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Speaker 4: So you talked about Kanye and he became a billionaire
Speaker 4: because of easy licensing deal with Adidas one hundred percent
Speaker 4: of yeasy, but it was distributed through Adidas, and when
Speaker 4: Adidas dropped him, he lost four billion dollars in his
Speaker 4: net worth? Right? So was what does that speak to
Speaker 4: as far as on the licensing side, did he have
Speaker 4: a bad licensing deal.
Speaker 2: One thousand percent?
Speaker 4: Explain?
Speaker 2: So, if I remember correctly, in his contract he gave
Speaker 2: up creative control and which means in his contract he
Speaker 2: also didn't have the language stated that anything that was
Speaker 2: developed by the licensee was owned by the licensere. So
Speaker 2: when I go to the table with my licensees and
Speaker 2: like we're looking at here, caare like bowls and stuff, right,
Speaker 2: and they'll develop a different like look of the unicorn,
Speaker 2: maybe a different polls or a different pattern or something,
Speaker 2: I still own it. So when they made any variation
Speaker 2: of his product, they immediately grabbed ownership. I'm dealing with
Speaker 2: a situation right now with the company, not on the
Speaker 2: consumer product side, but it's on a different side on
Speaker 2: the production side. And I saw how in the beginning
Speaker 2: they were trying to change the look of the unicorn
Speaker 2: and trying to change a lot of things about the
Speaker 2: unicorn because they wanted to own as much of the
Speaker 2: property as they possibly could. So they probably tried to
Speaker 2: pull that on him, and I believe he said something
Speaker 2: like he don't read contracts.
Speaker 1: So have there ever been any issues in terms of trademarking,
Speaker 1: Like when I mean we come from an everwhere it
Speaker 1: was like it was my little pony right like that
Speaker 1: that was and then it was I guess my daughter
Speaker 1: kind of fell into this like rainbow dash and all
Speaker 1: those things, and so have you come into contact with
Speaker 1: people trying to make a similar product or similar trademark,
Speaker 1: And how's that process been I did.
Speaker 2: It's hurtful for one, like I take this personal because
Speaker 2: what I we didn't talk about how I started the
Speaker 2: whole why Nipsey and Tupacer up here, like how my
Speaker 2: marathon continues. How I have this adgas no breaks mentality
Speaker 2: that I launched this brand. My son was in the
Speaker 2: hospital for twenty days. When he got out, my favorite
Speaker 2: uncle died a massive heart attack. Seventeen hours later, my
Speaker 2: uncle died. Six months later, my grandmother died, and then
Speaker 2: we were in a global pandemic. I have a lot
Speaker 2: of heart and soul into this brand. So when someone
Speaker 2: tries to come out with their version of Afro Unicorn,
Speaker 2: it's a serious problem. And so yeah, I had to
Speaker 2: first I tried to ignore it. My thing was, I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna work harder, like I'm just gonna outwork them.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna outwork them. But it starts to become confusion
Speaker 2: in the marketplace. And so the trademark attorney was, like,
Speaker 2: April have confusion in the marketplace because people were purchasing
Speaker 2: this other brand believing that they were buying Afro Unicorn,
Speaker 2: so then we had to take it to we had
Speaker 2: to sue. Yeah, we had took.
Speaker 1: A year because it is a domestic trademark or is
Speaker 1: it international as well?
Speaker 2: Only some countries. You know, you have to trademarket in
Speaker 2: every single country you go to. Right now, we're only
Speaker 2: in the US and Canada, so we have to strategically
Speaker 2: get to the other countries and we're working towards it.
Speaker 2: But it's it definitely is a process. But this particular company,
Speaker 2: it took us a year to get to to get
Speaker 2: to a positive resolution that I'm still not really that
Speaker 2: much happy with. But I'm back to my thing. I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna outwork them, So.
Speaker 4: So don't worry about the how. Yes, what does that mean?
Speaker 2: I didn't know how I was going to be on
Speaker 2: this interview with y'all. I knew it was going to
Speaker 2: happen because I saw it. So you have to as
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur, well entrepreneurs, that's what we're speaking to, you
Speaker 2: have to see the end goal what it is. I
Speaker 2: knew African Cronin is gonna be a household name in
Speaker 2: a worldwide brand, point blank period. You couldn't tell me
Speaker 2: that it wasn't I didn't know how it was going
Speaker 2: to get there. It's getting there through through licensing. Right,
Speaker 2: I'm just a real manifestor. I truly believe that whatever
Speaker 2: I see already exist in the future. Because you cannot
Speaker 2: see anything. You can't like, you can't tell your right
Speaker 2: foot to go like you got it. In order to walk,
Speaker 2: your brain gotta tell your right foot to take the
Speaker 2: step right. So I truly believe that before anything can happen,
Speaker 2: because it already exists. And I'll prove it to you.
Speaker 2: I know there's so many people out there that have
Speaker 2: seen ideas that're like, dang, I had that idea because
Speaker 2: the moment you thought about it, it already exists. The
Speaker 2: problem is are you going to be there to see
Speaker 2: it through? So I don't worry about the how. Once
Speaker 2: I see it, and everybody knows this around me, they
Speaker 2: know if April. If April says it's gonna happen, all money.
Speaker 4: In, all money in, that's a fact, no money out, sore.
Speaker 4: Are you using different companies for the like the licensing
Speaker 4: or is it the same company?
Speaker 2: I have over forty five different licensees. Licensing is by category,
Speaker 2: So there's a company that does underwear Handcraft. There's a
Speaker 2: company that does apparel, Mad Engine. There every single category.
Speaker 2: When you start going into stores, start flipping over those packages.
Speaker 4: So how'd you find these companies?
Speaker 2: Flip over the packages? And I literally was in the stores.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 2: I would shoot pictures to a ski and be like,
Speaker 2: this is who I'm gonna get on LinkedIn. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: find this company and we're gonna find who handles licensing.
Speaker 4: And then you reach out to them, yep, directly, and
Speaker 4: then you so you negotiate with being that they didn't
Speaker 4: reach out to you, you reached out to them. They have
Speaker 4: more leverage in this situation, right.
Speaker 2: Sometimes, But once you have Walmart, So my spade was Walmart,
Speaker 2: Like that was my ace. I have Walmart, And once
Speaker 2: you know you have the attention of Walmart, their antennas
Speaker 2: are up, okay because everyone wants to get in Walmart.
Speaker 2: And people I know look at Walmart like it's Walmart
Speaker 2: because we don't really shop at Walmart. I know, it's
Speaker 2: not a big thing here in New York. But for retail,
Speaker 2: they are the god. Walmart is the god of retail.
Speaker 2: And if you can't get yoke like everyone it used
Speaker 2: to be is different now, but they're like in order
Speaker 2: for a property to be successful, it has to.
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