For entrepreneur, the sky’s the limit

Tai Shaw, Vietnam

Owner of CNY Uniforms Plus, Syracuse

By Mary Beth Roach

“All you need is determination and time and persistence and dedication and the will to do and have the heart.”

These are the qualities that Tai Shaw believes one needs to succeed and there is no doubt that this Vietnamese immigrant embodies those assets.

Coming to this country as a 10-year-old, Shaw had escaped his homeland with his aunt; spent a year in a refugee camp in Thailand by himself, having become separated from his aunt, and then arrived in the United States where he was fostered and then adopted by the Shaw family from Lockport.

He came to Syracuse in 1996. He began in real estate in Syracuse in 2000 and was especially focused on helping fellow Vietnamese refugees find homes. In recalling those years, he said, “I’m helping my people own a part of America.”

In 2009, when the real estate bubble burst, Shaw had to pivot. He bought the CNY Uniforms Plus business, then situated on Erie Boulevard East and in 2010, moved it to the former DeJulio’s store at 664 Burnet Ave., closer to downtown Syracuse and the city’s hospitals, whose staffs are many of his customers. The move also gave him the opportunity to be of more service, he said.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he feared that he was done, he said. But he prevailed. He reached out to the community of new Americans in town and hired those who weren’t working to make masks for his shop. They would sew the items in their homes and then Shaw would make them available at his store. At one point, he estimated he had tens of thousands of masks for sale.

Once the pandemic had subsided, he returned to selling uniforms to medical personnel, as well as chefs and others.

But the uniform shop is only one endeavor Shaw has going on in the building he rents. On Sunday afternoons, families can come to the parking lot to get food and personal hygiene items as part of his CNY Blessing Box Food Pantry. Shaw and a team of volunteers have sorted and stocked hundreds of items on shelves in a room off the main shop.

Most recently, Shaw has converted the upstairs to a center that he hopes the community will use as a meeting place. He also is hosting a dance studio there.

But Shaw’s impact extends into the community and beyond. Over the years, he has strived to help Vietnamese refugees and new Americans in the Syracuse area. On several walls in the store, there are numerous plaques acknowledging his community services efforts.

More recently, following talks with the New York State Fair, he was able to produce a series of shows that highlighted his Asian culture at the Empire Theater during the run of the 2022 edition of the fair. In 2023, he was named superintendent of the Asian Village and for the first four days of the fair, the village, located at the western end of the grounds, showcased performers and vendors from all across New York state. The Asian Village will return for the first four days of the 2024 fair.

This past February, the Lunar New Year was officially recognized in New York state as a public school holiday, an initiative that he was instrumental in bringing about. He is also chairman of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs’ Syracuse chapter.

Shaw is not about to slow down. One of his future goals is to begin an Asian American Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce.

When Shaw first came to this country he believed, “The sky’s the limit.” Decades later, he still sees no limit.

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