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Speaker 3: I had to sacrifice the season to be able to
Speaker 3: get on point within the season. No, So my only
Speaker 3: advice for people that's trying to get into the business,
Speaker 3: no matter what it is, do your research because a
Speaker 3: lot of my fails happened because I didn't have the
Speaker 3: proper research. You know, when you're incarcerated, you can only
Speaker 3: get but so much information. And when I came home,
Speaker 3: I thought I knew everything, and I didn't know anything.
Speaker 4: My graduates from my school being false bad drop drop, Mike,
Speaker 4: drop back drop.
Speaker 5: All right, guys, welcome back, e y L were back home.
Speaker 5: It's been a minute, very rare, exciting. So this is
Speaker 5: this is an interview that is really dope for a
Speaker 5: variety of different reasons. But Daryl Austin, so one of
Speaker 5: these things that we always talked about being in the
Speaker 5: right place at the right time. We're talking about investments
Speaker 5: coming up, and it's very important to put yourself around
Speaker 5: the people that you actually want to connect with. So
Speaker 5: we were in La Shout out to BT, and we
Speaker 5: were at the BT House House of BT, and we
Speaker 5: interviewed Ninny Leaks shout out to her, and we were
Speaker 5: about to leave because we had to go to Miss
Speaker 5: Ditty's event. Shout out to Miss Diddy. So long story short,
Speaker 5: a few people you know connected with us like YO,
Speaker 5: and it was one gentleman for sure, Darryl, who I'm
Speaker 5: not sure how he got to me, but he met
Speaker 5: me and he was it was very quick. This what's
Speaker 5: important to have an elevator pitch. Also, the same thing happened,
Speaker 5: ironically enough. I'm actually wearing east Side Golf. Jordan's today
Speaker 5: shout out to east Side Golf and they met us
Speaker 5: at a hotel lobby and type of similar situation upon
Speaker 5: us us. Yeah, it was interesting because when I met Daryl,
Speaker 5: he was very concise. I think he showed me some pictures.
Speaker 5: He's like, yo, I got a luxury brand. We were
Speaker 5: about to go into luxury stores. And I was on
Speaker 5: and Nick Cannon's show and I'm like, oh, his podcast.
Speaker 5: He was like, n his show, his TV show before
Speaker 5: I got canceled. I'm like, that's interesting. So he showed
Speaker 5: it to me and it was a it was a
Speaker 5: very quick presentation, but it made a lot of sense
Speaker 5: to me and it was interesting to me. So I'm like,
Speaker 5: all right, let's get it done. Hit up Dula.
Speaker 6: He called me at the front of the stage, right
Speaker 6: and did us met us in the back of the stage.
Speaker 6: It wasn't even you, it was your.
Speaker 4: Man, like yo, no, my man, my man caught here,
Speaker 4: like yeah, we cat caught you.
Speaker 6: We came all away from Philly. This has to happen, bro,
Speaker 6: and I think we walked all the way to the car, like, Yo,
Speaker 6: we're gonna make it happen.
Speaker 4: Let's do this.
Speaker 5: But but the thing I liked about it, and we'll
Speaker 5: talk about the brand. But so it's a luxury brand.
Speaker 5: And so if anybody follows me, you know, I do
Speaker 5: the Drip Report, Legendary Drip Report where I chronicle my outfits,
Speaker 5: and like, I like these like Goodman shoes, like I
Speaker 5: like come from that era where it's like products but
Speaker 5: like real simple dress type of shoes. So when he
Speaker 5: showed me these, and I'll show it to you if
Speaker 5: you can see it. These are these are one of
Speaker 5: the products. They reminded me of that where it's like
Speaker 5: you can actually wear to you know, a club, you
Speaker 5: could wear it just chilling. It's like it's very versatile
Speaker 5: type of type of shoe sneaker combination. So I liked
Speaker 5: the product. That's another reason. And I like the story too.
Speaker 5: Once out and now even hearing some more about the story,
Speaker 5: I even liked it even more. So that was like
Speaker 5: two weeks ago. I said, we want to get you
Speaker 5: on the show two weeks later here, So thank you
Speaker 5: for joining us. Brother appreciate it having me.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. Yeah, and the show man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Long journey here, he said, he willing to go anywhere.
Speaker 6: You know, our next three stops.
Speaker 5: You got to. You already know you got to. So
Speaker 5: let's let's get into this. So Bungee Chi, that's how
Speaker 5: you pronounce it, Say it correctly, Bungee that's the name
Speaker 5: of the brand. Yeah, okay, that's the first question is
Speaker 5: what does that mean? Why did you name it that?
Speaker 4: All right, Bungie?
Speaker 3: It was for all the ups and downs in my life,
Speaker 3: because you know, at a certain period of my life,
Speaker 3: I would.
Speaker 4: Do really well.
Speaker 3: You know, I was out on tour, I was rapping,
Speaker 3: and then I'll get locked up. So now I'm back
Speaker 3: down at the bottom of the barrel. I get out
Speaker 3: of jail, get back out on the road, start rapping.
Speaker 3: Then I'm back in jail. And it was just a
Speaker 3: non stop up and down part of my life. And
Speaker 3: then even after I came home from prison, I started
Speaker 3: this business, it just seemed like everything was up and down,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like I didn't really know
Speaker 3: what the future was going to be. It was just
Speaker 3: up and down, up and down, up and down. So
Speaker 3: bungee to me represents all the ups and downs in
Speaker 3: my life. And I knew that other people were going
Speaker 3: through ups and downs as well. It wasn't just me.
Speaker 3: So I felt like bungeie fit everyone. And then I
Speaker 3: came up with appla chenni because it's a synonym of apparel.
Speaker 3: I went to a trade show. I had actually had
Speaker 3: a table at a trade show, and when I got there,
Speaker 3: everyone it was either apparel or wardrobe or something like that,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I got to come up with
Speaker 3: something a little bit more creative.
Speaker 4: It was the rapper in me. It was like, no,
Speaker 4: I'm not going for that.
Speaker 3: So I ended up, you know, google searching syndonyms for
Speaker 3: apparel and I couldn't find anything, and I started searching
Speaker 3: other languages and then nabla chenny just stuck out.
Speaker 4: And then I had to figure out how to say it.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, because I.
Speaker 3: Thought it was out, but I just knew that the
Speaker 3: wording just looked good together, you know, So I ended
Speaker 3: up searching how to say it, and abli chenny it is.
Speaker 6: So there's been barriers with that. I'm sure right when
Speaker 6: people thinking you said that to us, one of the
Speaker 6: things we talked about is like you just simplified.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: When people hear the name, I'm sure they were like, well,
Speaker 6: you need to change this, but you didn't. So what
Speaker 6: was it that you said? Look, I got to stick
Speaker 6: to my guns on this.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that for the most part, you know,
Speaker 3: I hear it a lot, like people are like, why
Speaker 3: don't you just call it abli Chenni?
Speaker 4: Why does it have to be Bungie?
Speaker 3: And then it's like why do you have to have
Speaker 3: abli Chenny At the end we can't even pronounce it,
Speaker 3: but if people see it and they can't search it.
Speaker 3: But I just kind of feel like that's what's in
Speaker 3: my heart, like that Bungie Abli Chenny. It brings back
Speaker 3: so many memories of like when I was incarcerated, when
Speaker 3: I was going through all the different things. I lost
Speaker 3: my grandfather when I was in there. I come home,
Speaker 3: my grandmother doesn't remember who I am because you know,
Speaker 3: she had Alzheimer's. So it's like, you know, so many
Speaker 3: different things that Bungie represents for me that I just
Speaker 3: couldn't get rid of it.
Speaker 5: It's like, biaga, Yeah, you know how to say that.
Speaker 5: You say that exactly for sure.
Speaker 6: You know how to pay for it too.
Speaker 5: Out find a way, all right, So let's get this backstory.
Speaker 5: It was a very interesting backstory. So you're from Pennsylvania
Speaker 5: outside of Philly, right, Yeah, what's the exact area.
Speaker 4: Pali, Pennsylvania, Like ten minutes from Coltsville.
Speaker 5: Okay. So you grow up and at what point do
Speaker 5: you do you get incarcerated.
Speaker 3: I got incarcerated when I turned like twenty two. It
Speaker 3: was like right after I turned twenty two, that was
Speaker 3: my first first taste of prison.
Speaker 5: Okay, and then from then it was an ongoing in
Speaker 5: and out of jail type situation right there.
Speaker 4: It was the same thing that Meet Mill was going through.
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, you go to prison, you come home,
Speaker 3: you violateing probation and parole all the time. You know,
Speaker 3: they'll put like a crazy curfew on you. If you
Speaker 3: missed the curfew, they catch you, you're done. I never
Speaker 3: did drugs. I never drank before. But what I didn't
Speaker 3: know at the time was when I'm bagging up my work,
Speaker 3: I didn't realize that it was getting in my sister here. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so whenever I would go do with your incest, it
Speaker 3: was coming up hot, but it wasn't really hot. So
Speaker 3: they let me do that like two or three times
Speaker 3: before they bagged me and I had to go back
Speaker 3: to jail for six months and stuff like that. So
Speaker 3: it was like a constant in and out. Like if
Speaker 3: I crossed state lines, I wasn't allowed in the city
Speaker 3: of Philly. I had to stay in my area. If
Speaker 3: I got caught out there, then I would go back
Speaker 3: to prison. So I went through that my whole adult life.
Speaker 3: Like I just got off parole like a year and
Speaker 3: a half ago, two years ago, something like that.
Speaker 6: So what was the longest stretch that you was in there?
Speaker 4: Six and a half six and a half years.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so and you've been home for seven years. Yeah,
Speaker 5: all right. So you're going through the system, in and out, parole, violations,
Speaker 5: getting locked up, getting violated, getting locked up. You would
Speaker 5: actually in jail with another alumni friend of ours, wallow Ye,
Speaker 5: shout out to wallow to six seven, shout out to
Speaker 5: six seven. And so at what point do you say, Okay,
Speaker 5: this is enough, I'm tired. Because a lot of people
Speaker 5: have similar situations right where it's like it's hard. You
Speaker 5: really can't get a good job up. You know, you're
Speaker 5: going back and forth, and you know, it's just it
Speaker 5: becomes a vicious cycle. You might have kids, you fall
Speaker 5: in child support situation. You can actually go to jail
Speaker 5: for that before. People don't realize how easy it is
Speaker 5: to keep going back to jail once you kind of
Speaker 5: fall in that system. So at what point do you say, Okay,
Speaker 5: this is not for me, like I'm doing something different.
Speaker 3: Well, first, I felt like the whole time that I
Speaker 3: wanted to do more of my life, and I was
Speaker 3: selling drugs to be able to get to that point
Speaker 3: because I just felt like it was the fastest money
Speaker 3: that I could possibly get. So I always knew that
Speaker 3: I wanted to do something morebl when I got caught
Speaker 3: that last time, I started losing family members because I
Speaker 3: was going for that six and a half years. So
Speaker 3: it's like once my grandfather passed away, his last memory
Speaker 3: of me is getting dragged off his porch and getting
Speaker 3: paed up by the police. So it's like, after he
Speaker 3: passed away, I ended up having a conversation with my
Speaker 3: mom and she's like, listen, I don't know what you're
Speaker 3: going to do.
Speaker 4: With yourself.
Speaker 3: But right now they're doing background checks for people that
Speaker 3: you know that are trying to get jobs for when
Speaker 3: you're trying to move into a place, whatever it is
Speaker 3: that you you gotta do. There was a background a
Speaker 3: check attached to that, and she was like, the only
Speaker 3: way you're gonna be able to survive out here is
Speaker 3: if you create your own business. So at that point,
Speaker 3: you know, I just went back to the cell man
Speaker 3: I prayed for the first time.
Speaker 4: I never really was a religious dude or nothing like that.
Speaker 3: I prayed and I was like, I don't know where
Speaker 3: I should go with my life, but I just need
Speaker 3: some sort of guidance.
Speaker 4: And I just left it at that.
Speaker 3: And then like two hours later, I wake up something
Speaker 3: told me to sketch. I sketched a pair of sneakers
Speaker 3: and it looked like I took the sneaker and placed
Speaker 3: it on the shoot.
Speaker 4: That's how good it was.
Speaker 3: I never sketched before in my life, so once I
Speaker 3: seen that, I'm like, damn, maybe I can just make
Speaker 3: a living sketching, you know, sneakers. I didn't think about
Speaker 3: a sneaker brand at that time. I was just focused
Speaker 3: on sketching sneakers. And you know, I kept showing all
Speaker 3: the different you know, walkies and sellies and stuff like that,
Speaker 3: and they're like, yo, like you need to think about
Speaker 3: doing your own brand. So then I ended up creating
Speaker 3: my own sneaker. And then you know, I just started
Speaker 3: asking people their opinion, like what you think about this?
Speaker 4: What you think if I added that? What if I
Speaker 4: take it off?
Speaker 5: This in jail? Yeah, so you created your own sneaker
Speaker 5: on paper. Yeah, you didn't physically you have a sneaker,
Speaker 5: you know, you created it the idea.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And then what happened was I didn't. I wasn't
Speaker 3: really a great artist because I just started while I
Speaker 3: was there. So when I used to go out to
Speaker 3: the yard, I used to take a keyboard with me
Speaker 3: and I used to just you know, make beats, and
Speaker 3: I used to have all the rappers rap all the time.
Speaker 3: But this one time I went out and I was like,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm gonna take a couple pack of cigarettes
Speaker 3: with me, and I'm going to walk around and every
Speaker 3: one of those dudes that are sketching, I'm gonna give
Speaker 3: them a pack of cigarettes to teach me something.
Speaker 4: So that's yep, yep.
Speaker 3: So after I started doing that, I stopped walking with
Speaker 3: the keyboard as much and I just started going around
Speaker 3: just picking information from people. So it's like I would
Speaker 3: get this artist that would show me how to do shading.
Speaker 3: This artist would teach me how to like make it
Speaker 3: where like if you turn it to the side or
Speaker 3: to look this way, or if you sketch it this
Speaker 3: way to look that way. And then after I did
Speaker 3: that and I honed in all on those skills, then
Speaker 3: I started looking for people that I would see out
Speaker 3: in the yard with business books or people on the
Speaker 3: block that would have business books, and I would sit
Speaker 3: down and talk to them about business plans and all that.
Speaker 3: Because you got to remember, I never went to college.
Speaker 3: I went to high school and that was it. So
Speaker 3: at that point I just started introducing myself to different people.
Speaker 3: I was also the barber there, so I used to
Speaker 3: talk to everyone as I was cutting her hair. So
Speaker 3: I was gaining a lot of knowledge from people in prison.
Speaker 6: So you got the architects skills from walking around, you
Speaker 6: got the business ideas, and you had a license to
Speaker 6: be a barber all in the same time, so you're
Speaker 6: maximizing your time absolutely. So who's the person that obviously
Speaker 6: when you start the sketches at the how many sketches
Speaker 6: are you showing? And who's the person that's like, look,
Speaker 6: let's sit down and really draw this business planning up.
Speaker 6: Is it somebody?
Speaker 4: It wasn't.
Speaker 3: There was multiple people, and everyone that I talked to
Speaker 3: was like, Yo, you're not supposed to be here, Like
Speaker 3: you're running around doing these different things. You're supposed to
Speaker 3: be out there doing something in the world. You're not
Speaker 3: supposed to be here. And every time I heard that,
Speaker 3: it was from different people, but they were saying the
Speaker 3: same thing, but just a little bit differently. So I
Speaker 3: was like, man, like, maybe I need to figure out
Speaker 3: how I can get out of here and then drop
Speaker 3: jewels to these dudes that are incarcerated after I get
Speaker 3: out and get successful. So as of right now, you know,
Speaker 3: I go back and I donate my time to the
Speaker 3: prison and I speak to the inmates and I tell them,
Speaker 3: you know, what my philosophy was and how I went
Speaker 3: about accomplishing what I accomplished. I know, I speed all that,
Speaker 3: but it's like the most smartest people that I ever
Speaker 3: met was in prison. Like it's crazy how it is
Speaker 3: and how creative you can get when you just don't
Speaker 3: have anything around you, you know what I mean. So,
Speaker 3: like there's there's some really smart people in prison, man, definitely.
Speaker 5: So your mom said something I was very insightful. She said,
Speaker 5: you just said it, So the only opportunity to start
Speaker 5: your own business. What was the exact quote.
Speaker 3: She taught me, The only way that I'm going to
Speaker 3: survive out here is if I create my own business.
Speaker 4: And I'll never forget that, she said that.
Speaker 6: And this business, like the other part is that you've
Speaker 6: never had a job in your life. Never It was
Speaker 6: fourteen it was selling drugs and wrapping. Then you get
Speaker 6: locked up, going and out, but you've never had so
Speaker 6: the business is the first time you're ever going to
Speaker 6: be not even employed, but making money for yourself.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well that's that's a very insightful commentary on her part.
Speaker 5: And yeah, it's something that it's the harsh reality. It's
Speaker 5: a harsh reality, right because it's like especially you know,
Speaker 5: having felonies going to jail, same thing on nature. Yeah,
Speaker 5: of course there's always going to be you know, people
Speaker 5: that find a way that you know, but for the
Speaker 5: most part, your job opportunity is limited. Job opportunity is
Speaker 5: limited now anyway, but especially with that, so it's like
Speaker 5: you're stuck to, you know, a minimum wage type situation,
Speaker 5: and what is that going to do? That's going to
Speaker 5: force you back in the street. Right, you can't even
Speaker 5: buy enough, you can't even make enough to actually support yourself.
Speaker 5: So the harsh reality is like, if you don't have
Speaker 5: your own business, you're gonna be screwed. So for how
Speaker 5: to even say that to you, Like, that's something that's
Speaker 5: very very insightful. So all right, So you get the
Speaker 5: information in jail, you start doing sketches, you start learning
Speaker 5: about business, start reading books, start educating yourself different things
Speaker 5: of that nature. When do you actually launch the company.
Speaker 3: I came home from prison and I come home to
Speaker 3: a new world Facebook, Instagram.
Speaker 4: I never heard of any of it when I was
Speaker 4: what's the time period.
Speaker 3: I came home and the like, when was it I
Speaker 3: got to the halfway house, I want to say, in
Speaker 3: like twenty fifteen something like that. So it's like I
Speaker 3: had no idea any of this stuff was even going on,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, And I had I had
Speaker 3: to figure out how to use it, you know, And
Speaker 3: I was like I remember, like the very first time
Speaker 3: I was going to post a picture. I felt like
Speaker 3: a nut because it was like, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 3: first of all, where I come from, you don't put
Speaker 3: your business out there like that.
Speaker 4: And I'm seeing.
Speaker 3: People like, hey, I'm over here, I'm doing this. I
Speaker 3: just couldn't relate to that. So like the very first picture,
Speaker 3: I'm like, I was over there. People think that I
Speaker 3: was over there, but I'm really over here? Is I
Speaker 3: took that picture over there and I posted it later.
Speaker 3: So like I did that for a while, like you know,
Speaker 3: because I just couldn't get used to telling people what
Speaker 3: I was doing. And then it was just like you know,
Speaker 3: once I ended up getting to that point where I
Speaker 3: kind of got used to the to the you know,
Speaker 3: Facebook and all. And I still to this day had
Speaker 3: never used Twitter before either. I never used Twitter or TikTok.
Speaker 3: I just I just can't get to that point yet.
Speaker 4: Anyway.
Speaker 3: To get to the point I ended up launching, I
Speaker 3: want to say I didn't even launch.
Speaker 4: I bought samples for like the first three years.
Speaker 3: I didn't have enough money to be able to even
Speaker 3: get an order in you know what I mean. I
Speaker 3: just didn't have the money and I didn't want to
Speaker 3: go back to selling drugs and games.
Speaker 4: I didn't want to go back to jail.
Speaker 3: So for the first three years of me being home,
Speaker 3: I was just getting samples and changing the name and
Speaker 3: going back and forth for different ideas. And then you know,
Speaker 3: finally that one day that guy came in the barbershop
Speaker 3: and he was like, Yo, do you have His name
Speaker 3: is Ernest, by the way, I want call him that
Speaker 3: guy earn This comes in the barbershop and he's like, yo,
Speaker 3: like do you have these in the size such and such?
Speaker 3: And I was like no, And he's like, well, what
Speaker 3: do I need to do to be able to get
Speaker 3: him in the size? And I was like, I need
Speaker 3: like ten grand to be able to get it going.
Speaker 3: And he was just like, you got a business plan?
Speaker 3: I was like yeah, He's like meet me at Starbucks tomorrow.
Speaker 3: So I was like, all I bet. So I ended
Speaker 3: up meeting them at Starbucks, and I remember it like
Speaker 3: yesterday he was reading this, and I remember my heart
Speaker 3: was pounded. I'm like, this could be my opportunity right here,
Speaker 3: right because I knew that all I needed was like
Speaker 3: ten grand. So he's reading a business plan. He gets
Speaker 3: to like the first two pages. He's like, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: give you fourteen thousand. I'm like, all right, can you
Speaker 3: finish reading the business plan? So he ended up going
Speaker 3: another couple of pages like I'm gonna give you twenty
Speaker 3: I'm gonna give you twenty thousand. So I'm like all right,
Speaker 3: but finished reading the business plan. So he gets all
Speaker 3: the way to the end of the business plan and
Speaker 3: he says, I'm gonna give you fifty thousand.
Speaker 6: Earnest, what's going on?
Speaker 2: Check this out. We're gonna do something really special for y'all.
Speaker 6: I know y'all enjoying this episode with my brother Dalel
Speaker 6: Oilson and his luxury sneaker brand.
Speaker 2: All right, show, here's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 6: When you head over to a Bungee brand dot com,
Speaker 6: We're giving you fifty dollars off your purchase of men's apparel,
Speaker 6: women's apparel and footwear.
Speaker 2: That's fifty dollars off. Here's what you gotta do. Use
Speaker 2: the code EYL that sucks eyls real simple, fifty dollars
Speaker 2: off and.
Speaker 6: Get your drip on.
Speaker 2: You know how we do drip responsibly.
Speaker 4: And he was like, meet me at the bank tomorrow.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna show you how to get the II in
Speaker 3: number and all that, because he asked me if I
Speaker 3: knew how, and I was like nah, And he ended
Speaker 3: up taking me to the bank and the money in there.
Speaker 3: But then two days of that meeting, and that's how
Speaker 3: I got gonna start.
Speaker 6: So that's that's pretty incredible. Sout to Ernest. So the picture,
Speaker 6: he's he you have the shoes on display in the
Speaker 6: barber shop so people can come in, they can actually
Speaker 6: see the point.
Speaker 3: I didn't do it for the people to see how
Speaker 3: I was doing it, because you got to remember, I
Speaker 3: was a bench warmer.
Speaker 4: I just came home. I'm in there. No one wants
Speaker 4: to get in my chair, you know.
Speaker 5: So he was a barber.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was a barber, So no one wanted to
Speaker 3: get my chair because no one around there knew me
Speaker 3: as a barber. They knew me as a drug dealer
Speaker 3: and that was it. So no, like they would bypass
Speaker 3: my chair and go to the other dudes. So I
Speaker 3: would just put the sneakers in the window and just
Speaker 3: look to see like what can I change on it?
Speaker 4: What can I do to make it look better?
Speaker 6: Like, you know, so you're watching the people walking by,
Speaker 6: seeing if they're getting interested in. Yeah, Okay, this one
Speaker 6: is gonna be This's gonna work. Yeah, people keep stopping.
Speaker 5: Yeah that's how So the first so you said the SAMP,
Speaker 5: so you're just like getting like one off from like
Speaker 5: China and something like that. And just like I went to.
Speaker 4: Ali Baba dot Com.
Speaker 3: I found a little manufacturer right there, and uh, you know,
Speaker 3: I was getting samples and the thing is like when
Speaker 3: you get the samples from these places, they're expecting you
Speaker 3: to place order and I wasn't place in order, so
Speaker 3: they'd be like, nah, we ain't doing no more samples
Speaker 3: for you, like ten out of time, so I have
Speaker 3: to do like other I would have to do other manufacturers.
Speaker 3: So I would have like seven samples but from seven
Speaker 3: different factories, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: And they all expected you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and they all expected the bulk order and I
Speaker 4: just didn't have the money to do it next, so
Speaker 4: like they go find another one. Check the reviews.
Speaker 5: Anybody that's not familiar with samps. So it's like what
Speaker 5: he was. So like we get our stuff made overseas,
Speaker 5: and like before we actually decided we're gonna work with
Speaker 5: this guy, like we gave him like a couple, like
Speaker 5: a track suit, hoodie, T shirt dad, and then he
Speaker 5: made like, let's say, like ten pieces of clothes for us,
Speaker 5: sent it to us. We paid for it, but he
Speaker 5: sent it to us so that way we can check
Speaker 5: the material, see if it's right, go back and say, nah,
Speaker 5: this is off. You need to add something here. That's
Speaker 5: what he's referring to as far as like samples, right,
Speaker 5: But they're expecting it to be like all right now,
Speaker 5: now we're going to order a thousand pieces in But
Speaker 5: you was just like, all right, I'm done to the next.
Speaker 3: Because I didn't have the money, I don't know money
Speaker 3: to get the samples made. And you know, like a
Speaker 3: sneaker sample is different than like a hoodie and a
Speaker 3: T shirt and stuff.
Speaker 4: It's a lot more involved with it.
Speaker 3: And I didn't know that involvement at the time, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean, I'm thinking, they make sneakers. I
Speaker 3: send them a sketch, They tell me what materials it is,
Speaker 3: They let me know everything because they already make sneakers.
Speaker 4: But I didn't realize that.
Speaker 3: You know, you have to handpick every single thing of
Speaker 3: your shoes. So like my samples were just what they
Speaker 3: created off of my sketch, and you know, we were
Speaker 3: getting a lot of people looking at them just because
Speaker 3: it was new.
Speaker 4: But one thing that I learned, and I had to
Speaker 4: learn the hard way.
Speaker 3: Is I had hundreds of people coming through that barbershop
Speaker 3: at that time, and they would all be like, Yo,
Speaker 3: I want to sign such and such, I want to
Speaker 3: size just want to size that. So I based my
Speaker 3: order off of how many people were saying that they
Speaker 3: wanted them. Once I got them back, knowing wanted I'm
Speaker 3: chasing them down like, hey, yo, like remember you said
Speaker 3: you want to size nine and they here, I don't
Speaker 3: want them, Like I'm good, I'm good. So like you know,
Speaker 3: to me, I feel like trying to get people to
Speaker 3: wear your sneakers is equivalent to trying to get someone
Speaker 3: that's been going to a certain barber and trying to
Speaker 3: get them to change barbers, Like would you guys, You
Speaker 3: guys wear Jordan's all this time. Trying to convince someone
Speaker 3: that loves Jordan's to wear a different type of sneaker
Speaker 3: is hard, you know what I'm saying, Because they never
Speaker 3: heard of you, they don't know what the brand is,
Speaker 3: and it's like, you know, I remember when I first
Speaker 3: got my sneaker samples and I put them up on Instagram,
Speaker 3: and this is when.
Speaker 4: I thought I was popping right.
Speaker 3: All I kept seeing was all these different comments saying
Speaker 3: what are those? And my dumb ass is sitting there
Speaker 3: hitting them back like yeah, this is the new bunge
Speaker 3: out the chitty, and I'm thinking that one of those
Speaker 3: is a compliment because I didn't know what that meant.
Speaker 3: And then you know, one of my homies hit me up.
Speaker 3: I was like, yo, they playing you roll like, stop responding.
Speaker 6: I'm just in these kids these days. Man.
Speaker 4: Yeah. It was crazy.
Speaker 3: And the one thing that I noticed is that, like
Speaker 3: everyone that made those comments, I would click on their
Speaker 3: page to see who they were, and they all had
Speaker 3: Jordans on their page. So I knew right then and
Speaker 3: there and anyone that likes George, They're not gonna like my brand.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. It's just that simple.
Speaker 6: So when you send the samples and even putting them
Speaker 6: up on Instagram, because it's almost like when we put
Speaker 6: up a pool, it's like we had to trademark that power.
Speaker 6: What is that like? Do you have to make a
Speaker 6: patent for that design? Do you have to trademark design.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's tricky.
Speaker 3: It's tricky with shoes because there's only but so many
Speaker 3: silhouettes that you can do. So what we experienced was
Speaker 3: you couldn't really trademark the silhouette. You had to trademark
Speaker 3: like the design of it or the logo on it.
Speaker 3: And sometimes you can like patent or trademark of color,
Speaker 3: but it has to be a color that's not already
Speaker 3: out there, you know what I mean, So you got
Speaker 3: to create your own. So like for me, it's like
Speaker 3: when I actually looked at it, it was only a
Speaker 3: certain amount of silhouettes, so it's like every silhouette is
Speaker 3: going to be similar. Now, that's one thing that I
Speaker 3: was impressed with with Easy, Like they came out with
Speaker 3: their own silhouette, did their own things like and he
Speaker 3: changed it for real, like you know. And for me,
Speaker 3: being as I have my own brand, I don't really
Speaker 3: wear anything else but my stuff.
Speaker 4: But like I had the cop I had to, I
Speaker 4: had to.
Speaker 3: I always grab the stuff that doesn't look normal, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And I'm really surprised with how
Speaker 3: many people will not wear something that's not normal until
Speaker 3: they see someone else.
Speaker 4: Wearing it and that's the validation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's the difficult part for me because I'm
Speaker 3: the kind of person where I can walk into a
Speaker 3: store and I can scan the room and I know
Speaker 3: within three seconds if I want that or that or that,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, and I'll grab it and
Speaker 3: I keep it moving. There's other people that are out
Speaker 3: there that I'm realizing that it's like it's going to
Speaker 3: take them a long time. They don't know which color
Speaker 3: to get. They like this shoe, but they like, you know,
Speaker 3: I don't know do you have it in blue? Or
Speaker 3: do you have anything to wear with this? Like I
Speaker 3: know right away what I'm going to do. And then
Speaker 3: the other thing that I didn't realize that people do
Speaker 3: is they want to know backstories.
Speaker 4: It's like for me, I don't.
Speaker 3: Care how you know Gucci got the beginning. If I
Speaker 3: like a Gucci snick, I'm grabbing them. Like I never
Speaker 3: really took the time out to like do that kind
Speaker 3: of research. So I'm really surprised that people do that much.
Speaker 3: So it's like, you know, when it comes time for us,
Speaker 3: it's like number one, they look at me as being
Speaker 3: a black owned business, so they equate black with being cheap.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And it's just a harsh reality. And every time someone
Speaker 3: sees my merchandise in person or actually touches it, they're like, oh,
Speaker 3: how did you do this? You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: how are you able to do this? And like at
Speaker 3: trade shows, like black people would actually come up to
Speaker 3: me and say that, oh man, how did you get
Speaker 3: to this?
Speaker 4: You own this, this is your company.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And they just don't understand that a black person
Speaker 3: can have a quality sneaker, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: It's not like, you know, a pair or anything like that.
Speaker 3: It's much more difficult to do. But you know, they
Speaker 3: just automatically as soon as we're going to have something cheap,
Speaker 3: Like it's crazy.
Speaker 6: So you get to fifty thousand, Yeah, in your mind
Speaker 6: you're thinking like, oh, this is.
Speaker 4: Enough, but because I thought I made it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you've been scrambling with what you had and now
Speaker 6: you got fifty. So what's the process now that you
Speaker 6: got to fifty? What's the next step?
Speaker 3: But what I did was I ended up placing the
Speaker 3: order with China, and I ended up getting the sneaker order,
Speaker 3: and I was in for a route awakening because I
Speaker 3: had no idea that I had to pay for customs,
Speaker 3: I had to pay for export tax. I didn't know
Speaker 3: anything about any of this stuff. All I know is
Speaker 3: when I got my samples, they would make them and
Speaker 3: they would send them to my house. So I thought
Speaker 3: it was going directly to my house. It was nothing
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I had to pay for cargo ship. I had to
Speaker 3: pay for the space on the ship. I had to
Speaker 3: pay for truck drivers. Like all these different things I
Speaker 3: didn't equate. So by the time I ended up getting
Speaker 3: the sneaker order back, I remember Customs ended up taking
Speaker 3: the package because I was a new business and they
Speaker 3: wanted to search it. They ended up searching I had
Speaker 3: to pay them for searching it. And then I remember
Speaker 3: hiring a trucking service to pick it up and take
Speaker 3: it to my storage facility. And I got to the
Speaker 3: storage facility and I was like, I'm almost Brooke. I
Speaker 3: remember saying it. I was talking to myself bro As
Speaker 3: a matter of fact, I was on Facebook Live and
Speaker 3: I remember saying it like yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: I made it. Check it out, look look.
Speaker 3: And you know, everybody was all like cheering me on,
Speaker 3: like yo, that's crazy. You did it blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: And in my mind, I'm thinking I ran through that
Speaker 3: fifty but I got about a quarter million dollars worth
Speaker 3: of stuff here, you know what I'm saying. I remember
Speaker 3: after I got off Facebook Live, I opened the box up,
Speaker 3: opened a sneaker up, and I'm like.
Speaker 4: What the f is this? Because it was poly your
Speaker 4: theme leather. It wasn't leather. It wasn't the same leather
Speaker 4: that they used on the samples.
Speaker 3: They basically got my order that got the money, and
Speaker 3: then they gave me the cheapest leather that they can
Speaker 3: get so they can make more.
Speaker 4: Of a profit.
Speaker 5: You sent them the nah nah.
Speaker 3: Like the way it was, I think it was like
Speaker 3: twenty eight thousand for the whole order. Then it was like,
Speaker 3: you know, ten thousand to get it shipped over here.
Speaker 3: Then it was like, you know, two thousand with the
Speaker 3: import export stuff, and like it was all broke down
Speaker 3: to damn near forty three thousand or something like that.
Speaker 3: And the product was it was it was trash.
Speaker 4: So what'd you do? I was trying to sell it anyway.
Speaker 5: And I stepped on Yeah, yes, one of those dudes.
Speaker 4: I was running around saying, yo, this is top notch,
Speaker 4: just top quality. Yo, check this out.
Speaker 3: And at the time I didn't realize that, you know
Speaker 3: those dudes that buy top quality stuff, no, that it's
Speaker 3: not top quality.
Speaker 4: So, you know, I equated it to like the music business.
Speaker 3: Sometimes when I used to do the music thing, and
Speaker 3: I'll be able to walk into a room with someone
Speaker 3: major that can put me in a good position. Sometimes
Speaker 3: you only got that one time to get their eared
Speaker 3: If it's not right, you're not getting their ear back,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So I felt like around
Speaker 3: my way, I kind of messed up my reputation with
Speaker 3: the clothes and the sneaks that I was getting because
Speaker 3: I was literally that dude that was going to buy
Speaker 3: Gil d' and t's. I would go to a little
Speaker 3: pressing place at the mall or something, press my name
Speaker 3: on it, and like, yo, I got a high end brand,
Speaker 3: guild Dan still on the back. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I got a high end brand. I didn't know any better,
Speaker 3: because again, you know, I came from prison.
Speaker 6: I didn't know.
Speaker 3: So yes, I'm thinking I got this high end name.
Speaker 3: I got a high end brand.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: So after I ended up doing all that, it didn't
Speaker 3: work out. For me, and I didn't sell anything, and
Speaker 3: no one was really buying ex stuff for like the
Speaker 3: core people that really wanted to help me out, I
Speaker 3: didn't really sell much of anything. So at that point, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm selling them. I'm selling them out the barbershop and
Speaker 3: going to my man's barbershop. Like people are getting to
Speaker 3: know who I am and what I'm doing. But they
Speaker 3: just wasn't fans of the sneakers. So and then a
Speaker 3: couple people would buy hoodies and stuff. I was only
Speaker 3: selling twenty five dollar hoodies and stuff like that, so
Speaker 3: it wasn't, you know, anything that was that much.
Speaker 4: Stuff.
Speaker 3: They wanted to support, they would, but what happened was
Speaker 3: it just got to a standstill one day where I
Speaker 3: couldn't sell anything. And I remember that the Eagles won
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl, and when they won that Super Bowl,
Speaker 3: were in there watching the Super Ball parade, and one
Speaker 3: of the customers in there turned around, looked at me
Speaker 3: and was like, yo, if you had something with the
Speaker 3: Eagles on it, you'd be rich right now. So soon
Speaker 3: as he said it, I started brainstorming and I started
Speaker 3: sketching the Eagle sneaker. So I ended up getting the
Speaker 3: Eagle sneaker made with the last little bit of money
Speaker 3: that I had, and then I ended up borrowing some
Speaker 3: money from a friend to be able to get it
Speaker 3: shipped over here. And what I did was I did
Speaker 3: it a little bit differently this time. I ended up
Speaker 3: getting them flown over instead of by sea, because by
Speaker 3: sea it took like thirty four days. Then customs saw
Speaker 3: that they intercepted it and there was a whole bunch
Speaker 3: of unnecessary stuff, so I ended up getting them flown over,
Speaker 3: so it got like sent directly to my house. So
Speaker 3: I ended up with like two hundred and fifty sneakers.
Speaker 3: That's all I could really afford. And the next day
Speaker 3: I woke up at like six o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 3: they were talking about doing a pep rally down to
Speaker 3: Fox twenty nine. So when they did the pep rollley,
Speaker 3: I'm like, Yo, they're doing the Eagles pep rallley.
Speaker 4: I'm going down there. So I went and got a
Speaker 4: little Uhau truck.
Speaker 3: Put all them sneakers in the back, and I drove
Speaker 3: down Center City, which is about thirty five minutes from
Speaker 3: my house, and I remember walking up the sidewalk with
Speaker 3: a wagon like it was a wagon literally with boxes
Speaker 3: and sneakers on it, with an Eagle sneaker in my hand,
Speaker 3: And as soon as I walked up, you know, the
Speaker 3: news cast people were outside. As soon as I walked up,
Speaker 3: they were just like yo, like what's that? And then
Speaker 3: next thing you know, they're putting me on TV. People
Speaker 3: are catching the bus down there, people jumping out their cars,
Speaker 3: grabbing their pair and I'm just out there hustling, not
Speaker 3: realizing it's illegal.
Speaker 4: I wasn't supposed to be selling them Egle sneakers, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. Like, I didn't I didn't get
Speaker 4: permission from the Eagles and do that.
Speaker 6: It was like somebody on it was like the logo,
Speaker 6: did the.
Speaker 4: Logo everything everything.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna show you guys a picture before it's over, right,
Speaker 3: So you know what I mean, Like, yeah, I had
Speaker 3: the whole thing. I had the Super Bowl to tag
Speaker 3: and everything on it. Right, So you know, I ended
Speaker 3: up selling out that day. So I ended up making
Speaker 3: a lot of money back, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Like I was literally going back to the truck stashing
Speaker 3: money in the truck because I didn't want to get
Speaker 3: ribbed out there, and I would run back out finished hustling,
Speaker 3: So I ended up selling everything except for like four
Speaker 3: pair something like that.
Speaker 6: How much did it colost to make those niggers?
Speaker 4: At that time?
Speaker 3: It was like thirty two dollars to make a pair,
Speaker 3: and I was selling them for one seventy five, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. But when you add in the
Speaker 3: shipping costs and all that, it came out to being
Speaker 3: like sixty something dollars a pair.
Speaker 5: Hundred margin.
Speaker 4: Yeah good, Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I was always told you're supposed to mark up
Speaker 3: at least three times. And I understand now because even
Speaker 3: like in my position when I did the foot locker deal,
Speaker 3: like foot Locker is only going to pay like forty
Speaker 3: five percent at max of the retail costs. So it's
Speaker 3: like I really only made like twenty dollars off the
Speaker 3: foot Locker off of each pair, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: But for me, it was the exposure. It wasn't really
Speaker 4: about the money.
Speaker 3: But it's like those are the things that I had
Speaker 3: to had to learn through trial and error. But after
Speaker 3: I ended up doing the Eagles thing, I'm like that
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go get more Eagle sneakers made.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna kill him for Christmas, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: because you know, football season is still in during Christmas.
Speaker 4: So I'm thinking I'm gonna do that.
Speaker 3: And I'm literally like two days after I blew up
Speaker 3: off of that, I'm at the barbershop and I had
Speaker 3: my new samples on and a guy came that I
Speaker 3: knew and asked me if I knew someone that wanted
Speaker 3: the TV. And I'm like nah, and he was like, yo, like,
Speaker 3: I got this TV my boss is giving away. You
Speaker 3: might want to you might want to take this or
Speaker 3: give it to somebody. It's really nice, Like all right,
Speaker 3: So I ride down there and I was just spending
Speaker 3: tea before. Like the dude's crib was huge. The fence
Speaker 3: opened up like this. I dropped the driveway driveways.
Speaker 4: A mile along.
Speaker 3: I got animals on both sides of the gate, and
Speaker 3: I was just blown away because I didn't realize that
Speaker 3: this kind of house was even in my area because
Speaker 3: I lived in my area and I never left. I
Speaker 3: was never really on a plane before, nothing like I
Speaker 3: just stayed in my hood.
Speaker 4: That was it.
Speaker 3: So after that happened, I go inside with picking the
Speaker 3: TV up, and his boss's wife comes out and.
Speaker 4: She's like, oh my god, where'd you get those sneakers?
Speaker 4: And I put the TV down, my elevator pitch. You
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, I did this, I did that, and
Speaker 3: I broke it all down to her. It's like, we
Speaker 3: do you have a website? And the website was trash.
Speaker 3: Website was tracked because it was just I used my
Speaker 3: cell phone. I just made a website real quick. And
Speaker 3: she still liked it enough for her to get her
Speaker 3: employee to call me back and set up a meeting
Speaker 3: between me and her husband. So me and her husband
Speaker 3: met at his house, and you know, I basically explained
Speaker 3: to him, like listen, I don't want to waste your time.
Speaker 3: I was formally incarcerated and he wanted to know what
Speaker 3: I did. It was all drug charges. I had weapons
Speaker 3: charges too, and he was like, you didn't have a
Speaker 3: good lawyer, did you?
Speaker 4: And he laughed at me. I'm like, yeah, that's not funny, man,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: But anyway, he was like, y'all, I'm not worried about that, Like,
Speaker 3: what's going on with your business?
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 3: And I told him everything that was going on, and
Speaker 3: that's when he told me, I wouldn't recommend you using
Speaker 3: those ego sneakers again, like you'll.
Speaker 4: Get in trouble for that.
Speaker 3: So I was happy that he taught me that because
Speaker 3: I'm like, if I would have got another order, they
Speaker 3: would have got seized or something I'd have been done,
Speaker 3: that would have been my last bit of money, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. So after that, by the time
Speaker 3: he got done, you know, talking for about two hours,
Speaker 3: he was like, I know someone that was in your
Speaker 3: shoes just two years ago when he's a millionaire of
Speaker 3: the day. He didn't do fashion, but he was just
Speaker 3: starting a business, and he was like, I really want
Speaker 3: you to meet him. He might be able to guide
Speaker 3: you some sort of way. So at this point, I'm
Speaker 3: not thinking about finances. I'm not thinking about getting anything
Speaker 3: from them except knowledge. And you know, one thing that
Speaker 3: I was basing this off of was like I was
Speaker 3: telling you earlier. You know, coming from prison, you come
Speaker 3: back with a lot of bad habits. So I didn't
Speaker 3: know how to sit in a room with people and communicate,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. I had all the slouching
Speaker 3: and the you know what I'm saying. So it was
Speaker 3: like I had to learn all over again how to
Speaker 3: communicate with these people. So I'm in these boardrooms and
Speaker 3: I'm looking at how they how they're folding their hands
Speaker 3: and how they're folding their legs and how they're talking
Speaker 3: and communicating, and I just would mimic it. And that's
Speaker 3: how I started to get into these big rooms and
Speaker 3: know how to handle myself, just from copying off of
Speaker 3: their stuff. So I get into this conference room and
Speaker 3: I'm talking to the guy that I'm thinking that I'm
Speaker 3: talking to for the meeting, and as we're talking, people
Speaker 3: are just slowly coming into this room, like putting their
Speaker 3: briefcases down and all that.
Speaker 4: So to get back to what I was.
Speaker 3: Saying, there are all these people are coming into the room,
Speaker 3: and I had no idea who they were, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. So I'm just sitting there and I'm like,
Speaker 3: all right, I'm going to keep entertaining all these different
Speaker 3: people until the guy comes in. He comes in, He's like, Yo,
Speaker 3: did he get it? Did he get an opportunity to
Speaker 3: tell you guys about the story? And they was like nah,
Speaker 3: And then I just told him everything, and I just
Speaker 3: told you about I created everything in prison, and they
Speaker 3: were all blown away with it and they're like, yo,
Speaker 3: like you you designed this while you were there. And
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, every single thing you see on
Speaker 3: this table was all design while I was incarcerated. So
Speaker 3: even this, all this stuff is all, you know, stuff
Speaker 3: from when I was incarcerated.
Speaker 4: And they were like, how much money do you need?
Speaker 3: And I was like seven grand and they laughed at me, like,
Speaker 3: you don't need seven grand for real, We're gonna put
Speaker 3: you with these financial people. They gonna tell us how
Speaker 3: much money you need, so you know, after that, they
Speaker 3: was like, oh, you're interested in telling your story and
Speaker 3: I was like, no, is this embarrassing to talk about
Speaker 3: being in prison?
Speaker 4: And they were like, look, man, you need to.
Speaker 3: Tell your story and shared us with the world because
Speaker 3: you may be able to inspire someone and you may
Speaker 3: be able to.
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Speaker 1: Do what's right, leave now. Under President Trump America's laws,
Speaker 1: Order and families will.
Speaker 4: Be protected sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland
Speaker 4: Security chase someone away from going to prison in the
Speaker 4: first place.
Speaker 3: So I told them that I would do it. Shortly
Speaker 3: after that, I ended up getting with the Financial Group.
Speaker 3: I didn't realize at the time I was in a
Speaker 3: real live shark tank. So fortunately for me, I knew
Speaker 3: the business well enough to be able to break it
Speaker 3: down to them, and they all congratulated me for a
Speaker 3: good pitch and all that, and I ended up leaving out.
Speaker 3: I met with the financial Group and they decided that
Speaker 3: I needed at least a million dollars and I left.
Speaker 3: I'm like, who's going to give me a million dollars? Bro?
Speaker 4: Like cut it out, you know what I'm saying, So
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So they ended up getting with the investors, and
Speaker 3: the investors greed, but they were like, we're not going
Speaker 3: to do a million, We'll do seven fifty just to see,
Speaker 3: you know, if this works out. And that was like
Speaker 3: the beginning, but it wasn't. It wasn't all good after that.
Speaker 3: The bungeie still was bouncing up and down.
Speaker 5: So it was like private equity farm.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they they're actually it people. They never invested
Speaker 3: in fashion or anything like that. I was the first guy.
Speaker 3: And the thing that I liked about these guys is,
Speaker 3: you know, they came at a time where, you know,
Speaker 3: they just wanted to help a black owned business, So
Speaker 3: they didn't really try to knock me over the head
Speaker 3: with a large amount of percentages.
Speaker 4: Like I still own the majority of the business.
Speaker 3: They gave me a lot of money towards it, and
Speaker 3: they still gave me a lot of the equity of
Speaker 3: the business, and I appreciate it.
Speaker 5: So it's like they became an angel investors. Yeah, and
Speaker 5: they took a percentage of the company and they gave
Speaker 5: you money. Yeah, were there are the strings attached to
Speaker 5: it or you had free range to kind of.
Speaker 3: No no strings attached. They just, you know, they just
Speaker 3: wanted to see me successful. They gave me the money
Speaker 3: and they gave me the connections, and they were like, listen,
Speaker 3: whatever you need to do to go find better mans manufacturing,
Speaker 3: go ahead. So I ended up flying out the Vegas
Speaker 3: to one of the manufacturing trade shows and that's how I.
Speaker 4: Ended up meeting the companies I deal with.
Speaker 3: So now instead of the whole China you know, poly
Speaker 3: your thane, leather, now I'm dealing with Italy, I deal
Speaker 3: with Portugal, I deal with Spain. So I have all
Speaker 3: those type of guys you know with me now. And
Speaker 3: there's a couple of high end sneaker companies that go
Speaker 3: through the same factories as mine.
Speaker 6: So you get the You got the fifteen, and it
Speaker 6: was business scaled up, and now you've got the seven fifteen.
Speaker 4: I didn't get to seven fifty.
Speaker 6: You didn't get the seven fifty. They just invested.
Speaker 3: Nah, they told me that like we were going to
Speaker 3: do seven fifty, and then after we ended up talking
Speaker 3: about that, they gave me a small amount I think
Speaker 3: it was like twenty five thousand just to be able
Speaker 3: to get my office started, get furniture, get embroidery machines,
Speaker 3: and all that stuff. As matter of fact, was more
Speaker 3: than that, because I got the embroidery machine was much
Speaker 3: more than that. So I ended up getting all these
Speaker 3: different things in the office and furniture, and right after
Speaker 3: I got the last desk s crew together, I ended
Speaker 3: up getting a phone telling me to turn the news on.
Speaker 3: I turned the news on. The Donald Trump said we
Speaker 3: gotta shut down this COVID. We got shut down for
Speaker 3: two weeks. So when I got that phone call and
Speaker 3: we had to shut down for two weeks. I'm talking
Speaker 3: to the main investor and he's like, yo, like I
Speaker 3: never see anything like this before in my lifetime. I'm
Speaker 3: not putting anything else up, I'm not doing anything business wise.
Speaker 3: We need to figure out what we're gonna do. So
Speaker 3: at that point I got scared because I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 3: he's nervous. They don't want to give any more money
Speaker 3: up now. And now I'm basically back defending for myself,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So what I did was
Speaker 3: I locked myself in for that two weeks. I locked
Speaker 3: myself in my office and I just worked that whole year,
Speaker 3: because it ended up going from two weeks to much
Speaker 3: longer as we all know. And I worked that whole year.
Speaker 3: And right before the lease was up, the lead investor
Speaker 3: asked if him and a couple of the other investors
Speaker 3: could come down just to see what I was doing.
Speaker 3: And when they came into office, they were blown away
Speaker 3: with everything, Like with the way the office looked like
Speaker 3: I had a showroom in there. I had all the
Speaker 3: sneakers up, I had you know, clothes that I ended
Speaker 3: up creating. And again I never went to college. I
Speaker 3: never went to design school. I went to YouTube University.
Speaker 3: That's how I learned how to use my sewing machine
Speaker 3: and all that stuff.
Speaker 6: So, so you're making the clothes in the shop.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what I do is I make the original thing,
Speaker 3: and then I send it out to the manufacturers.
Speaker 4: We just copy off of what I do.
Speaker 6: Is it just you? So like you're doing this, I'm
Speaker 6: thinking like, maybe there's a team, but is it just.
Speaker 3: Oh no, I have a team now, But at the
Speaker 3: time I didn't have a team twenty twenty, yeah, twenty
Speaker 3: it was just me locked in the office. So I
Speaker 3: ended up, you know, creating all these different pieces. And
Speaker 3: when they came in, they were just like blowing away
Speaker 3: with everything that they saw, and it was like, there's
Speaker 3: no way that we could cheat the world by not
Speaker 3: letting the world see what you're doing. So at that
Speaker 3: point they're like, look, go ahead and get your first shoemade.
Speaker 3: So I ended up designing a shoe called the Camera Rillo,
Speaker 3: which is kind of similar to the black one over there,
Speaker 3: but it has like python, yeah yeah, but it has
Speaker 3: python on the toe. It was all white with yeah,
Speaker 3: it was all white. It had sweded on it. And
Speaker 3: they had python on the toe and I ended up
Speaker 3: releasing that first to a shoe store called Blue Sole Shoes. Now,
Speaker 3: at the time, I couldn't get any shoes to eat.
Speaker 3: I mean, any stores even want to deal with me
Speaker 3: at all. So what I did was I've reached out
Speaker 3: to him and I was like, listen, you know, if
Speaker 3: we can get you know, some press around this release,
Speaker 3: is it possible for us to be able to get
Speaker 3: into your store? So he was like yeah, yeah, So
Speaker 3: he let us get into the store and Channel three came.
Speaker 3: I remember like it was yesterday. They came and they
Speaker 3: gave me ten seconds. I'm like, hey, how you doing.
Speaker 3: My name is Darrel Loss, And I got a brand
Speaker 3: called Bungee we just released and Blue Blue Soul shoes.
Speaker 3: And it's really important to me because I created this
Speaker 3: in prison. Over it was over after that, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. So literally the next day I ended
Speaker 3: up getting a phone call from one of the TV
Speaker 3: anchors off of that show, and they have their own show,
Speaker 3: so they interviewed me on that, and right after that,
Speaker 3: Channel six started calling Channel ten seventeen twenty nine. Next
Speaker 3: thing you know, I'm doing interviews with all these different
Speaker 3: independent local shows and all that, and I'm just building
Speaker 3: my exploit my brand. And I really was only doing
Speaker 3: it at first because I wanted to show all the
Speaker 3: people that saw the cheap stuff. I wanted them to
Speaker 3: know like, y'all, I'm not doing cheap stuff anymore, like
Speaker 3: this is real now. And it was like, I think
Speaker 3: I lost them because people around my way they don't
Speaker 3: rock my stuff.
Speaker 4: Like everywhere outside of that they wear my stuff. But
Speaker 4: I think I might have messed my name up with
Speaker 4: the people around the way.
Speaker 3: But anyway, after that ended up happening Inside Edition called,
Speaker 3: So I did Inside Edition after Inside Edition, then Fox
Speaker 3: News called, and Fox when I did my Fox News
Speaker 3: interview was all business and at the time I was
Speaker 3: just learning business. I didn't know anything about return on
Speaker 3: investments and all that kind of stuff. So they're asking
Speaker 3: me all these questions and I'm like, uh, I didn't
Speaker 3: know what to say. So after that, I started getting
Speaker 3: all these hate emails from you know, the you know,
Speaker 3: the people that filled the show. They're like, yo, you
Speaker 3: need to go back to prison and you know, get
Speaker 3: ft and da da da da da and.
Speaker 4: Maybe you'll learn your business better. Like they was grinding
Speaker 4: me up. So at this point, I'm insecure. I don't
Speaker 4: want to get on TV anymore. But then the Today's
Speaker 4: Show hit me up.
Speaker 3: When I did the Today's Show interview, like you know,
Speaker 3: when they hit me up, I I gotta do it.
Speaker 3: I gotta try to, you know, make a comeback off
Speaker 3: of this. And they gave me a nice amount of time.
Speaker 3: And with that interview, the guy the CEO, Dick Johnson
Speaker 3: from the CEO foot Locker, he saw the interview and
Speaker 3: he reached out to my camp and was like, listen,
Speaker 3: you know, we want to we want to put him
Speaker 3: in foot Locker now. This time, I just started hiring employees,
Speaker 3: which was the first time that I ever had to
Speaker 3: do anything like that. I'm not realizing that resumes are
Speaker 3: that important, you know. So I ran through a couple
Speaker 3: of different people and was like, nah, I can't I
Speaker 3: can't have you here. Like so, now I finally got
Speaker 3: a team that you know, I can trust, that I love,
Speaker 3: and you know, they bust her behind. But we ended
Speaker 3: up doing the foot Locker launch. The foot Locker Launcher
Speaker 3: King of Parsham Marrow was amazing. Even with COVID going on,
Speaker 3: we still had four or five hundred people waiting online
Speaker 3: to see the new products. So we ended up having
Speaker 3: a really really good event. So shortly after we did
Speaker 3: the foot Locker event, I get a call for Fox
Speaker 3: twenty nine, which I did the interview with Fox twenty
Speaker 3: nine earlier, and they were like, yo, like Nick Cannon
Speaker 3: just got his own TV show and we really wanted to,
Speaker 3: you know, surprise him with a pair of your sneakers.
Speaker 3: And I'm thinking to myself, like, damn, they could have
Speaker 3: gotten in touch with Nike anybody, but they called me,
Speaker 3: so I felt special. So I felt like, if it's
Speaker 3: a Nick Cannon shoe, I gotta go all in. So
Speaker 3: I ended up making his image on the white sneakers,
Speaker 3: the white camrollos that are up there. So I put
Speaker 3: his image on there in leather, had you know, the
Speaker 3: suit material stuff on there. I caught one of my
Speaker 3: guys up. They ended up helping me out, and you know,
Speaker 3: we killed the sneaker and they gave me an opportunity
Speaker 3: to present it to him on Fox twenty nine. So
Speaker 3: when I got out there, he's like trying to figure
Speaker 3: out who I am, why I'm there. He's looking at
Speaker 3: me all crazy, like who is this dude, and I
Speaker 3: finally walked up to him on live on TV. I
Speaker 3: gave him this box with this big red bow on it,
Speaker 3: and he still didn't know what it was. They opened
Speaker 3: the box up and he was just like, yo, like
Speaker 3: you put me on here? Like this was crazy. He
Speaker 3: was like, who are you?
Speaker 4: Where'd you come from?
Speaker 3: I started like they literally only gave me like two
Speaker 3: minutes to say what I needed to say. So I
Speaker 3: said everything about the prison and all that, and he
Speaker 3: was so blown away that by the time he went
Speaker 3: to the next commercial, I'm like, all right, man, nice
Speaker 3: meeting you.
Speaker 4: He's like, nah, man, give me a hug. Dog.
Speaker 3: So I gave him a hug and then he walks
Speaker 3: over to the side with me and he's like, yo,
Speaker 3: like where how did you start this? And then I
Speaker 3: had other sneakers for him. I had different color of these.
Speaker 3: I gave him knees. I gave him like three other
Speaker 3: pair and he was like, I just want to know
Speaker 3: how you started this.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 3: He was like, I see a lot of people with
Speaker 3: clothing brands, but I never seen anyone with a sneaker
Speaker 3: brand like this. So I told him what I did,
Speaker 3: and that split a couple of minutes and then he's like, YO,
Speaker 3: give me your numbers. I gave him the number. I'm like, Nick,
Speaker 3: you know you're not gonna call me. You're about to
Speaker 3: pull one of them. Uh what's the boys name that
Speaker 3: was on Martin You know what I'm talking about, Tommy Davison.
Speaker 4: Dude. He's like, if you was in l A, you
Speaker 4: be on my ship. Like I told Hi, I was like,
Speaker 4: don't Varnel help me, man, I don't do that till
Speaker 4: don't Varnell hear me. He was like I'm not, man,
Speaker 4: I'm telling you, I got you. So he was like
Speaker 4: all right.
Speaker 3: So I left and by the time I got to
Speaker 3: my off office, he had already texted me saying that
Speaker 3: he was gonna, you know, get back at me. And
Speaker 3: then his producer's call and was like, YO, like, we
Speaker 3: want you to come to the show on Monday. Nick's
Speaker 3: really excited. He wants you to be on the show
Speaker 3: like asat So I'm like, all right, cool. So I
Speaker 3: ended up leaving the office or whatever got everything set
Speaker 3: up for that Monday because it was literally like a Friday,
Speaker 3: and I ended up going to the show and you know,
Speaker 3: Nick treated me like I was the star. Like he
Speaker 3: had me feeling like I was the one I'm supposed
Speaker 3: to be happy to see him, but he treated me
Speaker 3: like royalty.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: It worked out.
Speaker 3: So after we ended up doing that interview, it just
Speaker 3: kept like spiraling out of control, like with all the
Speaker 3: different things that was happening. And that's why I knew
Speaker 3: that I was supposed to be here when I made
Speaker 3: that prayer all the way back when I was in prison,
Speaker 3: and after I made that prayer, everything is just is
Speaker 3: just flowing smoothly. Even if I have a little down time,
Speaker 3: it goes way back past what I could have ever expected.
Speaker 3: So right after I ended up doing a Nick Cannon interview,
Speaker 3: I ended up going to a Neiman Marcus and they
Speaker 3: saw the sneakers in the clothes that I had on
Speaker 3: and wanted to know more.
Speaker 6: Next you're walking into the store and somebody.
Speaker 3: Said, yeah, what happened was they was actually having a
Speaker 3: Nema Marcus event. And I had this bright orange job
Speaker 3: of Chenny sweater with an a T underneath of it,
Speaker 3: and then I had my sneaks on the match the sweater,
Speaker 3: and when I got to the top of the escalator,
Speaker 3: it seemed like everybody just went like this I'm like,
Speaker 3: I don't know what's going on, but you know, yeah.
Speaker 3: So next thing, you know, everyone started to talk to me.
Speaker 3: Everyone wanted to take pictures and stuff like that. And
Speaker 3: then I got with the general manager of NAMHN Marcus.
Speaker 3: We had a meeting and then they saw like the
Speaker 3: card against sweaters and stuff that I had in the
Speaker 3: back of the zoom and they was like, yo, we
Speaker 3: we we went. We want to do something with you.
Speaker 6: So in your mind, right as you're you're you're looking
Speaker 6: at these events, you're very intentionally going to these events, right,
Speaker 6: Are you just saying, let me design a fit that's
Speaker 6: going to make draw people's attention, or you're just saying
Speaker 6: let me just come fresh, Like I just come fresh,
Speaker 6: Come fresh.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just come fresh. And it just seems like
Speaker 4: everywhere I go it was like Yo, what's that? Yo?
Speaker 4: How did you get that?
Speaker 3: What is that? And it's always my stuff? So it's
Speaker 3: like I get a chance to explain what it is.
Speaker 5: So when they today want to do something, who explain
Speaker 5: that story? How did that story goes?
Speaker 3: Well, we were just trying to figure out a collaboration.
Speaker 3: We didn't know if we were going to do like
Speaker 3: an in store event. They didn't know if they were
Speaker 3: going to carry my merch and you know what was
Speaker 3: crazy was that I tried to like shop it to
Speaker 3: them before and they were like, nah, you're not ready.
Speaker 3: And this is before I got the Italy connects and
Speaker 3: stuff like that. And then I just you know, got
Speaker 3: something with vibrum souls. So a lot of these sneakers
Speaker 3: want to have vibrum souls on them, which is what
Speaker 3: a lot of the major people use. So my stuff
Speaker 3: that's in production right now, all I have Vibrum souls
Speaker 3: on it is going to be just like any of
Speaker 3: the other high end brands that's in NEMA markets. So
Speaker 3: we were just trying to figure out if they were
Speaker 3: going to actually purchase the merchandise and sell it. We
Speaker 3: were just going to do a you know, a day's
Speaker 3: event there, but it ended up going way past what
Speaker 3: I could have ever expected.
Speaker 4: And then the next thing, you.
Speaker 3: Know, I get hit up by a Banana Republic and
Speaker 3: then they want to do a joint venture. So I'm
Speaker 3: trying to do something with Banana Republic right now as well.
Speaker 3: So we have a lot of things going on business.
Speaker 6: So as you're getting more exposure, I'm assuming that the business,
Speaker 6: the sales are picking up. Were you prepared for that?
Speaker 6: Because a lot of times people go into business and
Speaker 6: we always talk about being prepared for success, right Like
Speaker 6: when you didn't have the website, it was like, damn,
Speaker 6: the moment's here, but I'm not ready. Yeah, were at
Speaker 6: that time as a business of scale and you're getting
Speaker 6: more exposure. Were you cemented and being ready for this moment?
Speaker 3: I wasn't, because what my mistake was is I would
Speaker 3: get a nice sample, and I was so excited about
Speaker 3: the sample. I'm starting to post the samples. So now
Speaker 3: people are hitting me up like I want that, but
Speaker 3: I didn't have that. I only have this over here.
Speaker 3: So then when they go to the website and they
Speaker 3: don't see that, it's like, well, where's that?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: So and then when I finally get the stuff, it's
Speaker 3: like months later. Because with sneakers, it's not like apparel.
Speaker 3: You can get your apparel back in two weeks. You know,
Speaker 3: sometimes within thirty days you can get your apparel back,
Speaker 3: But for sneakers, that six six months, nine months, sometimes
Speaker 3: a year to develop. So I'm thinking that I'm going
Speaker 3: to have this shoe ready for release in the spring
Speaker 3: and then it.
Speaker 4: Doesn't come into the fall.
Speaker 3: So now I got spring colors that's going in the wintertime,
Speaker 3: and I didn't realize how picky people were. It's like, yo,
Speaker 3: I'm not wearing that this wintertime. I need a dark sneaker,
Speaker 3: but I have the light sneaker now, like I don't
Speaker 3: want that.
Speaker 4: I went the dark sneaker.
Speaker 3: So it took me a couple of years just to
Speaker 3: catch up with the seasons. You know, Like even when
Speaker 3: I was getting my hoodies and stuff, I would order
Speaker 3: the hoodies like a couple months before the wintertime, but
Speaker 3: I was so picky and particular about what I wanted,
Speaker 3: I didn't get the hoodies back.
Speaker 4: Until spring was coming, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So now when I'm trying to go to these stories
Speaker 3: and try to shot my stuff, They're like, look, we
Speaker 3: got t shirts and shorts out here like you behind.
Speaker 3: So it just took like a little as a matter
Speaker 3: of fact, I had to sacrifice the season to be
Speaker 3: able to get on point with the season.
Speaker 6: Know.
Speaker 3: So my only advice for people that's trying to get
Speaker 3: into the business, no matter what it is, do your research,
Speaker 3: because a lot of my fails happened because I didn't
Speaker 3: have the proper research. You know, when you're incarcerated, you
Speaker 3: can only get but so much information. And when I
Speaker 3: came home, I thought I knew everything, and I didn't
Speaker 3: know anything. So it's like, you know, I didn't know
Speaker 3: anything about finding our demograph because I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 3: everyone's going.
Speaker 4: To wear these shoes.
Speaker 3: I didn't know I had to pick a demographic that
Speaker 3: we were going to start marketing to. I didn't know
Speaker 3: anything about you know, male or female stuff. Like I'm thinking,
Speaker 3: I'm going to make, you know, a line that caters
Speaker 3: to male in women, but it doesn't work that easily.
Speaker 3: Like it was so many different things that I had
Speaker 3: to learn that was like difficult for me, you know,
Speaker 3: in this particular process that is amazing.
Speaker 5: So you're in Nemen markets now October October how many
Speaker 5: stores We.
Speaker 4: Don't know yet.
Speaker 3: We'll we're still working things out at the moment. All
Speaker 3: the stuff that's going in NEMA markets is still in production,
Speaker 3: so we're still trying to like iron things out.
Speaker 5: And so you'll be the first black sneaker own sneaker
Speaker 5: company to be like, you.
Speaker 3: Know, of course there was all white and stuff like that,
Speaker 3: but I own my company. I'm not going through anyone
Speaker 3: else for distribution and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: We handle everything in the house.
Speaker 5: So what made you once again going back to this
Speaker 5: luxury brand because we see a lot of what quote
Speaker 5: unquote urban clothes this you know, you only see too
Speaker 5: many sneakers period, but you know, hoodies, t shirt things
Speaker 5: of that nature, and if it is some footwear, maybe
Speaker 5: maybe sneakers. Every once in a while you see a
Speaker 5: pair of sneakers. But like I said, these these they
Speaker 5: remind me of you know, those sneakers that are in
Speaker 5: like North from Nemhen Markets, Goodman brand, stuff like that.
Speaker 5: What made you want to go luxury higher in as
Speaker 5: opposed to streetwear?
Speaker 4: All right, A few reasons.
Speaker 3: The first one is because with the street where I
Speaker 3: started to notice that with our people, everything kind of
Speaker 3: is like a phase, you know what I mean. They
Speaker 3: usually jump on it and then they phase you right out.
Speaker 3: I wanted to try to get past that. I didn't
Speaker 3: want to be like, you know, looking like like you're
Speaker 3: played out after you want from one summer and the
Speaker 3: next summer it's like.
Speaker 4: What are you doing? What are those I didn't want that.
Speaker 3: And then the second thing was, you know, again I
Speaker 3: started off as a rap artist, so for me, every
Speaker 3: time I hit that stage, I had to make sure
Speaker 3: that I had to fresh the stuff that I could
Speaker 3: possibly think of, and I would a high end type dude,
Speaker 3: So I wanted to make sneakers that I knew I
Speaker 3: would wear, you know what I mean. So it's like
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna weary any cheap souffven When I used
Speaker 3: to buy Jordans and stuff back and the day, I
Speaker 3: would paint them so that way, when I go to
Speaker 3: wherever I'm going, it doesn't look like everyone else's stuff
Speaker 3: or I wasn't paying pay somebody to paint them, and
Speaker 3: you know, it was just, you know, I just like
Speaker 3: stuff that is different, And in certain ways it hurt
Speaker 3: me because I'm trying to develop things that are totally
Speaker 3: different than what people are used to seeing. And if
Speaker 3: people aren't used to seeing it, they'll say stuff like
Speaker 3: it looks really good on you.
Speaker 4: But I couldn't pull that off, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So I kind of hurt myself at the same time
Speaker 3: as me trying to create this, and you know, again,
Speaker 3: I just kind of feel like I'm more of a
Speaker 3: leader when it comes time for what I wear. I
Speaker 3: don't care if I see someone else wearing my stuff
Speaker 3: for or not my stuff, but a certain thing. If
Speaker 3: I like it, I'm buying it. So I created this
Speaker 3: brand for the people that are i'man leaders, not followers.
Speaker 3: So if everyone else wants to follow later, that's fine,
Speaker 3: but I made these for people that want to step
Speaker 3: out and be different.
Speaker 5: It's very simplistic too, like I said, like I was
Speaker 5: actually looking for a pair of white sneakers, like that
Speaker 5: shoe sneakers, and that's the kind of shoes that I
Speaker 5: like where it's not too much going on, like you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, like whether it's blue, gray, skyboo
Speaker 5: or whatever, and like these in line with that.
Speaker 3: So this is funny that you say that, because when
Speaker 3: I first started out, I felt like my name had
Speaker 3: to be on everything, and it was the people that
Speaker 3: I that I value their opinions on that wear high
Speaker 3: end stuff. It's like, bro, like no one's gonna be
Speaker 3: wearing all the way across the side, Like they're not
Speaker 3: going to do that. I just got to the habit
Speaker 3: of not even putting anything on it. I just left
Speaker 3: them blank and Appertiti's on the inside. Are you still
Speaker 3: designing shoes.
Speaker 6: I know you said a lot of these, these these
Speaker 6: models have come from when you in prison, you with
Speaker 6: throwing up the sketches. Are you still designing because I'm
Speaker 6: sure there's there's one shoe which is like your best seller,
Speaker 6: and then you have a few designs. Do you keep
Speaker 6: it simple, like maybe just five?
Speaker 3: Well, I designed still, and I hired a designer too,
Speaker 3: so you know, him and I collaborate back and forth.
Speaker 3: So I have I haven't nice little team, and you know,
Speaker 3: we all collaborate now instead of it just being me.
Speaker 3: But for the most part, we designed pretty much every
Speaker 3: every day. I feel like I'd rather have five thousand
Speaker 3: designs rather than us just designing something for that season.
Speaker 3: I remember in the very beginning, when I first started out,
Speaker 3: I would literally just have the sneakers that I needed
Speaker 3: for that release, but I wasn't prepared for the next season,
Speaker 3: you know. So now it's like I have stuff for
Speaker 3: summer twenty twenty four. Right now, it's just a matter
Speaker 3: of us getting to whatever it is. And I want
Speaker 3: to be able to like put all of our work together,
Speaker 3: But like which one.
Speaker 4: Is the best? You know? So is this better than this?
Speaker 3: Because this is twenty twenty four, and it's better than
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three. I'm going with this one to go
Speaker 3: for twenty twenty three and then we'll develop something else
Speaker 3: for twenty twenty four. So that's pretty much how we
Speaker 3: do it.
Speaker 5: What is the price point for the sneakers.
Speaker 3: Well, when we first started with the manufacturers over there
Speaker 3: in Spain and Italy and all that, the price points
Speaker 3: was the cheapest that I had was three twenty five.
Speaker 3: And this again goes to the fact that I didn't
Speaker 3: know how to do certain business. And what happened was
Speaker 3: I have sneakers at a minimum of three twenty five
Speaker 3: foot locker calls.
Speaker 4: They're like, look, we're gonna go ahead and rock out
Speaker 4: with you.
Speaker 3: You could keep that price point, but all my people
Speaker 3: are like, there's no way you're going to sell three
Speaker 3: hundred twenty five dollars sneakers of foot locker.
Speaker 4: It's not gonna work.
Speaker 3: So I had to take a huge loss and put
Speaker 3: these three hundred dollars sneakers in foot locker for one
Speaker 3: seventy five, one seventy one ninety you know.
Speaker 4: So that's pretty much what I had to do.
Speaker 3: But now with Nema Marcus now I'm back up to
Speaker 3: like the five hundred dollars range, you know, because these
Speaker 3: are all stuff that I'm getting produced right now, so
Speaker 3: no one's really seen them. I did show you guys,
Speaker 3: like at least one or two baar of them, but
Speaker 3: like those prices are gonna go anywhere from between five
Speaker 3: hundred and seven hundred and seventy five and the seven
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy five dollars pair.
Speaker 4: We're doing something special with that.
Speaker 3: Where that very first order that I told you guys
Speaker 3: about that I couldn't sell the part of your thing another, well,
Speaker 3: I have the original sketch to that. So what we're
Speaker 3: gonna do is we wanna package the original sneaker that
Speaker 3: I made back in the day along with the original sketch,
Speaker 3: and then you're gonna get the sneaker that's seven seventy five.
Speaker 3: So I'm putting all that in there as one package.
Speaker 3: So like I look at it, like look at like this.
Speaker 3: You guys love Jordan. So like let's say if you
Speaker 3: had a drop that had the very first sketch of
Speaker 3: that Jordan and the very first Jordan that never came out,
Speaker 3: whether the material was weak or not, it's a collector's item.
Speaker 3: So that's pretty much how I'm looking at mine. I
Speaker 3: just want to be able to make it so it's
Speaker 3: a collector's item.
Speaker 5: Yeah, start from the top. I feel like, you know,
Speaker 5: there's always there's different there's different avenues with different people.
Speaker 5: And you know, when we talked about luxury brands, whether
Speaker 5: there's watches, whether there's cars, whether there's clothes whatever, like
Speaker 5: we always like discount black. Yeah, black is more like
Speaker 5: just affordable where that's cool, that's needed as well, But
Speaker 5: why can't they be black on the high end.
Speaker 3: Well, what I think happens, and we talk about this
Speaker 3: in the barbershop black when I go to get my
Speaker 3: cuts and all that. We have this discussion all the time,
Speaker 3: And I think what happens is when you think about Italy,
Speaker 3: everyone thinks quality.
Speaker 4: Because that's all they usually see from Italy. You don't
Speaker 4: never see a white person or any other race running
Speaker 4: around trying to sell stuff in the street. That's number two.
Speaker 4: Number three.
Speaker 3: Most of the time when you get something in the
Speaker 3: barbershop in the street is mostly bootleg, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. So our own people are used to that.
Speaker 3: So whenever someone comes up and tries to sell you
Speaker 3: something out the trunk in her car, you automatically think
Speaker 3: it's either stolen or it's cheap. So we kind of
Speaker 3: put ourselves in that situation. And that's again the reason
Speaker 3: why I'm always amazed when people come up to me
Speaker 3: at trade shows and they're like, so you own this?
Speaker 4: Do you work there or do you own this?
Speaker 5: But it's also propagaind the media too. Could imagine you
Speaker 5: shot the nineteen keys. He had posted something like about media,
Speaker 5: and it's like, you know, even what we do with finances,
Speaker 5: all of report to like Black network is going to
Speaker 5: be zero in twenty thirty, and it's like black unemployment
Speaker 5: is two times more and black. So it's like, when
Speaker 5: you constantly hear those narratives, whether it's true or not,
Speaker 5: you develop an opinion that black people are broke, Black
Speaker 5: people don't have any money, black people make poor decisions.
Speaker 5: Whereas if it was the reverse, imagine if all the
Speaker 5: reports are like black network is on the rise, black
Speaker 5: home ownership is on the rise, Black crime is down.
Speaker 5: Once again, whether it's true or not, you automatically start
Speaker 5: to formulate positive opinions, and you'll start to change the
Speaker 5: way you even behave right. So it's like even these
Speaker 5: countries where it's like you take a country like Italy
Speaker 5: or Paris and it's like these countries, then everybody's not wealthy.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of poor people in these countries. There's
Speaker 5: a lot of infrastructure problems in these countries. These countries
Speaker 5: have a lot of issues, immigration issues and everything. But
Speaker 5: the image that's been portrayed to the world is only
Speaker 5: luxury beauty. So that's what we Where we take countries
Speaker 5: like Africa, Africa, whether it's Ghana, Nigeria, southab whatever, the
Speaker 5: image that's been portrayed to the world is poverty and
Speaker 5: war and different things. That nature starting to change now
Speaker 5: with music, aprobeats and stuff like that, but for a
Speaker 5: long time, that's the image. And when you take our
Speaker 5: situation in America, the image that's been portrayed is boys
Speaker 5: in the hood and paid in full. And you know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying, it's drug dealers, it's gangs. So that
Speaker 5: image has not only been portrayed to us, it's been
Speaker 5: exported all across the world. So imagine if it was different.
Speaker 5: Imagine if like black excellence, if we really like push
Speaker 5: that black excellence and show people and you know, suits
Speaker 5: and you know, it's just a whole vibe, right, so
Speaker 5: now you start to actually start thinking that you're worth more.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, because there's like a lot
Speaker 5: of times like it goes back to your self worth.
Speaker 5: If you don't think you're worth anything, then somebody who
Speaker 5: looks just like you, you're not gonna think that they're
Speaker 5: worth anything. But somebody looks completely oph you automatically put
Speaker 5: them on such a high value and it's like they're
Speaker 5: they're worth way more. Why because they're white?
Speaker 4: It's crazy that you say that.
Speaker 3: I went to a high school because I was given
Speaker 3: a lecture out of high school and I had my
Speaker 3: assistant with me and she's white. And after I got
Speaker 3: them given a lecture, I was like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: you guys, can you know, reach out to me through
Speaker 3: DMS or whatever and I'll try to help you guys
Speaker 3: get your your plans in order to be able to
Speaker 3: try to you know, create a business or whatever you
Speaker 3: want to do. And once we got done that lecture
Speaker 3: and I said that, they immediately all ran over to
Speaker 3: her and she's like, why are you coming to me?
Speaker 3: I'm I have worked for him, and they was like, no,
Speaker 3: you don't you. You got to connect, right, and they
Speaker 3: just couldn't believe that it was me that had to connect,
Speaker 3: you know. So it was like, it's amazing that you
Speaker 3: say that, because that's pretty much how it is too.
Speaker 6: So you're in emn markets, I'm wondering if there's going
Speaker 6: to be scaling to other luxury good stores sacks with
Speaker 6: the avenue blooming deals.
Speaker 4: Well, that's the plan.
Speaker 6: That's the plan.
Speaker 4: That's the plan.
Speaker 6: And in terms of that, right, So this is happening
Speaker 6: during COVID, so everybody supply chains has been affected, everybody's inventory.
Speaker 6: So what was that process for you? Obviously growing at
Speaker 6: a time where there's going to be delays and shipments
Speaker 6: and inventory can be rattled by all these types of things,
Speaker 6: how did you manage.
Speaker 4: Well the way that I did it.
Speaker 3: Fortunately for me, I got lucky in this process because
Speaker 3: I already had the merchandise. When they decided to do
Speaker 3: deals with me, my foot locker came, I already had
Speaker 3: the merchandise, so all I had to do was just
Speaker 3: sell it to them. When it came time for the
Speaker 3: Nima Marcus thing, it was a little bit different because
Speaker 3: I don't have the merchandise and once they said that
Speaker 3: they wanted to do it. I had to like rush
Speaker 3: and try to hurry up and get this stuff done.
Speaker 3: And that's the difference. So now I'm hoping That's the
Speaker 3: reason I don't have an exact date yet. We're thinking
Speaker 3: October because I'm assuming that I'm going to get everything
Speaker 3: back by September, but if for some reason things.
Speaker 4: Get held up, that may get pushed back.
Speaker 3: So I'm kind of, you know, giving that information prematurely,
Speaker 3: but I'm so excited about it, and I had to
Speaker 3: share it with you guys. You guys, Yeah, you guys
Speaker 3: are the first guys that even know about this. So
Speaker 3: and if you guys are around in October, come through
Speaker 3: Philly man and come out, that'd be Yeah, that'd be
Speaker 3: a huge thing.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, sure.
Speaker 5: Before we leave, can you just quickly tell a story
Speaker 5: about Bernard Hopkins, another Philly legend.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I ended up meeting Bernard because the customer came into
Speaker 3: the barbershops that I was working at the time, and
Speaker 3: I had these boxing sneakers on. They were my box
Speaker 3: and sneakers I created, and the customers like yo, I
Speaker 3: got a meeting with be hop tomorrow for me to
Speaker 3: call him and see.
Speaker 4: You know, if it's cool for me to bring you,
Speaker 4: you can show them your sneaks.
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, like hook that up. So the next
Speaker 3: day we go and Bernard said it was cool. The
Speaker 3: next day we go in and I was only supposed
Speaker 3: to get the last five minutes of the meeting. So
Speaker 3: when I get into the meeting, immediately he's like, where's
Speaker 3: the sneaker guy.
Speaker 4: Tell him to come in.
Speaker 3: We're at this restaurant. So he's like, yeah, I went
Speaker 3: the sneaker guy. And I'm like, yoh, you said the
Speaker 3: last five minutes. I went the first five minutes. He's like, Yo,
Speaker 3: come on, man, if you want, if you want to
Speaker 3: talk to me, come on. So I came in with
Speaker 3: my bag. I pulled the sneakers out and put them
Speaker 3: all on the table and he was looking like and
Speaker 3: and now that I know him, I know how sarcastic
Speaker 3: he is. I know what he was thinking when he's
Speaker 3: seen it. And again, this was my first sneaker thing
Speaker 3: with the poly your thing, leather and all that. So
Speaker 3: he's looking he's like Gabby, Gabby, and Gabby's owner of
Speaker 3: the restaurant, and he was like, when I wear something
Speaker 3: like this, and Gabby was like, nah, so b hop
Speaker 3: try to play it off like I'm too old for this.
Speaker 4: I would never wear anything like that. I'm too old.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, all right, man, I just asked you
Speaker 3: one question before I walk away. And he was like,
Speaker 3: what's up now? This time it was only about forty
Speaker 3: five seconds into my three minutes or five minutes whatever
Speaker 3: it was, and he was like, what's up? I was like,
Speaker 3: how did you get from being incarcerated getting off parole
Speaker 3: and then becoming the guy who.
Speaker 4: You are today?
Speaker 3: And then you know, he just kind of looked at
Speaker 3: me like how did I know that he was even incarcerated?
Speaker 3: And he was like, what made you ask me that?
Speaker 3: And I was like, well, I asked you because I
Speaker 3: was at greater for it and I saw your mirror
Speaker 3: on the wall.
Speaker 4: And right now I'm on parole and I'm just.
Speaker 3: Trying to figure out how can what type of steps
Speaker 3: did I need to do to get off of parole
Speaker 3: to be able to get my business going because I
Speaker 3: created all this stuff while I was in prison. And
Speaker 3: he was like, you did what you created all this
Speaker 3: while you was in prison? I said, I didn't make
Speaker 3: them while I was in prison but I created the
Speaker 3: business while I was in prison. And he was just like, yo,
Speaker 3: I'm not doing the other meeting. Come on, let's go
Speaker 3: to the gym. So we ended up going over to
Speaker 3: the gym and he was like, listen, whatever T shirt
Speaker 3: you have, give them to me.
Speaker 4: Whatever sneakers you have, give them to me.
Speaker 3: And he got in the ring and started dancing around
Speaker 3: with the box of sneakers, started to give me a
Speaker 3: little promotional video. He took pictures in the clothes and
Speaker 3: he was like, listen, man. He was like, you re
Speaker 3: mimmy and my little brother. He was like, the way
Speaker 3: that your hustle is, the way that you speak to me,
Speaker 3: the way everything is your mimmy and my little brother
Speaker 3: and or no, I don't know if he said a
Speaker 3: little brother, but he said his brother. And after that
Speaker 3: he was just like yo, like you know, if you
Speaker 3: want to know the information, I'm here for you. So
Speaker 3: the next day he calls me at like four am,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh, He's like, yo, wake up, get
Speaker 3: the sheets out your ass. You're trying to be successful.
Speaker 3: You need to get your mind right right now too.
Speaker 3: You laying in the bed.
Speaker 4: So I woke up.
Speaker 3: I woke up, got dressed, went and met up with him,
Speaker 3: and he ended up taking me to Nema Marcus.
Speaker 4: He took me to Sacks. With that, he took me
Speaker 4: to Boyds, he took me to all these.
Speaker 3: Different high end stores and he was personally picking the
Speaker 3: sneakers up and was like, listen, if you want to
Speaker 3: be successful in this business and you want people like
Speaker 3: me to wear this, you gotta.
Speaker 4: Get your stuff on this level.
Speaker 3: And at that particular moment, I didn't know how to
Speaker 3: get to that level. I was just like, all right, cool,
Speaker 3: and I started asking the manufacturers that I was using
Speaker 3: if they had this, you know, type of material, because
Speaker 3: I would literally go to Neiman Marcus or I would
Speaker 3: go to SaaS fidth Av and I would pick the
Speaker 3: sneakers up. I would google search what the sneakers are,
Speaker 3: what they were made of, and all that, and then
Speaker 3: I would hit my manufacturers up and be like, yo,
Speaker 3: do you have this? Can you make my sneakers out
Speaker 3: of that? And then when I realized that they couldn't,
Speaker 3: I'm like, Okay, I can't deal with these factories.
Speaker 4: I gotta find something else.
Speaker 3: And then, you know, it's a very long story that
Speaker 3: I'm not going to get into on how I got
Speaker 3: to the next level of manufacturers. But my man Rob Pervey,
Speaker 3: which is the guy that you met Rob Hervey. He's
Speaker 3: like a sneaker guy who he helped develop the you know,
Speaker 3: the Kobe's, the first Kobe's. He helped develop Alan Iverson's shoe.
Speaker 3: He worked with Reebok, he worked with Adidas, he worked
Speaker 3: with and one dude's a major dude there. And I
Speaker 3: ended up meeting him at a sneaker factory and him
Speaker 3: and I just bumped heads connected at that particular moment,
Speaker 3: and he's been taking me for a ride. So he's
Speaker 3: the one that introduced me to all these different factories.
Speaker 3: And he's the one that taught me that there are
Speaker 3: good factories in China, you just have to know where
Speaker 3: they are. So you know, I've used some some factories
Speaker 3: from China. But then he connected me with Portugal and
Speaker 3: then that's when I went to the trade show in
Speaker 3: Vegas and I found the other ones, and then you know,
Speaker 3: he's working with me right now to this day. As
Speaker 3: a matter of fact, he's the one that told you
Speaker 3: who I was that day in La So yeah, it's
Speaker 3: my guy.
Speaker 4: So again it's it's a.
Speaker 3: Lot of stuff that goes on in this business is
Speaker 3: not as easy as just you know, picking it up
Speaker 3: and just saying you want to do it.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of work that goes into this.
Speaker 5: So so how can they how can they buy the sneakers,
Speaker 5: the shoes, the merch what's the website, social media and
Speaker 5: all that.
Speaker 3: The website is bungeebrand dot com b U n g
Speaker 3: E E b r A n D. And our Instagram
Speaker 3: page is Bungee Brand, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 3: then uh, our personal Facebook page. I have a personal
Speaker 3: Facebook page called Bungie Raiment. It's I b U n
Speaker 3: G E E r A I M E n C.
Speaker 3: And that's what we do, like all the behind the
Speaker 3: scenes stuff. I don't put all that like on our
Speaker 3: Instagram business page, and I put that on our personal
Speaker 3: Facebook page so people can see what we're doing behind
Speaker 3: the scenes and how we're creating stuff and the process
Speaker 3: of everything that Doe Dope.
Speaker 5: Yeah, definitely support the brother, But more so I feel
Speaker 5: like the word Charlotte Dery Falcon, the word support is
Speaker 5: a little misleading because it's almost like you're doing somebody
Speaker 5: a favor by supporting them. If you if you like
Speaker 5: the quality, which is high level of quality. You never
Speaker 5: have to support balinc Yaga, you never. You never people
Speaker 5: say I'm supporting Gucci. You like the product, you buy it.
Speaker 5: You don't. You don't negotiate prices, you don't say it
Speaker 5: costs too much. I've never seen it, seen it. I've
Speaker 5: never seen anybody in the product store trying to haggle.
Speaker 4: I was with you in the barber sho you don't remember, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 5: Respect, respect the luxury, respect the entrepreneur, Respect the entrepreneur
Speaker 5: for sure. Choy Housekey Idols.
Speaker 6: Shout out to everybody on patreon dot com. Shout out
Speaker 6: to all our earners on E y L University, the
Speaker 6: number one place for everything in the world of business
Speaker 6: and entrepreneurs. Uh that are just making a killing man.
Speaker 6: Shout to everybody that's spreading the word, telling a friend
Speaker 6: to tell a friend, and executing on information. Love is love.
Speaker 6: We greatly appreciate you, and shout everybody to support the mercery.
Speaker 6: I know we talked about footwear. Else got a vision
Speaker 6: for us, so uh shout everybody disappointing our mercer. I
Speaker 6: love his love. Keep grinding, y'all.
Speaker 5: Thank you, guys for rocking us to see you next week. Peace.
Speaker 4: Peace, Peace. You guys had.
Speaker 3: My graduates from my school being forced back drop b drop,
Speaker 3: Mike drop back drop drop.
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