Speaker 1: You know, I met with all the Adida's people. Everyone
Speaker 1: was just super nice, and you know they can't One
Speaker 1: of the gentlemen came into the room and he was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: we want to take you to Calabasas to meet to meet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh word. I was like, damn, I didn't think that
Speaker 1: ship was going to happen Calabasas. Like all right, so
Speaker 1: they take me, you know, they take me over there
Speaker 1: and like they take me to this spot that he
Speaker 1: had and I'm sitting in this room like waiting and
Speaker 1: I can hear like he had a studio in there
Speaker 1: and he was like working on some music or something
Speaker 1: because I could just hear like music like pounding through
Speaker 1: the walls and just kind of sitting there, wait and
Speaker 1: wait and waiting. And then he finally like comes into
Speaker 1: the room, and I'd never forget like that, Like that
Speaker 1: first image of like him, you know, walking into the space,
Speaker 1: I just envisioned like light being behind him. He walks
Speaker 1: in all you see it's like a silhouette. It was
Speaker 1: not It was dope. It was like like I just
Speaker 1: like walked into like another it was on another planet
Speaker 1: or something like that. But he came in. We had
Speaker 1: this meeting, and you know, he sat across from me
Speaker 1: for forty five minutes just like you know, very like
Speaker 1: very attentive and like, you know, interested in what I
Speaker 1: had to say. And we were talking and I had
Speaker 1: my portfolio U in my iPad and put it in
Speaker 1: front of him and he's like flipping through. And then
Speaker 1: you know I knew, like, you know, we were both creative,
Speaker 1: so like we're talking about like what we're creating and
Speaker 1: what's and and and projects that I worked on and um,
Speaker 1: and we were just vibing over that and it was
Speaker 1: like forty five minutes. It was just like uninterrupted time.
Speaker 1: You know, he wasn't looking at his phone and like
Speaker 1: waiting for when the meeting was gonna be over anything
Speaker 1: like that. It was just like it was just a
Speaker 1: dope conversation. That was my first time meeting him, in
Speaker 1: my first interaction with him. And then in the end
Speaker 1: he was like, yo, like let's let's go. We worked
Speaker 1: on all that stuff. Question the yeasy slides, remember the
Speaker 1: first ones were orange. Yep. Was it was the inspiration
Speaker 1: from the prison shoes because that was the that was
Speaker 1: the trend, that was the rumor going on circulating online
Speaker 1: that the prison shoes looked like this, and Yeasy came
Speaker 1: up with the prison shoe look alike. Borrow with me here,
Speaker 1: you know, BT so low shout out Oct, no color
Speaker 1: what we see? Who get in the blaree? But you
Speaker 1: can't stand on the home Susi Ilad. You know he
Speaker 1: can't ball with me because you have with the square
Speaker 1: to me, they get they called to me. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Bowler Show. Podcasts available everywhere. You get your podcast made.
Speaker 1: Sure you like to share and subscribe to your YouTube
Speaker 1: page at ball Alert. I go by the name of
Speaker 1: Ferrice Simmons. Hey, y'all world, I'm your bestie Sue Solo.
Speaker 1: You know bt OCT with that special guests in the building,
Speaker 1: it's mister Omar Bailey name Lord. You know Rory think
Speaker 1: they're friends now because we just found out all them
Speaker 1: that you guys are from the same place. Automatically yep,
Speaker 1: shout out to the five six one about this place
Speaker 1: you guys come from, because y'all was just so into
Speaker 1: with man west Bown Beach known as the county that
Speaker 1: messed up the election? What was it? Which election was that?
Speaker 1: That was? That was the Bush election? Bush election? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we we were the county that messed up that election
Speaker 1: years ago. Very small, very small county. Is it Trump
Speaker 1: close to West Palm He lives in West Lago, Man,
Speaker 1: it's right across the water. Oh really Yeah, the islands
Speaker 1: like our South Beach. Yeah city, and then you go
Speaker 1: across the bridge to the beach park right right, and
Speaker 1: we're not allowed. Well, I mean they don't say that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if you go over there there, said, I know,
Speaker 1: you don't plan. The fifth grade field trip was at
Speaker 1: the jail there and it's very nice. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a jail over the jail over there, and it's very nice. Damn. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you guys had a lot going on.
Speaker 1: But what was it for you that led you to
Speaker 1: fashion from West Palm Beach? Oh? Man, Well, there's nothing
Speaker 1: that fashionable about West Palm Beach. Sounds like cargo short. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and like uh and uh what's those uh those shirts
Speaker 1: that people will be wearing. Umama exactly took the words
Speaker 1: right out of mouth, Tommy Bahama. Um So, the way
Speaker 1: the story goes real quick is that, like you know,
Speaker 1: I start, we moved from from New York to Florida,
Speaker 1: and and they knew about my parents knew about to school.
Speaker 1: They wanted to put me in this school, but you
Speaker 1: had to audition to get in the way that it works.
Speaker 1: So so it was either that or John F. Kennedy
Speaker 1: Middle School, right, And I was like, I don't want
Speaker 1: to go to JFK. Actually, you know, I remember when
Speaker 1: we moved to Florida, there was a kid who got
Speaker 1: shot over borrowing us um nba jam on Sega genesis
Speaker 1: from another student and he didn't bring it back, so
Speaker 1: you got shot. I remember being like you sending me
Speaker 1: to that school like so so, and then I had
Speaker 1: to go and I went there for a year, and
Speaker 1: then I had to wait for the audition time and
Speaker 1: I end up going to audition my mom, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, she's Jamaican and and you know, she's like
Speaker 1: very strict about her rules. She was like, you need
Speaker 1: to be home at this time. So I go to
Speaker 1: audition and then I left and I did part of
Speaker 1: my audition, but I didn't do the whole audition because
Speaker 1: I was looking at the clock and I was home
Speaker 1: when she told me to be home, and then we
Speaker 1: ended up getting like an incomplete or I didn't get
Speaker 1: into She's like, what happened? And then she ended up
Speaker 1: later finding out that, like I left at the time
Speaker 1: she told me to leave, she thought the interview would
Speaker 1: have been done by that time. So I had to
Speaker 1: go to Kennedy for another year as a result of that.
Speaker 1: So then the next year she was like, don't come
Speaker 1: home until you finish your audition. Okay, yeah, yeah. I
Speaker 1: was like, you told me to be home at three,
Speaker 1: So I'm at home at three, and that was it.
Speaker 1: I was like, I ain't trying to you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to get hurt like you know, so I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get home. So anyway, so um so so
Speaker 1: fast forward. I ended up getting into the school and
Speaker 1: that's where all this started. And then, as I mentioned
Speaker 1: drawing and sketching sneakers, I was a terrible student from
Speaker 1: the perspective of my academic classes. I was very good
Speaker 1: in my heart classes, but not great with my academics.
Speaker 1: Most artists are yeah, yeah, exactly. And my teachers, you know,
Speaker 1: saw that, and they supported me. And then one magical day,
Speaker 1: I think it was the end of my junior year,
Speaker 1: going into my senior year, a school came to visit
Speaker 1: on a college recruiting visit called the College Cat Studies
Speaker 1: in Detroit, Michigan shout out to CCS and they showed
Speaker 1: their portfolio of like students who, you know, all the
Speaker 1: different types of work, and there was a shoe in there,
Speaker 1: and I remember they're doing the power point and I
Speaker 1: was like, what is a shoe? What is this? And
Speaker 1: they told me about this program called industrial Design and
Speaker 1: many students who study industrial design go off and they
Speaker 1: design in cars and shoes and other products. And I
Speaker 1: was like, that's what I want to you know, that's
Speaker 1: where I want to go to school, because before that,
Speaker 1: I didn't have a plan if I was going to
Speaker 1: go to college or not. Right like, I'm at the
Speaker 1: end of my junior year. Everyone's talking about where they're
Speaker 1: going to school at the end of next year. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what I'm gonna do. I'm thinking, like,
Speaker 1: how do I become a shoe design or do I
Speaker 1: get a job at foot locker? Like that's literally what
Speaker 1: I thought. Okay, maybe I get a job at foot
Speaker 1: Locker selling shoes, and somehow I'll meet somebody at Nike
Speaker 1: and they'll give me a job design and sneakers. That's
Speaker 1: what I That's literally what I thought until this school
Speaker 1: came and then they laid this whole thing out in
Speaker 1: front of me and and sort of exposed me to
Speaker 1: this world of industrial design, and I became obsessed with it.
Speaker 1: You know. I made up all the classes that I failed.
Speaker 1: I went to summer school, I did night school my
Speaker 1: senior year, made up all the classes that I need
Speaker 1: to in long story short, I ended up getting into
Speaker 1: the school and got a little bit of a scholarship,
Speaker 1: and I moved to Detroit, Michigan site unseen, which is
Speaker 1: a whole other conversation in itself. So now you're in college, Yep,
Speaker 1: what happens next? You know? I get to Detroit, and
Speaker 1: the first thing that let me know that I was
Speaker 1: in the right place was I met other like minded
Speaker 1: individuals like myself. Be specifically, like some brothers that like
Speaker 1: became my brothers, you know, like living similar experiences in
Speaker 1: their cities that they came from, you know, like you know,
Speaker 1: my also also doing shoes, my boy Jason Maiden. Shout
Speaker 1: out to Jay who's like gone and done incredible things
Speaker 1: with working with the Swoosh and brand Jordan. You could
Speaker 1: look him up and see all the incredible stuff that
Speaker 1: he's did that he's done over there in his resume.
Speaker 1: You know my other boys, Jonathan, Duane Drew, you know,
Speaker 1: they were all doing footwear and very interested in it.
Speaker 1: So like, you know, we became close very quickly, and
Speaker 1: I got to see like, oh wow, these dudes are
Speaker 1: on the same wavelength than I am. But what really
Speaker 1: did it for me was, you know I just mentioned
Speaker 1: Jason Maiden. You know, he was a designer. I was.
Speaker 1: I went in as a freshman. He was in a senior.
Speaker 1: He just did an internship with Nike in the Jordan
Speaker 1: Brand Jordan department. He was working on the air Jordan seventeen. Right,
Speaker 1: so like number two, yeah, yeah, so that that shoe
Speaker 1: was dope. That when I came in that and that
Speaker 1: came in the briefcase. You remember the league in the
Speaker 1: silver briefcase. So think about this for a second, right, Um,
Speaker 1: eight like six months earlier, I didn't even really know
Speaker 1: or just at the beginning of that year, like I
Speaker 1: didn't know if I was going to college or not. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, I have to get a job at foot
Speaker 1: locker to design shoes. I get into this college in Detroit.
Speaker 1: I moved to Detroit. I meet this dude Jason and
Speaker 1: I see Jason working on the air Jordan right like that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that ship was like mind blowing, like knowing where I
Speaker 1: came from and seeing that, and I'm like, damn, I'm
Speaker 1: in the right place. I better not fuck this opportunity up.
Speaker 1: But I think it became something that was more tangible,
Speaker 1: like you got to see it, you got to touch it.
Speaker 1: You know this person who's working on it. Yeah, man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I told him like that changed my life. That
Speaker 1: moment changed my life because I was like, like you said,
Speaker 1: it's attainable. It is real, Like now I see somebody
Speaker 1: that looks like me, that's that's in a place where
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get to, And for the first time
Speaker 1: in my life, I felt like I made a good decision,
Speaker 1: like by being in Detroit, Michigan, at this at this school,
Speaker 1: so that you know that. To me, that's kind of
Speaker 1: how it all, how it all started, from the sketching
Speaker 1: on a piece of paper to knowing like damn, like
Speaker 1: I can I can I if I do the things
Speaker 1: that I need to do, I can be exactly where
Speaker 1: he's at. So you go from being around you know
Speaker 1: all these people that are actually doing it aspiring you.
Speaker 1: But how do you go from that to the infamous
Speaker 1: timeless Supreme New York slides, because that's a part of
Speaker 1: your history that I was shocked to learn, you know,
Speaker 1: when I finished When I finished college, you know, the
Speaker 1: first thing I did was I knew I wanted to
Speaker 1: work for myself. I had an opportunity to do some
Speaker 1: incredible internships with Adida's Casewists and worked with Timberland and
Speaker 1: a bunch of different different shoe companies. I knew immediately
Speaker 1: that the corporate route wasn't for me. That was what
Speaker 1: came out of that. That experience for me was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go corporate. I want to work
Speaker 1: for myself. That's just the way my mind is wired
Speaker 1: and you know, to be independent creator. So what I
Speaker 1: did when I finished school was, you know, I started
Speaker 1: my own company working for myself. First two people that
Speaker 1: I worked with professional athletes, and then that brought me
Speaker 1: Gary Sheffield and Alan Houston to be specific, shout out
Speaker 1: to shout out to Chef and Allan Shot. Both great
Speaker 1: people gave me an opportunity to help them like build
Speaker 1: footwear products for themselves, and that brought me to China
Speaker 1: for the first time. And I bring that up because
Speaker 1: that was where I got to see how the big
Speaker 1: machine works. It's one thing to like design a shoe
Speaker 1: and sketch it on a piece of paper. It's a
Speaker 1: whole other ball game when you're actually bringing it to life.
Speaker 1: And the time that the fifteen years that I got
Speaker 1: to spend overseas not only in China, but I lived
Speaker 1: in India for three years. You know, I spent significant
Speaker 1: time in Brazil, Argentina, South Korea wherever shoes were made,
Speaker 1: which was not here in the United States. You know,
Speaker 1: I spent significant time in these countries understanding what the
Speaker 1: process is like from A to Z and scaling a
Speaker 1: product and bringing it to market. Right. So the Supreme
Speaker 1: Project came about because you know, they were aware that
Speaker 1: I had this background, right. I was this this bridge
Speaker 1: or this liaison if you will, between a brand and
Speaker 1: a factory. Right the factories over in Asia, specifically in China.
Speaker 1: They loved me because you know, over there, they ain't
Speaker 1: looking at me as like a black man. They're looking
Speaker 1: at me as an American that can bring them business.
Speaker 1: That's that's what They're looking at me, as like, Yo,
Speaker 1: this dude, is like, the is the gateway for opportunity
Speaker 1: in the United States, Which that's all they wanted at
Speaker 1: the time, is they just want business coming in because
Speaker 1: the United States was the you know, one of the
Speaker 1: more profitable markets and still is, you know, all the
Speaker 1: other countries are catching up in different ways, but like
Speaker 1: but but nonetheless that's where That's how they looked at me, right.
Speaker 1: So so knowing that this opportunity was Supreme came up.
Speaker 1: They needed. You know, this is the first time that
Speaker 1: they wanted to develop and create a product that that
Speaker 1: a footwear product, specifically without collaborating with a brand, Like
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, when have you ever seen Supreme
Speaker 1: do a shoe independent of a Nike or Louis Vatan
Speaker 1: or something else, right, is usually a collapse. So this
Speaker 1: is the first time that they wanted to create a
Speaker 1: piece of footwear without that and I was and I
Speaker 1: was the person to help facilitate that. So they reached
Speaker 1: out and I was able to uh to help create, develop,
Speaker 1: and produce at scale that product. We sold out a
Speaker 1: ten thousand pairs in thirty minutes aline and across their
Speaker 1: four stores from Tokyo, La, New York and London, Um,
Speaker 1: and I hope you do that shoe. I created the shoe.
Speaker 1: What was that process? Like, it's you know, developing a
Speaker 1: shoe is a is it's a it's I like to
Speaker 1: use the word a heavy lift, right, because that's where
Speaker 1: you're solving all the all the problems to building a shoe.
Speaker 1: And you know, and and and I know it's probably
Speaker 1: very new for a lot of people that are listening.
Speaker 1: You know, you say, oh, it's just a shoe just
Speaker 1: falls out of the sky or there's a machine that
Speaker 1: pumps it out or whatever. It's like, that's not how
Speaker 1: it works, right, Like the way it works is you know,
Speaker 1: you have you have specific executions that you want to
Speaker 1: come up within the shoe, whether it's material execution, a detail,
Speaker 1: a design element. Specifically, you need to identify the method
Speaker 1: of make, the method of production, and material that's going
Speaker 1: to use that determines what kind of mold you're going
Speaker 1: to make. So all of these speak to all of
Speaker 1: these like technical things you need to really know and understand.
Speaker 1: And it's almost its own language that you need to
Speaker 1: know how to speak to the factory in. Right. So
Speaker 1: it's like, how do I take what a client wants
Speaker 1: like Supreme, right, and then I translate that into a
Speaker 1: language through what I can communicate verbally, but what I
Speaker 1: can also communicate on engineering documents and drawings back to
Speaker 1: the factory. So the execution can be as close, if
Speaker 1: not one, to what the client is looking for. And
Speaker 1: that's like, that's kind of that's the space that I operated, right,
Speaker 1: It's like bringing it from paper to real life. And
Speaker 1: that can take anywhere from you know, it could take
Speaker 1: a month, it could take two months, it could take
Speaker 1: three months, it could take ten months. It really kind
Speaker 1: of all depends on the client and like what their
Speaker 1: expectations are or what their demands are. You know, Supreme
Speaker 1: was definitely like up there in terms of their expectations
Speaker 1: and rightfully so right like their world would not renown brand,
Speaker 1: and there's and there's a certain expectation level that's coming
Speaker 1: from their customer base when they put a product into
Speaker 1: the world. So I effected that like you know, the
Speaker 1: demands and like what they want is justified, right, Like
Speaker 1: they need to make sure that like you know, there's
Speaker 1: no air bubbles coming up in the molds when every
Speaker 1: part is shot in the in the mold, or like
Speaker 1: you know, we need or during quality control, we need
Speaker 1: to have like extra eyes on the shoe and make sure,
Speaker 1: like you know, there's no imperfection on it at all.
Speaker 1: So these are all things that get managed, you know,
Speaker 1: through that through that process, where did your inspiration come from?
Speaker 1: For the making of the shooting? They wanted their own
Speaker 1: version of the ADDI light Adida's slides. Okay, so they
Speaker 1: had already what they wanted. You just yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, this is this is a super
Speaker 1: popular like slide. We want our own version of that.
Speaker 1: And that's generally how like most projects start, right, I
Speaker 1: was going, I was like, do most people say because
Speaker 1: I see like a lot of shoes from different brands,
Speaker 1: they all kind of like look similar. Like you'll see
Speaker 1: like a popular shoot and you'd be like, wait, Nike
Speaker 1: got this shoe out. It looks like that. Now, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I mean, you just hit the nail on the head,
Speaker 1: my friend. There's a method to badness. You know. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons for explaining it, but I think
Speaker 1: part of it is, you know, listen, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like big brands and companies have you know,
Speaker 1: certain milestones and KPIs that they have to hit at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, right, and certain boxes have
Speaker 1: to get checked because they have to move certain volumes.
Speaker 1: And sometimes those goals and ambitions don't align with the
Speaker 1: creativity that the designers want to put into it. So
Speaker 1: sometimes it can cause a little bit of friction, if
Speaker 1: you will, but not it's not so much because at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, of designer wants a job
Speaker 1: like that's like they got yeah. Yeah, But that's a
Speaker 1: big reason why. Like to answer your question, why you
Speaker 1: see some things that look exactly it's like yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's selling. You know that the this is what the
Speaker 1: consumer is getting. So if it's working at this company,
Speaker 1: I want to work over here, how does new fit
Speaker 1: in the fold? That's that's also a very interesting thing,
Speaker 1: right you need you need bold founders and CEOs and
Speaker 1: designers um who are willing to sort of like ignore
Speaker 1: the status quo and like create things that they believe
Speaker 1: that they really believe in, right, yeah, one or even
Speaker 1: thinking easy right, like thinking about Virgil and like even
Speaker 1: you know, Jerry fear of God and you're seeing more
Speaker 1: you know, and and and more of it um happening
Speaker 1: out there too, you know as well. So there's a
Speaker 1: there's a few hand handful of like independent creators and
Speaker 1: designers out there shout out to to um uh to
Speaker 1: say a collective. Uh. Delvin Carter, he's another one. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that dude is out there crushing. I've been following him
Speaker 1: for a while. I don't know him personally, but like
Speaker 1: I've been and he's been, he's been. Are you trying
Speaker 1: to get a pair? Are you trying to open up
Speaker 1: my DM DM spend money with? There? Is You have
Speaker 1: a question though, Yeah, because we're talking about all this
Speaker 1: stuff right right, there is a fake sneaker network. There
Speaker 1: is an unofficial versions because for example, remember you saw
Speaker 1: you talked about the mold having bubbles, right those are
Speaker 1: supposed to be thrown away. Yep, yeah, sometimes they're not.
Speaker 1: Oh you know your stuff. I got a sneaker room.
Speaker 1: I don't got a closet. Oh man, I was about
Speaker 1: to just break that down. Are you breaking it down
Speaker 1: right now? And I know these people take these shoes
Speaker 1: and sell them on the black market. Oh you have
Speaker 1: a there's a defection um uh period or percentage right
Speaker 1: like that? That like every factory's trying to keep as
Speaker 1: low as as possible, right, Like it could be five percent,
Speaker 1: ten percent or more. That like, you know, one of
Speaker 1: every ten pair of shoes you make don't pass the
Speaker 1: inspection that it needs to in order to go into
Speaker 1: like the main sort of run that's going to be sold.
Speaker 1: So then that shoe goes into a basket you know,
Speaker 1: over here, and if and if it doesn't meet the
Speaker 1: standards of the brand, like it's you know, they keep
Speaker 1: going in that basket. Then at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, out of a million
Speaker 1: pairs of shoes that were made, you got thirty thousand
Speaker 1: of these like effective shoes that to your point, it
Speaker 1: might be like a little fit, It might be something
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't even care about the average person. Probably. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like a thread is off or like this color
Speaker 1: bleeds into this part of the soul just by a
Speaker 1: little bit, and you would never even notice it. Right.
Speaker 1: But then what happens after that is the brand has
Speaker 1: two choices, right, they can either pay the factory to
Speaker 1: destroy those shoes, which cost them more money, or you
Speaker 1: can let the factory keep them, and at that point
Speaker 1: they can do whatever they want. The answer to that
Speaker 1: that is how a lot of those shoes stand up
Speaker 1: on the market. So there could be the real thing
Speaker 1: coming from the factory that make shoes for one one
Speaker 1: of your favorite brands. Um, but it's just that it
Speaker 1: didn't pass, you see, and it ended up going into
Speaker 1: the other basket that got sold on the market. Now,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean they're not necessarily fake control, quality control,
Speaker 1: quality control, not the quality control, y'all. Think of this
Speaker 1: defective shoes end up on a VIP table at one
Speaker 1: of the clubs in Atlanta. Hold on, But then you
Speaker 1: do have factories out there that do make fake shoes, right,
Speaker 1: Like I've I've I've spent all these countries to actually,
Speaker 1: you know, fultivate your talent. Did you see some of that?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I gotta show y'all some pictures away I got.
Speaker 1: I mean, some of this stuff is just comical. I
Speaker 1: remember one time I was visiting this this uh, this factory.
Speaker 1: I was just walking through, and you know, every factory
Speaker 1: has like a showroom of like their greatest hits. It's like,
Speaker 1: oh look, and they know you're Americans, so they're like
Speaker 1: they're like, let me take you into the room behind
Speaker 1: the room and show you the stuff that we did.
Speaker 1: And then you know, and they show you. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: impressive and other times you're like, what the fuck is
Speaker 1: One time they showed me these shoes. It was a
Speaker 1: Jordan I swear to God, like it was a Jordan logo,
Speaker 1: but like the arm was twisted direction. You know, one
Speaker 1: foot was bigger than the other. Like I'm not joking,
Speaker 1: like it wash. Those are the ones that get sold
Speaker 1: to like pay less, like you know in the hair stores. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the Oh my god, man, I used to get
Speaker 1: my hair cut there all the time and oh my god. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but um but no, but then you know, but sometimes
Speaker 1: these these products are also sold outside of the market,
Speaker 1: Right's that stuff doesn't even make it here to the US.
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the perspectives that I really
Speaker 1: got to see it and understand is like, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're here in the States, like that's one thing
Speaker 1: that's one beast when it comes to marketing and like
Speaker 1: the way products and shoes or sold. But then you
Speaker 1: know when I'm when I'm in a place like India
Speaker 1: for example, right, Like you see, it's very very different
Speaker 1: expectation and way of thinking around footwear. Right, Like these
Speaker 1: products are sold in markets where they can't sell a
Speaker 1: pair of sneakers to somebody for two hundred and dollars
Speaker 1: right in India, like my you know, I was designing
Speaker 1: shoes for people who, like had they had they had,
Speaker 1: they could buy one pair of shoes that lasted them
Speaker 1: the whole year. Right, So it had to have a
Speaker 1: thick rubber soul. It had to have certain like design
Speaker 1: cues and elements on it to give that person confidence
Speaker 1: that I'm not going to need to buy another shoe
Speaker 1: for three hundred and sixty five days. So like it
Speaker 1: changes your your your think, your mentality and thinking. Right.
Speaker 1: It's one thing to design for the US market, where
Speaker 1: you know, we all in this room probably own way
Speaker 1: more shoes than we actually need, right, And but like
Speaker 1: we're designing for an aesthetic, we're designing to like appease
Speaker 1: like a certain group of people who can afford or
Speaker 1: certain it's not a necessity accessory at that point, exactly,
Speaker 1: it's an accessory. And then when you're versus designing for
Speaker 1: a country where or a market where it is a necessity,
Speaker 1: I have to think about it through a completely different lens. Right. So,
Speaker 1: so we already know that these corporations are the people
Speaker 1: that are making the most profit off of other people's creativity.
Speaker 1: Knowing that Supreme Slides weren't crazy, Like, how much money
Speaker 1: did you actually make off of your creativity with Supreme Me?
Speaker 1: I mean, I probably just got paid. I can't remember exactly,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure I just got paid like a vendor
Speaker 1: fee or something like that. That work though in your industry?
Speaker 1: How does the money work? Um, you know it. There's
Speaker 1: different deal structures for for everybody. You know, you can,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on how good you are with negotiating
Speaker 1: and business tactics, which you know most creatives are not.
Speaker 1: But if you but if you are, you can you know,
Speaker 1: try and negotiate into the you know, get a percentage
Speaker 1: of the cost of good soul on the product. But
Speaker 1: it just all depends on what you're bringing to the
Speaker 1: table and what you can do to right. Like you know,
Speaker 1: at that time, I was also very I was young.
Speaker 1: This is like this is thirteen years ago, so you know,
Speaker 1: I was, well, i'll be forty next month, so that
Speaker 1: was you know, I was in my late twenties. So
Speaker 1: at that time for me, it was just like whatever
Speaker 1: I could get, you know, like like kill what you
Speaker 1: eat kind of thing, or eat what you kill um
Speaker 1: sort of. So like so from from that perspective, it's
Speaker 1: just like, you know, you're just taking projects and doing
Speaker 1: what you can, and for me, it was really just
Speaker 1: about experience building. So I don't want to make it
Speaker 1: sound like you know, like you know, you're young and
Speaker 1: you gotta like you know, make you know, get like
Speaker 1: you know, get what you can. But I think there's
Speaker 1: you need there needs to be a fine line between
Speaker 1: like taking advantage of opportunities and gaining as much experience
Speaker 1: as you can and building a portfolio versus like worrying
Speaker 1: about royalties and recognition. Right like I didn't get I
Speaker 1: wasn't recognized for these projects that I was in, and
Speaker 1: that's fine, right Like I feel like I I was
Speaker 1: paying my dues and I feel like now you know
Speaker 1: that that that is starting, that's paying off. Maybe you know,
Speaker 1: I would have been nice as some of this would
Speaker 1: have happened like three or four years ago, but that's
Speaker 1: that's cool. Like everything happens, you know, for a reason.
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, it's it's it's really all about,
Speaker 1: like I said, what you can negotiate for yourself and
Speaker 1: that's you know, it's like how do you get this
Speaker 1: knowledge having good mentors and family or people who have
Speaker 1: experience in business to know how to have these these conversations.
Speaker 1: But you know, you never know what you can get
Speaker 1: until you ask for it, right, And I just didn't
Speaker 1: have the experience at the time to ask for that.
Speaker 1: If for me, it was more like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: a an incredible brand that I can work with independently
Speaker 1: and like really kind of you know, build my like
Speaker 1: like build a reputation from or continue to build my
Speaker 1: reputation from. So for me, it was you know, I'm
Speaker 1: told and it was you know, it was ten thousand
Speaker 1: pairs of shoes. It wasn't like it was millions of pairs.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more of the Baller Alert Show.
Speaker 1: You're listening to a special edition of the Pallor Alert Show. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Omar Bay, co founder of Factory Lab, and you're
Speaker 1: listening to the ball Or Alert Show. Omar is actually
Speaker 1: the former head of easy Adida's innovation and you are
Speaker 1: the co founder's right, right? Yeah, thank you? Yea. What
Speaker 1: does that mean? So I was living in India at
Speaker 1: the time, and I was actually my contract was ending,
Speaker 1: and um, I got reached out to by the lovely
Speaker 1: folks over at Adidas and they told me about this
Speaker 1: opportunity with with Easy and that, Um, you know, Kanye
Speaker 1: wanted to have a facility, domestic facility, you know, to
Speaker 1: develop in the prototypes and his ideas in the States. Right.
Speaker 1: So like if we go back to the conversation, we
Speaker 1: had a moment ago about the heavy lift to like
Speaker 1: bring shoes to life, right, Like that usually happens with
Speaker 1: with the factory overseas. So you can only imagine you
Speaker 1: have the cultural barrier, the language barrier, the time, you know, difference,
Speaker 1: like all those sort of blocks, but in between, right,
Speaker 1: so you're working hard versus if you had a facility
Speaker 1: that was you know, States made a lot easier. And
Speaker 1: he understood that, right, and he was like, well, I
Speaker 1: want something here like local, like yes that like that
Speaker 1: I can just give my input and like they can
Speaker 1: make another one and make another one until it gets
Speaker 1: right and I don't have to wait months and months
Speaker 1: and months yeah, wait like months, three months, Yeah, like
Speaker 1: to go through a whole process, Like he might want
Speaker 1: to make like five changes and then a new mold
Speaker 1: needs to be made that takes thirty days, then he
Speaker 1: sees it again thirty days later, and he might be
Speaker 1: all into the next thing like by that point in time, right,
Speaker 1: So he's like, I need something here that that like
Speaker 1: I can speed this whole thing up. So that's why
Speaker 1: they reached out. That must be really how Kanye talk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is what I needed to look like this sometimes.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, of course I came out. You know,
Speaker 1: they they hit me and they said, you know, we
Speaker 1: feel they felt I had this pedigree in background to
Speaker 1: help lead this facility. You know, my background fifteen years.
Speaker 1: I was fifteen years in the business already at that point,
Speaker 1: primarily over receives. That's why a lot of people when
Speaker 1: they say, oh I never heard of this omar dude,
Speaker 1: that's because I was like in India. I was in
Speaker 1: the trenches. Yeah, like where it happened. I was there
Speaker 1: and where it all happened. So now I was like,
Speaker 1: now I'm coming back and like and you know, and
Speaker 1: and so you know, I got the I got the
Speaker 1: receipts man, like they you know, I got I got
Speaker 1: a lot of themself. Um, so you know, they hit me.
Speaker 1: I ended up coming out to La and uh, interviewed
Speaker 1: for the for the role. You know, I met with
Speaker 1: all the Adidas people. Everyone was just super nice and cool,
Speaker 1: and then they were like and then I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: they can't. One of the gentlemen came into the room
Speaker 1: and he was like, Yo, we want to take you
Speaker 1: to Calabasas to meet to meet. Yeah, oh word. I
Speaker 1: was like, damn, I didn't think that shit was gonna
Speaker 1: happen Calabasas. Like all right, so they take me, you know,
Speaker 1: they take me over there, and like they take me
Speaker 1: to this spot that he had and I'm sitting in
Speaker 1: this room like waiting, and I can hear like he
Speaker 1: had a studio in there and he was like working
Speaker 1: on some music or something because I could just hear
Speaker 1: like music like pounding through the walls and just kind
Speaker 1: of sitting there, wait and wait and waiting, and then
Speaker 1: he finally like comes into the room and I'll never
Speaker 1: forget like that, like that first image of like him,
Speaker 1: you know, walking into the space. This was right after
Speaker 1: the Coachella that he did with DMX, because like, I
Speaker 1: think his hair is red or someone or whatever. At
Speaker 1: that point, he can't he was wearing this one. He's
Speaker 1: wearing his gold grill like all the time. And he
Speaker 1: walked in the he walked in the room fire. I
Speaker 1: just envisioned like light being behind him. He walks in
Speaker 1: all you seems like a silhouette. Yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. So I met him
Speaker 1: at one of his offices, but I get I've never
Speaker 1: been to his house. Yeah, I was at like this office,
Speaker 1: but it was it was crazy because there was like
Speaker 1: just the way it was designed, like on the outside,
Speaker 1: it just looked like a normal building, but then when
Speaker 1: you went inside, it was like all the corners and
Speaker 1: the walls were rounded and there was no door handle.
Speaker 1: He probably the all that stuff. It was no, it
Speaker 1: was dope. It was like I felt like I just
Speaker 1: like walked into like another it was on another planet
Speaker 1: or something like that. But he came in. We had
Speaker 1: this meeting, and you know, he sat across from me
Speaker 1: for forty five minutes just like you know, very like
Speaker 1: very attentive and like, you know, interested in what I
Speaker 1: had to say. And we were talking and I have
Speaker 1: my portfolio in my iPad and put it in front
Speaker 1: of him and he's like flipping through and then you know,
Speaker 1: I knew like, you know, we were both creative, so
Speaker 1: like we're talking about like what we're creating and what's
Speaker 1: and and projects that I worked on and um, and
Speaker 1: we were just vibing over that and it was like
Speaker 1: forty five minutes. It was just like uninterrupted time. You know,
Speaker 1: he wasn't looking at his phone and like waiting for
Speaker 1: when the meeting was going to be over anything like that.
Speaker 1: It was just like it was just a dope conversation.
Speaker 1: That was my first time meeting him, in my first
Speaker 1: interaction with him, and then in the end he was like, yo,
Speaker 1: like let's let's go. And you got it. Well, you
Speaker 1: didn't think he was crazy. He's not always crazy. How
Speaker 1: people trying to man you know everyone, I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: everyone has there, you know, opinions and rightfully so. And
Speaker 1: you know, obviously all the recent stuff and everything you
Speaker 1: know that went down as just a been fortunate and uh.
Speaker 1: But like for me, I've always had real positive experiences
Speaker 1: with him, and that's kind of what I keep, you know,
Speaker 1: to myself, is he's always been real sweet to me
Speaker 1: and my wife and you know, and like anytime I've
Speaker 1: come around, whether it's been Sunday services or he comes
Speaker 1: into the lab, or he's communicating ideas like the concert
Speaker 1: and Atlanta Dona concert that was the last time I
Speaker 1: was in the A was for that and um, and
Speaker 1: you know he's he's just like, I've only had positive experiences,
Speaker 1: you know with him, So you know, I like, that's
Speaker 1: all I can speak to is like the way that
Speaker 1: he's treated me, like as a human being when i've
Speaker 1: you know, when i've when I've been around him, And
Speaker 1: I can't really speak for all the other stuff. What
Speaker 1: was the shoot that was created or it was oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so when so I got there, Yeah, I know, he
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time on the interview. But then yeah,
Speaker 1: then after that, there was three years after that of
Speaker 1: just like me sort of being in that role of
Speaker 1: the head of the innovation lab and shout out to
Speaker 1: my team and everyone you know on the squad at
Speaker 1: that time. Everyone just put in so much hard work
Speaker 1: into like getting these products out into the market. From
Speaker 1: Foam Runner to four fifty to the to the three eighties,
Speaker 1: we worked on all that stuff. So I'm not going
Speaker 1: to sit here and take you know, full credit for
Speaker 1: any of that stuff. It was fully like a team
Speaker 1: effort and how much freedom did he give you guys
Speaker 1: on creating the shoes? Oh? Absolute, like maximum amount of freedom.
Speaker 1: He was involved too though, right yeah, oh man obviously
Speaker 1: was there with you. Yeah. Well, um, at like when
Speaker 1: he needed to be and sometimes when and then sometimes
Speaker 1: when he just wanted to show up. But I know,
Speaker 1: I've never seen a person that was so like heavily involved,
Speaker 1: like like someone of that stature, Like and I've worked
Speaker 1: with a lot of people. I've worked a lot of
Speaker 1: athletes and other entertainers and stuff, but that dude is
Speaker 1: like really about it like he was. He was, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: just like really involved in the design process, not just
Speaker 1: like the shoe itself, but down to like the color
Speaker 1: of the packaging, to the name of the shoe, the
Speaker 1: shoelace colors, even though he didn't really like shoelaces. Later
Speaker 1: on he wanted to do shoes without shoelaces, and then
Speaker 1: like and and just everything like just like his attention
Speaker 1: to detail. You know, you you understand very quickly, like
Speaker 1: from why he's such why everyone calls him sort of
Speaker 1: this creative questions that there's a reason for that question.
Speaker 1: The yeasy slides, remember the first ones were orange. Yep,
Speaker 1: was it was the inspiration from the prison shoes because
Speaker 1: that was the that was the trend, that was the
Speaker 1: rumor going on circulating online that the prison shoes looked
Speaker 1: like this, and Yeasy came up with the prison shoe
Speaker 1: look alike up that was Honestly, I can't answer that
Speaker 1: question because that was before that was before my time.
Speaker 1: That was not me. I plead the fist. I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: what did you learn from Kanye West? Um? You know,
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing that I learned from him
Speaker 1: and just that experience in general, is that is to
Speaker 1: is to is that impossible? Really is nothing? Right? Like
Speaker 1: like you know, the jay Z said impossible what impossible
Speaker 1: takes a day, difficult takes a week or something like that.
Speaker 1: And I learned that, like you know, you can really
Speaker 1: push your boundaries creatively. Like I felt like that moment
Speaker 1: in that time when I was when I was there,
Speaker 1: like I really you know, I was like fifteen years
Speaker 1: in the business. I've seen a lot, I've done a lot,
Speaker 1: but then like that time there really like let me know,
Speaker 1: it is like okay to like push beyond what I know.
Speaker 1: You know, it's very very easily whatever industry you're in,
Speaker 1: you can get caught up in like the box that's
Speaker 1: kind of established in front of you. Right, Oh, you do.
Speaker 1: You do have to do things this way and it
Speaker 1: can't be changed, and that's just what it is, and
Speaker 1: don't challenge it or don't ask about it. Like he
Speaker 1: made me feel like or or realize that it was
Speaker 1: okay to challenge it and okay to think outside the
Speaker 1: box and color outside the lines. And I think that plus,
Speaker 1: like the experience that I've had going into that situation
Speaker 1: and coming out going into starting this new company has
Speaker 1: really um allowed me to just think freer as a
Speaker 1: as a creative and not be bounded by like the
Speaker 1: restrictions that have may have been put on me by
Speaker 1: the big brands and some of the clients that I
Speaker 1: may have worked with in the past. So now you
Speaker 1: got some new company. Yep, you new suit. Factory Lab.
Speaker 1: Shout out, Factory Lab. Shout out to the team. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody back back at the back at the lab. So
Speaker 1: you know my co founder Abby and Satian and Amaya
Speaker 1: and you know the rest of the squad uh Fahad
Speaker 1: and everybody over there full like you know, team of uh.
Speaker 1: We originally started out as just like a like all
Speaker 1: people of color you know, in the in the company.
Speaker 1: And uh and we just hired our first white person
Speaker 1: not that long ago. So yeah, a little little inside joke.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Dylan. He knows it comes from a
Speaker 1: good place. YEA, what I'm doing? Yeah yeah, um but
Speaker 1: uh but no. So Factory Lab is a you know,
Speaker 1: it is a full like footwear innovation lab based here
Speaker 1: in the States in Los Angeles downtown in the Arts District.
Speaker 1: And our goal is to work with creators and brands,
Speaker 1: um and help them build their brands through footwear. Right
Speaker 1: like you see many celebrities and creators. Everyone's got a
Speaker 1: tequila brand, everyone's got a clothing brand. You know, everyone's
Speaker 1: got this. But the one thing that you haven't really
Speaker 1: seen it, And And there's been a few who've tried it,
Speaker 1: but you never really seen anyone like like build sort
Speaker 1: of a brand like out of footwear. Jessica Simpson comes
Speaker 1: to mind. She did it with high heels and crushed
Speaker 1: it and still is, you know, still is killing it.
Speaker 1: But you've never really seen it done, you know, in
Speaker 1: the sneaker space. And I think you know, part of
Speaker 1: the reasons, or at least one of the reasons that
Speaker 1: I can speak to is because you know, it's just
Speaker 1: so hard. Right, Like the way that because I'm I'm
Speaker 1: able to do what I'm able to do is because
Speaker 1: I took this untraditional, unconventional route of going directly overseas
Speaker 1: and like and learning. Right, I didn't you know, Nike
Speaker 1: Ordida's didn't pay for me to go to China. Like,
Speaker 1: I went there on my rim and I knocked on doors,
Speaker 1: and I developed relationships, and I cultivated those relationships and
Speaker 1: I and I and I was able to learn over
Speaker 1: that time the lay of the land and how this works. Okay,
Speaker 1: if I want to build you know, a sports or
Speaker 1: performance shoe, this is the part of China I go to.
Speaker 1: If I want to build you know, women's high heels,
Speaker 1: I go to Brazil. If I want to build high
Speaker 1: end this, I go to Italy. I go here, and
Speaker 1: then you build these relationships in these places and then
Speaker 1: you know where to go, Right. It's that's very different
Speaker 1: than sitting behind your computer on Ali Baba and Ling
Speaker 1: shoe factory and sending us some money. Nine times out
Speaker 1: of ten, you're gonna get something back that like you
Speaker 1: didn't want. Right, It's like, here's this, you get back
Speaker 1: something that doesn't even look anything you know like it? Right, So,
Speaker 1: like so factory lab exists to to sort of to
Speaker 1: to eliminate that part. Right, Like if you know, if
Speaker 1: someone wants to create a brand or or you know,
Speaker 1: an influencer or someone who has you know, who has
Speaker 1: some audience or who's kind of on the rise, um
Speaker 1: who's you know, looking to build, you know, to to
Speaker 1: continue to amplify that that that UMU with footwear, like,
Speaker 1: we want to come in and be able to help them.
Speaker 1: It's fine, you don't like that, and then eventually, you know,
Speaker 1: my goal is to really be able to help those
Speaker 1: who who don't have the resources too as well. Right,
Speaker 1: we're a new companies, so I need to focus on
Speaker 1: the things that are gonna that allow us to generate revenue.
Speaker 1: But in the end, my goal is to really help
Speaker 1: those young creators who don't have the money right to
Speaker 1: be able to like to to to to invest into
Speaker 1: them and help them rise and grow on their own.
Speaker 1: And dare I say, find the next Virgil Oblow or
Speaker 1: Jerry Lorenzo you know, or someone like that and give
Speaker 1: them to you. Yeah, or I mean I appreciate that
Speaker 1: not only are you creating a community out of this right,
Speaker 1: but you're also being the person that you may have
Speaker 1: needed when you were coming into this world. We're trying
Speaker 1: to navigate because you didn't have that, the first person
Speaker 1: in your family to break through and do something like this.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's amazing what you're doing. We're
Speaker 1: super excited and proud of you. Most importantly thank you.
Speaker 1: We want to see these shoes. Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1: So we're doing drop two of the night Runner Um.
Speaker 1: We're dropping in two new colors. The first drop was,
Speaker 1: which sold out, was a black and blue, and this
Speaker 1: time we're doing the slime green. You can see right here, man,
Speaker 1: there you go. So these are man. The response has
Speaker 1: been like, fantastic about this color? Right here? These are?
Speaker 1: These are and then so green, and then and then white.
Speaker 1: Let me pull up the let me pull up the white.
Speaker 1: Before my before my co founder gives me a hard
Speaker 1: time about not showing the white shout out to Abby,
Speaker 1: but I got was wearing barely take them off my
Speaker 1: feet like I wear them. So these are the these
Speaker 1: are the white ones. So here you go, white shoes
Speaker 1: looking shoes us because y'all didn't half my size when
Speaker 1: I was in Utah, you smell your shoes because I
Speaker 1: was smelling. Oh God, I do. I was gonna ask,
Speaker 1: how did you guys even come up with your production
Speaker 1: company Factory Lab. You know, I haven't told too many
Speaker 1: people this story, but you know, before I left for UM,
Speaker 1: I had my own brand also at one point in time.
Speaker 1: So I was in India at on our Bailey Footwear.
Speaker 1: We were selling it. I was producing it in New
Speaker 1: York in this small shop that I that I had,
Speaker 1: and we were selling them overseas in Dubai, specifically level
Speaker 1: shoes in the Dubai mall. Do you ever go to
Speaker 1: Dubai check out the level shoes, shout out the levels
Speaker 1: places and credible. Uh. It's a department store for full ware,
Speaker 1: super super dope store. Probably one of the best shoe
Speaker 1: stores that you'll see. So I was selling my shoes
Speaker 1: there and then I end up getting picked up by
Speaker 1: Galleries Lafayette, which is like a well known, like British
Speaker 1: UK based retail department store. They have stores around Europe,
Speaker 1: and then they opened one in Doha, Qatar, and then
Speaker 1: they picked up my brand too as well. So I
Speaker 1: had ye guitar. So shout out. Shout out to the
Speaker 1: folks in Doha and all that too. Come up with
Speaker 1: that design right there that you that you brought us.
Speaker 1: So you know, so that that concept was um, you know,
Speaker 1: was inspired A lot of people say it looks like
Speaker 1: a boat. It was actually inspired by automotive design night run, right, So,
Speaker 1: like when you think about, like I went to CCS,
Speaker 1: which is an automotive design school, right, and like and
Speaker 1: and so I've I'm a big car fan. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm also fans of just all different types of vehicles,
Speaker 1: and you know, whether it's like you know, you look
Speaker 1: at some of the really cool the futuristic cars and
Speaker 1: now even now when you think about when we were
Speaker 1: growing up, right, like remember when you they would say, oh,
Speaker 1: this is what the flying cars and this when we
Speaker 1: were like ten and twelve, right, and shows like you
Speaker 1: know and and TV shows that like had cars in
Speaker 1: them and stuff like that. So like, yeah, the jet
Speaker 1: sins and you know, some some other stuff and um,
Speaker 1: and and that's what this was inspired by. It was
Speaker 1: inspired by automotive design elements, right, and like the name
Speaker 1: of shoes, the night Runner Runner, night Runner, night Runner.
Speaker 1: So like so you know, so this represents like one
Speaker 1: you know, one element of to me of like what
Speaker 1: we're going to be putting out into the market. So
Speaker 1: you know, factory lab where I like to say we're
Speaker 1: sort of brand agnostic, right, We're like more like the
Speaker 1: engine or the power to buy, right, So, like, so
Speaker 1: what that means is like, you know, we have the
Speaker 1: we you know, you see a brand and usually brands
Speaker 1: have to be very consistent with how they design product
Speaker 1: and put it out and you know, certain sort of
Speaker 1: brand elements that you need to follow us and that
Speaker 1: there's a consistency in the market and your customers aren't
Speaker 1: confused by when you do something different, right, But for us,
Speaker 1: like because we are the engine and we are the
Speaker 1: powered by that gives us a license to really sort
Speaker 1: of create and do things completely you know, outside the box,
Speaker 1: which brings me to one of our products that we're
Speaker 1: going to be launching next. I'm gonna show you the
Speaker 1: first time you're seeing this here. But this it's a boot.
Speaker 1: It's called the stamper Um and this is pss it around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a sneaker question. Usually the prototype shoe size is a nine? Correct?
Speaker 1: What's your prototype? What's your sample size? Oh man, it's
Speaker 1: my size eleven. Okay, but those are not elevens right right?
Speaker 1: Are those are actually the prototypes will always be your
Speaker 1: size eleven. Yeah, they'll always be my size. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: so these are the these are these are the stompers
Speaker 1: we had. Um baby, I gotta I gotta shout out
Speaker 1: my man Simba who came through the lab on the
Speaker 1: back end. Yeah, little saw the shoe, Thank you and
Speaker 1: uh was His reaction was exactly like yours too as well.
Speaker 1: So you know we're working on it. Just looks so futuristic.
Speaker 1: If I put those on, am I gonna gain an inch? Oh? Yeah? Yeah, exactly?
Speaker 1: You better get a few inches grio the way, What
Speaker 1: is up with the big oversized shoes? Now? We'll be
Speaker 1: right back. Stay tuned with more of the Baller Alert Show.
Speaker 1: You're listening to a special edition of the Baller Alert Show. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Omar Bailey, co founder of Factory Lab, and you're
Speaker 1: listening to the ball Or Alert Show. What is up
Speaker 1: with the big oversized shoes? Now? I think it's just
Speaker 1: the trend in kind of the space that we're living
Speaker 1: in right now, right And you know, for me, like
Speaker 1: it's it's more about like the You know, when you
Speaker 1: have a lot of volume that you're playing with in
Speaker 1: terms of like design, I feel like you can be
Speaker 1: really creative and expressive. So like the night Runner is
Speaker 1: a great example of it. Right. A lot of people
Speaker 1: always look really like big in this and you have
Speaker 1: all these like weird shapes. But because you have this
Speaker 1: like sort of weird, funky shape, it allows you to
Speaker 1: really like play with like the execution of the toe shape.
Speaker 1: And then even when you look at like some of
Speaker 1: these angles in the way that they stick out, you
Speaker 1: know on the sides. Um. So for me, like that's
Speaker 1: that's why I like sort of sort of big and clunky,
Speaker 1: because you know, I get the shape that volume. I
Speaker 1: almost imagine it like a piece of clay, right, and
Speaker 1: you get to play with that same thing here too.
Speaker 1: There's some elements of that in the Stopper, the way
Speaker 1: we played with the soul and the way we added
Speaker 1: this like this sort of duck boot type of toe
Speaker 1: you know, on the on the front and maintain some
Speaker 1: of that same um sort of creative approach. Beef and
Speaker 1: broccoli version of that cool already started. I already started
Speaker 1: on that. So we got Yeah, so we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna drop these in the in the fall. Uh. The
Speaker 1: date will be released very soon. You gotta follow factory
Speaker 1: lab Yeah right now. But ye from you had a
Speaker 1: few color waves at the Hennessy Arena, Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: a brown color. But the other one is that we
Speaker 1: did a gray um as well that with with little
Speaker 1: like light purple accents to it. So this little ball
Speaker 1: is like a very light purple color like this. And
Speaker 1: then and then the color I'm super excited about is
Speaker 1: all burgundy, like a dark dark burgundy with like with
Speaker 1: two with a little like bright red hints on it.
Speaker 1: So um, yeah, we're gonna be sharing this stuff out
Speaker 1: hopefully real soon. And uh yeah, and stay out, stay
Speaker 1: on the lookout for that drop date on this oper
Speaker 1: But but the point is it's like we went from
Speaker 1: this to this right and it's like, just imagine what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do now. I'm out of time out because
Speaker 1: we talk about the shoe box because I'm a sneakerhead.
Speaker 1: Bring the box up. It's not your normal square shoe box.
Speaker 1: No it's not. It's a one two right, but yeah
Speaker 1: six a hexagon. Yeah, everyone says the cast get shaped.
Speaker 1: Shout out to to King Saladin, who was like, ye,
Speaker 1: pull out, it pulls up, It pulls up, he pulls up.
Speaker 1: He was like, yo, is this He's like, is this
Speaker 1: a coffin? Because y'all killing it. I think about it
Speaker 1: like that. Shout out the saladeine for that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can see sort of the way that it in
Speaker 1: there in the box, and this is all you know,
Speaker 1: this is all by design, right, So like you know,
Speaker 1: for me, the packaging, you know, when I was in
Speaker 1: I learned very early on in college that, like you know,
Speaker 1: we would have to do these design presentations, and yep,
Speaker 1: from the brief day, you have to do these presentations
Speaker 1: where you put everything out on the wall and you know,
Speaker 1: you spend hours and hours and hours sometimes days and
Speaker 1: weeks on these projects, and then you have to present
Speaker 1: it to your classmates. You don't want to just throw
Speaker 1: it up on the wall, so you got to design
Speaker 1: the whole presentation. So I learned that from very early on,
Speaker 1: if you're going to create a product, it needs to
Speaker 1: be presented appropriately. And that's what this represents is it's
Speaker 1: a very disruptive way that packaging can be presented. And
Speaker 1: this is going to be a theme that We're going
Speaker 1: to continue on the packaging for this crazy wait to wait,
Speaker 1: to wait, to please please for sure, um man. You know,
Speaker 1: just you know, we like to mention. We got our
Speaker 1: launch tomorrow April twelfth, UM, the the drop two of
Speaker 1: the of the night Runner and Green and White. We
Speaker 1: are planning on restocking the White and the and the
Speaker 1: Black um later this summer. Um and uh, stay tuned
Speaker 1: for that eight as well. We got a really cool
Speaker 1: uh story and potential partner of that one too as well. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, we we do a lot of things man,
Speaker 1: working on you know, we do sports shoes. You know,
Speaker 1: we just developed a football cleat for Jalen Ramsey. You
Speaker 1: know Jaalen shout out the jailing Yeah yeah, he's in Miami,
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins. So we're getting those new color ways ready
Speaker 1: for him right now. So shout out the Jay and
Speaker 1: you know the whole crew man that dudes, good people,
Speaker 1: and um, you know we're doing that. We got a
Speaker 1: couple other guys we're working with. I can't name them
Speaker 1: right now at the moment. We got some really follow
Speaker 1: follow Factory Lab and you will find out I'm just
Speaker 1: following appropriate cool. Appreciate that appreciate that. Follow us and
Speaker 1: you'll see. But you know, we're you know, listen, we're
Speaker 1: you know, like you know, I said this once before
Speaker 1: and I'll say it again. You know, I wanna you know,
Speaker 1: my goal is just to like make cool shit with
Speaker 1: cool people, um and and work with good people and
Speaker 1: put out great product into the world. And I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, this moment in time is uh, I feel
Speaker 1: like this is this is my moment, our moment as
Speaker 1: factory lab. You know, to do that if you know,
Speaker 1: a year ago I was still at Actually I left
Speaker 1: Adidas exactly one year ago. Tomorrow is when I left
Speaker 1: the company. And since then I was able to go
Speaker 1: and raise you know, six million dollars and as one
Speaker 1: of the largest seed rounds for a black founder last
Speaker 1: year in twenty twenty two and a down market, and
Speaker 1: when it was very difficult to raise money, we were
Speaker 1: oversubscribed and we have some incredible, incredible investors you know
Speaker 1: on board. Shout out to all of them who've believed
Speaker 1: in us and who've gotten who've gotten behind behind us.
Speaker 1: Was that Are you still cool with Adidas? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: those are my people, man. Yeah, I worked there. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, like I like, I like, you know, I
Speaker 1: love that brand in that in that company. I still
Speaker 1: wear you know, Adidas and stuff and you know. And
Speaker 1: it was my first internship that I ever did in
Speaker 1: two thousand and five was with was with a Ditas.
Speaker 1: You know, so you know, by no means what you know,
Speaker 1: factory lab is am I like ignorant enough to say, oh,
Speaker 1: We're gonna be the next you know, the Dita's and
Speaker 1: Nike and all that. Like, I'm not. I've been in
Speaker 1: this game long enough to know that is just not possible.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to operate in this little small space
Speaker 1: that that that companies that are too big to operate
Speaker 1: in like even care about, right, And that's like working
Speaker 1: with you know, working with creators and like putting product
Speaker 1: into the market. It doesn't have for me. It's not
Speaker 1: about making millions and millions upon millions of units and
Speaker 1: selling into all these markets. It's more about, like smoke,
Speaker 1: it focused on smaller volumes and quantities and like and
Speaker 1: sort of taking that slow growth approach. Right. Like you know,
Speaker 1: back in the day, if you wanted to start a
Speaker 1: shoe company, you don't get into the shoe business. What
Speaker 1: you did was you would buy, you know, you'd find
Speaker 1: a factory order twenty thousand pairs of shoes and find
Speaker 1: a retail partner like foot Locker and like Pray that
Speaker 1: you could sell like you know, sixty or seventy percent
Speaker 1: of your inventory and then all flow the rest of
Speaker 1: it at TJ max or something like that. Right now
Speaker 1: because of social media and how and how much smaller
Speaker 1: the world is. Because as a result of social media,
Speaker 1: you know, there are new strategies and steps that you
Speaker 1: can take to to get to a mass audience and
Speaker 1: sell your products. And that's where I'm that's the niche
Speaker 1: in the space that I'm focused on. The big brands
Speaker 1: are always going to have their space and do what
Speaker 1: they are doing. And by no means am I like,
Speaker 1: you know, pronouncing that we're going to take down a
Speaker 1: big company. No way, no way, no how, Like those
Speaker 1: guys are killing it, and but they are kind of
Speaker 1: missing easy though. What's that they are kind of Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's an opportunity for us, And that's an opportunity
Speaker 1: for others too, you know, Like I mentioned some of
Speaker 1: those brands that are you know out there, the you know,
Speaker 1: the SSIDA collectives and and and of some of the
Speaker 1: others you know that are in the that are in
Speaker 1: the footwear space, and hopefully this inspires more like independent
Speaker 1: you know footwear brands to to start, like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's enough pie for everybody out there to eat, right,
Speaker 1: I think it's now it's just about breaking that ecology
Speaker 1: that like it's not just the big brands that can
Speaker 1: do it, but it's you know, the night Runner to
Speaker 1: me represents us like breaking that trend, right, Like, we
Speaker 1: didn't think there was going to be such a positive
Speaker 1: response to this product so early on. We thought we
Speaker 1: were going to need to have to sort of go
Speaker 1: through the motions of like building you know, a way
Speaker 1: a brand is built. And and it just so happened
Speaker 1: that you know, hype Beast shout out to hype Beast,
Speaker 1: they did a you know, really incredible piece on this
Speaker 1: product going to market and the way we developed it
Speaker 1: in one and a half months, and it got a
Speaker 1: lot of really positive feedback and reaction, and it went
Speaker 1: viral real quick, million views in less than a day
Speaker 1: on this video, and that told us something that told
Speaker 1: us that there is an appetite, there's a hunger in
Speaker 1: the market, there's a gap in the place. Thank you
Speaker 1: very ill appreciate that. Yeah, well, you know, we've been
Speaker 1: around the block a few times and um, and it
Speaker 1: just shows that there's an appetite out there for something
Speaker 1: that's new. So, like I said, hopefully what we're doing
Speaker 1: inspires others to want to do the same. You know,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of space out there for all of us
Speaker 1: to swim and flourish and um, yeah, that's that's what
Speaker 1: I'm about. In Factory Libster Bailey, we are so proud
Speaker 1: of you, proud what you add to the culture. Thank
Speaker 1: you for bringing us to shoe as. We can't wait.
Speaker 1: All right, go follow Factory Lab. So before we get
Speaker 1: out of here, mister Omar Bailey, we gotta pip talk.
Speaker 1: My name is Omar Bailey. I am the co founder
Speaker 1: of Factory Lab. And you know, my advice to anyone
Speaker 1: who is trying to build or create something and and
Speaker 1: let their voices be heard is to, you know, focus
Speaker 1: less on recognition and more on the experience. And what
Speaker 1: I mean by that is, you know, put the horse
Speaker 1: blinders on, like lock in on your passion and what
Speaker 1: it is that you are really just interested in and love,
Speaker 1: and that passion is what's gonna get you. That's gonna
Speaker 1: be the throughline for the rest of your career, right Like,
Speaker 1: when you focus on that, that's what's going to get
Speaker 1: you through the bad times. It's even going to get
Speaker 1: you through the good times. But the passion is the
Speaker 1: one consistent thing that's always going to be there. So
Speaker 1: stay passionate and committed to your craft, and I guarantee
Speaker 1: that you will have success. Can't get enough of baller Alert.
Speaker 1: Follow us on all social media platforms at baller alert
Speaker 1: well go on to baller alert dot com.