About Us
Top Tier Academy was founded by 7 teens who went to Avon Middle High School. This is our story...
Top Tier was founded by 7 teens who went to Avon Middle High School. They became close friends during the Basketball season in January 2022. "Top Tier" was created from one of the members PlayStation username, and added the "Academy" to represent all of them. The first members were, Lazarus Fontes, Bradley & Brandon Charles, Travis Guillaume, Mike Morais, Josiah Guerrier, and Jordan Medeiros.
Laz Fontes was the most pivotal members of this group, with him running the youtube channel as well as the merchandise production. His youtube channel became popular in the summer of 2022 with him releasing "Top Tier Thursdays" every week on Youtube. During this time he would make himself and other members of the group Top Tier shirts which would eventually become hoodies. He would sell these shirts and hoodies to his classmates at school. To make it easier for people to buy them, he decided to make TopTierMerch.com in March of 2023. This would be a huge step for the brand, as now people who don't go to school with him could now see and buy these items.
Starting in May 2023, Laz wanted to connect to his roots with Rocky Marciano T-Shirts since they were both from Brockton, MA. This creative shirt, different from the standard lettering is something people liked. He saw this and expanded it to different athletes. Laz also wanted to connect to his roots with his Cape Verdean background. He would use popular Cape Verdean figureheads such as, Cesaria Evora, Ildo Lobo and Amilcar Cabral for his "Cape Verdean Top Tier T-Shirts". This was only the beginning and a sign of what Top Tier could further become...
Over a year passed and this small high school side hustle turned into something more serious. As a brand that was primarily purchased locally in Massachusetts, since then we have reached over 35 States and even internationally to Canada, Cape Verde, Italy, Belgium and so much more. It was no longer clothes that said "Top Tier" and became a brand with purpose when he dropped the Bible Collection. With verses like Proverbs 3:5, Matthew 19:26 and Psalm 56:3, Laz made clothes with a meaning.
Top Tier has evolved from a clothing brand into Top Tier Productions, a full-service media production company dedicated to helping individuals, businesses, and organizations tell their stories. In addition to designing and selling apparel, we now provide professional social media video production, content creation, photography, and event coverage for local businesses and community members throughout the region.
As a company founded by a young entrepreneur, we are proud to have met with Brockton, MA Mayor Moises Rodrigues to discuss ways to support and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs in our city. We have also had the opportunity to work with the Brockton High School Boys Basketball Team by providing custom sweatsuits after a parent approached us looking for apparel the team could wear both on game days and in everyday life. Beyond our business growth, we remain committed to giving back to our community through our Monthly Giveaway Program, where we give away prizes to our supporters every month throughout 2026 as a way of thanking those who continue to support the Top Tier movement.
We are excited about the future and look forward to continuing to serve our community through apparel, media production, and meaningful local partnerships.
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