My Testimony

Hi friends, welcome! My name is Nelly, and I'm so happy you're here. Before you explore the brand, I want you to know the story behind it — because /SĒK/ Apparel didn't start with a business plan. It started with God's plan.

For starters, I knew of Jesus as a child, but I never truly followed Him until adulthood. Faith was present in my home growing up. We had intimate Bible studies and went to church, but over time, it became less and less of a priority.

I played basketball most of my life and was fortunate enough to receive a full scholarship to UC Merced. But as time passed, my focus started shifting. I was boy crazy. I met one boy in particular who consumed all of my thoughts and energy. It didn't help that he was my brother's best friend. Despite concerns from my family, we started dating March of 2012. Looking back, it was definitely an obsession. He rewired the way I thought about everything. Late nights on the phone turned into motel stays. Every other weekend, without fail, he'd drive 7 hours to my college just to see me.

I would soon find out this relationship came with a price I wasn't ready for. My focus was gone. I lived for the next weekend, the next phone call, the next moment I'd see him. Everything else, including my education, fell apart. I stopped going to class. My coach had to personally escort me just to make sure I showed up. My GPA was a disaster — D's and F's across the board. He fought hard to keep me on the team, but I had already mentally checked out. Before I knew it, I was kicked out of school, having missed my chance to appeal, and left with a debt I'd spend years paying off. I had to start somewhere, so I took a job as a server at a retirement home.

I stayed at the retirement home for about five years before making the switch to serving at a well known casino. The tips were good, something I definitely wasn't used to. But along with the money came a new environment, new coworkers, and new temptations. Some of those relationships were genuine. Others were anything but. It was here that I became involved in an adulterous relationship — a decision I'm not proud of, but one that was very much a reflection of where I was spiritually.

By this point, my boyfriend and I had been together for a while. The relationship was under pressure from every direction. I wanted more — commitment, a future, a next step. But my family didn't approve of him, and without their blessing, moving in together or getting married felt impossible. We were fighting every single day. His suspicions about my faithfulness were growing, and so was his doubt about whether I truly loved him. He could sense that something was off. Looking back, I can't blame him. I was deep in a cycle of lust, fornication, anger, unforgiveness, and depression that I didn't even fully recognize. I was hurting, and I was hurting everyone around me. I didn't know how to get out, or the One who could pull me out.

Things had gotten to a point where my boyfriend and I both needed space, so we decided to go on a break. What started as a break slowly became a breakup. After 11 years together, it was over and I didn't handle it well. It felt like losing a part of myself. I was heartbroken in a way I wasn't prepared for. So I leaned into the attention of male coworkers and numbed the pain with alcohol. I even remember having a random conversation about religion at work around this time. One of the girls looked me dead in the eye and told me I wasn't a Christian. And honestly? She wasn't wrong. It offended me in the moment, but convicted me long after. Then COVID hit, and just like that, we were all laid off. I was left with nothing but time, silence, and the weight of everything I had been running from.

But God had a plan.

What felt like rock bottom turned out to be exactly where God wanted me. I was fully aware that everything that had brought me to this point was my own doing. The choices, the cycles, the pain I caused myself and others. I was so tired of carrying the weight of it all. So with no one left to turn to, I turned to God. One night, in the quiet of my bedroom, I gave my life to Jesus. I sobbed uncontrollably for hours. And it was exactly what I needed. A warmth and peace came over me and I instantly knew it was Him. I began to realize that He had isolated me for a reason. The layoff, the loneliness, the silence — it was all intentional. I had cut ties with everyone, and in that stillness, I started studying the Word. For the first time in my life, I was seeking Him for real.

But I have to be honest — my ex and I weren't fully done. We still saw each other from time to time, and those visits didn't always honor what I was trying to build with God. It was a constant battle with my flesh. The conviction to stop being intimate with one another was so strong, I decided to put an end to it once and for all. He agreed, but it definitely created tension between us.

Still unemployed and with time on my hands, I poured myself into something I had always been passionate about — building a brand for tall women. As a 6'2 woman myself, I knew that struggle firsthand. But after months of work, God began to redirect my heart toward something different. I felt a growing call to build a Christian clothing brand instead. I hadn't told anyone and prayed on it. During this time, I was back with my ex. One day, as we were talking and bouncing ideas around, he brought it up on his own — a Christian clothing brand. The exact same vision, completely unprompted. I believed it was the confirmation I needed. So we got to work.

Those days of building the brand together were some of the happiest of my life, not just because of what we were creating, but because of who we were becoming. We were building a relationship rooted in God for the first time. Weekly Bible studies replaced old habits. We were seeking the Lord together, praying together, and it felt like everything was finally falling into place. My parents had accepted him. Marriage felt close. Everything looked good on the surface. I'd also like to mention that his sister had been a constant voice of encouragement, always pointing me back to the Lord no matter what my circumstances looked like. It was that spirit of seeking that inspired the name. We called it /SĒK/, the pronunciation spelling of the word "seek." Because that's what this entire journey had been about: seeking Him together, even when it was hard.

But something was shifting beneath it all. My boyfriend had fallen into a deep depression, and I didn't fully understand the weight of what he was carrying. I believed it was spiritual warfare — that the enemy was threatened by what we were building for God. But it was much more complex than that. Things we hadn't fully addressed — other partners, a smoking addiction, witchcraft, and even hypnotism. When we finally came clean about all of it, it hit me like a truck. The weight of it all was almost too much to process. I fell into a depression of my own. I didn't eat for three full days. 

We went to our church and sought counseling. One of the worship leaders prayed over me, and she began praying over things I had never told her, things she couldn't have known. As I sat there in tears, she told me we should separate. It wasn't the first time we'd heard those words. Family members had said it. Friends had said it. This time, I knew God was trying to get my attention. Even in that darkness, I kept seeking the Lord. I didn't have the strength to do much else, but I could still pray. God was the only thing holding me together.

And so we separated once again. I've since come to understand that my boyfriend was carrying something much heavier than I realized during that season — but that is his testimony to tell.

I'll spare you the details of the cycles that followed — the talking, the not talking, the back and forth. What I will tell you is where we are now. 

By the grace of God, we are married. After 14 years of ups and downs, of seeking and stumbling, of breaking and being put back together — we made it. We were just kids when we started dating. I was only 18 years old, and now here we are in our 30s, looking back at a journey that only God could have authored. Romans 8:28 has never felt more real. All things really do work together for good. God was and is still faithful through every single chapter.

/SĒK/ Apparel is the fruit of all of it. It's not just a clothing brand — it's a living testimony of what it looks like to seek the Lord when it's hard, when it costs you something, and when the path forward isn't clear. We built this brand as a reflection of that journey, and our prayer is that it points every person who encounters it back to Him. That's been our story from the beginning. And we pray it becomes an encouragement to yours.