TOM NGUYEN PORTFOLIO
OC-based creative director translating action sports culture for the world beyond, for the last 12+ years. From personal moments with Lil Uzi that turned into a viral cultural wave to campaigns for Nike, I've built a career on one thing: making culture hit for a bigger audience without losing what makes it real.
Lil Uzi Vert in Manhattan(2021)
It’s not every day you get Facetimed from a random number and it ends up being Lil Uzi Vert telling you to come out to New York so he can learn how to ride BMX. Moments like this need a key player from the city involved so it was only right to make sure Nigel Sylvester pulled up to tie everything together.
Highsnobiety & I Know Nigo(2021-2024)
After the photos got posted to my Instagram they ended up getting picked up by the likes of Highsnobiety, Samutaro, LilJupiterr, HiddenNY, Artifaxing and eventually VictorVictor for publishing rights of the photos for the I Know Nigo book.
SAMUTARO
Samutaro also took a liking to the photos of Uzi riding around Manhattan and after that we’ve spent countless hours talking about BMX’s role in hip hop culture over the last decade. This led to me assisting him on writing pieces over the years and the creation of #SamutaroBiking
Public Impression: Founder / Creative Director
Built an independent BMX apparel brand from the ground up, blending East Coast street riding with high-quality, American made garments. Directed all creative, content, and strategy to grow brand presence and community.
Jimmy Gorecki:Standard Issue Tees & JSP(2017-2025)
Nike Sportswear: City of Neighborhoods(2024)
Over 40 Years ago Nike introduced the Dunk and created hyper localized color combos for the sneaker based off of college basketball teams. In 2024 Nike wanted to bring back that feeling with a new dunk program basing shoes off of major cities and Philadelphia was the first. The Nike Sportswear team flew out to Philly and met up with key players in the city to gain inspiration for what the shoe should be. After those meetings I got asked to be apart of the campaign with the likes of those who represent Philly including Jimmy Gorecki, BJ Betts, Frank Cooke and more.
Jordan Brand: Bike Air-Brick by Brick(2025)
Brain Nadav of Lapstone and Hammer was 1 of 5 shops in the country asked by Jordan to create their own activation for the release of the Brick by Brick 4s. He tapped in with me to figure out how to pay respect and connect this release to real BMX riders.
YESJULZ/1AM Creative (2014-2018)
Documented VMA afterparties, Art Basel concerts, and ComplexCon radio shows during YesJulz's peak, when a random party could pull Travis Scott, 2Chainz and Pusha T in one night.
A$AP FERG- Plain Jane(2017)
What was supposed to be a day as background talent turned into shooting a whole music video around NYC. A$AP Ferg saw me filming BMX and wanted to bring the DIY ethos to his video which ended up being shot mostly on my VX2100s and film cameras.
Interlaced Magazine(2018)
Additional Work
If you’ve made it this far thank you for taking the time to have a look at some of the things I’ve done and captured over the years<3