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Competing with Ralph Lauren: A Streetwear Pioneer's Strategy | Karl Kani DSH #978
00:27:04
Competing with Ralph Lauren? 👀 Karl Kani, the Godfather of Streetwear, reveals his game-changing strategy! From dressing Tupac to revolutionizing baggy jeans, Kani's journey is packed with insider secrets 🔥 Learn how he built a global empire, faced
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- [00:01]
A
Why'd you do that? Honestly, you know, because they're competitors.
- [00:03]
B
I don't look at them as competitors, because you know what? They weren't my competitors. When I started, my competitors was Tommy Hilfinger, Ralph Lauren. Those are the brands we have to convince that, hey, here's an alternative to that brand to wear. Yeah. After they came out, Lump sum us together and say we're competitors. But that's not keeping your eye on the prize. You keep your eye on. The prize is staying where the big money's at.
- [00:26]
A
All right, guys, Godfather of streetwear here today. We got Carl. Thanks for coming on, man.
- [00:30]
B
Thank you. Glad to be here.
- [00:31]
A
What a journey you've been on since 1989 in this space.
- [00:34]
B
That's right. Yeah.
- [00:35]
A
The last 30 years. That's impressive, man. Let's walk through it. Back in 89, you were kind of the one of the first people getting into this.
- [00:42]
B
Yeah. What originated streetwear? Fashion. You know, Grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. started making clothes for myself, and people liked it. We found a market. We saw that hip hop needed a clothing designer to represent the culture, and we were there for that. So we kind of made our stance right there.
- [00:57]
A
And who were your inspirations back then? Or were you kind of the first one doing this?
- [01:00]
B
No, we were the first ones doing it. We didn't have any inspiration before to do this. You know, I'm saying there's nobody came before us. There's no other brand that could say they started streetwear before Carl Kanai. It's not factual, because we were trying to figure things out on our own and just hustling, taking our stuff to different stores, trying to just, you know, make it how we can and get the brand out there.
- [01:16]
A
That's pretty crazy. So you had the foresight to see this industry exploding then?
- [01:20]
B
Yeah. Well, it was more or less like growing up, we didn't really find the type of clothing that we wanted to wear. Me and my friends were buying Levi's, where we're buying it four or five sizes bigger because we wanted to have more of a baggier fit.
- [01:30]
A
Yeah.
- [01:30]
B
And the waist was too big. So when I went to my father's tail, I asked him, could he make me some jeans that bigger legs make the waist fit, and when I wore that particular pair of pants, that's how the baggy jean for craze started. We finally found a way to make baggy jeans that fit someone, and that's how it kind of took off from there. No other designer had this type of fit in the stores at the time until we created that.
- [01:48]
A
Wow. So you started that baggy Jean movement.
- [01:50]
B
100.
- [01:51]
A
Holy crap.
- [01:51]
B
Started that back in 89. We got my own patterns, came to LA, hooked up with different factories, started manufacturing clothing, and just took off from there. Wow.
- [02:00]
A
Why do you think that movement took off?
- [02:01]
B
Because it wasn't there before. And a lot of you guys think with hip hop, a lot of kids were break dancing, you know, I mean, move a lot of movement in the clothing. So the loose fit clothing kind of went along with that. And two, fashion has a way of changing because jeans were skinny tight back then. And as new generations come out, they wanted a different look. So we kind of appeal to that new younger generation. Especially hip hop was all about music and fashion and street, and it didn't really have that. So we came out with the colors, the look, the fashion kind of all tied in together.
- [02:27]
A
Wow.
- [02:28]
B
Yeah.
- [02:28]
A
That's incredible, man. And what was the next big trend you caught after that baggy movement?
- [02:32]
B
Well, back in 93, we connected with a company called Skechers and became partners with Skechers, which is a footwear company. We came out with a whole line of shoes and footwear. We had 15 NBA players wearing call Can I sneakers on the basketball court. We had Derek Fisher from the Lakers, Karl Malone, John Wallace, the number one pick from the New York Knicks, was wearing our sneakers. So we kind of came out with that type of look. And we also came out with a boot which was straight up competing against Timbaland. But what we did was we put a metal plate on the side of our boot with a Carl Kanai logo on it, which kind of identified our boot to be different than Timbaland's boot. That kind of took a life of its own. But the bigger part about it was the support we got from the hip hop community. All the artists wearing our clothing that really took us to mainstream. Biggie, Tupac, Nas, Aaliyah. You know, the list goes on and on of the support that we've gotten through the hip hop culture, which really just propelled our brand to the next level.
- [03:18]
A
Right. That hip hop culture has so much influence on everybody, it's insane. I haven't seen a movement that powerful.
- [03:24]
B
No. You know, to me, it's like, you know, you take a kid from streets of Brooklyn, New York, who had a dream, and, you know, the name Kanai was a question I used to ask myself all the time. Can I be successful? Can I come from the inner city to build a brand that's going to be global and I didn't know the answer to that, but I know by call myself, can I. Every day I answer that question, yes, I can. And so today, the brand is international brand distributed in 25 foreign countries. And Tupac's one of the main reasons why brand is so big internationally, because they worship him like a God over there.
- [03:51]
A
Wow.
- [03:51]
B
And I have over 200 pictures of Tupac wearing my clothing organically. Was no paid advertisements, anything like that. He wore it because it was real and it was legit, kind of identified to each other at the same time.
- [04:01]
A
That's crazy. So he was buying it himself?
- [04:03]
B
Yeah. He didn't want free clothing. I said. He said, no, I want to. I want to buy your shit. Wow. He was actually purchasing the clothing. And so we used to do anytime he bought clothing, we just sent him some extra clothing because he didn't want the free clothing. He's like, I want to represent this brand and make it big. That was his whole goal.
- [04:16]
A
That's amazing.
- [04:16]
B
Yeah.
- [04:17]
A
I wonder how he found out about it.
- [04:18]
B
Well, just through the culture and him wearing the clothing and stuff like that. I'll tell you one funny story about Tupac, and I don't know intentionally. You know, when Tupac got shot in New York at the Quad Studio, his first article he did was in Vibe magazine. And one of the questions they asked him say, you know, how'd you feel when you got shot? He's like, man, I didn't even know I was shot. He says, well, I know I could feel the pierce. I could feel the heat of the bullet piercing my car conundrues. Wow, that's nice about branding. One on one.
- [04:46]
A
Holy crap.
- [04:47]
B
Yeah.
- [04:47]
A
So you got a little PR out of it.
- [04:49]
B
I was looking for that, but, you know, I was like, this guy is legit. Like, you know, he's. But I think he's just saying what it is.
- [04:55]
A
Yeah.
- [04:55]
B
Reality. What happened. That's probably what he really thought. Like, a bullet came to my car and I should. I'm shot, you know, saying, were you.
- [05:01]
A
Staying neutral during that west coast versus East Code feud?
- [05:04]
B
Oh, yeah. We didn't come out here for that. We're business, man. We can. To make clothing and to dress the nation, man. So, like, we definitely stay neutral. And we had so much support from all of the west coast artists, too. And east coast, like, Snoop wore my Carl Can I sweatshirt in his first video he's ever done. What's the name is the video when he turns into a. He's a Doberman pitcher. He turns into a dormant pincher at the beginning of the video, he had on a Carl Kanai hoodie on that. That. And that kind of set us off and got us all the love and support from the west coast artists. Wanting to wear Carl Connine because of Snoop.
- [05:32]
A
That's incredible. Yeah, that's smart, because, yeah, you're outfitting both of them. There's no need to get involved. It's like politics, right?
- [05:37]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [05:38]
A
I ain't.
- [05:38]
B
I ain't into that. None of that, you know, saying, stay in my lane.
- [05:41]
A
But you formed a friendship with these guys, too, down the road.
- [05:44]
B
Yeah. You know, me and Tupac became really cool. Me and Dr. Dre and Snoop became really awesome. Ice T was the first rapper that we met in la. The second day we came out here at Ice T. Wow. It kind of went from Ice T to Eazy E. And the only funny thing, one time is, like, when Easy and Dr. Dre was beefing. There's one time I bumped at Easy E at South Coast Plaza Mall. It was right before Christmas, and we must have spent two hours talking. All he was doing was complaining about Joy. He, like, he wanted somebody to talk to. Like, I guess I was a guy. He was, like, complaining about Dre, and I was sitting there talking to him the whole time. But it's really kind of cool. I just, like, kind of felt like the respect level they had for me was kind of different because I was just a young kid, just like them. But they were into music and I was into fashion, so they kind of looked at me a little bit differently than what they were doing, like, for terms of a businessman. They all respected that, that we was actually, actually competing with brands like Guess, Jabot, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, giving them alternative brand to wear. But the key to make us successful, we had to make clothing that was that much better, that was out there.
- [06:41]
A
Right.
- [06:42]
B
Not because you're young and you're cool. You think people can buy your stuff. Product got to be legit, Right? So we have to make sure we over, over succeed in the quality of our products.
- [06:50]
A
That makes sense. Yeah. Because you're up against giants that have unlimited budgets and probably hundreds of designers. Right. And you. You're the only designer at the time, so. Yeah.
- [06:58]
B
But the key was the only thing that they didn't have is they didn't have the streets behind them. You know what I'm saying? And only that, too. A lot of those clothing brands back then didn't think the hip hop was going to last, so they didn't really cater to the Hip hop artists, wow. They weren't giving hip hop artists clothing to wear. They weren't featuring them in any clothing ads back. I'm talking about like 89, 90, 91, 92. It's not until later on when they saw, man, this hip hop things are forced. And everybody now everybody wants to be affiliated with hip hop. Prior to this, no clothing brand really wanted to, because they did. First of all, they didn't know if affiliate themselves with hip hop was going to deter the original customer they had for their brand. And number two, no one thought it'd be this dominant force of what it is today.
- [07:37]
A
That's so interesting. I didn't know people thought that hip hop was a fad back then.
- [07:40]
B
Oh, absolutely. I'm talking about like 89, 90, when it first started. Ghetto stuff. People just rapping over, you know, no one paid attention to it. But it's not start. They started getting on top Billboard charts and, you know, cross over to mainstream. And then for my brand, what helped us was that hip hop started penetrating internationally now. So right now, brand is the number one streetwear brand in Europe, Germany, Switzerland, Amsterdam, Spain are some of our biggest markets for our brand.
- [08:06]
A
Wow.
- [08:06]
B
Because as there's hip hop, the fashion goes where hip hop is, I'm trying to say. And that's kind of where the trend goes. If there's music, fashion goes along with it.
- [08:14]
A
There's so much overlap there, right?
- [08:15]
B
Yeah.
- [08:15]
A
Why do you think that is?
- [08:16]
B
Because just the culture is a vibe. You know, the kids see them wearing on TV and they want to mimic what they're doing. The whole swag, different things like that. One of the toughest markets for us to break in was actually with Italy. I was just. I was just in Milan last week and I was speaking to an artist there. He told me, man, I used to get beat up back in the days wearing your clothing.
- [08:32]
A
What?
- [08:33]
B
I was like, what are you talking about? I was like, this is news to me. Tells me what he told me. He says, mad because we started. These are, you know, white kids in Italy. He's like, yeah, we started wearing baggy jeans. It wasn't acceptable for us to wear this type of clothing here. It was like, why are you guys wearing this rap clothing out here? And stuff like that. So kids fought him over that. And. But it was all. It was the rebel kids who changed the fashion game out there. And as they changed the fashion game, they became the street guys. Kids started respecting them now. They became the more influential guys in the market. And the thing too is, like, Hip hop artists, street hustlers was the number one influences back in the days before hip hop artists. They want to mimic those guys. Then when hip hop artists started making a lot of money, they became the major influence on kids on the streets. Kids wanted to be like them, rap like them, the music, the vibes. So everything just kind of came full circle.
- [09:19]
A
Interesting. So each country has its own strategy. And, you know, you can't just hit them all at the same time.
- [09:24]
B
Right.
- [09:24]
A
You got to grow by country. By country, yeah.
- [09:27]
B
For the most part, you know, because you understand it's different currencies, different languages, but the one common, one common goal with the oldest thing is hip hop music. That's the one thing that they all could sing along to and all be part of. Doesn't matter which country you're from. You can't even speak English, but you can rap belong to. These music is so influential to these kids. And back then, they didn't really have a lot of Italian hip hop artists or German hip hop artists. Now you go, there's so many different hip hop artists rapping in German, rapping in Italian language, stuff like that. So the. The culture and the business just. Just blowing up mainstream all over.
- [09:58]
A
How do the US Hip hop artists do in other countries? Do they still sell out?
- [10:02]
B
Yeah, they do, like, especially like a lot of the old school artists. They still do a lot of shows in Europe, like the Big Daddy Canes, the Keras ones in the Public Enemy. The kids still want to hear those old school rap groups. You know, one thing about Europe, that's what I love about it, is that they do their research in college. They have courses in college about hip hop culture.
- [10:22]
A
Wow.
- [10:22]
B
Yeah. In. In college out there. That's how mainstream it out. And the one thing about our brand, while we surpass every other brand who comes to Europe and try to be successful, they want to know who started this game. What's the history behind the brand? They want to read about it, get the history, get the culture about it. They want to know, what did Aaliyah wear? Oh, Aaliyah war Carl Kana on her first album cover. Wow. I love Aaliyah. This brand must be really cool. Oh, Dr. Dream. Snoop mentions Carl. Can I name in the songs? Oh, this is cool. So there's different things like that that you can't really talk about. You just got to be be about it. And without. You can't really shove it in their face. They discover it themselves for it to be really legit.
- [10:58]
A
Interesting. That's cool. So history is Big out there.
- [11:01]
B
Yeah, for sure.
- [11:02]
A
So how long did competitors start coming once you started in? 89. How many years did that take?
- [11:06]
B
Yeah, I would say probably like, it took them about, I say 94.
- [11:10]
A
Okay, so you had five years.
- [11:12]
B
Five years, yeah, it was Me and a company called Cross Colors was actually around the same time crossclose was doing streetwear also. They had a lot of financing behind them, so they would put the finance behind my brand, and we became partners together. Stayed together for about three years. Then me and Skechers, we had a great business together for a few years together, and that helped us propel us to international market as well. So today we currently have 10 flagship stores in Japan.
- [11:35]
A
Wow.
- [11:35]
B
Which is a whole nother section of the market, because Japan, their clothing is totally different than what we do in Europe. Japan is very old school. They. They have the slogan called the king of Black. They love a lot of logos and, you know, more closer fit in clothing. So Japanese market been very well to us as well, because Japanese always been fashion trendsetters in the culture as well. And they always knee deep into hip hop culture as well.
- [11:58]
A
Yeah, Japan's big on fashion, right? That's kind of where it starts and then it trickles down.
- [12:02]
B
Yeah, Japan's always been ahead of the game. You know, he's got to catch up with them too. You know what I'm saying? They always, like. They're like, very bold and very confident in the styles they do. Right. And they put the whole swag together, the cornrows, the hair, the whole look. They're able to put it together in a very unique way.
- [12:16]
A
Absolutely. So when did FUBU come into play?
- [12:18]
B
I think it came like 94. 95. Okay, 95.
- [12:21]
A
And that was a big brand, right?
- [12:23]
B
Yeah, they came out big. They came out strong. They're good thing. They got L Cool J. They said some Fat Albert collaborations and stuff like that. So they made their mark for what they were trying to do.
- [12:30]
A
Yeah, Damon's been on the show, actually. So what was your relationship with him? Was it. Was it like animosity or was it friendly?
- [12:37]
B
Not at all. I mean, I actually helped him out.
- [12:39]
A
Oh, you helped him?
- [12:40]
B
Yeah. So Damon did a post on his Instagram a couple years ago. He talked about what we did for them. So basically they were sitting in the lobby. I think he said he had $30 in his pocket. These are words in his mouth. 30 in his pocket. And he says, the legendary Carl Kanai comes by and says, hey, I know who you guys are. You the Fubu guys. I says, yeah. So I gave them tickets to the show. They came to the show. They're able to introduce. I introduced some buyers. They was able to write $300,000 in order. So he kind of gave them the blueprint to kind of get them set up into the business, and they did what they had to do to become successful. But I guess the idea of bringing them to the show opened up their eyes to see how big this thing could get. So, you know, good for them is able to take that, take it to the next level. Wow. Yeah.
- [13:19]
A
So you help them. Like, why'd you do that? Honestly, you know, because they're competitors.
- [13:24]
B
I don't look at them as competitors because you know what? They weren't my competitors when I started. My competitors was Tommy Hilfinger, Ralph Lauren, Guess, Jabot, Calvin Klein. Those are the brands kids are wearing. Those are the brands. We have to convince that, hey, here's an alternative to that brand to wear. You don't have to wear those brands and give an alternative. So we were very laser focused on who our competition was. Now, yeah, after they came out, they could all lump sump, lump sum us together and say we're competitors. But that's not keeping your eye on the prize. You keep your eye on. The prize is staying where the big money's at. Tommy Hilfinger, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karen, they control all the floor space in department stores. And those. Those are the big accounts that you had. So if they control the floor space, those. That's who you're really competing against.
- [14:06]
A
Right.
- [14:06]
B
What. What they did was they put all the urban brands kind of together in one little market in one room and say, okay, you guys, is $100,000. You got to split the open to buy here. But meanwhile, Tommy and Ralph and them get all the big money open to buy dollars. So when we start looking at ourselves with competition, we're not doing the right thing. Keep your eye on who's really the competition, who's really making all the money, who's really doing all the sales, who's really controlling all the floor space in the stores. Those are the brands for.
- [14:30]
A
Wow. I love that mindset, man. Because too many people get wrapped up with their competitors.
- [14:34]
B
That's nonsense, you know, that's silly, you know, because you can't win that way. You know, I mean, look at. Look at those brands I mentioned to you. They're still here today. They're still around today, still doing big numbers. What happened to all the urban brands were around in the 90s. They're all gone.
- [14:46]
A
They're gone, right? Yeah. Mitchell and Ness is gone.
- [14:48]
B
They're all gone. All those, you know, Fat Farm, fubu, Sean John and Nietzsche, Mecca. All those brands are not here anymore. Right. Why is that? Why is Tommy, Ralph and Calvin still here? You know, we got to stay focused on what the goals really are here.
- [15:03]
A
So as you started seeing those brands drop, what was the reason they were falling off?
- [15:06]
B
You think the market started changing? You know, I'm saying the market was shifting. You know, skinny jeans started to come out, and I think buyers wanted to change. And the other thing I realized, too, is that in this business, you know, we had a great run in the United States from, you know, 89 to, like, 2003. You kind of go through a couple generations. When I say that is you kind of get a kid going to junior high school through high school. A kid will probably wear the same brand from junior high school to high school. After high school, kids like, they don't be like high school. They change their brand clothing anymore. So new generation comes in. You always got to capture a new, young generation coming through. But your clothing style has to be on point to what they want at the time. If you don't. If you don't change quick enough, they're gonna move on to something else.
- [15:48]
A
Right.
- [15:48]
B
So when the skinny jeans trades came out, no one shifted quick enough. You know, skinny jeans. And what happened was when Lil Wayne started wearing skinny jeans, he was at top of his career. He made every kid who wanted to wear skinny finally say, yes, I could wear skin. I could be cool. Wearing skinny jeans. Before you were skinny, people look at you. You just a skateboarder. Yeah. So Lil Wayne made it cool. So when that fashion trend came in, everyone started shifting to newer brands who came out with that look. But the key to us, why we didn't really get hurt so much then is because we already established ourselves internationally as the OG So we kind of could set the tone how we wanted to do things. And it's an international market smart because.
- [16:24]
A
Everyone had their eggs in the US and then when the market changed, they couldn't adapt quick enough, right?
- [16:28]
B
Yeah, pretty much.
- [16:29]
A
Wow. So when did it go to skinny jeans? What year was that?
- [16:32]
B
Around, I think I was like.
- [16:35]
A
2010.
- [16:36]
B
2010, something like that.
- [16:37]
A
Wow.
- [16:38]
B
This one, Luda Wayne is the top of his height of his career, and he came out with a different vibe, and the market started shifting. And when department store says get out, they mean get out. They kick everybody out. Damn, everybody. Just all the brands, they stopped giving open to Buy dollars and you had to move on to something else. And back then because there was no online shopping, you needed those stores to run your, to control your business. Right. You couldn't, you didn't have direct to consumers.
- [17:03]
A
Yeah, no E commerce.
- [17:04]
B
No E commerce back then. So that kind of changed the game as well. So you have to find other means of really getting your brand out there. And this is a very expensive business to be successful. And so if you're not generating business and you have all these expensive marketing, advertising and magic shows, you're not going to be able to win in this business and be profitable.
- [17:21]
A
Right. Because you got money tied in inventory, right?
- [17:23]
B
Absolutely.
- [17:23]
A
Tons of it.
- [17:24]
B
Yeah, for sure.
- [17:25]
A
Damn. Do you see the market shifting from retail space towards something else in the future?
- [17:29]
B
I definitely see online shopping is going to still be huge right now. I think pop ups is going to be really good. Like you do go to certain cities, you do a pop up over a weekend and then you move out. And kids, people always want what they can get. I've noticed people with successful e commerce sites, they do websites where it's not available every day. They may say, look, sites only be open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So people kind of lined up waiting to get these products. Some are too to when your product is too accessible becomes not as important and not as exclusive may want it to be.
- [18:01]
A
Right.
- [18:01]
B
Yeah.
- [18:02]
A
How do you feel about modern hip hop now?
- [18:04]
B
I think it's cool. I think it's a shift, you know, I think you know everything's about change and I feel like once you get to the point where you complain about where music is, you may be a little too old because it's gonna go where it's going no matter whether you like it or not. You know what I'm saying? I remember like when our parents when he was growing up, it's like don't wear your clothes so baggy, pull up your pants. What is this hip hop music you listen to? We didn't care what they said, we did it even more right. So to me it's like it's gonna change no matter what. So you better accept it and feel it. Because hip hop still be the number one influential music category I think for youth forever. I don't can't see that changing.
- [18:39]
A
Yeah, it's big now. They're collabing with country too. So it's a new, new era. I never saw that collab before.
- [18:45]
B
Yeah, I think it's just like when Run DMC did their thing with Walk this Way did that mix with rock and roll? That was a cool collab right there. No one saw that coming.
- [18:56]
A
Right.
- [18:56]
B
It's always open to new interpretation because the new young generation, they don't see any color. So I feel like music is kind of the same way right now.
- [19:03]
A
Yeah. How quickly are the trends changing? These social media? I'm sure it's every three months now, right?
- [19:08]
B
Oh, it's like daily. I mean, daily. And kids are so unique nowadays, and they're so open to fashion right now. And we're in different types of looks and merchandise and things together. And today there's so many different options in terms of branding and clothing. I mean, everyone has a clothing line, and some people are doing really good jobs at it. You know what I'm saying? So, to me, to be successful in this business, what you have to do is establish your basics. You know, I mean, you got to establish basics. With the basic, you could transcend time. Like Calvin Klein Levi's has a. Basically, they've been doing the same gene since 1919.
- [19:41]
A
Right, right.
- [19:42]
B
And it's still working. Now, Calvin Klein's been doing the same boxer since forever, and it's still working. It's easier said than done establishing the basic. But for us, our base has always been the Carl can I Baggy jeans have been our basics and stuff like that. And the car can I. Oversized T shirts been our basics. Certain things need to be a staple in your brand to transcend moments, transcend time.
- [20:01]
A
So you need that staple product to back you, Right?
- [20:03]
B
Yeah. Because, you know, have a product where you could actually stock and be replenishing stores to be profitable. If you're just in the business selling fashion, you're not going to hit every time on fashion. Something could sell, something cannot. You have a couple of bad seasons, you're gonna be out of business.
- [20:17]
A
Yeah. What did you think of Kanye? What he pulled off with Easy? That was incredible.
- [20:20]
B
No, Kanye's a man. I mean, you know, he's crazy, but, you know, he knows how to market clothing. He's a great designer. Stuff is great muted colors. He had a synergy for what he wanted to do. The same thing with Skims with Kim Kardashian. She kind of had a similar vibe. Kept it clean, kept it basic, and that's why that brand is successful today. Great, great influencer marketing on both their parts that do stuff. So, you know, they get the advantage because they. They could say something today and the whole press is talking about it tomorrow.
- [20:48]
A
Right.
- [20:48]
B
Everyone has that power to do that.
- [20:50]
A
Yeah. But with that power. That's how they built a billion dollar brand in two years, three years.
- [20:54]
B
Exactly.
- [20:55]
A
Crazy.
- [20:55]
B
Yeah.
- [20:56]
A
Yeah. But you were old school. You didn't have that option back in the day.
- [20:58]
B
No, we, we, we, we, we had the old Detroit hardcore go out there and work and go hustle hard. You know, there's no other choice. You know, we didn't have the, the flexibility to have in the social medias and stuff like that. So what we had was a car. You put your stuff in the backseat of the car. We used to go to the nightclubs, go to the barbershops, go to where you need to go and hustle your brand.
- [21:18]
A
Wow.
- [21:18]
B
That's what we did. I remember we used to go to the magic show in Vegas, which is the big clothing convention show, and it was just my company and cross colors there being in terms of the only streetwear companies there. And I remember Calvin and them didn't even want us next to their booth. So because of that magic built a whole urban section for the magic show. And that's what they put all the urban brands together in one section in the magic show because they didn't want to not take the dollars we were giving them, but they didn't want to piss off the original brands that were there either. So they found a way to kind of try to keep everybody happy. Wow.
- [21:47]
A
Calvin didn't want you. Did that piss you off?
- [21:49]
B
No, we loved it.
- [21:50]
A
Oh, you loved it.
- [21:50]
B
That means we're doing something right, Right? It means that we were creating an energy they didn't like. You got to disrupt the system to be successful.
- [21:57]
A
Right?
- [21:58]
B
Talking about you, you're doing something. Once we had the accounts lined up for our clothing, we know we're doing something. Once we saw on mtv, they started blurring out our logos. You know, we're the ones, the reason, we're the reasons why MTV started blurring out logos, really, because we were so big. MTV wanted us to run commercials on mtv, right? We're like, why do we need to run commercials? They're wearing our stuff through the whole video for free, right?
- [22:19]
A
Yeah.
- [22:20]
B
Guys are wearing our stuff and our logos. We had Redman, we had, you know, Jay Z, we have Puff, you know, wearing our stuff. So, like, when they were in the videos, we didn't have to advertise. MTV is like, all right, cool. They started blurring anyone wearing big logos. And so people don't want to blur fall them on the, on the screen. So they would say, okay, either wear a swole logo or start running some commercials.
- [22:39]
A
Damn.
- [22:40]
B
Yeah. That was.
- [22:40]
A
Well, you're here now, and I don't know if MTV is. Things worked out, man.
- [22:44]
B
Exactly.
- [22:45]
A
Now, for real, though, people don't know how hard it is to make it as long as you have.
- [22:48]
B
Yeah.
- [22:49]
A
Like, I think 95% of businesses fail within five years.
- [22:52]
B
Yeah. I think our hustle is a little bit different than everybody else, man, because, you know, to me, it's like, if you can't see it, you can't be it. We wake up every day with a goal and a focus of where we want to be in life and where we want to be as a company and a business. A lot of people, like, transcendent to other businesses. We stuck strictly with clothing and fashion, and, like, we didn't want to make the mistakes that we did here in the United States on the international market. So we made sure we went out there. Any mistake we made here. We covered the grounds there. We have different partners in each country. We have different partners in Spain, in Germany, when we have international meetings, we have a booth there with headphones. So when they're talking, we have live time translators telling people what we're saying to them. Because we have people from different foreign countries. They don't. They all don't speak English.
- [23:34]
A
Wow.
- [23:34]
B
But they understand their market, so it's really an amazing thing. Our partners in Europe is a company called Snipes. They're the number one streetwear retailer in Europe. They have over 1600 stores. They just open up 400 stores here in the United States.
- [23:45]
A
Holy crap.
- [23:46]
B
They bought out Jimmy Jazz for 900 million. They bought out Downtown Locker Room. They're. They're in Baltimore, Philly, New York, D.C. and those are the partners that we have for our brand because they understand street Red Market, and they understand our brand. And the owner, his love for Tupac was really what brought us together.
- [24:05]
A
So love it, man. It's crazy how he lives on to this day.
- [24:08]
B
Absolutely.
- [24:09]
A
Like, it's unreal.
- [24:10]
B
He's legendary, for sure.
- [24:11]
A
Yeah, he's a legend. You've. I went through your deck. You've done some awesome collabs. So you did one with Stranger Things.
- [24:16]
B
Yeah. So that one was really cool. That kind of came out of nowhere. So they contacted us in Europe, and they said, hey, you know, we see the car. Can I. Brands big in the streets here. We think it'd be cool to kind of get the youth into Stranger Things. So we did a whole video. We did like a. We did like, a haunted house thing with a fashion show in there with them. It was the Number one show on Netflix, so the timing was great, and the collection did really well together. So looking forward to possibly doing something with them for next season.
- [24:39]
A
Nice. Because that's a whole different market than what you're used to. Stranger Things, right?
- [24:42]
B
Yeah. Because to me, you have to diversify who your market is in this business. You can't stay to one market. You got to grow. Because people love to see different things and get excited when they see a brand coming outside their comfort zone and doing extraordinary things, like doing collabs with Stranger Things unexpected for Clark and I. So that's why I think it translated very well for us.
- [25:00]
A
Right. Did you get any hate from your audience for doing that?
- [25:02]
B
No, not really. No. I think people thought it was cool. They thought it was different. You know, everyone loves the show, so I thought it was kind of different. And, you know, I don't look at things like that. I think, like, if anybody hates, you know, that's the problem that they have. We're going to always do things. Going to push the brand forward and push the culture forward and open up new doors, new ideas on how to expand your brand.
- [25:19]
A
Right?
- [25:19]
B
Yeah.
- [25:20]
A
Certain companies start losing touch with their customers, I think.
- [25:23]
B
Absolutely. When you're not real, you do, you.
- [25:25]
A
Know what I'm saying?
- [25:26]
B
Like, I think to be real, you got to reveal to the culture, be real to the music, and understand who you are as a brand and on your style and too also represents who you are. Like, there's certain trends we just can't jump on. It's not who. That's not who we are. But, you know, we got to try to set the trends. Opposed to trying to follow what trends are.
- [25:41]
A
Right. Damn. That's. That's tough to do, though, right, to set them.
- [25:45]
B
Yeah. But, you know, after you've been doing this a while, you kind of find that certain things have a way of coming back around again. Because we've been doing it for so long, we see, okay, this is in. This is trending now. If you see that baggies in now. But we know this time baggy is not going to dominate the way it was before because there's some skinny's been in so long. Some people don't want to give up their skinnies.
- [26:03]
A
Right.
- [26:03]
B
So you got to find a good balance between that and making sure that you don't go too, too baggy. People don't want to mess with you anymore. This is like a fine line of how you do this.
- [26:10]
A
Yeah, yeah. So baggies are back right now.
- [26:12]
B
Bag is a backing.
- [26:13]
A
Okay.
- [26:13]
B
Bag is a bag. And look at hip hop. Everyone's like, they're not. They're not as skinny as they were before.
- [26:17]
A
Yeah, good point. Yeah. There is a trend that way. Just everyone's getting bigger, I think. Not just people in hip hop. That's right, dude. What's next for you?
- [26:26]
B
Want to take over the world, man? Like, you know, I tell people, like, if I find out there's life on Mars, we're gonna open up shopping mall.
- [26:32]
A
I love that.
- [26:33]
B
You know what I'm saying? It's like we just want to take over and continue to build a legacy for the brand and like, never give up and just keep setting the tone for what it is. Like to me, it's like with a title like the godfather of urban fashion, the originated street wear. You better act like it. You better act like it because you can't have a title like that and don't set the tone.
- [26:50]
A
Powerful. Can't wait to see where you take it, man. We'll link the site below. Thanks so much for coming on. It was an honor.
- [26:55]
B
I salute. Thank you.
- [26:55]
A
Yup. Thanks for watching, guys. Check them out below. See you next time.