About us

My name is William Blakes, and I'm the CEO of Riche Nickel. I started my journey of customizing apparel as a sophomore in high school in Selma, Al. I painted cartoon characters on jeans and famous celebrities on t-shirts as a past time. My hobby grew into a great local success and I began to get my first taste of entrepreneurship. My career took a turn into the automotive industry and computer graphics, but I knew deep down my early passion of customizing apparel was calling...

I started Riche Nickel LLC. because I believed my unique sense of style could make a huge impact in the street apparel and art community. I founded the company, ironically, at the age of 28, which happens to be the atomic number of Nickel. The concept of the name "Riche Nickel" came from the desire to create high levels of complex and detailed art on a simple wearable canvas. The ideal of spending days and sometimes weeks on a work of art that ends up on a t-shirt is a good way of hiding wealth in plain sight. The name has a similar ring to it in the Hip-Hop culture, however I don't intend to glorify the those choice of words. Growing up in a rough urban community taught me how to coupe with the negatives in the world and even make light of the bad cards that were dealt to me early in life. Hip-hop in a lot of ways taught me right from wrong, despite some artists that confused the two from time to time. Changing my environment and reeducating the way I think, showed me that I had the power to deal my own hand and determine my own path. I selected the Buffalo Nickel as the mascot because the Buffalo is viewed as a symbol of strength, endurance and protection in Native American Folklore. Not only do I feel those are my best qualities, there arguably the best qualities in a boss.