In 2013, I started The Cap City with a passion for caps and a vision to build something meaningful. Caps weren’t just accessories to me—they were identity, a way to stand out and tell a story.

We began as a multi-brand cap store, carrying some of the biggest names in the game. I won’t name names because, well… let’s just say we’ve got history, and they don’t need any more promotion. You know who they are. At first, it was exciting—working with global players, growing fast, and making moves.

But as the business grew, things started to feel… off. It all became too corporate—about numbers, targets, and squeezing the bottom line. The spark that made me love this journey began to fade. Everything revolved around making ends meet, and I found myself losing passion for what I had built.

The journey felt like a dream come true at first—four stores in just four years. But here’s something no one tells you: dreams can quickly turn into nightmares. Growing too fast without a solid foundation caught up with us. In what felt like a blink, we stopped expanding. I had to close three stores to survive and kept only one—the one in Subang Jaya, where it all began. I couldn’t bring myself to let it go. Call it stubbornness, call it heart, I just wasn’t ready to walk away from everything we’d started there.

As if that wasn’t enough, the global brands we carried cut ties with us as soon as we weren’t performing. We were left with nothing but the lessons we had learned and the fire to start over.

And that’s when it hit me, everything started to click. As we worked to rebuild, I realized we didn’t need anyone else to tell us how to run our business or create our vision. We had all the knowledge, the experience, and the passion to build something that truly resonated with our people. We didn’t like how corporations ran their businesses or treated customers, and we weren’t about to replicate that.

And guess what? The good thing about falling back to zero is that it’s freeing. It gave us the chance to rethink everything and strip it back to what truly mattered. The team was small, the overheads were low, and for the first time, we could focus on what we really wanted to create. We didn’t want more. We didn’t want everyone because I believe selling to everyone is selling to no one. So, we leaned deeper into our niche, designing for the people who truly understood us.

We were tired of being someone we’re not, I said to myself "Enough of selling New York caps to Malaysians!" It was time to tell our own story. After years of curating and selling caps from the best headwear brands, we understood what made a great cap—its fit, its quality, its story. So, we poured that expertise into creating The Cap City as a brand.

And that’s when it all became clear: we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Our early designs, like Harimau and Budak Subang, weren’t just caps, they were reflections of who we were. They represented us as Budak Subang, carrying the lion within us, and allowed our fans to see themselves in those stories. These designs resonated deeply, creating a connection built on shared pride and individuality. They set the tone for what The Cap City would become: a brand for the people, by the people.

Through every challenge, it’s the people who kept me going and those who said we couldn’t make it. Every cap sold, every shoutout (kita gang!), every story shared became the bond that fueled The Cap City. This journey wasn’t just mine, it was ours.

That connection is why giving back has always been a priority for us. What began as simple giveaways, some might call it content, evolved into something much bigger. One video changed everything: our Payung Jumaat video. It started as just another way to connect with our fans, but it sparked something we never could have imagined.

And little did we know, the tagline "Jangan Cakap Abang Tak Payung" would become a nationwide phenomenon. It wasn’t just about giving free caps anymore, it became about creating moments of joy, building direct bridges with our fans, and showing them they weren’t just customers—they were Keluarga.

This movement gave us a way to connect with the people who believed in us, no middlemen, no corporations. Just us and them. Through these moments, we’ve stayed grounded, understood what truly matters, and kept moving forward with the people who made us who we are.

Every cap we design carries a piece of our journey and the people who made it possible. We create with purpose, staying true to where we’ve come from while pushing toward where we’re meant to be. The road ahead is uncharted, but one thing is certain: we’re only just getting started.