Jacksonville Beach clothing store gives struggling young men the confidence they need to succeed

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. —

Nineteen-year-old Vincente Waugh was raised in Jacksonville’s north side.

When he was 13 years old, he became emancipated and has lived on his own ever since.

Waugh told me growing up was a struggle.

“When it comes to working, paying bills, trying to go to high school. Even trying to understand if I want to go to school and better my education,” he said.

One day he reached out to Alan Vinson, the owner of JT Vinson Custom Clothier in Jacksonville Beach, after coming across the store’s Instagram.

“He asked could I be around you somehow, could I take out your trash, could I just be in your life, something along those lines and I was very moved by that,” Vinson said.

Vinson was so touched, he nominated Waugh as the first recipient of his new Suit Up Program for young men and gave him his very own custom-made suit.

The program is open for teens in junior high school to young men in their mid-20s.

Growing up, Vinson told me that he’s always been very anti-waste, so the suits that are given out to young men are often regifted or recycled from the very material his custom suits are made out of. Each month, a young man like Waugh is gifted with one.

“Truly you are judged by what you wear, and especially because I’m a lower income student. I’m a lower-income individual; you know, I can’t really reach out to CEOs, and when I was reaching out to CEOs, I only had one shirt and I had to make it work,” Waugh said.

Waugh recently started school at FSCJ for business management and says he’s gained the confidence he needs to not only to get a job, but to succeed in life.

Waugh nominated the next recipient of the Suit Up Program, Rodney Wells, who is the first African American senior class president at Bishop Kenny High School.

If you would like to nominate someone, you can click https://www.jtvinson.com/ for more information.

Cox Media Group