A Teen Turned His Roblox Side Hustle Into a Multimillion-Dollar Company — Now He's Working With Karlie Kloss and Elton John Rush Bogin, an 18-year-old fashion designer, learned firsthand how finding market gaps and listening to customer feedback can bring major success.
By Amanda Breen Edited by Jessica Thomas
Eighteen-year-old Rush Bogin's friends jokingly describe him as "a nerd who plays video games" that have fallen out of favor among other kids his age. But the niche interest is paying off for Bogin — big time.
Today, Bogin is a digital fashion designer for Roblox (@Rush_X) — an online game platform and creation system — where he's built a multimillion-dollar business and even consults for the likes of supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss.
Bogin began playing on Roblox at age 7 and enjoyed adopting an entirely different persona with his online avatar. For the next six years, he taught himself how to 3D model and designed his own game. That caught the attention of Roblox, which invited him to make fashion accessories for its online catalog.
When creators sell an item, they earn a commission on it in Roblox's currency, Robux. Then, creators who meet certain criteria can exchange those Robux for real money once a month.
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When Bogin began with Roblox, its invite-only model for users selling content meant he needed to get noticed, and he did so "by making wacky, fun accessories that were almost out of this world" (think "little avatars standing on your shoulders" or "an old school camera strapped to a user's head"). But once he was in, he realized those weren't necessarily the creations that would sell well.
Bogin had to go back to the drawing board — so he turned to social media for inspiration.
"I went into designing hairstyles and other types of accessories I saw got lots of attention and had large audiences on social media platforms like TikTok," Bogin says. "I found a gap in the market: male hairstyles."
Bogin values customer feedback and uses it to his advantage. Sometimes he tests items for weeks by surveying people in his Roblox group, and he always analyzes areas where he can improve.
"[Listening to feedback] is the key reason I found any success on the platform," Bogin explains. "It involves internalizing while at the same time not taking things personally. Instead, I look at how and where I failed in order to understand how I can do better."
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Bogin calls the creator community on Roblox a "tight-knit group," and it's served him well: One user (@Reverse_Polarity) recommended Bogin to Kloss when she was considering entering the platform. Now, Bogin acts as Kloss's chief Roblox consultant for her fashion experience Klossette, and he enjoys working alongside "one of the most interesting, kind and brilliant minds in fashion."
Since then, Bogin's been approached with consulting and design opportunities from the NFL, NASCAR, Sony Music, the MLB and Elton John. Additionally, he recently partnered with the creator Bunnexh to launch their own brand CHRUSH, which exclusively sells limited-edition items. That venture sold tens of thousands of items within days.
To date, Bogin has built up his multimillion-dollar business by selling items on the Roblox Marketplace* and working with various brands.
Bogin's success has also helped him stand out to top colleges: An essay he wrote about his Roblox experiences got him into Stanford, Yale and Harvard this year, and the teen looks forward to matriculating at Stanford, where he'll continue to work on his real-world and digital fashion designs.
*The creator's statement was verified by Roblox, and the company notes this isn't a typical case.
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