Speaker 1: Jay Z was at this time buying stuff from us,
Speaker 1: and one day Biggie came in the store. He was
Speaker 1: fifteen years old and he was another one of our
Speaker 1: first customers. These kinds of stories are important because for
Speaker 1: any aspiring entrepreneur, I credit a lot of my journey
Speaker 1: to relationships, and I don't mean just texting and think.
Speaker 1: You have to be courageous enough to live in your
Speaker 1: discomfort zone, to invest into people and to look at
Speaker 1: the long game.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Ourdea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's
Speaker 2: most influential brands and the teams that build. If you're
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur, creative, or anyone interested in harnessing the power
Speaker 2: of collaboration, join me Noah Callahan Bever each week as
Speaker 2: we dissect the most dynamic companies in culture, because the
Speaker 2: only way to truly understand success is to look at
Speaker 2: it from all angles. Idea Generations All Angles is a
Speaker 2: Will Packer Media podcast. In nineteen eighty eight, April Walker
Speaker 2: opened Fashion and Effect, a custom clothing boutique for the
Speaker 2: burgeoning hip hop audience in New York City. In the
Speaker 2: years that followed, April would launch her own streetwear brand,
Speaker 2: Walkerware and become a pop culture phenomenon, working closely with
Speaker 2: a listers like the notorious Big Tupac and Shaquille O'Neill.
Speaker 2: But just as Walkerware started to ascend from hip hop
Speaker 2: staple to mainstream recognition, April made the shocking decision to
Speaker 2: shut down the brand. On this week's episode of All Angles,
Speaker 2: we talked to founder April Walker, assistant Miles Hopkins, lead
Speaker 2: stylist and designer Gloria Sharubin, and head of marketing Kimmia
Speaker 2: Range to hear the full story of how Walkerware became
Speaker 2: the hottest streetwear of the nineties and how the brand
Speaker 2: has re emerged today with a refreshed approach. But before
Speaker 2: any of that happened, years before Mike Tyson would hit
Speaker 2: the ring in Walkerwaar shorts or Tupac would fly her
Speaker 2: out to la for an emergency video shoot, April Walker
Speaker 2: was just a young kid moving to Harlem with her parents.
Speaker 1: My childhood was very interesting. I had a different mix.
Speaker 1: My mom is Mexican and Navajo, and my father is
Speaker 1: black Cherokee and probably Heinez fifty seven. There's probably some
Speaker 1: other things we don't know about, but it gave me
Speaker 1: a unique Lens.
Speaker 2: This is April Walker, founder of Walkerware.
Speaker 1: My father his family is from Culpepper, Virginia, and my
Speaker 1: father is an avid music lover and was part of
Speaker 1: the music industry, but growing up he just had a
Speaker 1: love for jazz and music and all the things in music.
Speaker 1: My mom is from Colorado. She was very organized, very cerebral,
Speaker 1: and just really really focused on creating a life for
Speaker 1: us in stability. My father was going to a university
Speaker 1: here in Colorado and my mom was from Colorado. Then
Speaker 1: from there we went to La. From La, we went
Speaker 1: to Harlem. We lived in Roxbury. We moved around because
Speaker 1: my father was chasing those music dreams. As a result,
Speaker 1: I got to see different backgrounds, different environments, and in
Speaker 1: your formative years, those are everything. So I think it really,
Speaker 1: you know, widened my scope, so to speak. And then
Speaker 1: I think in terms of traits, I took a little
Speaker 1: bit of both of them. Things you love and then
Speaker 1: the things you don't. But I think in my DNA,
Speaker 1: being as organized and as focused as possible is important,
Speaker 1: and at the same time, creating is just in my
Speaker 1: bones and just making and moving towards your dreams.
Speaker 2: Creativity and organization serves as the two main pillars in
Speaker 2: the Walker household. But then April's father opened her eyes
Speaker 2: to another world, entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: My father was always finding ways to connect us with
Speaker 1: the arts, whether it was dance lessons or music lessons
Speaker 1: or acting lessons, all these different things that we grew
Speaker 1: up participating in. And he always had these great cocomanni
Speaker 1: ideas that were like, oh my god, so embarrassing as
Speaker 1: a kid, but looking back in hindsight, I know he
Speaker 1: was just trying to spark that imagination and create possibilities
Speaker 1: in our minds. One year, it was the bi centennial.
Speaker 1: It was huge. It was nineteen seventy six, I believe,
Speaker 1: and it was two hundred years they were celebrating. My
Speaker 1: father said, we're gonna make some shirts and go out
Speaker 1: and sell them for the bi centennial. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: how he said, We're going to create a design and
Speaker 1: then we're gonna make it. So we actually did that.
Speaker 1: We created a design that celebrated the bi centennial. And
Speaker 1: then he took me and dragged me to Pearl Paint,
Speaker 1: which was it's legendary in New York for any artist,
Speaker 1: and it really just had everything in there that a
Speaker 1: creator would want we picked out paints for the shirts,
Speaker 1: we picked out colors, we actually had a silk screen
Speaker 1: made with our design, and then we went home and
Speaker 1: we stayed up all night and we actually made those shirts.
Speaker 1: We bought the shirts. We actually had to use the
Speaker 1: screegee and actually manufacture them by hand and make all
Speaker 1: of these shirts. And then the next day we went
Speaker 1: to the bi centennial and actually sold the shirts. And
Speaker 1: as a kid, it was very jolting. It was very
Speaker 1: kind of embarrassing because you know, you're doing something different.
Speaker 1: No one else is out there doing that, they're enjoying it,
Speaker 1: and you're out there hustling, so to speak. But what
Speaker 1: it did would show us shewed me because we sold
Speaker 1: all the shirts and I remember him like with a
Speaker 1: wide showing it to me, like you see this, this
Speaker 1: is what you just did. That always stuck with me.
Speaker 2: April went on to college, but the creativity instilled in
Speaker 2: her by her parents and the idea that she could
Speaker 2: make a living from her own creations would supersede anything
Speaker 2: that she could learn in the classroom.
Speaker 1: By the time I got to college, I knew I
Speaker 1: didn't want to work for someone else, but I didn't
Speaker 1: know what it would be. I was going to school
Speaker 1: for business and communications, and one time I thought I
Speaker 1: might be a broadcaster. I wasn't sure. I was definitely
Speaker 1: interested in electronic media, so I was taking some courses
Speaker 1: there as well. But I was always innately into fashion.
Speaker 1: I never owned it, but looking back, there were clues.
Speaker 1: I want, you know, best dressed, saved all my tags
Speaker 1: and would put them on the wall, and all of
Speaker 1: these things. I was different. I would try something different
Speaker 1: in fashion ever since I can remember.
Speaker 2: April's pulled towards entrepreneurship naturally led her interest in college
Speaker 2: to win.
Speaker 1: I was in my junior year in college and I
Speaker 1: basically told my dad that I don't want to go
Speaker 1: back to school. And he looked at me and he
Speaker 1: was taken aback, and he said, why you know? And
Speaker 1: I pointed to this girl that was on the phone booth.
Speaker 3: She was in a phone booth and she had on
Speaker 3: like some big ear rings and bamboos, and her jacket
Speaker 3: was all studed up and crystals and writing all over.
Speaker 1: It was really cool. I said, that's what I want
Speaker 1: to do. And he said to me, not too long ago,
Speaker 1: he told me this story, and he was like, I
Speaker 1: looked at that Jackson, and I was like, that's whack.
Speaker 1: But I didn't say it out loud. He said, but
Speaker 1: I thought it, but I couldn't say it because who
Speaker 1: was I, you know, because he was a creator too,
Speaker 1: so he supported me on it.
Speaker 2: I think the support of her father was massive, but
Speaker 2: an encounter with a one of a kind fashion icon
Speaker 2: would be the turning point for April.
Speaker 1: One night, I was at the Powow Theater and after
Speaker 1: my friends and I we walked over to Deva Danda.
Speaker 1: It was this Willy Wonka for me, a fabulosity of
Speaker 1: everything that wasn't being created in the stores for us,
Speaker 1: and he was doing these one of the cons that
Speaker 1: were incredible, that was speaking to my tribe, my culture,
Speaker 1: and I wanted in. You know, at that time, the
Speaker 1: world was very different and I was very much still Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen the whole world, so Burrows were everything
Speaker 1: to me. You know, you had all these pockets. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to rep for Brooklyn at that moment and
Speaker 1: create for my tribe, and so successfully is Clues and
Speaker 1: that's what happened. I reverse engineered into it from the
Speaker 1: north Star of hip hop, and I started creating things
Speaker 1: that spoke to me that I felt the music was there,
Speaker 1: but we didn't have the uniforms, and I just wanted
Speaker 1: to create what I was feeling and pour that out.
Speaker 2: With a spark of inspiration from Dapper Dain and the
Speaker 2: unwavering support of her father, April decided to leave school early,
Speaker 2: and even though she had two secure job opportunities in
Speaker 2: front of her, April instead opted to sign a lease
Speaker 2: on a small retail space for seven hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: dollars a month and to start her own brand.
Speaker 1: I got called for two state jobs, I think while
Speaker 1: I was in college. I applied for. One was the
Speaker 1: fire department, another one was corrections. I got called right
Speaker 1: when I was signing the lease, and I remember my
Speaker 1: mom was so destroyed because those were considered good jobs.
Speaker 1: Everybody thought I was crazy, except for my dad. I
Speaker 1: remember one time in the beginning going to the fashion
Speaker 1: industry and getting a role of fabric, and I can
Speaker 1: remember us being on the train carrying a big role
Speaker 1: of fabric home. So he was always like cheerleading.
Speaker 2: As April started her boutique fashion in effect, she knew
Speaker 2: hip hop would be her north star and set out
Speaker 2: to build a wardrobe for the co.
Speaker 1: The magnet was hip hop and our little shot Fashion
Speaker 1: and Effect was literally a hole in the wall that
Speaker 1: we created with a homemade signs. We didn't have money
Speaker 1: for a sign, so we made our own sign. We
Speaker 1: went back to our Pearl paints and we got this
Speaker 1: phone board. It was maybe We made it about six feet,
Speaker 1: We connected it. We painted it Fashion and Effect with
Speaker 1: like this.
Speaker 4: I druid this like graffitiish style and colors neon colors,
Speaker 4: and we hung it up over the glass storefront and
Speaker 4: in the storefront we would hang up different airbrush, sweatshirts,
Speaker 4: different cool outfits that.
Speaker 1: We were making.
Speaker 2: April started to buy fabrics, textiles, and machinery needed for
Speaker 2: her cutt and sew operation and recruited other creatives to
Speaker 2: help bring her vision to life.
Speaker 1: We amassed a tribe of like minds. And with those
Speaker 1: like minds, I think when your passion is fueling you
Speaker 1: so so much, you can figure out the rest because
Speaker 1: you can look at models that created. And while we
Speaker 1: didn't have any models there in what we were doing,
Speaker 1: we did have Dapper Dan. So I knew, Okay, I
Speaker 1: have to buy jukie machines and I have to buy
Speaker 1: industrial singer machines, and then the rest was just figure
Speaker 1: it out. So there was the New York Times would
Speaker 1: have a liquidation section. That's how I got my singers
Speaker 1: and my jokies because I couldn't afford that out the box.
Speaker 1: And then I created a cutting table. But that was
Speaker 1: literally like putting a big piece of wood and polishing
Speaker 1: it and stabilizing that, and that became our cutting table
Speaker 1: and just really figuring it out and making something out
Speaker 1: of nothing. That's exactly what we did.
Speaker 2: April started creating and selling one of a kind statement
Speaker 2: pieces right there in her shop. In addition to being
Speaker 2: her production facility in retail space, Fashion Effect also became
Speaker 2: a staple hangout in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: When you came in the store and then entry way
Speaker 1: to your right would have one wall that had a
Speaker 1: big dog on it with the hat to the back
Speaker 1: that said FIE, which stood for Fashion and Effect, and
Speaker 1: then he had a big clock on that said don't
Speaker 1: believe the hype. The dog the had gold teeth in
Speaker 1: his mouth like it was a whole vibe. And when
Speaker 1: you came in, we had Marcus and you had to
Speaker 1: tag your name on the wall. So at one point
Speaker 1: the whole wolf was tagged up around this dog, and
Speaker 1: then to your left when you came in was a
Speaker 1: actual cool sofa that we made. And then we had
Speaker 1: these showcases that we got from liquidation and we would
Speaker 1: have beeper covers and little trinkets that you could buy.
Speaker 1: So for the people that couldn't afford something really expensive,
Speaker 1: we had low hanging fruit and spontaneous purchases in the front.
Speaker 1: But we didn't know that was the terminology. Then we
Speaker 1: just knew we had to pay our rent, so we
Speaker 1: had to figure how different way to do that. So
Speaker 1: we were like, everyone can't afford in a suit for
Speaker 1: X amount. We made fashion and effect T shirts as well,
Speaker 1: and we sold those and that those had the dog
Speaker 1: on it.
Speaker 2: With a store on Point, April expanded her team of
Speaker 2: creatives to help produce bold and beautiful pieces that would
Speaker 2: become synonymous with nineties hip hop.
Speaker 1: I had a great, amazing artist named Linda Avery. She
Speaker 1: was from Pittsburgh. She actually came up and stayed with
Speaker 1: us and started doing the acrylic painting in the air brushing.
Speaker 1: And then we had someone who worked with us. His
Speaker 1: name was Woody and he worked with shirt Kings as well,
Speaker 1: and he was doing a lot of airbrushing for us
Speaker 1: as well. We also borrowed a few of Dapper Dane's tailors,
Speaker 1: and so we had tailors that already understood the culture
Speaker 1: and were able to make leather or dentim or whatever
Speaker 1: we needed. And it was great because they were able
Speaker 1: to teach me as I was learning. I knew business,
Speaker 1: and I knew how to go get sales, but I
Speaker 1: didn't understand everything needed. Like at first my needles were
Speaker 1: breaking a lat because I had the wrong needles and machines,
Speaker 1: all these little things. Help having someone that was experienced
Speaker 1: to make the things that were in our heads and
Speaker 1: pour it out into the world.
Speaker 2: Slowly but surely, Fashionate and effect became the place to
Speaker 2: be with a team of creatives in place. April also
Speaker 2: started recruiting assistants and other local kids to help her
Speaker 2: out and began another crucial part of her story, mentorship.
Speaker 5: I started working with April as her assistant. April has
Speaker 5: this way of kind of like getting everybody involved in
Speaker 5: every part of the business.
Speaker 2: This is Gloria Shrubin, once April's assistant and eventually one
Speaker 2: of her lead stylist and designers.
Speaker 5: She was a great teacher in that respect and just
Speaker 5: kind of like schooling me and just grooming me for
Speaker 5: the apparel industry and just really kind of understanding what
Speaker 5: it is to build a brand, brand management. I've always
Speaker 5: been this kind of like a low key fashionista, really
Speaker 5: into just like design and fashion and just style and wardrobing.
Speaker 5: April was like a family friend, so I kind of
Speaker 5: grew up under her tutelage for years, just kind of
Speaker 5: watching her develop her business. In my old personal journey,
Speaker 5: I was actually in undergrad studying to.
Speaker 1: Go to law school.
Speaker 5: I got my degree in political science. You know, I
Speaker 5: had these dreams and aspirations of being an attorney. I
Speaker 5: just wanted, as a young black female coming out of
Speaker 5: the hood, just I wanted an industry that was going
Speaker 5: to make me a lot of money.
Speaker 6: That was really my attitude.
Speaker 5: And you know, law was what seemed like the best
Speaker 5: thing for me because everyone was like, you talk well,
Speaker 5: you know, you argue, well, you are a great liar.
Speaker 5: So and you know, I had a knack for school
Speaker 5: was really easy for me, reading a lot of books
Speaker 5: on policy size, really a lot of study around history.
Speaker 6: But in my last year, unfortunately I lost my mom.
Speaker 5: In undergrad and I'd worked through school anyway, so I
Speaker 5: was always working. April was like, hey, you know you
Speaker 5: should come work for me. You know, you got a
Speaker 5: lot of swag and style, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I like the way you put things together just to
Speaker 5: really be a great learning experience.
Speaker 6: So I was like, okay, cool. You know, I definitely
Speaker 6: loved what she did.
Speaker 5: Loved just kind of being around and had the ability
Speaker 5: and access because you know, I gotta hung out with her.
Speaker 6: Little sisters and we were just all kind of friends.
Speaker 2: As Gloria found her role on the team, April empowered
Speaker 2: her and looked to Gloria's youthful perspective to lead the
Speaker 2: way on projects.
Speaker 5: Day one was herd just kind of like grooming me
Speaker 5: and teaching me how to just kind of like understand
Speaker 5: what she needed me to do. I remember her taking
Speaker 5: me to the garment district and at that time, you
Speaker 5: could swatch fat and she was just like, I want
Speaker 5: anything that stands out to you for you to grab now.
Speaker 5: Mind you, I have no background, no formal training in
Speaker 5: anything fash I just know how to wear a flashit.
Speaker 6: I'm a big brand or you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: From a thousands.
Speaker 5: I felt like I had that, but I just felt
Speaker 5: it was something that was and anything that I was
Speaker 5: trained I with, which is something that I was just
Speaker 5: naturally gifted with.
Speaker 6: So her identified that. She she puts me in the
Speaker 6: stores for hours.
Speaker 5: I'm going through all this fabrics, watching all this stuff,
Speaker 5: and we finally get back to the office. She had
Speaker 5: like stacks of magazines, every WWD, every GQ, everything anything
Speaker 5: you can think of, just like high fashion magazines. So
Speaker 5: this she's like, I want you to go through these
Speaker 5: magazines and attack the fabric that you picked to some
Speaker 5: of the looks that were in the magazines, Like so
Speaker 5: I can kind of like identify what fabrics would work
Speaker 5: well with what designs. I did this for hours, but
Speaker 5: it was such a great path because it forced me
Speaker 5: to kind of see what she saw. Because from that
Speaker 5: point on, my main focus in work was always to
Speaker 5: kind of like work with her clients in like the
Speaker 5: sales capacity. She had like these great books that were
Speaker 5: filled with silhouettes and designs or options that they had,
Speaker 5: and then it was like these watchbooks of just all
Speaker 5: these different fabrics. So my job would be to sit
Speaker 5: with the client and allow them to mix and match.
Speaker 5: So this task of just kind of like, you know,
Speaker 5: seeing it that she would critique it, well, why would
Speaker 5: you put this?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 6: It was it was really a learning experience. It grew
Speaker 6: me for that role.
Speaker 2: As Fashion and Effect continued to make a name for itself,
Speaker 2: a placement on an album cover was about to take
Speaker 2: the business to a whole nother level and open additional
Speaker 2: revenue streams.
Speaker 1: So with Fashion and Effect, it literally became this best
Speaker 1: kept secret that finally wasn't a secret. You know. We
Speaker 1: were making a lot of clothes, and we were making
Speaker 1: them to the point where one day Audio two came
Speaker 1: in the store and they wanted outfits made for their
Speaker 1: next album cover, and they wanted somebody from Brooklyn to
Speaker 1: make them, and they asked if I could make them,
Speaker 1: and I said sure, fingers crossed behind my back, you know.
Speaker 1: But it worked out, and that album cover was I
Speaker 1: Don't Care and it was a crashed up Benz And
Speaker 1: they had outfits and they did some turke Kings, did
Speaker 1: some artwork from one of the moment I did the suits,
Speaker 1: and that was the start of it. Then they came
Speaker 1: back and they asked you style a video. I had
Speaker 1: no experience in styling. But I found out what styling was.
Speaker 1: I told them I could do the video, and I
Speaker 1: did a video, and from that video, I created a
Speaker 1: new revenue stream. And I said, this is going to
Speaker 1: be another revenue stream for us, and I created a
Speaker 1: styling division. So from that we started styling.
Speaker 2: However, April's rise was anything but straightforward. Breaking into any
Speaker 2: market is hard, but even more challenging as a young
Speaker 2: black woman in a male dominated industry.
Speaker 1: A lot of companies were afraid of a very young person.
Speaker 1: And at that time I was hip hop out and
Speaker 1: I was twenty one, and I was a woman, and
Speaker 1: being a young woman in an all male dominated industry
Speaker 1: was a lot different. And then I was blexicin so
Speaker 1: I didn't really look like the norm of the fashion
Speaker 1: industry or speak that language. So that was another factor, right.
Speaker 1: What I didn't I was naive to fear and it
Speaker 1: served me well because I never thought this isn't going
Speaker 1: to happen. It was like, it will happen.
Speaker 2: April did break through and in a big way. Soon
Speaker 2: Fashion and Effect became the place for up and coming
Speaker 2: rappers to get custom outfits, and the who's who of
Speaker 2: New York hip hop would seek out April for their fits.
Speaker 1: I'm always looking for ways to expand my spider web
Speaker 1: or be the octopus, because I understand that, you know,
Speaker 1: this is a foundation, but we have to have different
Speaker 1: tentacles in order to grow. So as long as it's
Speaker 1: coming from the same base and we can handle it.
Speaker 1: And that was unnatural to me because it allowed us
Speaker 1: not only to style other artists, but to become bigger
Speaker 1: with marketing using a bullhorn by artists working with artists,
Speaker 1: and so now they became our tribe and so to speak.
Speaker 1: And they were telling two people right. Jay Z was
Speaker 1: at this time buying stuff from us and Jazz and
Speaker 1: then Shaggy and shine Head. Those were two big artists
Speaker 1: from Brooklyn. And one day Biggie came in the store.
Speaker 1: He was fifteen years old and he was another one
Speaker 1: of our first customers. He saw Rabi and rock Keemp
Speaker 1: shirt and Houdini shirt that we airbrushed in the window
Speaker 1: and stopped. And I'd see him in the neighborhood because
Speaker 1: we lived in the same neighborhood. I'd see him hanging out,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know him, just to give each other
Speaker 1: not But when he came in to story recognized me
Speaker 1: and he asked, is this your shop? And it marked
Speaker 1: a conversation and I found out he was into music,
Speaker 1: and you know, we just started talking about all things
Speaker 1: hip hop and that became our into section. He was
Speaker 1: always calm, collective, but he was witty, He was funny,
Speaker 1: and he always made you feel like family. You know.
Speaker 1: He was just really cool. He was cool with everybody.
Speaker 1: He had a charisma about him that was special. He
Speaker 1: also was like you knew like you didn't want to
Speaker 1: mess with Biggie, you know what I mean at the
Speaker 1: same time because of his tribe, but he never gave
Speaker 1: that off. It was just like you just knew he
Speaker 1: was from Brooklyn, and Brooklyn was different, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But he was a good he was He
Speaker 1: was a really nice guy. He was super talented, super
Speaker 1: focused and confident and when he signed to that boy,
Speaker 1: he never forgotten was You know, these kinds of stories
Speaker 1: are important because for any aspiring entrepreneur, young person or
Speaker 1: entrepreneur that's out there. I credit a lot of my
Speaker 1: journey to relationships, and I don't mean just texting. I
Speaker 1: think you have to be courageous enough to live in
Speaker 1: your discomfort zone to invest into people and to look
Speaker 1: at the long game. And so a lot of these
Speaker 1: artists that are mega artists right now were not then.
Speaker 1: Like Biggie didn't even have a deal. You know, he
Speaker 1: was fifteen, he had a dream, but I saw how
Speaker 1: gifted he was and I believed in him. You know.
Speaker 1: So I think that when you're authentic and you really
Speaker 1: believe in someone and they believe in you, as you rise,
Speaker 1: you rise together.
Speaker 5: April was really iconic in what I would always refer
Speaker 5: to as brand leveraging, you know, really knowing how to
Speaker 5: see what was coming up next in the hip hop industry,
Speaker 5: who the talent was, and really building her product on
Speaker 5: them to build more notoriety for her brand, whether it
Speaker 5: was run DMC, was Biggie, it was pop. You know,
Speaker 5: really knowing where to be, how to be and really
Speaker 5: kind of getting that product in those places was really
Speaker 5: her art to me.
Speaker 2: After its first year, Fashion and Effect was still in business,
Speaker 2: which was a big win for April and her team,
Speaker 2: but the margins that come with custom work are thin,
Speaker 2: and Fashion Effect was far from being really profitable.
Speaker 1: I think that first year, like none of us were
Speaker 1: getting paid. It was shoe string, But I remember the
Speaker 1: first year, I found some books and I think we
Speaker 1: made like maybe eighty We made eighty something thousand the
Speaker 1: first year, and that was like huge for me because
Speaker 1: that was back in the day, and we made a
Speaker 1: lot of mistakes that first year, so it encouraged me
Speaker 1: to do the second year.
Speaker 2: As April continued to grow fashion and effect land placements
Speaker 2: with celebrities and style artists, she realized that the one
Speaker 2: of a kind business model was very limiting and to
Speaker 2: truly expand she would need her own branded clothing line.
Speaker 1: I think that what we noticed was some of the artists,
Speaker 1: some of our customers would come in and ask for
Speaker 1: the things that we were making for the artists in videos.
Speaker 1: So we knew, okay, we have something because he did
Speaker 1: the same things we made this rough and rugged suit.
Speaker 1: It was a heavy denim suit that we made, and
Speaker 1: we were doing a lot of experimenting at that time
Speaker 1: with the Lore, So we were doing a lot of
Speaker 1: buckets with Gentimen the Lore, and a lot of suits
Speaker 1: with Gentimen Thelore, and a lot of contrast stitching so
Speaker 1: that it would match up with the Timberlain. So all
Speaker 1: of these things became like we caught on like a fire.
Speaker 1: It just started like people would ask for the same things.
Speaker 1: So that became our proof of concept and that's what
Speaker 1: led us to believe we need to do our own
Speaker 1: line and just go for it.
Speaker 2: April did decide to go for it and created her
Speaker 2: eponymous brand, walker Wear. At the same time, another pivotal
Speaker 2: member of the Walkerware team was about to enter the fold.
Speaker 7: I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, and I was able
Speaker 7: to go to New York often and dance on broadways.
Speaker 2: This is Kim your Range, an assistant to April and
Speaker 2: eventually the head of marketing and promotion for Walkerware.
Speaker 7: I danced from three to probably fifteen years old, so
Speaker 7: I really had some opportunities that I did not realize
Speaker 7: was not a normal thing growing up until you.
Speaker 1: Know, I got to college, I think, and.
Speaker 7: Really started to meet people from all over. Then I
Speaker 7: went on to University of Massachusetts. That's where I met
Speaker 7: my friend m J who introduced me to the Walker family,
Speaker 7: and that's how I started connecting with April and we
Speaker 7: started going to New York for our spring breaks, and
Speaker 7: that's how my connection to Walkerware began. When we started
Speaker 7: going to New York. At that time, her business was
Speaker 7: fashion and effect. I got to assist on a photo
Speaker 7: shoot she was working on. She definitely takes the time
Speaker 7: to teach you each moment to teach a bo moment
Speaker 7: with her, because you know, she could definitely if she
Speaker 7: wanted to.
Speaker 1: Eat, sleep, and drink the business.
Speaker 7: So then a couple of years later she started to
Speaker 7: build Walkerware, and when I had graduated from college, I
Speaker 7: had the opportunity to move to New York City and
Speaker 7: then was able to support her in the Walkerware journey.
Speaker 2: Can you move to New York and brought with her
Speaker 2: some experience that would be pivotal to the growth of Walkerware.
Speaker 7: I was just coming off of a job working with
Speaker 7: Russell Stover's Candies, and I had learned how to be
Speaker 7: organized because for me, I had not had a supervisor
Speaker 7: that lived in.
Speaker 1: The same state as me.
Speaker 7: I was fortunate to get a car with this job,
Speaker 7: so that was pretty much my office, where my foul
Speaker 7: cabinets was in the trunk of the car. So my
Speaker 7: organization in that sales realm was very key. And then
Speaker 7: being able to take over if necessary, like when April
Speaker 7: wasn't available to be in a place, especially like with
Speaker 7: some styling job opportunities there. I was able to step
Speaker 7: in also even with buyers.
Speaker 6: Have that conversation with Walker Ware.
Speaker 2: April's goal was to spread the brand beyond the confines
Speaker 2: of a brick and mortar store. So, Kim, you began
Speaker 2: to oversee marketing and took a page from the music
Speaker 2: industry playbook.
Speaker 7: That was the whole goal is, you know, promotions, sales,
Speaker 7: all the connections for the marketing of the brand.
Speaker 1: It pretty much.
Speaker 7: Consisted of marketing this closing line like it was a record.
Speaker 1: Label, I remember.
Speaker 7: So we just pretty much was taken to the streets,
Speaker 7: you know, like this street teams. It was a bunch
Speaker 7: of dedicated young people, pretty much interns that would get
Speaker 7: out there at the different events and pretty much flood
Speaker 7: the areas with all the different promotions that were going on.
Speaker 7: We would get behind the bad Boy Street Team. They'd
Speaker 7: be on the big megaphone shouting out bad Boy, and
Speaker 7: I would just tap him on the shoulder and ask
Speaker 7: them to shout out walk Away as well. So just
Speaker 7: again taking advantage of opportunity with the relationships that we
Speaker 7: were building out there.
Speaker 1: Keimya was excellent. She was on that same page. She
Speaker 1: was great at marketing and sales. She was a people's person.
Speaker 1: She built up relationships. She was really good. I could
Speaker 1: pass the ball to her and then she would cultivate
Speaker 1: those relationships because at one point I just got really
Speaker 1: busy as we were surfling. Up were my responsibilities. So
Speaker 1: that's where Kimya came in to play with the marketing,
Speaker 1: the PR and really dealing with people.
Speaker 2: With Kimmia on the ground handling marketing NYC. Other opportunities
Speaker 2: across the country started to pop up, like a job
Speaker 2: for a certain West Coast MC that would put Gloria
Speaker 2: through a whirlwind of a weekend.
Speaker 5: All I remember is April Quala being like, Yo, there's
Speaker 5: a jet leaving in like two hours. We need everybody
Speaker 5: at the house, you know, with a bag coop. You
Speaker 5: gotta fly to La and do this video shoot.
Speaker 6: And it was there was no question. You're just was
Speaker 6: like okay.
Speaker 5: You know, it becomes that common space where it's not
Speaker 5: just like limits just being in New York. You know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying is a video shoot. We you know,
Speaker 5: got tasked for the style of job. I can't remember
Speaker 5: what Phombi was, but there was a song with Pop
Speaker 5: Casey and Jojo. We got to squeeze into a limousine
Speaker 5: with sub Knight and pop.
Speaker 6: It's me Jackie April, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: And this guy's a big guy and they looking at
Speaker 5: me like you the youngest. You gotta sit and foot
Speaker 5: is on my lap the whole ride, you know, from
Speaker 5: Clinton Hills to some private runway in Jersey and I'm
Speaker 5: sitting there like a punk. It doesn't pay being the
Speaker 5: new beat in this situation, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: But this is the work, you know, all right? So
Speaker 5: we touched ground that to Melleblee. They set us up
Speaker 5: for the night next day, spent the whole day shopping
Speaker 5: to shoot a video on the beach.
Speaker 1: It was like.
Speaker 6: Seventy two hours from hell, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: It just like getting it in, doing the work, blah
Speaker 5: blah blah, and then on a plane back to New York,
Speaker 5: like this is what needed to be done, this is
Speaker 5: what we had to do, and there was no questions asked.
Speaker 5: So those eleventh hour industry calls, it was like normal
Speaker 5: stuff that just happened, because that's how the industry ran,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 2: The co signs from artists like Chupac and Viggie walk
Speaker 2: Away had become a premier brand in hip hop and
Speaker 2: soon it would become more the most desired street wear
Speaker 2: brands for celebrities all over the world.
Speaker 7: There are so many different people, even, you know, with
Speaker 7: the Lea, we worked with her doing her first video
Speaker 7: and her photo shoot, being able to place some walk
Speaker 7: Aware products on her.
Speaker 1: And then Gary Payton we did a whole shoot with
Speaker 1: him with the SuperSonics.
Speaker 7: I remember making some pants for Shaq for All.
Speaker 1: Star Mike Tyson. He wore our stuff in the ring.
Speaker 1: That was probably one of our biggest collapse. I became
Speaker 1: the first American designer besides sports like they were doing Everlast,
Speaker 1: but as a designer, I was the first to hit
Speaker 1: the heavyweight ring. So that was really a big moment
Speaker 1: in Walkaware's career. He was famous for wearing his towel out,
Speaker 1: but he wore a towel with the W W double
Speaker 1: XL on it and the shorts and the sneakers, so
Speaker 1: it was huge, you know.
Speaker 7: It was just amazing, I think for me seeing a
Speaker 7: bad boy. When they had their first advertisement in Billboard
Speaker 7: and it was in the McDonald's setup and it was
Speaker 7: Craig Mack had on the Walkaware hockey jersey and it
Speaker 7: was Puffy and Biggie in that ad.
Speaker 1: That was amazing.
Speaker 7: Because that was one of my first placements for Walkaware.
Speaker 7: So it's like, you don't know where to end up,
Speaker 7: but when it does, it's like wow. But it's the
Speaker 7: relationship because they had to pick it up and say
Speaker 7: this is what I'm aware.
Speaker 2: So it seemed like Walkerware was being worn by every celebrity.
Speaker 2: Behind the scenes, the finances remained a struggle. This battle
Speaker 2: between creating for fun and creating for profits was taking
Speaker 2: a toll on.
Speaker 1: April the nineties, the Golden era was so magnetic, it
Speaker 1: was so electric, and it was magical. And then at
Speaker 1: the same time, I started when I was twenty one,
Speaker 1: and it literally was like eighteen hour days. I want
Speaker 1: to say six days a week, but it might have
Speaker 1: been even seven times. And then we started growing. Our
Speaker 1: growth accelerated fast, and there were a few almost deals,
Speaker 1: you know, where I did licensing and it fell through
Speaker 1: or it didn't happen. So I was independent. I've been
Speaker 1: independent my whole life, but you can imagine financially, it
Speaker 1: was a huge burden and blessing. And then I had
Speaker 1: a mass of staff. So I had a lot so
Speaker 1: starting from a creative lens to becoming management and leadership
Speaker 1: and not being able to do as much creative as
Speaker 1: you want because now you're running a whole corporation, making
Speaker 1: all these decisions, learning about licensing, learning about production, learning
Speaker 1: about marketing, learning all these different things. I was at
Speaker 1: the helm of that universe, and then I was watching
Speaker 1: the actual industry unfold, and if I'm honest, it became
Speaker 1: something I didn't like. Over time, it just really became
Speaker 1: about the money.
Speaker 7: The downfall might have been not having as much money
Speaker 7: as you'd like to have, but eventually.
Speaker 1: The money came.
Speaker 7: But I think that was probably the downfall.
Speaker 1: We were so young.
Speaker 7: I just think we were just for me, not being
Speaker 7: from New York being.
Speaker 1: Able to be in that element. Urban fashion became oversaturated,
Speaker 1: buyers became groupies, Artists wanted in I have no problems
Speaker 1: with music artists becoming their own brands and wanting to
Speaker 1: monetize every aspect of their business. But if you're going
Speaker 1: to do that, you have to take it serious and
Speaker 1: create the teams around it that understand those industries so
Speaker 1: you can be taken serious. And at that time, I'll
Speaker 1: say that some of that was not happening. A lot
Speaker 1: of that was not happening, and so as a result,
Speaker 1: it was hurting the industry because it truly became a
Speaker 1: numbers game. Fashion designers that you really had awesome designs
Speaker 1: for being overlooked. It was so lights camera action that
Speaker 1: there was little substance, but the hype without substance, it's
Speaker 1: not sustainable. And I saw the beginning of the incoming
Speaker 1: and that along with becoming burnt out over time. By
Speaker 1: the time ninety nine hit, people felt like I was
Speaker 1: at the top of my game because it looked like
Speaker 1: that from the outside, but I was miserable. I felt
Speaker 1: the weight of the world on my shoulder. I had
Speaker 1: a New York office, a New York show room, Vegas
Speaker 1: had an LA It was just a lot going on,
Speaker 1: and I was tired. I was really tired. I was
Speaker 1: almost afraid to walk away because April Walker was so
Speaker 1: ingrained at the point with walk Away like synonymous, and
Speaker 1: I was like, what would I do after? But that's
Speaker 1: why I had to walk away. I need to breathe,
Speaker 1: and I needed to know that's just what I did
Speaker 1: and that I could be good without it, because I
Speaker 1: wasn't really happy at that point. I was definitely to
Speaker 1: the world in perception winning, but winning has a different
Speaker 1: meaning for me. I'm real clear, I'm not now, and
Speaker 1: at that time it was becoming great and I wanted
Speaker 1: to really have clarity. So I made the decision at
Speaker 1: the height of the brand to just take pause, pause,
Speaker 1: Let's just pause and really like breathe. I knew I
Speaker 1: wasn't taking care of myself. I wasn't doing the things
Speaker 1: I was supposed to. It was a lot given all
Speaker 1: of this time and energy to the love of my business,
Speaker 1: but I was out of sync with the alignment of myself,
Speaker 1: my mind, my body, and my soul.
Speaker 2: So I chose that with walk Away on Hold, April
Speaker 2: found opportunities working with other brands, but more importantly, she
Speaker 2: finally put her own health and wellness, both physical and
Speaker 2: mental first.
Speaker 1: I paused walk Away and put it on the shelf,
Speaker 1: and then did some things I always wanted to try.
Speaker 1: So by this time I knew licensing really well. I
Speaker 1: did a bunch of stuff, and then in the interim
Speaker 1: of all of that stuff, I got a lot of rest.
Speaker 1: I think ninety nine to two thousand and I was
Speaker 1: the vice president at that farm with Russell Simmons and
Speaker 1: really was overseeing all of his licenses. So me navigating
Speaker 1: through all of these different licensees and contracts and magic,
Speaker 1: it was just a whole different lens that helped me grow.
Speaker 1: And then from there I went to AND one and
Speaker 1: I developed a woman's line for AND One. From there,
Speaker 1: I did some costume war droveing, and I did some
Speaker 1: merchandising with Errika Badu. And these were projects that I
Speaker 1: did in between finding myself and having conversations with God
Speaker 1: and just taking breaks and getting into nature and really
Speaker 1: embracing my spirituality and really figuring out why I got
Speaker 1: to the point of burnout, why I had to walk away.
Speaker 1: I feel like I really had really grown spiritually and
Speaker 1: got to a good place of really nourishing my mind,
Speaker 1: my body, my soul, and it was great. So I
Speaker 1: started consulting and that's literally how a walker group started.
Speaker 1: So really cool projects, all very different, but one thing
Speaker 1: I realized what consulting is. You can consult and they
Speaker 1: can pay you, but when clients don't take your advice,
Speaker 1: it's very frustrating and you see them hitting the wall
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, if I only had my own brand,
Speaker 1: and I realized I do, and that is what inspired
Speaker 1: me to start walk Away again. That with the fact
Speaker 1: that we're in the digital era and I could really
Speaker 1: manage my stress, I could create the life I wanted to.
Speaker 1: I could really do all the things. I could sell
Speaker 1: one piece or one thousand pieces at a time. It's
Speaker 1: just how fast I want to put my foot on
Speaker 1: the gas pedal because you can really write your own
Speaker 1: ticket and story. With the internet now, direct to consumer
Speaker 1: has changed the game for all creators. And that's literally
Speaker 1: how I looked at it. Once I saw what social
Speaker 1: media and the Internet could do, I said, I want
Speaker 1: to start creating again. And that's how it started. So
Speaker 1: I think at two and eleven I started privately started
Speaker 1: doing product development, and by I think twenty twelve, twenty
Speaker 1: and thirteen, that's when I started really showing it again.
Speaker 1: It was a big learning curve because I didn't beat
Speaker 1: my chest until about maybe two thousand and fifteen and sixteen.
Speaker 1: We were selling, we were doing pop ups, we were
Speaker 1: doing different things or again, and I had to go
Speaker 1: through about three different web developers because you know, it
Speaker 1: was new, it was new for me and it was
Speaker 1: still newer than it is now. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: about Shopify things like that, which is the ended up
Speaker 1: being our you know, server for where we do our business.
Speaker 1: At that time, I just wanted to automate everything that
Speaker 1: I could, because coming back I wanted to be lean
Speaker 1: and mean and walk away was not going to be
Speaker 1: the only thing that I did. It was very inspiring
Speaker 1: to be able to create again. When I got on
Speaker 1: social media. There were people from all over the world
Speaker 1: that were hitting us like, hey, thank you for your contributions,
Speaker 1: y'alla y'all and really just really gracious and accolades and
Speaker 1: remembering me. And then I realized how cool the tool
Speaker 1: could be if I learned it. So part of me
Speaker 1: creating was one thing, but also challenging myself to step
Speaker 1: into social media, into technology and embrace it as part
Speaker 1: of business was another. To learn it because I had
Speaker 1: the experience, but if I could grab the technology and
Speaker 1: marry that, I feel like I had an advantage because
Speaker 1: I have a real story with a lot of history.
Speaker 2: Social media had changed the fashion industry. In order to
Speaker 2: catch up, April do what she's always done, surrounded herself
Speaker 2: with young creatives who would act as reverse mentors.
Speaker 1: The fashion industry when I started. It wasn't an industry
Speaker 1: when I started. Now there are so many different players,
Speaker 1: so that part was different, and they are way more distractions.
Speaker 1: That's different where you were networking a lot more. I
Speaker 1: was a lot younger, so I was write that trial
Speaker 1: like I knew it inside out. It's different now, you know,
Speaker 1: I have to do way more work to know it.
Speaker 1: And I really believe in reverse mentorship because I think
Speaker 1: that we all can grow from each other generations. Why
Speaker 1: so I keep young people around me because they keep
Speaker 1: me informed and I get to know how their minds
Speaker 1: so thinking.
Speaker 8: And I knew April before the high school. April was
Speaker 8: you know April. I always call her the mayor of Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: This is Miles Hopkins and assisted for April at the
Speaker 2: revived Walkerware.
Speaker 8: And she doesn't agree, but I always find it funny.
Speaker 8: It's like a little joke between us. April knows everybody,
Speaker 8: and April and my mom actually go back since they
Speaker 8: were kids. They kind of grew up in the same neighborhood.
Speaker 8: I didn't really know about the Walkerware side of things
Speaker 8: until I got older, because you know, as a kid,
Speaker 8: it was just somebody that I know through my mom.
Speaker 8: Walkerware was just one of those things that when I
Speaker 8: did finally like get to know, I was just very
Speaker 8: shocked by how many people wore it. April is one
Speaker 8: of those people that's like extremely humble, but people will
Speaker 8: run up to her on the streets and just you know,
Speaker 8: tell her like how much she means to the community
Speaker 8: of fashion and just like to the world. Like her
Speaker 8: imprint not only on fashion but just on the world
Speaker 8: is amazing. And the fact that people just recognize it
Speaker 8: years later. April believes in reverse mentorship, and like that's
Speaker 8: kind of the way that Walkerware has been successful over
Speaker 8: all those years because April really listens to her customers
Speaker 8: and the people around her.
Speaker 2: Sue Miles was setting up photo shoots for April, and
Speaker 2: by bringing in young creatives to guide her, Walkerware continues
Speaker 2: to be ahead of the curve.
Speaker 8: I got a chance to more so like curate a
Speaker 8: lot of our photo shoots with some of our younger talent,
Speaker 8: Like I worked with guys like Nico Brimm, Jordan Beckford, CJ.
Speaker 6: Wallace and Josh Russa.
Speaker 8: I also want to say for you guys, like please
Speaker 8: keep those guys like on the map for you they're
Speaker 8: very interesting young gentlem men and they're on the rise.
Speaker 8: Not only did I just do the photo shoots and
Speaker 8: like kind of curate them and see to it that
Speaker 8: they would get done. I did a lot of Instagram
Speaker 8: outreach to some of our other like younger followers, and
Speaker 8: we just tried to find people that aligned a little
Speaker 8: bit more with our brand. It's so surreal to just
Speaker 8: see how much like people really genuinely like gravitate towards
Speaker 8: the brand once they meet the owner. You know, April
Speaker 8: is like one of the most authentic people on the planet.
Speaker 8: So no matter who you are, she you know, she
Speaker 8: always gives you love.
Speaker 2: As April continues the mentor and reverse mentor, she's always
Speaker 2: ready to offer advice to the younger generation of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: I would tell my younger self as an entrepreneur, study
Speaker 1: your money and understand that this is a business. Because
Speaker 1: most of us are creative. We cannot take the attitude
Speaker 1: of its creative and we'll get to the business later. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'll just hire people for that. No, understand that this
Speaker 1: is a business. Study money. Don't be the smartest person
Speaker 1: in the world. You want to surround yourself by people
Speaker 1: that are smarter than you and will make you stand
Speaker 1: on your tippy toes so that you can continue to grow,
Speaker 1: to elevate, to empower each other, and to lift up
Speaker 1: your tribe. At the same time, as a.
Speaker 2: April looks to the future, the mission remains the same, teach,
Speaker 2: learn and empower the next generation of creatives.
Speaker 1: Walk Away as a legacy brand, I want to continue
Speaker 1: that creating. We have some really cool collaborations set up.
Speaker 1: Next year is fifty years in hip Hop, so I'm
Speaker 1: going to be doing a collaboration with Universal Hip Hop
Speaker 1: Museum and some other cool collapse I can't really talk
Speaker 1: about yet, but you'll see those. I'm starting a digital academy,
Speaker 1: really excited about that because it's for makers, entrepreneurs, creators,
Speaker 1: and they really hands on experience. So just really the
Speaker 1: thing that I'm passionate about is impacting as many people
Speaker 1: as I can with the experience I have while I'm
Speaker 1: visiting this earth, you know. And so that's my trajectory
Speaker 1: work moving forward.
Speaker 2: Walkerwaar's story is one of true entrepreneurship, creativity, and dedication
Speaker 2: to the culture. When April wanted a space to celebrate
Speaker 2: the hip hop world she loved, she went out and
Speaker 2: got her own store. When she desired new designs, she
Speaker 2: created her own line Along the Way. April assembled a
Speaker 2: team of all Stars and Gloria and Kimya, and continues
Speaker 2: her mentorship today by helping young creatives.
Speaker 1: Like Miles.
Speaker 2: And Through it all, the north Star has always remained
Speaker 2: hip hop, creating a space for her tribe to be seen,
Speaker 2: heard and worn her Idea Generation. I'm Noah Callahan Bever.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the All Angles Pod presented by
Speaker 2: will Packer Media. If you've enjoyed this episode, please don't
Speaker 2: hesitate to like, comment DM, or tell a friend to
Speaker 2: tell a friend about Idea Generation and the All Angles Podcast.
Speaker 2: This episode was brought to you by Will Packer Executive
Speaker 2: produced by John Valachick and Helena Os, Original music by
Speaker 2: Valentine Fritz, edit and sound mixed by Nonsensible Production, and
Speaker 2: hosted by me Idea Generation founder Noah Callahan Bever. Idea
Speaker 2: Generations All Angles is a Will Packer Media podcast