Tristan Miller started cutting hair in his parents’ garage at seventeen. A few years later he’s a defensive back on a Yates Cup championship Laurier team, a U SPORTS East-West Bowl selection, and the reason a lot of professional athletes look sharp on game day.
The business grew out of the rooms he was already in. He became the team barber at Laurier, first for football, then basketball. A teammate who’d also picked up the clippers and a coach with CFL ties opened the next doors, and Tristan became the barber for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Argonauts. From there it was an NFL rookie camp with the Packers, NBA Summer League chairs, and clients like RJ Barrett and Mecole Hardman.
He built that into The Locker Room by TreyFadez, a mobile barbering brand serving pro athletes with a team of barbers across North America, and backed it with a sponsorship from BioSteel. While still playing varsity ball and studying sociology, he took it through Laurier’s StartUp Lab, reached the pitch competition’s final six, and won the Student Choice vote. Of mixed heritage, he names diversity, respect, and hard work as the things he builds on.
The takeaway: you don’t always have to go find your first market. Tristan’s was the locker room he already lived in. Do the work in the network you’re standing in, be the person teammates trust with something personal, and let those relationships carry the business outward.