Kuan Jackson: The 2026 Chairman's Award Winner Is Building Something Bigger Than Himself

From left to right, Scholars Kuan Jackson, Joseph Coleman, Chloé Jean-Miles, Zaria McLeod. Photo courtesy of Kuan Jackson

When Kuan Jackson stepped on stage at FSF LIVE 2026 to accept the 2026 Chairman's Award, his heart wasn't racing. He describes the moment as a kind of stillness, "like I was meditating in place." For the Clark Atlanta University student who grew up in New Orleans, founded his brand PERFIK CIRCO at sixteen, and had just won the night's top honor for his KidSuper x LEGO case study Build Your World, that calm has a source.

"I'm led by a higher power," he says. "My ancestors, God, all of my work, and all of my experiences were standing on that stage with me. I didn't feel like I was alone."

He also knew it was his night.

"I had this profound, divine feeling that it was mine from the moment I submitted my application," he says. But he was careful to hold that certainty gently. "The humility within me, the God in me, is not gonna walk around all cocky. I'm gonna be present. I'm gonna interact with other people. I'm not gonna put myself on a pedestal just because I'm a top finalist. I'm a student just like you, and I want to connect with you."

That philosophy—confidence without performance, ambition without self-importance—is what carried him to the podium.

“YOU CANNOT BE YOUR BEST SELF BY YOURSELF"

Before the Chairman's Award, before PERFIK CIRCO, before Clark Atlanta University, there was New Orleans. For Kuan, the city shapes everything from how he moves to how he thinks about community.

"New Orleans taught me that creativity is not optional. It's survival," he says. He describes the culture—second-line dancing, Mardi Gras, the rhythm of expression woven into daily life—as something that rubbed off on him in ways he can still feel. It shaped how he stands on his convictions and adds what he calls "New Orleans seasoning" to everything he builds.

New Orleans also gave him the conviction that no one builds alone."I grew up in a very close-knit family, but outside of my family, I had another close-knit family—the people in the neighborhood, my mom's friends, my auntie's friends, my grandmother's grandchildren. I realized you really cannot be your best self by yourself."

That sentence has become something of a personal thesis. It shows up in PERFIK CIRCO, the community-driven fashion brand he has been building since high school. It shows up in how he prepared for FSF—watching Jakarie Whitaker, a four-time Scholar from Clark Atlanta, and telling himself, if he could do it, then I can do it. And it shows up, most visibly, in his winning case study.

*From left to right, Baby Kuan sitting in a gumbo pot; Kuan on his first day of school. Photos courtesy of Kuan Jackson*

THE CASE FOR CONTRIBUTION OVER CONSUMPTION

Kuan's concept, Build Your World, reimagines the relationship between brand and consumer as a relationship between brand and collaborator. The idea pairs KidSuper with LEGO and centers on an interactive digital portal where users submit original designs before any product moves to market. Those submissions shape future drops, informing what gets built and how.

"There's no checkout button—just an open creative space," he explained during the Final Four Pitch Night.

The concept came from a set of questions he asked himself before he opened a single research tab. How can I use this opportunity to learn from someone who is doing what I want to do, now or ten years from now? Who inspires me? What brand could I consider a collaborator, a colleague, a future partner? The answer was KidSuper. And the approach he built from there was characteristic: lead with value, not extraction.

"I wanted him to look at this and say, I didn't know I needed this until Kuan put it in my face."

His first instinct was a Hot Wheels collaboration, but research redirected him—KidSuper had recently done a high-profile car campaign, and Kuan knew the idea would land flat. He pivoted to LEGO, a brand KidSuper hadn't touched that sat in complete philosophical alignment with the founder's creative range. From there, the case study built itself in fragments: a note on page 17 of his journal, another on page 39, another on page 100. When it came time to compile, the thinking was already there.

What separates Build Your World from a typical collaboration pitch is its premise. Most brand partnerships run on hype. Kuan's argument is that hype without substance doesn't hold. "Instead of putting hype as the number one goal and trying to get people to contribute with just their dollars, give the consumer a chance to contribute first. Through that contribution, they start to build your hype. It's not just artificial hype you get on TikTok. It's hype of substance."

The model is participatory, but the insight is philosophical. People protect what they help build.

*Kuan’s Build Your World 2026 case study. Graphic courtesy of Kuan Jackson*

MEETING KIDSUPER

The first time they met, Kuan gave KidSuper, aka Colm Dillane, what he calls a "homie dap" and offered something closer to gratitude than a pitch. "I told him, I don't know if you understand how much of an impact you have on people. Not the people close to you, but people in the world who you don't know exist. I just wanted to give him his flowers."

By the night of the gala, the dynamic had evolved. They hugged, they took the now-iconic photo mid-jump, and somewhere in the middle of it all, Kuan picked him up off the ground. "I told him, bro, you're my long-lost cousin. We just clicked."

*Kid Super and Kuan at FSF LIVE 2026. Photos courtesy of Gabe Suazo*

WHAT AUTHENTICITY LOOKS LIKE

Ask Kuan about the future of fashion, and the answer is about people.

"Artificial intelligence is nearly perfect. Technology these days is nearly perfect. But if you can show imperfection, be transparent, and find ways to connect—that's how you build community." His view is that realness is the competitive advantage. In a landscape of endless content and algorithmically-generated everything, the humans who show up as humans are the ones audiences will choose to follow.

He applies the same logic to mentorship, which he now thinks of as a balance rather than a title. "It's a balance between being a mentor and being a student. If something is for you, it will continue to find you until you accept it. In New Orleans, I was expected to be a statistic, but I'm here as the Chairman’s Award winner, held in the highest regard, representing this program. So yes, I can mentor people. I've already started. But I also don't have it all figured out, and I don't pretend to."

*Kuan (second from left) celebrating FSF LIVE 2026 with fellow Scholars in Times Square. Photo courtesy of Kuan Jackson*

PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR THE CLASS OF 2027

Asked what he would tell the next class of Scholars, Kuan offered four principles, unprompted and in order:

Find what makes you you, and lean into it until you can't no more. "This could be where you're from, your story, your philosophy, your personality. But whatever it is, understand it's your edge. Don't dilute yourself trying to fit in."

Authenticity cuts through the noise. "We live in a world of endless content, endless algorithms, and AI-generated everything. Humans naturally connect to other humans. Your realness is your competitive advantage."

Seek out discomfort. "True growth happens the most when you're uncomfortable. Not at the finish line, not the starting line. The in-between."

Get super clear on your dream, and document it fast. "Figure out what gives you energy and what drains it. Then find somebody who's already done what you want to do, and find a way to learn from them."

He also offered a practical tool. Kuan studied more than 200 past FSF case studies before writing his own, mapping winners by discipline, identifying why business strategy and merchandising tended to dominate, and asking how he could bring those principles into a marketing case study. "Understand that you don't have to start from a blank white screen. Start from somebody else's work, but make it yours."

*From left to right, PERFIK CIRCO BETTER TOGETHER REAWAKEN // 2024 Campaign; PERFIK CIRCO THE PLAY HOUSE // 2024. Photos courtesy of Kuan Jackson*

WHAT'S NEXT

Kuan is currently wrapping a semester abroad in Paris—an experience he describes as a bridge he built for himself when college first began. "I told myself I'd find a way to see the world. I didn't know how or when, but I knew. Being resourceful and intentional can take you further than you can see."

Back at PERFIK CIRCO, he is working on his Spring-Summer 2027 collection, three capsule drops scheduled ahead of it, and—in the move that tells you the most about how he operates—a full pause on new orders until he fulfills the 243 already in his queue. "Integrity," he says. He is also continuing to apply to other scholarship programs, including one design-focused opportunity outside his usual lane, on the principle that undergraduate access is finite and should be used.

There is one more thing he wanted to share, something he had already told Peter Arnold directly. His ambition for what this award means is not small.

"I want to be the best Chairman’s Award winner to ever walk across the stage. I want to continue to set the bar, to set the tone, to show the next generation standing on my shoulders what is possible. Because the substance that has already been created simply from me winning this—in consideration of where I come from—everything from here is just an extra lap around the track. I've already won. But I'm going to keep taking those extra laps to show you the sky is not the limit. It is only the beginning."

He has one more line, the one he returns to at the close of every major moment. It's the line he ended his acceptance speech with. It's the phrase his community repeats back to him. For Kuan, it's the thesis, the brand, and the full PERFIK CIRCO, the perfect circle, of why any of this matters.

Together we win.