Speaker 1: Afro Tech is back in Austin, Texas this November is
Speaker 1: the place for all things black, tech and Web three.
Speaker 1: The in person afro Tech Conference experience is bridging the
Speaker 1: worlds of afro technologists, innovators, investors, corporations, musicians, and everyone
Speaker 1: in between. So pull up, grab your crew, and grab
Speaker 1: your tickets and join us at the largest black professional
Speaker 1: conference of the gear. This experienced the afro Tech Dot
Speaker 1: Count to learn more. Our travels continue this past week
Speaker 1: in Seattle with Amazon for Amazon Accelerating the Black Business Accelerator,
Speaker 1: where I got a chance to finally meet all of
Speaker 1: my mentees in person. Each of them are black founders
Speaker 1: working to make their dreams of reality. If you want
Speaker 1: to check out who they are my mentees that is,
Speaker 1: check out my post on I g um at Will
Speaker 1: Lucas on I g and you can see my peoples.
Speaker 1: This week, I'm in l A for afro Tech Executive
Speaker 1: l A. Um. Just I'm just about lost count of
Speaker 1: all the afro Tech Executive events. Let's see, we kicked
Speaker 1: it off in l A. They went to Miami, hopped
Speaker 1: over to Brooklyn, d C. A couple of months ago,
Speaker 1: and now we're back in l a so I guess
Speaker 1: that makes this number five and especial number five. It
Speaker 1: is to be back in the City of Angels. And
Speaker 1: with all this road talk, I'm digging into the archives
Speaker 1: for a special episode which features Beatmon Williams, and he
Speaker 1: knows a lot more about fashion and upcoming designers than most.
Speaker 1: On this episode, we discussed podcasting and media, leveraging your
Speaker 1: brand for value in parallel verticals, and that was a lot.
Speaker 1: It'll make sense when you get into the episode, and
Speaker 1: how to keep your finger on the pulse of what's
Speaker 1: hot so you can spire trends and capitalized early. It's
Speaker 1: black teching money, Let's get into it. Afro Tech teen Oakland, California.
Speaker 1: Al finds out Morris, who's at the time of product
Speaker 1: designer at Corsera, the world's leading online education The platform
Speaker 1: isn't an afrotech lounge, and he drops rough with three
Speaker 1: keys about making it. As a designer for tech companies,
Speaker 1: we work on web apps, websites. It's interesting because a
Speaker 1: product designer is responsible for all the stages of developing
Speaker 1: a product, where some people might think of a visual
Speaker 1: designer as what it looks like or ux designer as
Speaker 1: what it feels like a product designer is actually umbrella
Speaker 1: of all of the stages of developing a product. So
Speaker 1: we do strategy, we do discovery, we do brainstorming, we
Speaker 1: do prototyping, we do wire framing and information architecture and
Speaker 1: visual design as well as we have a close relationship
Speaker 1: with engineering, usually because that's who ends up developing the
Speaker 1: actual product. I think the biggest myth that I hear
Speaker 1: is you have to be an engineering to be in tech,
Speaker 1: And I understand why people think that, but that's why
Speaker 1: I also said the biggest myth that I hear tech
Speaker 1: has so tech is so big, there's so many layers
Speaker 1: that engineering is honestly just one slice of the pot.
Speaker 1: That's who responsible for building a product. But you got
Speaker 1: the marketing team, you got the advertising team, you got
Speaker 1: ux writers, you got conscious strategist, You've got designers, you
Speaker 1: got data scientists, you got product managers, project managers, design leads.
Speaker 1: There's so many different lanes in tech that if more
Speaker 1: people knew that there was other positions besides for engineering
Speaker 1: and tech, I think you would see a lot more
Speaker 1: people of color in text. What skills are necessary to
Speaker 1: become a product designer in twenty. I would say you
Speaker 1: definitely need to know a design to app, for example,
Speaker 1: a sketch or a figma. You definitely need to know
Speaker 1: about data as far as quantitative versus qualitative. You definitely
Speaker 1: need to understand apps. And I would tell everybody something
Speaker 1: that a skill that they can learn on their own
Speaker 1: is to take out their phone and play with some
Speaker 1: of the apps that's on their phone and judge the app,
Speaker 1: what you like about the app, what you don't like
Speaker 1: about the app, And after you do that little app
Speaker 1: review with yourself, see what part of that process stood
Speaker 1: out to you. And that's a laye that you might
Speaker 1: be able to follow into product design because that's what
Speaker 1: you're interested in. So there's a lot of design tools
Speaker 1: you can learn. There's a lot of books and methodologies
Speaker 1: you can read, but there's a lot of social media
Speaker 1: places you can go to to get inspiration and follow
Speaker 1: leaders in the industry. So I would say start with
Speaker 1: a design tool, but also a lot of research. Do
Speaker 1: you need to go to a four year school to
Speaker 1: become a designer? Which is pretty much saying do I
Speaker 1: need a degree to become a designer? No, I don't
Speaker 1: think there's a threshold of when somebody can actually not
Speaker 1: be called the designer, you know what I mean, Or
Speaker 1: you don't become a designer once you get a degree.
Speaker 1: You would go to college for design if there was
Speaker 1: something super specific that you wanted to study. Can you
Speaker 1: go to a boot camp? Yes, But I also think
Speaker 1: you can become a self taught designer like I did.
Speaker 1: I just spent every second that I could learning this software.
Speaker 1: And as I did that, I grew and I understand
Speaker 1: and I learned more about becoming a designer and what
Speaker 1: it takes to be a designer. So I'm all for
Speaker 1: four year colleges, but I'm also for allline education. I
Speaker 1: worked at an allline ad company, CorCE Era. But I
Speaker 1: also believe in somebody spending the time to use the
Speaker 1: resources that's available through social media or medium or Twitter
Speaker 1: or LinkedIn. So no, I do not think you need
Speaker 1: to go to college to become a designer, and I
Speaker 1: don't think you'll be a better designer if you go
Speaker 1: to college. I think it's about preference and where you
Speaker 1: want to go, because certain positions may require a degree,
Speaker 1: and if they require that degree, then you should probably
Speaker 1: get it. But I don't think the degree will make
Speaker 1: you the designer. That's what I'm saying. You gotta feel
Speaker 1: the not inside that you're a designer and you gotta
Speaker 1: show her through the work and the product actually produce.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Lucas and this is Black Tech Dream Money.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna introduce you to some of the biggest names,
Speaker 1: some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas. If you're
Speaker 1: black in building, simply using textis to kill your back.
Speaker 1: This podcast is for you. Pete mc williams is a
Speaker 1: tenure creative industry leader and executive and is currently host
Speaker 1: of Claim Up, a career discovery podcast to help black
Speaker 1: and brown creators discover their dream careers, and it's rated
Speaker 1: number one in iTunes. He was also previously in global
Speaker 1: entertainment marketing at Nike and global footwear product marketing for
Speaker 1: Yeasy at Adidas, and he's held other creative roles at
Speaker 1: global brands. This is a strong bridge between technology and
Speaker 1: creative industries, where to be through how creative work is distributed,
Speaker 1: the opportunity to collaborate with other creatives, or how creatives
Speaker 1: actually create. Maybe it's a hot new app as being
Speaker 1: a how has technology opened up the floodgates on how
Speaker 1: creators can monetize their work in intellectual property. Oh my
Speaker 1: goodness has changed everything, right if you think about it,
Speaker 1: we got to go go back just a time bit
Speaker 1: before you could monetize whatever you were doing, right, And
Speaker 1: so I think back to the time of like when
Speaker 1: we think about this creator kind of community that's happening
Speaker 1: in the midst of of tech creator economy. There are
Speaker 1: times you're talking like two thousands eleven, two thousands and
Speaker 1: tens specifically where you know, Facebook was maturing, Instagrams coming online,
Speaker 1: Twitter's pretty mature, and some of these other things starting
Speaker 1: to pop up. And at the time people had like
Speaker 1: these these big followings, but there was no way for
Speaker 1: you to really do anything with from a monetization standpoint, right,
Speaker 1: Like you might get something here and there. But when
Speaker 1: you think about today and how those tools that really
Speaker 1: advanced to literally you can literally have like a Patreon
Speaker 1: account where you can get a subscription model going for
Speaker 1: for and that becomes a business. Right Other than that,
Speaker 1: folks are selling merch which is still a great you know,
Speaker 1: revenue generator for a business, but from a tech perspective,
Speaker 1: you weren't able to charge people's subscriptions seamlessly. You weren't
Speaker 1: able to have digital events where people could pay to
Speaker 1: attend those events um and then just the seamlessness of
Speaker 1: those services. It didn't exist at that time. And you
Speaker 1: think about now Apple, Apple now doing that directly through
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts from a tech sign right Like, these are
Speaker 1: leaps and bounds from where we were a decade ago.
Speaker 1: I wonder your thoughts on, you know, and I appreciate
Speaker 1: everybody out there, whatever stage of the entrepreneurial journey they're own,
Speaker 1: But I wonder your what what do you think when
Speaker 1: you see people who may have in their bio you
Speaker 1: know they're a designer or whatever, but the products may
Speaker 1: just be the T shirt that they started. And again,
Speaker 1: I appreciate everybody's journey because you've got to start somewhere.
Speaker 1: But I wonder, like, at what point is somebody a
Speaker 1: bona fide design At what point am I at least
Speaker 1: in the direction of being like a Jeff Staple versus
Speaker 1: somebody who bought some Haynes T shirts or something, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, and put my logo on them
Speaker 1: and I'm selling them and it still has the tag
Speaker 1: from Hans or your you know, American apparel or whatever, like,
Speaker 1: at what point, from your perspective, and this is your perspective,
Speaker 1: is somebody really on the right road to becoming a
Speaker 1: real designer? Right? So, well, one thing I want to
Speaker 1: touch on that that you said is at a certain degree,
Speaker 1: you could be a designer at multiple different levels, right
Speaker 1: if if if if you have a graphic that shows
Speaker 1: upon a T shirt, you are a designer, and there's
Speaker 1: a space and a place for you to show up
Speaker 1: in the industry in different ways. When you think of
Speaker 1: the traditional word, uh, designer, and I think in this instance,
Speaker 1: if you're thinking about maybe the consumer that's looking at
Speaker 1: it versus the brand that's looking at it, um the
Speaker 1: brand and working with partners, that typically comes down to
Speaker 1: like a product designer, can you design a product from
Speaker 1: start to scratch that shows up as this new thing? Right?
Speaker 1: And so when we think about if you take it
Speaker 1: to a T shirt, you could be considered a graphic
Speaker 1: designer if you design that graphic that shows up on
Speaker 1: that printed shirt. Another level of design is also a
Speaker 1: designer that decided like, hey, I like the way that
Speaker 1: that shirt is, but I want to change the entire
Speaker 1: shape of that shirt, So you might come change, right,
Speaker 1: you might come change how you know the shoulder lines
Speaker 1: fall here, you might change the whiff and the boxingness
Speaker 1: of the shirt. You might change you know, the size
Speaker 1: of the neckline, etcetera. Like those are different iterations of design.
Speaker 1: I think if you think about a Jeff Staple level designer, Jeff,
Speaker 1: Jeff Staple is a designer that has been through multiple
Speaker 1: phases and iterations in his career. Right, Jeff has a
Speaker 1: background in graphic design. Jeff has also now been able
Speaker 1: to jump into industrial and product design. I think he's
Speaker 1: even got projects where he's designed bikes now. Right. It
Speaker 1: just comes from different levels of experience, and I also
Speaker 1: think you have to think about if you're thinking about
Speaker 1: it from a career side, you have to also think
Speaker 1: about where you want to go. For example, if you
Speaker 1: want to design sneakers, right, that as a tangible product,
Speaker 1: it does not come from maybe eveneering, which is what
Speaker 1: we consider when maybe you add colors to a retro
Speaker 1: sneaker like a Jordan, right, and now if you have
Speaker 1: a totally new Jordan, like a Jordan thirty six that
Speaker 1: likely went through a whole eighteen month, sixteen month, maybe
Speaker 1: even longer process to design with multiple people working on
Speaker 1: different parts of that sneaker. Yeah, and we're gonna come
Speaker 1: back to that because you just sparked so many ideas
Speaker 1: that that come to me. But I wonder before we
Speaker 1: want to continue setting the stage here before we go
Speaker 1: deeper into this, UM, I wonder how a designer who's
Speaker 1: really put in the work, how do they become a brand?
Speaker 1: Because I think about, like, how did what was the
Speaker 1: work like in Virgil of Virgil a blow deal or
Speaker 1: like a Darryl Brown? Or at what point? At what
Speaker 1: point are they a brand that broke out got shelf
Speaker 1: space at Barney's or whatever? Like, at what point do
Speaker 1: you get to that? Like what are the moves you
Speaker 1: have to make right? Or or the person you need
Speaker 1: to know? What is it that gets me there? Right?
Speaker 1: I think the two interesting things that are the one
Speaker 1: interesting thing that that comes from the two folks that
Speaker 1: you just mentioned is that, uh, they came from under
Speaker 1: a certain designer and creative and that design and creative
Speaker 1: being Kanye West. And you have to think about when
Speaker 1: you are building a brand, right, the benefit of being
Speaker 1: a brand yourself or being at a brand. Uh, if
Speaker 1: you're thinking about it through a business lens. Is the
Speaker 1: visibility that that brand can offer, right, the doors that
Speaker 1: that brand can open, the conversations that you could be at,
Speaker 1: the tables that you could sit at, the tables that
Speaker 1: you can then build right after you've you've you've been
Speaker 1: through kind of that journey. And when I think of
Speaker 1: someone like Darre, I think of someone like Virgil. The
Speaker 1: start of that was they had to set that foundation
Speaker 1: for being a designer, Like where did they start to
Speaker 1: cultivate those initial skills? Right? We know Virgil went to
Speaker 1: ri Is, the we know Daryl has his background had
Speaker 1: to start somewhere, so they had some sort of understanding
Speaker 1: about design to begin with. I think after you have
Speaker 1: that particular experience, you want to start to figure out, Okay,
Speaker 1: how can I like get more experience that takes me
Speaker 1: a level above maybe you know some of the other
Speaker 1: designers because the space is crowded, right, There's a lot
Speaker 1: of folks that want to be in design, a lot
Speaker 1: of folks want to be creatives, a lot of folks
Speaker 1: want to be small business owners and entrepreneurs. And so
Speaker 1: if if if that next step for you is like, Okay,
Speaker 1: how can I start to separate myself. Then naturally you're
Speaker 1: looking for experiences that are going to do that. That
Speaker 1: usually starts with a network, right That is that next
Speaker 1: phase is a huge like separator from the pack, and
Speaker 1: it's all about what sort of network that you can
Speaker 1: get into. Some networks come from going to work at
Speaker 1: other brands. For example, I want to go work at
Speaker 1: soken E, Adidas, and Nike. There's a certain thing that
Speaker 1: comes when you're able to get into that because proximity
Speaker 1: puts you into certain circles. If you're thinking about a
Speaker 1: Darrow or a Virgil, you have to imagine before we
Speaker 1: knew Virgil as Vergil today, Virgil was in the Easy
Speaker 1: and Kanye camp for several years and no one knew
Speaker 1: who he was. And at the time, you know, Virgil
Speaker 1: is continuing to get more experience as a design himself.
Speaker 1: He is also um getting challenge with all these different
Speaker 1: creatives that come through that network of which he has
Speaker 1: been working with. And then in addition to that, he
Speaker 1: is getting, you know, his own ideas about what it
Speaker 1: might look like for him to create his own brand.
Speaker 1: And when you think about a brand, a lot of
Speaker 1: times people think about brands and they're like, it's a
Speaker 1: logo and they think it's a name. That's not a brand,
Speaker 1: Like that's a logo, it's a it's a design thing
Speaker 1: that tells you what the brand is. The brand and
Speaker 1: his heart right, the brand is purpose. The brand is
Speaker 1: how do you make people feel If we leave this
Speaker 1: call today and will remember nothing else, he remembers that
Speaker 1: I talked about careers, that's a brand. The brand is
Speaker 1: what you leave here on that person that you intend
Speaker 1: to connect with. That's what a brand is. And so
Speaker 1: when you think about Virgil right at this current point
Speaker 1: in time, his his brand is always going to shift
Speaker 1: as a as a creative, that's what he should do.
Speaker 1: But his current brand sits around this kind of deconstruction
Speaker 1: of design really be mystifying democratizing design, if you will.
Speaker 1: When you think about Darryl, he's really down this path
Speaker 1: of work where and actually doing authentic work where and
Speaker 1: coming from this different perspective. And so that's what brands are.
Speaker 1: It's what. It's not a name, it's what what does
Speaker 1: it make that person feel? What does that takeaway when
Speaker 1: you're no longer in the room or in that presence.
Speaker 1: But like at some point there has to be where
Speaker 1: the name doesn't hit an inflection point because how do
Speaker 1: you get people to pay attention? So I imagined and
Speaker 1: tell me if I'm wrong, But I imagine I found
Speaker 1: out like Daryl's from my hometown, so I knew that.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, but like with his stuff really hit,
Speaker 1: you know, the upward trajectory, because I saw Lebron wearing
Speaker 1: it in a press conference and so I'm like, so
Speaker 1: does you talked about proximity? So is it that you
Speaker 1: need because the marketplace is so crowded, do you need
Speaker 1: that co sign? You need? You need a concert of
Speaker 1: co signs is what I would call it. Right. You
Speaker 1: need several things working for you, almost citaneously, right in
Speaker 1: order to have that sort of that presence. Right for Daryl,
Speaker 1: it's a couple of different things that happened, right, Like
Speaker 1: Darryl came into my my, my mo mental when he
Speaker 1: was doing the hats, the real Friends hats, right, So
Speaker 1: that was like one of the things that started to
Speaker 1: bubble and it started to circulate in the in the
Speaker 1: pr But then you know, as you look at him,
Speaker 1: now he was a stylist for Kanye West for a
Speaker 1: certain point in time, So then you have that sign
Speaker 1: that raises his profile of bit and then he's seating folks,
Speaker 1: and then he's developing relationships, and then he's doing partnerships
Speaker 1: with different brands. Those things actually start to propel you
Speaker 1: to a different lane. It's not just gonna be that
Speaker 1: one Lebron seating that's gonna do it. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: the Lebron hit, and then it's gonna be oh yeah,
Speaker 1: this is the brand of watch because Complex just you know,
Speaker 1: listed Darrow as the brand to watch. And then oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Kanye is wearing those pants that you know, Daryl just designed.
Speaker 1: And so it is always you know, I think Darrel
Speaker 1: is you know, working on a couple of other projects too.
Speaker 1: Like it's always a concert of things. It's never just
Speaker 1: one thing. But if I'm talking to someone who is
Speaker 1: vastly interested that, I would say, yo, like it is
Speaker 1: one your network, right, Do you have a network of
Speaker 1: other designers or a community of people that work in
Speaker 1: that fashion space that you can you know, send products
Speaker 1: to get their feedback, if they like they might wear it,
Speaker 1: might show up somewhere. That's great. Can you do collaborations
Speaker 1: with with other people? Is mutually beneficial and it's not
Speaker 1: just about oh, we did a collaboration and you wanted
Speaker 1: to show up on the site. You know, we're kind
Speaker 1: of past that from from you know, a culture standpoint,
Speaker 1: like that's been done before, like what's the meaning behind that?
Speaker 1: And then storytelling. A lot of folks are really doubling
Speaker 1: down on how they storytell, how they bring these ideas
Speaker 1: of their brands to life, and those things start to
Speaker 1: circulate and gain attention. Uh So I would say it's
Speaker 1: a it's a concert kind of those different ideas building
Speaker 1: momentum over time. Just for everybody watching live on lunch
Speaker 1: Table or Facebook right now, we do have producers watching
Speaker 1: the chat, so feel free to drop your comments, questions,
Speaker 1: or other inside the chat, and if you know we
Speaker 1: can get to it, we would certainly do our best
Speaker 1: to get to them. And feel free to be selfish
Speaker 1: and specific because I want to make sure we're being
Speaker 1: we're bringing actual value to you in your situation. Um,
Speaker 1: so go ahead and drop that stuff in the chat.
Speaker 1: So I wonder how collapse work and how money is made,
Speaker 1: and so you think about some of the names we
Speaker 1: talked about, all the Virgils, the Darrel's, the Jeff Staples
Speaker 1: instead who have done collaborations with other brands, and one
Speaker 1: that specifically struck my interest when I was preparing for
Speaker 1: this talk was like the Little nos X and Mischief
Speaker 1: for the Demons shoe And I wonder, number one, how
Speaker 1: do collaborations make money for the designer? And to like
Speaker 1: the Mischief one with Nike said we don't have anything
Speaker 1: to do with this, So how did they even get this?
Speaker 1: How did they get all of the sneakers to be
Speaker 1: able to you know, hack them up and then put
Speaker 1: them Like how did that happen? Yeah? So I would
Speaker 1: say that particular collaboration was more one of those black
Speaker 1: market collaborations. Right, It's not anything that's officially done with
Speaker 1: a brand the size of Nike, So if you're gonna
Speaker 1: do something like that is likely more so considered uh,
Speaker 1: those to collap here. We would typically consider that there's
Speaker 1: somebody customized sneakers and they sold them, you know, separately,
Speaker 1: on their own. I think not. Little nos X and
Speaker 1: his team took it to a different place by putting
Speaker 1: a whole campaign around us. So essentially the way they
Speaker 1: have to get those shoes is they likely had to
Speaker 1: go purchase those shoes off a retail one hundred percent
Speaker 1: unless they had some sort of connection and somebody, you know,
Speaker 1: hook them up with a discount from somewhere. But likely
Speaker 1: they bought those shoes retail. After they bought all of
Speaker 1: those sizes, the company that was the customizer would literally
Speaker 1: had to buy hand or whatever team that they have
Speaker 1: would have to customize those shoes one by one and
Speaker 1: then they put those those sneakers up for sale a
Speaker 1: project project like that. I think they had under a
Speaker 1: thousand pairs for those sneakers, right, and then I think
Speaker 1: the price tag was somewhere around two d three hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: And so you know, it's a it's a it's a
Speaker 1: good bit of a chunk of change. But if you're
Speaker 1: talking about you know, we look at the global sneaker market,
Speaker 1: you're talking billions and billions of dollars in a large
Speaker 1: scale of things, that's that's not a huge chunk. For
Speaker 1: the team that customized those shoes, they made money because
Speaker 1: Little Nozex team likely paid them a commission for being
Speaker 1: the designers behind that. If we think about that from
Speaker 1: a brand side and in the sneaker industry and how
Speaker 1: that works on that side, well, if you you bring
Speaker 1: in someone like a Virgil or a Darrel. Usually UM
Speaker 1: there's a design fee behind that, right, So that's how
Speaker 1: they automatically recruit UM or make money from that particular deal.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, depending on how things are negotiating and how
Speaker 1: they move forward, you know, they may have you know,
Speaker 1: additional money that comes from the seal of those sneakers.
Speaker 1: And if you think about where collapse were back in
Speaker 1: the day UM, and you think about where collapse are now,
Speaker 1: collapse have become a part of what we consider in
Speaker 1: the industry, like inline product. Like people buy collapse more
Speaker 1: than they buy you know, the white on white or
Speaker 1: the black on black Airpluce one that's on the shelf.
Speaker 1: They want the Virgil. And so you see you see
Speaker 1: an off white air Force one in bigger volumes than
Speaker 1: we would ever have seen when you know, I was
Speaker 1: camping out the sneakers, you know, to two thousand five
Speaker 1: or whatever. Like it's a completely different scenario. And I
Speaker 1: think the other way that folks were making money, you
Speaker 1: have been making money and from those collapses. A lot
Speaker 1: of times those uh, those those personalities and those individual
Speaker 1: brands also have their own retail and so they would
Speaker 1: have an allocation of products that they could sell through
Speaker 1: their own channels and they can make a bigger markup
Speaker 1: on that product. And so you've gotta be thinking a
Speaker 1: couple of different ways about how you would do that.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, Collapse are starting
Speaker 1: to scale, right, they are volume based products. Now, they
Speaker 1: aren't just these we made a hundred pairs and um,
Speaker 1: you know it was a good marketing thing. You know,
Speaker 1: these things are actually generating depending on how big you
Speaker 1: can get volumes. They are actually generating real business. And
Speaker 1: so that's how a lot of folks who are doing
Speaker 1: designing and Collapse are getting design fee, they're getting royalties
Speaker 1: and if they, you know, have their own retail, they
Speaker 1: can sell it and make money there. Right. I think
Speaker 1: Travis Scott has a spot called Space on Houston and
Speaker 1: so he's able to distribute products through that. Um, Kanye
Speaker 1: has easy supply, He's able to sell his product directly
Speaker 1: from his own platform, and so at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, can get scale and you can do it
Speaker 1: through that lane. That's how you're making your money. So
Speaker 1: so I have a deep question streets want to know,
Speaker 1: does Nike care about bots on the sneakers app? Does
Speaker 1: Nike care that you cannot hit on the sneaker's app.
Speaker 1: They don't they can't care. I'm taking was just like,
Speaker 1: just like everyone else the streets. Want to know, man,
Speaker 1: the streets one to know what was the last sneaker
Speaker 1: you try to get on? Sneakers? Oh, the last ones
Speaker 1: I tried to get I actually hit on. They were
Speaker 1: the blue fours and I actually got blue concrete fo.
Speaker 1: I actually hit But I was like I didn't even
Speaker 1: really want them. I was just like, I'm just seeing,
Speaker 1: just try. But the ones I actually want take it
Speaker 1: else left and right. So so let's but let's but
Speaker 1: let's actually go because there's something here now, because I
Speaker 1: wonder there are people really making money on these bots.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, but if if know our non
Speaker 1: melinated friends are building these boxes and getting getting the bag,
Speaker 1: how do we cash in? Because apparently the system is
Speaker 1: built for people to be able to manipulate it in
Speaker 1: some way, So I wonder, how do we take advantage
Speaker 1: if we're not going to be the designers? Wait, what
Speaker 1: are the other opportunities to make money, whether it be
Speaker 1: in the secondary market, whether it be you know, buying
Speaker 1: a thousand pair of Air Force ones and finding somebody
Speaker 1: in our community who's got a name, and then doing
Speaker 1: it for a rapper in our community, and like, how
Speaker 1: how do we find interesting and creative ways to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the opportunity of creativity. I talked to me
Speaker 1: about some of the things that you've seen happen. Yeah, totally,
Speaker 1: I've seen I've seen it though from that the entrepreneurial side, right,
Speaker 1: and I think you got to think about it in
Speaker 1: multiple ways. You have Jock Slade who has made a
Speaker 1: career out of creating content around sneakers and fashion all
Speaker 1: on YouTube, right and literally has a based that's in
Speaker 1: the millions at this point, and they show for the videos,
Speaker 1: receives conversation through ads, through other monetor monetization avenues. It's done,
Speaker 1: work with foot Locker, has done, worked with eBay and
Speaker 1: you name it, right, And so that's one of the lanes, right,
Speaker 1: You can you can go through the through the lane
Speaker 1: of maybe the creator economy and and do it that way.
Speaker 1: I think another way could be seeing yourself in retail. Right. Yes,
Speaker 1: we know that the stock x exists and some of
Speaker 1: these other um resale platforms uh that are out there,
Speaker 1: but folks also love brick and mortar. Right. We also
Speaker 1: love supporting the businesses in our neighborhood. I'm in uh
Speaker 1: Portland's right now and Index is still alive and well
Speaker 1: and it is a you know, an aftermarket sneaker boutique. Right.
Speaker 1: You can then if you have passion for those things
Speaker 1: and maybe you could take it into a different basis
Speaker 1: may not even think of so for example, UM, dead
Speaker 1: Stock Coffee here is a sneaker inspired coffee shop. Right.
Speaker 1: Who you know who would have thought like that would
Speaker 1: be a thing, but it's one of the pillars of
Speaker 1: the community here. Uh, you can go down the realm
Speaker 1: of what we've done. Right. We are a you know
Speaker 1: at the at this current point, we have a podcast
Speaker 1: and we expand into some other things. But we've been
Speaker 1: able to take digital content and figure out how to
Speaker 1: monetize that content with different sponsors UM that support the
Speaker 1: work that we're doing in the audience that we're trying
Speaker 1: to cultivate and teach about different career possibilities. I think
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, the other thing that
Speaker 1: is most important is taking the time to figure out
Speaker 1: how can you learn more from other people that may
Speaker 1: be doing things creatively that you may be interested in. Right,
Speaker 1: we talked to an unlimited amount of people, and we
Speaker 1: try to record that information so that that next generation
Speaker 1: or even folks that are in career paths and want
Speaker 1: to pivot right from a creative standpoint, we try to
Speaker 1: give them as many examples. That's how you can go
Speaker 1: about doing that because nine times out of tend you
Speaker 1: didn't grow up with that information. Right. We didn't grow
Speaker 1: up in communities where you literally had you know, your
Speaker 1: mom's best friend may have been in you know, a VC,
Speaker 1: or had may have been working at Facebook or working
Speaker 1: at Bravity. Right, we didn't necessarily grow up with a
Speaker 1: lot of those networks. And so now it's important that
Speaker 1: either our generation shares that information back or we can
Speaker 1: partner with these different corporations and organizations to make sure
Speaker 1: that information is readily available. There was a question that
Speaker 1: came in on Facebook from Tamika Carroll says, how is
Speaker 1: sustainability playing a part in consumer choices? How does a
Speaker 1: sustainable company garner support? And does branding matter with regards
Speaker 1: to sustainable products? And I just want to throw this
Speaker 1: little caveat in because I remember Nike came out with it.
Speaker 1: This is trash like a year ago, which are left
Speaker 1: over pieces from the cutting, you know, room floor, and
Speaker 1: they made other sneakers out. So how is sustainability playing
Speaker 1: a part in creative industries? I think sustainability has a
Speaker 1: long way to go um from the standpoint of how
Speaker 1: it actually resonates with consumers, and I think it is
Speaker 1: actually directly tied to diversity and inclusion, right, and so
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've been saying for a
Speaker 1: very long time when we talk about sustainability is how
Speaker 1: is it humanized? From the brand standpoint? How is that?
Speaker 1: How is that being humanized? Because when I think about sustainability, right,
Speaker 1: I think about, Hey, I'm a black man, and my sustainability,
Speaker 1: as far as definition, is actually my life because I
Speaker 1: don't think about it when it comes to I can't
Speaker 1: think about recycling that product, that that that bottle just yet.
Speaker 1: I can't think about the specific recycled you yet because
Speaker 1: if I'm a kid in Baltimore, if I'm a kid
Speaker 1: growing up in New Orleans, I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how I'm getting home a lot that to me is sustainability.
Speaker 1: So I think when we think about that and we
Speaker 1: think about brands, you gotta humanize right now. It's not
Speaker 1: human right now. It is more of an elitist viewpoint
Speaker 1: that we can't really wrap our heads around when we're
Speaker 1: all trying to figure out the day to day of
Speaker 1: what's happening in this world, what's happening in the US.
Speaker 1: So I could talk to you another we got, but
Speaker 1: I want to make sure I get this question in
Speaker 1: before we get out of here. As we all remember,
Speaker 1: you know the Kanye conversation with Sway, and Sway was saying,
Speaker 1: why don't you just put your own money up in
Speaker 1: the moss Way? Um? And so we do have this
Speaker 1: conversation in our communities about like if you can't get
Speaker 1: to see at your table, build your own table. And
Speaker 1: I wonder like, yeah, while we laugh at the meme
Speaker 1: of the house, Sway like, what is it that causes
Speaker 1: black owned brands and smaller brands across the board, not
Speaker 1: just black owned brands, but brands period from being able
Speaker 1: to break through to being big houses like the Ralph
Speaker 1: Floor is the Calvin Klein's and Michael Corps? Like what
Speaker 1: is it that these smaller brands don't have that those
Speaker 1: brands have somewhat of a monopoly on per Kanye financing.
Speaker 1: Financing is the number one difference maker because when you
Speaker 1: think about what a LVMH is able to do with
Speaker 1: a Louis Batton uh, and you think about Inte, which
Speaker 1: I know was just rolled down. But the thing that's
Speaker 1: able to happen is they can show up at fashion
Speaker 1: Week and they can spend millions of dollars on campaigns
Speaker 1: that circle the world. They can sign contracts with rodal
Speaker 1: A Blow, they can have fashion fashion shows where Kick
Speaker 1: Cutty walks down. Right, all of these things costs money.
Speaker 1: Now there is a scale to it, right, you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have as much money as that and still be
Speaker 1: able to make waves. I think Telfer is a great
Speaker 1: example of how to build a brand and not have
Speaker 1: maybe access to the same amount of funding as Louis Baton,
Speaker 1: but Telfer is granting a ton of traction. It is
Speaker 1: the community built brand and slowly built over time. And
Speaker 1: so when you think about what you have, creativity plays
Speaker 1: a huge part of it. Money doesn't always equal success, right,
Speaker 1: but money added on top of really great ideas could
Speaker 1: definitely add fire to the to the flame, fuel to
Speaker 1: the flames and so but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: if you're asking me sinctly. That is a major difference.
Speaker 1: It's funding. It takes money to build these brands. It
Speaker 1: takes you know, resources when you think about supply chain,
Speaker 1: it takes uh money to innovate, continue to come up
Speaker 1: with great ideas to bring in the best talent for expanding.
Speaker 1: After you have one high item, how do you continue
Speaker 1: to have multiple high items? It takes those resources. If
Speaker 1: you need more visibility, maybe you want to bring in
Speaker 1: a personality like a you know, a person a creative director,
Speaker 1: or you want to bring in the celebrity, or you
Speaker 1: want to bring an athlete to maybe wear that product.
Speaker 1: It takes funding and resources to do that. And for
Speaker 1: our businesses, we need more access to that type of capital,
Speaker 1: which is why it's great to see more of some
Speaker 1: of those options showing up, but we need more. It's
Speaker 1: not enough because as you can see, there's such a
Speaker 1: vast difference in what's accessible to black and brown businesses
Speaker 1: versus you know, the LBM majors that are out there
Speaker 1: that have been around for so long. Black Tech Cream
Speaker 1: Money is a production of Blackvity Afro Tech on the
Speaker 1: Black Effect podcast Network and Ihearm Media's produced by Morgan
Speaker 1: Dabon and me Will Lucas with additional production supported by
Speaker 1: Love Beach and Marisa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael
Speaker 1: Davis is the car savon Jan you know like the Whine. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and
Speaker 1: other technis from this innovators at afro tech dot com.
Speaker 1: The video version of this episode would drop the Black
Speaker 1: Tech Green Money on YouTube next week, so tapping enjoining
Speaker 1: Black Tech Green Money People's a five star rating on iTunes.
Speaker 1: Don't get your money, Peace and love