was always the type of person that liked to be on the go, network and see what the next step is. Then all my friends used to call me R2R. So I was like, ‘You know, this fit perfectly,’ and I just ran with it,” he said.

He plans to expand his business in the future.

“I hate limiting myself on what I can do. So my plans for the future is just to dip into like different markets. What I mean is like making sports gloves, or skateboards – just take it further than what it is right now,” Valdez said.

He said while his injuries derailed his football plans and sent him into depression for a time, he realized that God had another path for him all along.

“After being that guy, the number one player in the state, to falling behind after the injuries, I went through a lot. But what kind of brought me back on my feet was finding a relationship with God,” Valdez said.

He continued, “I preach to all my friends and everybody to just try God. In my whole life, I tried everything but him…. It’s like once I tried him, everything just started falling into place.”

“My friends in the NFL will wear my outfits for like their pre-games. So what really makes me happy about that is my clothes are able to be in places that I couldn’t be. I always wanted to be there, but obviously God had other plans for me, which I’m cool with now,” Valdez said.