After winning a local business award last year, a Cloverdale student and entrepreneur wants to take his business to the next level.

Vansh Sobti鈥攚ho won a Clovie award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year鈥攈as opened Cloud Nine Clothing to sell his unique hoodies and sportswear.

A student at SFU鈥檚 Beedie School of Business, Sobti makes a few different items, such as sweatshirts and zip ups, but his main product is his "stress ball hoodie." The hoodie features hidden stress balls and is made of a heavy-weight fabric, which he said is soothing to those with anxiety, something he deals with himself.

He said the things he was dealing with in his own life inspired him to create the clothing line.

"It was back in 2022, post-pandemic, and I was just noticing that a lot of people's social anxiety had increased a lot," he said. "Even for myself, I found myself using different tools like stress balls. However, the idea of using them in public made me feel more embarrassed."

That's when Sobti got his eureka moment. As he went and looked for discrete solutions to solve his problem, he found there were non. So he had the idea to create something of his own that would solve the dilemma.

"I couldn't find anything suitable to use in public while at the same time taking away excess energy," he explained. "That's where I saw a gap in the market and that's where I started to innovate and after a couple of months I made a prototype for the stress ball hoodie."

He sold his first hoodie in April of 2023 and sales continued well for the year.

At first no one knew he was making the hoodies, he was a little shy about letting anyone know, lest his venture fail. So really only his family and a few close friends knew about his new initiative.

"I wasn't sure how it was going to work out, so I didn't want to tell anyone initially," he explained. "So the first year, no one really knew I was doing this."

Sobti enjoyed success in his first year, which culminated in a Clovie award win in November, 2023. He said winning a Clovie was an "incredible" experience.

"Just being able to look at the work I put into it, and then to be recognized for it, helped me to stay more motivated," he added. "That was super nice."

Sales have gone well in 2024, but he wants to take it to the next level. Right now, he only has an online presence and works out of his house. He's not looking for a bricks and mortar store of his own, but he would like to sell his hoodies in some local stores in Cloverdale, 性视界传媒, and Langley.

"I don't know where to start, in terms of getting into local stores, but that's my next step."

As for his next steps, Sobti said he loves the idea of trying to create more products that can help people with mental health issues in different ways.

"Just coming out with different products that revolve around mental health somehow," he explained. "Even if it's not stress related, just helping promote the idea of better mental health, whether that's different designs on the shirts or hoodies or different sweatpants or bags鈥攋ust, like, making this more of an actual company with a lot of different products to help promote a specific cause."

For more info, or to buy some hoodies or sportswear,

Cloud Nine can also be found on Instagram () and on TikTok ().