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Creativity Starts in Kentucky with Davin Gentry
74 Plays8 hours ago
This week I am joined by Davin Gentry of Diet Starts Monday. We talk about his journey into sneakers and streetwear. How Kentucky built him for working within streetwear. How he got his start, the lessons he learned along the way. What it takes to put a ComplexCon booth together and why ComplexCon is important. Moments in his life that changed the way he thought. The longevity of his brands and much much more.
Follow Davin:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/davin_gentry
Follow Diet Starts Monday
IG: https://www.instagram.com/dietstartsmonday__/
Podcast Linktree: https://linktr.ee/myfirstkicks
Sign up for the Patreon: https://patreon.com/MyFirstKicks
Music by The DoppleGangaz: https://thedoppelgangaz.bandcamp.com/
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Transcript
The Slow Pace of Kentucky and Brand Longevity
00:00:00
Speaker
also think coming from Kentucky, because we move at such a slow pace, where' we're built for the long game. yeah like I knew with premium, I knew with diet that we were we were comfortable like taking whatever pace we needed to take. like We were seeing like antisocial hit the scene and instantly sell for, like I forget how much he sold for tens of millions. Yeah, it was a lot. Flamed out. quick yeah flamed out very quick. But I remember just looking back and being like, man, like at first you see it and you're like, ah, like I i wouldn't mind. i wouldn't mind 20 million right now. But then you're like, I could, could the longevity be greater, um, if we take a slower pace. And I mean, to be fair, like a lot of brands don't make it. one year, two years, three years. We're we're on year eight of diet, but i mean, year 15 counting premium. And so to have 15 years of people like wanting your product and liking your quality and
00:01:03
Speaker
What's good everyone?
Introducing Davin Gentry
00:01:04
Speaker
Welcome back to My First Kiss. This episode 249 and this week I bring to you another special guest. I'm a big fan of his brand. I mean, if you've ever seen me as of late rocking a lot of Diet Stars Monday. But welcome to the podcast, Davin Gentry.
00:01:21
Speaker
Thank you for having me. yeah man Excited to be here. No, come on, man. bibe never now yeah It's been a minute since we tried to get it going. So luckily we made it happen. Nah, yeah. I mean, we met last year at the last Complex Con, but I was already like telling you, like, yo, I love your stuff.
00:01:36
Speaker
And then I went to to circle back and be like, yo, I got to get that Mets hat. The Mets, the 86 Mets hat. yeah And I went and I was like, you haven't? He's like, nah, yeah it's gone. yeah met Mets hats for us, is it's crazy. we don't We can't keep them for some reason. So, yeah, I mean, it's it's it's been ah it's been fun to kind of like...
00:01:59
Speaker
like complex kind we met so many people that kind of like turned into relationships and and things like this so it's been exciting to kind of like see those come to life so happy to be here no man this is awesome i think like we we linked up to this this one too as well and uh i mean you were selling i feel like you sold everything out too but yeah i mean we we're also smart to we kind of have an idea of about how much is just too much product to take um but yeah complex con is still something that we're trying to always figure out and there's a it's a balance of marketing slash making money yeah um and so trying to keep that balance but we feel we feel good about how this last one went no yeah it was It was dope, man. I love seeing you there. Man, people was lean pulling up on you. yeah though Like I said, I bought the the racing the racing shirt. Right, right. Yeah. Because I know I said racing jersey. I mean, we call it we call it the MX jersey. so I mean, it's a shirt. It's a jersey. It's a jersey. You bought it. So whatever you want to call it, feel free.
00:03:08
Speaker
I mean, that joint so far, I was like, yeah, going to make sure I'm going to cop that because I was going to buy it online. And then I was just like, nah, let me go get this in person. No, we actually, we sold out online and then restocked there. So perfect timing. No, yeah.
Inspiration Behind Diet Starts Monday
00:03:21
Speaker
we Could you like describe your brand a little bit more to for the people listening?
00:03:25
Speaker
ah So diet starts Monday. We started 2017 with premise um with the premise of you know people have ideas, dreams, like whatever that maybe sit on the back burner for however long.
00:03:43
Speaker
this was This brand was one of those. We put it off for, i don't know, three, four years before starting it. And we wanted something that just kind of like uh tied back to the procrastination that went into it so um what what resonates more with procrastination than dieting yeah diet starts monday so there's a lot of people are like oh is it a food brand is it a workout brand mean it's really none of those it's it's uh it's a fashion brand yeah inspired by just all things that i'm inspired by um
00:04:20
Speaker
um the racing stuff i i grew up in kentucky i'm from kentucky madisonville hey and my my uncle was like a big like dirt bike harley four-wheeler guy and so i just was always around that stuff but i was also around sports and music and streets and like all of these things so like there i'm i'm just kind of like one walking juxtaposition um and so that's why you'll see like you'll see horse racing stuff because obviously we're kentucky but you'll see hip-hop inspired stuff or even alternative like skate like i grew up skating i grew up playing basketball so um i just try just push all of those things that i i grew up like
00:05:14
Speaker
taking part in, put those into the brand. And i mean, we, we, we create from like a very nostalgic place. Like I grew up in the 90s.
00:05:26
Speaker
the brand is very like this jacket is like vintage Carhartt inspired. Like we have a Carhartt factory where I'm from. So everything is just very like meaningful. yeah And so that's the brand. We've been around eight years, hopefully 80 more to go. Yeah, for real. legacy. Yeah, for sure. Legacy stuff, for sure. i mean, you guys make definitely some...
00:05:50
Speaker
I feel like to me, it's definitely timely, timeless pieces because the like I feel like, for example, racing shirt I could wear. i could wear at any given time period. it's not like, oh, yeah, this is in right now. And so I think that's that's huge. Right. Because like the way that fashion moves is so freaking fast. Right. Or it's like, I mean, Hellstar basically like the Hellstar. design has been basically running everything all year yeah you know i mean i think so diets are really our second brand we had premium co first and even dating back to premium co which was 2011 till i mean it never ended we just kind of like just put it on pause till
00:06:36
Speaker
Till we do or we don't figure out what we want to do with
Timeless Design Philosophy of Premium Co.
00:06:39
Speaker
that. But um even back as far as then, like the designs are always very timeless. like i Like I still have people that tag me in photos of premium stuff that's like, yo, I still wear this jacket or i was wearing this until i lost it. And are are you going to like bring back premium so I can get this? And I think that just I've always had that like.
00:07:07
Speaker
not a care about trendiness. One, i like i I, got too many things to focus on to try to like trend forecast and think about what's going to be hot and what's not. And I just design what like I want to wear, what I think people are going to want to wear and what people are going to want to invest into to, to have for five, 10, 15 years. Like some of these premium pieces are, what is that? 12 years old. So yeah,
00:07:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think timelessness will probably be like, like if you had asked me like, yo, what's one word that describes you as a designer? Like that would probably be my word because and like i I just, I only care about long lasting legacy, like you said. Yeah, I mean, that's fire though. Like for for you to look at it like that and be like, yeah, like this is this is something that in any time period, like we're good to go. yeah no i mean i like all of these pieces come to mind and that i like i could literally see anybody wearing something from this fall winter collection like i could have seen it five years ago i could see it five years from now so um well i mean we'll look back on this and see like how
00:08:25
Speaker
how accurate that was but i mean i think having been in this industry i don't know 15 years like i think that's that's enough data to kind of like prove the the science that you got it yeah for sure you know um but you're here to answer the question that i ask everybody each week and that question is what's your first kicks was that first person thinkers you absolutely needed to have first pair i needed to have was probably
00:08:53
Speaker
man Maybe...
Sneaker Memories and Diverse Interests
00:09:00
Speaker
Honestly, I feel like it was Shaq's. Yeah? Like, I don't remember. I guess not... What was Shaq-nosis? Hypnosis? i don't know which's what he called it, but not the... I don't think it was the first... Was that his first shoe? The Hypnosis one? Yeah. Yeah, the Shacknosis's? Was that... Or was it the... I mean, it was the blue chips pump, the pump.
00:09:18
Speaker
It was a pump there. it was a Shaq pump. I remember it was like a black pair. It's probably the Shacknosis's. Yeah, maybe it was. But I i remember being like... i don't even know, like fifth grade, fourth grade, somewhere around there.
00:09:35
Speaker
And that being... like the first shoe that I like vividly remember, like I had like, I don't even remember years that everything came out, but like Aqua 8s, that was for the longest time, that was like my, the shoe for me. Like I got it when I was a kid and my granny's apartments had this like construction thing beside it. And I stepped in like this big pile of like, it was like a mountain of like,
00:10:05
Speaker
in my head it was like concrete quicksand. But like, it probably was just like mud or something like looking back, but I ruined the shoe. And so up until they came back out, like whatever that was, mid 2008s or somewhere around there, I don't know. But yeah, shack Shaq's shoe was probably the first that like really just kind of like set it off for me. Yeah, and that was from there you were just like... I mean, it didn't really like...
00:10:35
Speaker
Or was that like your hooping shoe? Because you were, ah were you. I hooped. But I didn't, I didn't hoop in those. um minute grun Like we had like team shoes growing up.
00:10:48
Speaker
And i could, I could never tell you what those, those are like generic Nike Adidas. um I did hoop in Iversons. ah And from there, like once I got to like,
00:11:02
Speaker
middle school that was like iverson's um and in high school was everything but like sneakers for me like i love them as a kid but obviously like when your parents is getting they're getting your shoes like there's only so like my mom wasn't one that was like every shoe i wanted i got like it was like maybe once a year like i would get a pair from like like that um and then high school when i kind of like started to get my own money yeah that's when that's when like
00:11:37
Speaker
the sneakerhead in me was born before that it was just like i liked them i would look at east bay and stuff like that but also like i said i skated so i was like the kid that would be in like DC's or Etnies or something like this day and then the next day being like Shaxx or yeah whatever I'm very like i' i'm I'm mixed but I'm mixed also in the sense of like I was very into like a lot of stuff just got what you were saying I'm biracial so I was around i was around a lot yeah um but so I was into skate shoes basketball shoes like
00:12:23
Speaker
Wallabies, like like everything. So, um yeah, I've been. You were like traversing the the friend, well, the cliques in high school too, for sure. I mean, once I got to high school, for sure, it was I was done with skating. And basketball just like took over.
00:12:41
Speaker
But middle school, for sure, was like very like half skate, half hooper. Yeah. um mean, that's dope. Who was ah who's was what was your favorite skater at that time? for sure.
00:12:53
Speaker
I mean, I was, I was into like rollerblading, um, like aggressive inline is what they called it then. But like, it's, it's funny now. I just connected with him like years later, like decades after being a skater, but John Julio, he was like one that was always in the skate tapes that I like always like loved his style.
00:13:15
Speaker
Um, I can't even really remember to like skateboard. I remember a lot just because they were more,
00:13:24
Speaker
mainstream like on Games. Nobody was really in line. Like, yo, I'm in line. Until you got, until the soaps came out. Yeah. And then, yeah. Actually, luckily I've never had those. I can say. You didn't rock a pair of soaps? No, my homie that I skated with, he had a pair and I just could not like, I'm like, no, I don't need skates that are like shoes. Like I just wear my shoes susan and then I wear my skates. I don't need the same thing like at the same time. Like in my in my high school, I did hang out with the inline skaters, i don't know, aggressive inline, well, those skaters. yeah And there I guess I'll tell this story. There was this one story, um somebody somebody beefed it on a rail, split his ball sack in half, and like ah down the middle. That happens a lot.
00:14:11
Speaker
He said that this yo, this story list for me, this is why I'll never grind a rail. Like this literally the story. he said He said he was too afraid, then this makes sense after thinking about it. Like he was too afraid to tell his mom that he tore his tore his joint open, that he went to the bathroom, played like Metallica really loud and like sewed his shit back together. Oh, that's okay yeah that's too much. And after that, i was like, I was like, nah, I'm not even hanging out with you guys no more after that. Because that that's crazy. How you just openly tell me that story. Scared me for the rest of my life, man. Yeah. I mean, skaters, they there's some skaters that had some like gnarly like accidents. like Luckily, i i was fortunate enough to never... like
00:14:58
Speaker
I did at one time at this like church picnic, I did like jump up off this like ledge and try to grind on this like dumpster. And i I missed my front foot and I like fell and hit my head the dumpster in front of like the whole picnic. That's like the worst that it ever got for me.
00:15:17
Speaker
But it wasn't like I didn't like get busted open. Yeah. Like that. But. concussion uh looking back probably i've had a couple looking back i probably have one then but i didn't it wasn't like i didn't get like knocked out yeah like that but um but yeah i mean i think skating really like even now like a lot of a lot of my i don't know, inspiration comes from like skating jeans and like old JNCO, not even just like the fit, but like the details that they would put into the jeans stuff like that. So I think that, you know, like growing up in Kentucky, we always kind of,
00:16:03
Speaker
had like a We always had like ah, this place sucks type of mentality, which I feel like a lot of a lot of people probably do. yes Unless you're living in New York or LA. The way Jack Harlow makes Kentucky sound. yeah Well, he's a different Kentucky to me too, but my Kentucky...
00:16:21
Speaker
we we grew up like feeling like this place is not good like we got to get out of here and like as i've gotten older i've gained like not so much a respect for it but just like a respect for what it gave me because just being around what i was around like i don't like if i had been in l a granted they're skating and stuff like that but like depending on where i was born and living like i could have been in here i could have been in in in gang territory i could have been in this so it's just like as i got older i was like that was probably the best place for me and like for what i'm doing now i just have so much inspiration at all times just just like looking back at like where i came from so
00:17:09
Speaker
I wouldn't I wouldn't change it. Well, we've been enjoying this week's episode with that and Gentry. And if you have been enjoying this week's episode, please make sure to hit that like subscribe, leave a comment, especially during our interaction. If you want to ask us questions or ask me a question, leave that in the comments. And if you're listening to this on Apple or Spotify, be sure to leave a five star review.
00:17:37
Speaker
And of course, If you can, leave a comment or a review on Spotify. That'll help us go a long way. And if you are watching this on YouTube, don't forget, you can hit that hype button. It only lasts a couple days, and it'll help me out tremendously. And if you want to go the extra, extra mile, make sure to subscribe to the Patreon at patreon.com slash myfirstkicks. $5 tier is all we got right now. Going to be adding more content.
00:18:08
Speaker
And of course, you know, back to the episode. What what what was like, how did how did like s sneaker culture and you know street where find you and in Kentucky?
Streetwear Culture in Kentucky
00:18:20
Speaker
Um, man, that's a good, that's a really good question. Uh, I mean, obviously TV, um, we were, you know, sneaker culture was tough for us because like we had to really like hunt for stuff because we didn't get it in my city. Like we, we didn't even get like force air forces in my city.
00:18:43
Speaker
Nike had ah a thing that was basically like a proximity thing. Like, We sent them here, which is 30 miles from you. We sent them here, which is 30 miles from you. yeah We can't send them to your city. So we had to drive just for just for forces. where Where did you have to drive?
00:18:59
Speaker
ah We had to go to Nashville, Evansville. Evansville is in Indiana. yeah um Clarksville, which is like on the way to Nashville and Tennessee.
00:19:10
Speaker
Hopkinsville is in Kentucky. All the villes. All the villes. I'm from Madisonville. We never really went to Louisville too much. You guys will say Louisville. Yeah. It's Louisville.
00:19:23
Speaker
I thought it's the ville. That isn't, don't they call it the ville? They call it the ville, but like, we're, and we don't really say the ville where I'm from, but... madisonville is that's enough um but every hopkinsville madisonville louisville evansville like i don't know i don't know why they named all of them that but um i'm sure somebody in the common me in the commoners like we'll tell you i'll to give you a little history hopefully hopefully somebody knows but um yeah so we i think then like
00:19:57
Speaker
we saw what we saw on MTV, BET, stuff like that. um And then we would have to go out and find it. um And then there were the East Bays, which you could find XYZ. But I grew up kind of like,
00:20:13
Speaker
always around like a little bit of like an older crowd. I was like always the younger one. And they kind of like, I got to just see where they were getting stuff. Like they were going to Indianapolis and like all Atlanta, all of these cities finding Averex and, gosh,
00:20:36
Speaker
academics and like all of these things um and i actually just told this story the other day but my mom's fiance when i was in high school this is kind of when everything really kind of got put into motion for me which was i wanted it i wanted to avarex i still to this day have never gotten one Hey, now they're back. It's time. oh No, for sure. I'm actually, that's um'm that's my dream collab is Averex. Averex, make it happen.
00:21:04
Speaker
i'm I'm hitting them. We'll see. um But my mom's fiance for my birthday, he was like, ah yo, if you want the Averex, I'll get it for your birthday and Christmas present because I'm a December baby. So we always get our presents jumbled into one. Yeah.
00:21:24
Speaker
And he was like, I'll take you to Indianapolis. We'll find it or whatever. So we go and then I find it. It's like 400. And he's like, he's like, are you sure you want like this is a lot like, are you sure this is what you want? Like you could get so many other things. I'm like, no, this is what I want.
00:21:43
Speaker
And he's like, all right, I'm going to tell you, going give you a quick lesson. He's like, I could give you the 400 and you can buy this or I'll give you the 400. You can buy this jacket, which is 200. And then you can use the other 200 for whatever.
00:21:56
Speaker
And so i'm like, all right, let me go look around, like just see what I see. And the jacket he's, he's, pulled up was just like thinking back, it was not fire at all. But and saw these I saw these gray high tops. like, man, what are these? And then I looked, it was Air Forces. It was gray with like a Navy swoosh, Navy bottom, Navy strap. They were highs.
00:22:21
Speaker
And I'm like, man, like now his deal started to like seem a little bit more sweet. So I took it. I got the forces, got the jacket that was trash. Was the jacket even leather? No, it was leather. It was just like, I mean, you know, Averex had the name. They had.
00:22:38
Speaker
Yeah, on the back. Like, Kelly was wearing it in the video. Like, everybody was in Averex. So, like. the jacket I bought was probably from a brand like mine, like kind of luxury, but affordable.
00:22:52
Speaker
Um, just, they didn't have the name like Ava Rex. And so, but it wasn't, it wasn't, didn't even compare. It just was like a leather, a leather jacket. Yeah. Um, but so I got, I got that, but I'd say all of that to say like that,
00:23:07
Speaker
it's really that's really when like the sneaker head in me was was born like from that person first pair of forces it was like um and i don't care about nothing else other than shoes so a fashion was like the last thing in my mind really was just like start with the shoes and then figure out the rest how did how did that feel going into school that first day where you just like it's funny so the my my older homies still to this day like if we talk like about style or fashion or whatever they still are like yo i remember when you came through with the gray highs and like blah blah blah so i mean it definitely
00:23:51
Speaker
it's it's It's two parts to it. I felt like the man at first, eventually, like a couple weeks later, they shot me right back down because I was wearing them with this Jabod t-shirt like once a week.
00:24:09
Speaker
And so the first week it was like, oh, he killed it. The next week it was like, okay. The third week it was like, bro, like you- You got to cycle the shit out. And so that's when that's when the homie Cizo told me, he's like, bro, I'm tired of seeing this shirt. Like you gotta you gotta to put some stuff together. And so that's when like I realized like, okay, it's not just the footwear. It's like, you gotta have some stuff too, which, I mean, coming from Kentucky, we we're like like we grew up on on hot boys and like all of this stuff. So like a white tee, as long as you had a white tee, you could wear pretty much any shoes. But if you're going wear the same Jabot t-shirt every day, you're going to get roasted. Oh, for sure. So that was a ah lesson in in fashion. one like oh It's Tuesday. Davin's pulling up with the Jabot. He's got the Jabot on today.
00:25:03
Speaker
Yeah. That was, yo, look, high school, same thing, man. I had ah this one fit I would always put together. It was, it was like these, when it was summer, it was like spring, summer, whatever. It was like Sean John ah shorts with, with, with my black, um, uptown, the Lowe's, like before they became black nasties. Yeah. Um, and then like I had a fat farm shirt and it was like every Wednesday on the dot. I don't know. this is how it happened yeah i um yeah i i mean i still remember a lot of those moments though like i remember my first time on a plane we went to me and my mom went to denver for a wedding and they had like they had like a cooperstown
00:25:52
Speaker
I know, Cooperstown store or something. And they had like all the and MLB throwbacks. And so I got the i wouldve gone crazy i got the Nolan Ryan, yeah the Astros with the stripes, and they had the hat.
00:26:06
Speaker
And my school, you couldn't wear hats. I mean, most you couldn't, but ah mine you could never except for, was like one day. i remember if it was like, think it was a picture day or something, you could wear a hat.
00:26:20
Speaker
And so I sat on the jersey and the hat for like I don't know, two months until that day came. And then I came in and like, you would have thought that it was like, like I was like Mr. 106 and park or something. like ah if Like I remember like just how everybody like, cause I mean, at the, at the time too, that was probably, don't even know, like two 50 for the Jersey maybe. Yeah. And the hat as like a senior, like,
00:26:51
Speaker
who like like i said my mom wasn't my mom was a hairstylist like she wasn't coughing up bread like that for nothing so that was i think it was like my senior present she was like yo it's your senior year like i'll get you this don't yeah don't ask for nothing like like this is your graduation present basically but um but yeah those those early moments really like made me feel a type of way about fashion but even then i still wasn't thinking like this is something that i'll do it just was like we just we had to look good and be fly and that's all that's all we really were thinking about and then as i got older i'm like man this
00:27:36
Speaker
These little moments kind of like shaped who I became as a designer. so I want to know like when the did when did that moment shift where you were like, maybe I should actually start. You weren't like making shirts for people or like.
00:27:50
Speaker
I did that. um So it was. it's funny it was a dude who came down from another city uh who painted shoes he was like he was like the guy like oh like pinky's coming to town he's he's everybody yeah everybody's waiting on pinky um it's a white dude that was like cold at like just customizing shoes back then this is not airbrushing No, this was just painting, like Angelus paint.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yeah, like Mizzy custom. you know Do you remember Mizzy? I don't Mizzy was from, i think he was from Philly. He was he was nasty with but the paint. but um so it was like that, like kind of like, I don't know, like Muskeen was huge, and like then you had him that would do your shoes or whatever.
00:28:41
Speaker
But when he came down, At first, I'm like, yo, i can I'm an artist. I could figure this out. um And I tried. And I was just like getting whatever paint like was the worst shoe ever. I wasn't like stripping it down or or any of that stuff. You're just painting right over there? Yeah, just straight over. and I don't even know if he was doing it right I got one pair from him but I didn't I just was like yo I could do this I'm not paying you for this so but my mind instantly switched and was like ah yo he's doing shoes I could do clothes and so I started just painting stuff for myself at first um at first it was like
00:29:27
Speaker
hand painting with just like acrylic paint and stuff like that and then it dries and it's all hard and cracking cracking yeah you can't wash it and then i started to like research and find out about that's how i found out about mesquine and i looked up the paint that they were using and stuff like that and then even like probably like a couple weeks into it everybody's like yo i want a shirt i want a shirt um and nobody at the time was really doing custom it was like I'll paint this and then you can pick from these.
00:30:00
Speaker
But nobody was like, yo, tell me what you want. I'll paint it for you. You pay me type thing. Yeah. And so I like very quickly, the same dude at CISO that kind of roasted me for the Jabotie. He was one of the first people that was like, yo, like make, make me a tea that goes with the, uh, man, what were those?
00:30:23
Speaker
Was it, uh, sevens that were like, white, gray, purple or something white gray, purple. You know remember those? I think they only came out once. It wasn't like an OG color that got Like mostly white, and then it's got... honestly don't even remember. The triangles are purple? I mean, the triangles are are are gray?
00:30:47
Speaker
would have to... We would have to research and put it up on the screen. don't think... But that's like a color that they didn't even name. Yeah, probably not. It probably didn't. It just came out, and that was it. don't remember those. He always had every... Still to this day, he didn't grow out of sneakers like a lot of us do.
00:31:13
Speaker
Obviously, I still love them and partake somewhat. But like he's still like every day is like he's unboxing a new pair and he's, he's, ah he's like, he's two, three years older than me. But anyways, he was one of the first people. He was like, yo, pay me a pair to go with these.
00:31:30
Speaker
Was it Flint's? um they might they like I always feel like they just throw Flint. Flint on everything. I it was like Flint. Flint anything blue and grayish. Flint sevens or something. yeah um but So I painted that and then he was everywhere. So like people were like, yo. was the design on the shirt? Some trash. I don't know. like All those first shirts are so bad.
00:31:50
Speaker
um It probably wasn't even... he yeah he was like... He was like a freestyle king. Like he just go like city to city, freestyle and battling people. Oh, so i was thinking something else. I was thinking i freestyle. Yeah, freestyle rapping. You thought dancing something? Yeah, thought was out here. No, he's definitely not a dancer.
00:32:11
Speaker
But it probably was like something about like him rapping flyest dude without wings. I think that was his nickname. Mm-hmm. so it was like people would come with stuff like that and then i mean honestly it just like it just kind of exploded in that like kentucky indiana tennessee georgia north carolina like kind of midwest southern territory and like before i knew it i was painting like
00:32:43
Speaker
I don't even know how many shirts like. Did you get a nickname? I mean, so my nickname home at home is Gully. Gully. And so the shirts were Gully Originals. um And so that that's just what the brand just like. Even now, like it'll be people that'll probably watch this and be like, oh, like, I remember i had my Gully Originals or whatever.
00:33:06
Speaker
Post your gully original, man. Tag us in the... My cousin, he still... He texts me every now and then. He's like, yo, I still got a crate of... Because he was a DJ that like traveled a lot too. And I would make shirts for all of them.
00:33:18
Speaker
um But yeah, the shirts like... I was doing that from 04 till like 2011, like seven years of like really that being my only so like source of income. Whoa, really?
Evolution from Gully Originals to Premium Co.
00:33:37
Speaker
That's fire. At one point I worked at Old Navy for like a quarter, probably like,
00:33:45
Speaker
don't know, three months maybe. For blanks? No, I worked i worked there. just This was like... I feel like that would have been the move, man. It might have been. I never... I so my i actually... and my It was my homie had a shop when I was in college called Hip Hop Fashions.
00:34:01
Speaker
And I would get like teas from him. And he would just... A lot of times he'd be like, yo, just... take take some and then just paint me something and I'll sell it here i'll give it away or whatever um but yeah Old Navy I worked at CVS for like a little bit too um I've only probably had like four jobs like in life wow um and so not that that's like the smartest thing i mean no you believe me I was just like a struggling artist like most of my but
00:34:34
Speaker
boy yeah i think like i was in school doing the shirts i was skipping class to do the shirts like i just was not caring about school at all like my gpa dropped to like a 1.8 or something because i just was like i mean in my head in my head at the time i was i probably was making I probably wasn't even making $500 a week or or anything like that. But in Kentucky, like, our rent was $270 for the month. So, like, cost of living was so low that $500 a week, like, I was like, I Caprice on twenty three s I had a Monte Carlo on twenty two s What? I was like. What? I was, i mean, I was going crazy. yeah i was, I was doing okay. um
00:35:28
Speaker
But yeah, the shirts, they, that was really what, how do I put it?
00:35:37
Speaker
really what taught me like networking brand building like i was i was going to dj conferences core dj retreats like all of these things and handing out it was almost like i was like a rapper like yeah the djs were handing out mixtapes i was handing out flyers like yo like i can do your shirts i can do your graphics for your mixtapes like whatever and so ah met a ton of people doing this and like every time i would like kind of have a new iteration of whatever Gully Originals was. i have my Facebook groups and my in my MySpace that I could just like be like, yo, this is this is my new thing. Like if you're interested in this, like check it out. and
00:36:23
Speaker
even with premium when we started that i could just funnel people straight to there so we just always kind of like there's people that have been shopping with me in some form or fashion since oh four or five so um it's been uh how did how did the transition like was it where you were like all right i'm done doing gully originals yeah i so it kind of just got to where like I was tired of it one, but two, I just was like, we did this with premium too, where whenever I kind of like scratch an itch of like, right, this is what I want to do right now.
00:37:05
Speaker
And then when I checked that off the list, I'm ready. I'm like onto the next thing. And what. what we've realized like as we've gotten more experienced is that a lot of times we've jumped off the wave like too early to where we we could have capitalized a little bit longer i could have done that with the shirts longer um i just was like i mean doing it seven years like painting all day like paint stains all over the crib and
00:37:38
Speaker
it just was like i was over it so at one point i kind of was like i'm gonna shift this to screen printing because i can make one design i can screen print it mass production about the same time as when we started premium co and premium code just like all the other things that we've done just kind of took off really quickly and like then it was just like shirts were just like that was that was the last thing that was old news like this is the new thing um same with with diet we started diet and then premium was just like it's over there until until we it it'll come back finally next year we finally have put things in motion for it but
00:38:23
Speaker
That's an announcement you've given me to school. Yeah. You probably one of the first to, that's crazy. Definitely the first podcast to, to get that news. But we, we've tried for, we haven't, we have a few brands actually that are like ready to go. It's just like diet just takes so much of like our energy that it's hard to just get. It's like a kid, like,
00:38:48
Speaker
I mean, people do it. People have more kids when they're still needing to like raise yeah when they the one in front of you. yeah But this is premium and diet. like Diet is just like that like that special kid. It's like, yo, if you have another kid, you're gonna you're going to take some attention away that this kid needs. So we've just been really slow to like,
00:39:13
Speaker
not not feel to try to fill too many bottles at one time yeah and so um but yeah i mean i think and you asked about that transition like it shifted from screen printing um to Premium Co.
Transition from Jewelry to Clothing at Premium Co.
00:39:31
Speaker
And then Premium Co. was actually jewelry. And then, but I still had like the fashion bug in my the back of my head. And so after a little bit, I was like, yo, I'm ah i'mma design some stuff and let's just post it and see what people think. And then we posted it and people went crazy. At at that time, crazy is different than what crazy is now. But for us, it was like, oh, maybe...
00:39:55
Speaker
maybe they want more than just jewelry. And we did our first shirts actually we made here in New York. say I remember the same factory that Kith was using back in, don't know, 2011, 12, something like that.
00:40:10
Speaker
um And we've we made these shirts. I think we sold them at like 100 in a T-shirt. And we dropped in we probably only sold honestly like 20 out of 100 But we we thought at first, like, you I mean, you could look at that, like, ah, it flopped.
00:40:27
Speaker
But we kind of looked at it like, man, we sold $200 T-shirts. Yeah, that's crazy. As a jewelry brand. Like, if we tweak some stuff, there might be something here. And so we tweaked it. And then, as we always do, we the the jewelry was done. And now we were we were clothing.
00:40:47
Speaker
um And then... That's wild. You're like, yeah. Yeah. And so then that kind of like, I mean, years of of learning, making mistakes, ah losing money, investing it in the wrong avenues and things like that. And then we started diet and we kind of had all of these.
00:41:07
Speaker
years of like okay we know when this happens don't do this yeah and so we launched diet and we kind of just like quickly like caught steam and like a lot of ah we avoided a lot of those hurdles that we would have had to kind of face if we didn't have premium so yeah what's a what was like one incident that was like oh never again Oh man, i mean we've put we've got i mean we' got a ton of like horror stories that if I like really, I wish I had like a journal that I could like go back and like just revisit. But I remember one time we put probably like,
00:41:49
Speaker
And we we put over, i think it was about 80K into this event in D.C. And the night that we were about to launch, we got hit in, D.C. got hit with like three feet of snow. oh And...
00:42:06
Speaker
DC United, the soccer team, was moving into the the venue the next week because that was a new team to the city. yeah And it was like like, what do we do? We put all of this money into this event. we can't We can't postpone it because DC United is coming in. we can't hold the event because it's three feet of snow outside. yeah Luckily, we we were able to talk to DC United and get them to extend like them. They're moving in for a week.
00:42:38
Speaker
But even on top of that, like we didn't i mean, we didn't make back the 80K that we put into that event. It was the, you were hosting the event. Like this is your, this was a this was a premium pop-up.
00:42:51
Speaker
Um, so premium, I moved to, I moved to the DMV 20, right when we launched premium 2011. And so premium was really like a DMV brand.
00:43:04
Speaker
Um, I was based there at the time. And so we did a pop-up. We did, we had done a couple of pop-ups in DC, but this one was by far our, like, most risky. Yeah. Um, but I mean, we, we had a really dope concept, really dope build out. Uh, but you, you know, I think what it taught us, what taught me specifically is that we're way more resourceful now than we were then.
00:43:33
Speaker
back then it was just like oh like these artists they'll they'll do x y and z for the space let's just pay them to do it and then they're 15 grand and then oh we're gonna we're gonna rent this let's do that oh that's eight grand and then by the time you look up we're like 60 grand in and we haven't even bought product for the event or or anything like that where nowadays it we would be like oh this artist said he would do this for this amount like but can can i do it like is it something that i can do and like outsource the stuff that we can't do or outsource the stuff that's just like too much on our team because our team again this is is small so um but like that that's one um
00:44:25
Speaker
I mean, taking trips that, and like taking the whole team on like a business trip that like maybe only two of the people actually had any business there. Just taking the whole crew. And doing that for like like forever, like the whole the whole time.
00:44:43
Speaker
um As we've gotten more mature in the space, like my partner Tyler, he's like... like as long as you're there i don't have to go like you you go you be the face like i'll go to the next thing or like i'll sit this these couple out so that i can go to this or whatever so divide and conquer that right um but yeah i mean we've we've paid we've hired people that were just like milking us for thousands a month and there's like so many things that you think are
00:45:22
Speaker
Like, oh, but if, if we have this person full time, like that's going to change everything. And then it doesn't. And yeah, nobody really talks about the trials and tribulations of yeah being a ah business. I mean, and it yeah, it's tough, man. It's, um, it's just like nonstop, like.
Challenges of Managing a Fashion Brand
00:45:42
Speaker
the the day-to-day for me as a designer slash founder is very little designing. Like, I may get to design once every couple weeks.
00:45:57
Speaker
And it's just like,
00:46:00
Speaker
this photo shoot, what's the concept? I got to figure out what we're shooting, what it looks like, who we're shooting, when we're shooting, where we're shooting. i got to I got to get BTS content because my content performs better and than some things. And ah how much do we want to spend? Because we know that the consumer doesn't really want to see this type of content, but you have to show this type of content to look the part of a brand like yeah in our space and then the warehouse has issues and like i gotta troubleshoot this or i gotta i gotta manage this argument between these two and it's just like so much that like
00:46:44
Speaker
if people like if i had a camera crew to get all of it people would probably be like yo like i don't want to do i don't want to be yeah i'll be telling people sometimes that are like yo i'll do anything to trade my nine to five at this spot for like your spot and i'm like you probably wouldn't be able to handle like what all we have to to deal with. Like it takes. I feel like you're working 24 seven. Oh, 1000%. And it takes, i have somebody, i don't remember who said it, but like, it definitely takes somebody that's like kind of psychotic to like be in this, like the, just the hours and like, and our brand is not,
00:47:28
Speaker
Like we're, ah we're a the decently sized brand, but like there's brands that are 20 times the size of us, which granted, then you can kind of have the funds to pay a lot more people, but then the stakes are higher because you xyz it's all a machine that you're feeding and the the bigger the brand the more expensive the machine to feed um but yeah i mean obviously like i say all of that and i wouldn't i wouldn't change what i do for anything but definitely is not it's not as like
00:48:05
Speaker
It's not as glamorous as people think. yeah I do think it's like, I mean, it's what we show on social media. Right. Of course. And it's like that idea that that people are just kind of being like, yeah, just I it's the I don't know if it's like Malcolm Malcolm Gladwell or whatever. there but there'd be people online that'd be like. you know, if you do the X amount of hours or whatever, then, and you show, if you're only just, you're not showing all 10,000 hours. Of course. One glimpse. Right. You're showing the finished product most of the time. Yeah.
00:48:38
Speaker
I mean, and I always say like, oh, I'm going to be more honest with, with what actually goes into it. But I mean, and on, in these instances, I am honest and I think people, that's one of the, probably the, one of the,
00:48:54
Speaker
One of the takeaways from ComplexCon is just people like, yo, you need to do more podcasts because I had just like, I listen to yours all the time. You drop so many gems or ah even one of the, the last podcast I did, the homie was like, yo, like your podcast was my most downloaded podcast. And I think most of the times the questions don't let you speak too much about the negative thoughts. I mean, I don't even know if I would call it negative, but just like the the bad parts of like what we deal with, the stress, the like the times where you spent a quarter million on product that don't come in when it's supposed to. And that was your last quarter million. And so now what do you, you got overhead, you got new era invoice, you got this, you got that. And then, so it's just like, there's a lot that people don't,
00:49:49
Speaker
I think, sometimes I think people don't want to know about that stuff too. but But I also feel like it's the, it's the thing that the people, the people that do want to know are the people that are kind of wanting to pursue this or like in some sort of fashion.
Relatable Experiences at ComplexCon
00:50:04
Speaker
i think too, I think what I, what I noticed about complex con in my head, when I do these podcasts and interviews and things, it's like, I'm, it I'm doing it for the consumer to like hear blah, blah, bla blah, but which I, part of me is,
00:50:21
Speaker
But part of me, I'm seeing that like it's a lot of brand owners that are coming up like, yo, like i' I've never related more to a podcast because like the same thing that you went through, I'm going through, or what you went through made me look for this so that I didn't go through it. And so- Yeah, i wish that i wish that more people did kind of touch on it, but I guess that's what I'm here for. Yeah, that's what you're here. That's what you're here to do. the
00:50:52
Speaker
I do think it's like, I mean, i always do. to I talk about my trials and tribulations while making the podcast and traversing the space as well or podcasting in general. um And i try to make sure that, you know, because there's always going to be people that want to, oh, I got a mic. I can do it, you know, but it's like. sure you have a message you right you know where do you want this to go and i you know we talked about being intentional earlier with your brand too it's just like that's the thing if you're if you're being intentional and you're not just like going for what's hot that's going to give you the instant you know the instant hundred thousand whatever right there it's it's ah it's going to be a longer journey it's going to be a lot more different ups and downs and um i wanted to ask you like you know dealing with that like how how have you been
00:51:40
Speaker
able to not be like jaded of like of people and like trusting people and stuff like that i mean i definitely have trust issues um but i'm also like this is this is one of my biggest gifts slash curses is that oftentimes I see another angle that most people around me don't see.
00:52:13
Speaker
And I say that it's a ah curse because sometimes I play devil's advocate too much to where maybe I'm i'm I'm a little bit more like understanding than I should be in a situation or like my partner's ready to to like fly off the handles. And I'm like, well, what if this was the reason or what if that what if this is what they meant or or whatever?
00:52:40
Speaker
And so we haven't, I'm saying we, cause we analyze it quite a bit because it comes up a lot where I'm like, what about this? And then my partner's like, like, no, like this, like, let's be mad. Like, this is what, it this is what we need to do. yeah And so, um, but I think as far as like trusting people, I i mean, one, I, I don't,
00:53:08
Speaker
I don't let people, i don't, I mean, I don't tolerate too much disrespect. And once I feel like it's disrespect, then it's just like, i don't I don't know too much about like signs and things like that, but I'm a Sagittarius.
00:53:24
Speaker
And like, once I feel like it's disrespect, like it I'm, it's goodnesss a wrap. It's dead. So um i I think that all of these like,
00:53:39
Speaker
issues that we've faced over the course of ah decade and a half they they become indicators to us like okay we we saw we saw these um symptoms before and this is what it led to like we're just gonna go ahead and nip this in the bud now so I think if anything, it it has forced us to be like, yo, like, let's just, let's just like call it where it is. And let's, cause we don't want to we don't want it to drag out into like a ah larger problem down the line. So I think that if anything, it's kind of just like sharpened us.
00:54:20
Speaker
But, um, I, I actually just had this conversation with my sales manager about trust because, i can't i mean i can't speak too much on what it's about without like incriminating people but trust was the topic and he was just like yeah but i don't trust it and i was just like i'll be honest like i don't trust nothing or i don't trust anybody like i don't trust you and don't trust them but like I trust that this is what's best for the business. And so um that's kind of how I'm at least looking at trust right now. And it's funny because
00:55:02
Speaker
I like, I change, like I have different perspectives like week to week. Like one week I'm like, I'm like this. And then the next week I'm like that. And so I say it's funny because like there's, there was a guy that's like in our office who was like,
00:55:21
Speaker
This is how it has to be. And then the next day they were, that was the way it was. And then he was like flipping out, like, nah, I don't want it that way. And everybody's like, but that's what you, like, that's what you wanted. And then he was like, yeah, but I'm not the same person today that I was yesterday.
00:55:38
Speaker
And I laughed, but I'm like, I'm that's, that's me. Like some days you, you see things a little bit clearly, like as you've had time to like sit with it. And I also think I coming from Kentucky because we move at such a slow pace where we're built for the long game. Yeah.
00:56:00
Speaker
Like, I knew with premium, I knew with diet that we were we were comfortable like taking whatever pace we needed to take. like We were seeing like antisocial hit the scene and instantly sell for, like I forget how much he sold for tens of millions. Yeah, it was a lot. and Flamed out quick. yeah flamed out very quick. But i i remember just looking back and being like, man, like at first you see it and you're like, ah like i I wouldn't mind 20 million right now. But
00:56:36
Speaker
then you're like like could could the longevity be greater um if we take a slower pace and i mean to be fair like a lot of brands don't make it one year two years three years we're we're on year eight of diet um but i mean year 15 counting premium and so to have 15 years of people like wanting your product and and liking your quality and just like always like like nobody can ever really like put any smut on the name as far as like quality and uh taking care of their customers and like even our black friday sales going right now and like fine print says like xyz like all sales final but we're still like help like i'm like yo like make sure you take care of them like this isn't like you gotta to
00:57:29
Speaker
I know what the site says, but like this didn't fit. Like, let them let them exchange it. So yeah um we just like we care about what we do and we care about the people that support us.
00:57:42
Speaker
And so we like we just are always trying to figure out, like, what's the best thing? what's the best what's the best route to make us the best brand that we can be for these people that support us um and that's where like the trust like i don't i don't trust you but i do think you'll be good for getting us to that next step i'm just i'm gonna watch you closely because i don't like i like said i don't trust you but yeah you have to do what we feel is is for the best the betterment of of the brand which yeah is uh
00:58:20
Speaker
doing what's best for the business is a very heavy weight to like to carry so um but and not everybody not everybody is built for it yeah for sure um would you ever because i So like, I mean, this topic topic has been around for a little bit, where it's just like people don't. Well, i also don't believe I also believe this as well, that like regional fashion is dead.
00:58:48
Speaker
Like, you know, you your brand, I wouldn't necessarily say it's like pinpointed. Would you say it's pinpointed to specifically coming out of kentucky No, not at all. I mean, we're i mean technically, we're an L.A.
00:59:03
Speaker
brand first. um But from kind of a Midwest perspective, yeah um i I've lived in L.A. almost a decade.
00:59:15
Speaker
And
00:59:19
Speaker
watching fashion evolve in L.A. is really what kind of like made me harness that Kentucky ah design inspiration because i would just see people like, like you'll be in Malibu and you'll see this guy and he's just like finished surfing and he's got like a vintage Kentucky Wildcats sweatshirt on. mean, it's just all like kind of centered around vintage, but um i think just because I was so, I'm a very observant person. Like,
00:59:57
Speaker
as a kid just like always i've i was always kind of quiet but i was always like sitting back like watching peeping studying and so i think that i think that that like inner child like the way i've this sounds weird to say it out loud but like that inner child of mine is still like in kentucky like running around madisonville like and i'm still seeing like what i saw in the 90s like i'm seeing what i saw at like aau tournaments and i'm seeing what i saw like at my uncle's uh my uncle had a ah like a shop that worked on like alternators and starters and stuff and i'm seeing what the people
01:00:39
Speaker
war when they drove their Corvette for him to like fix their starter and stuff like that. And so I just was like, so so like fascinated by the style of it. And nobody was even trying to be stylish. It just was like,
01:00:55
Speaker
that's just like i i live i live in the arts district in l la which is about a block from where skid row ends and so that's wild very wild and you it's you don't like you don't get used to it um at all you do kind of You do like the wow factors is still like, it's not as high as like obviously when you first see it, but like you still drive through and you're like, damn, this is fucked up. yeah
01:01:29
Speaker
But I see so many people that are like, I have like, if I went through my phone, I probably could make a folder of like 50 images of like me riding through skid row on the way home and seeing somebody wear something. I'm like, man, that that's a fire outfit.
01:01:46
Speaker
and so i think that that part about it is like what just kind of has stuck with me is like it doesn't doesn't have to be like 400 t-shirt 1200 hoodie or whatever like it could be something that you found at the thrift shop or or whatever and ah kind of like you kind of ah complex con was a good example of this like if you went through the stuff on the rack it was very like thrifty like yeah like it was like you might find this racing jersey like you found but then you might find this this vintage like rock inspired t-shirt or or the the uh totes you yeah the the totes the those were so one of our factories had like
01:02:36
Speaker
He had to move. And when he moved, he found like all these old like t-shirts of ours that he just like whenever. So like, say you put in an order for like a hundred t-shirts. A lot of the times with cut and sew, there's damages and sewing, damages and dye, like whatever.
01:02:54
Speaker
And so the factories will oftentimes make like five, 10% over just to have like, in case there's a damage. And so he had all of these like boxes of damages.
01:03:07
Speaker
And I'm like, man, I don't know. don't know what we can do with it. Other than like, I'm like, we could repurpose it and like distress them and make it kind of like, thrashed or i'm like or we could like could just do a bunch of stuff and so we did the tote bags where we we cut the panels up put them on tote bags um if if this t-shirt was damaged on the left side we would cut the right side off and then put a left side of another shirt that was damaged and and kind of like frankenstein them together that's fire
01:03:42
Speaker
and so Being creative, man. Yeah. I mean, ah honestly, like we didn't we didn't really get a chance to like really tell that story at ComplexCon. And that's kind of like the biggest ah misstep, I think, for us is like you get so caught in the weeds that.
01:04:04
Speaker
like obviously hindsight is 2020 but like looking back i'm like ah we could have like we could have really just told that story and that been our thing but just was like you're trying to do this you're trying to make sure the product got in you're trying to make sure like and then complex con itself is so chaotic that like they're not putting your walls up when they're supposed to and the closet's not in the right location and the there's supposed to be a door that goes here but it's not here but that's where we're supposed to sell our product out of and so all of this stuff kind of like you go it's almost like a
01:04:39
Speaker
like a fight or like let's just call it a boxing match yeah uh you round round five or that point even just like you go into it with a game plan like brian norman just fought devin haney and brian norman got dropped in the second round like norman went in with a game plan until he got dropped like your game plan shifts and that's how complex con was like we we went into it with a game plan complex con dropped us and then we we just kind of like our game plan went out the window but um hey man it no it's still like one thing was great man one thing about us is we'll always be able to make it like worthwhile make it make sense um but yeah i wish that we had like
01:05:28
Speaker
I wish that we had focused more on the storytelling part, but it's just like it's and it's so chaotic, like people coming up and then they want to do this interview or they want this person from this TV show. He's going to do an interview in your booth, so you got to get out and it's just but it's like i i was with my homie from hoka this morning and he was asking about it and i was just like man you we'd like we have to be there because there's no there's no other moment for our space that even comes close so yeah you got to figure out how to be there and how to make it make sense for
01:06:09
Speaker
whatever you're trying to do are you trying to get the marketing out of it are you trying to get the money out of it is it both and so we're already like in discussions now all right what's next year look like let's let's circle up early and not wait till yeah july yeah even six months like three months before yeah we were like we knew we were doing it the whole time, but it's just like, you got this collection to design and then this collection to shoot and like all of these things. And then you look up and complex cons in like 20 days and you're like, yo, like, wow. Yeah. How, how are we going to pull this off? But,
01:06:51
Speaker
We execute when the when it's crunch time. so But hopefully this year, crunch time is like like an 11-month crunch time and not like 11 days. No, yeah. um So let me hit you with my last question before we get up out of here. my last question deals with a little visualization. want you to back to young Devin when he was about to get them shacks, shaknosises. Now you're older, you behind your younger self. What would you tell your younger self as he opens that box?
01:07:21
Speaker
I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is I'll be like, yo, don't wear none of these. Like, just sit on them and sell them down the line. But, ah i mean, I think i think younger Dav...
01:07:42
Speaker
we didn't know like We didn't know anything like what it was going to become. yeah We had no clue how big sneaker culture was going to be. But um I probably...
01:07:55
Speaker
I probably would say like have more fun with it. ah Like the sneaker game became so like serious and cutthroat and like, I don't even know what it's like now because I'm just so like far removed. i can tell you after. Yeah, I mean, I don't i remember like, i remember,
01:08:20
Speaker
like twenty I don't even know, what was that, 2010 when like South Beach LeBrons were coming out and Doernbecher This was like my heyday of of sneakers.
01:08:35
Speaker
But I remember just feeling like you would strike out and you would just be like just sick. And then you would try to get, like I would try to get my girl to help. And then then she's like i don't want like, I don't want this stress um of it but Yeah, I mean, i I think I always had fun with it, but I could have had more fun with it. I could have, ad I think that sneaker culture also back then kind of forced you into like, I mean, New York might've been different because New York just always, you could get away with more stuff in New York, I feel like, than you could somewhere else. Whereas like in Kentucky, if you were trying to pull off like,
01:09:21
Speaker
I don't know, any other, like even like a a Ronnie Salmonto or Asics. Like when when I first started wearing those, like people were like clowning me. Like, yo, what are what are these? Like, they don't even got a tongue. Like it's split. Like, what is this? But yeah, I think that,
01:09:41
Speaker
The same way I mentioned like being into like all of these things, like I kind of got away from that at one point and was just like, all right, it's is Jordan's forces.
01:09:51
Speaker
That's pretty much it. And then LeBron 8 was like the first time where like LeBron's kind of like became a factor for me. um But... Yeah, have more fun.
01:10:03
Speaker
i wish, ah you know, the guy, my homie from Hoka today was like, everybody's trying to like restore that feeling, and restore that feeling. And he was like, we can't.
01:10:13
Speaker
And he was like, so sneaker culture is like kind of in like a stuck place right now that's just not, he's like, I don't know what the evolution is. And I'm like, gosh, I don't either. Like I'm not, that's y'all's stuff. I'm not, I'm in it from like,
01:10:31
Speaker
like we still have collaboration talks and like we have shoes that we're developing and stuff too but like not from even trying to even step foot in that like yeah that's the culture yeah the culture world yeah we can't you can't um like i can still design a dope shoe and and things like that but like I'm trying hard enough to like make the fashion side, like always make sense and always be telling a ah good story and things like that. The footwear side is that's, that's a ah gray area for me right now. But one day, like, like I said, when you,
01:11:17
Speaker
when you have time to like sit down and like process and like think with a clear head that's when the ideas hit me and that's when i that's why we haven't really done anything since our last our last footwear project was puma and sockany and under armor we kind of they're all kind of like back to back to back yeah and so i haven't done any since because I don't have, i don't have a story to tell for it right now. Like I, all my stories are like focused elsewhere. So yeah once I have, once I figure out that next story, then I'll jump back in with somebody. But yeah, footwear it's like a,
01:12:02
Speaker
It definitely is is like one of those things to me that seems like it's kind of on the back burner. Like there's a lot of brands doing cool stuff for sure. And there's a lot of shoes that I like. um But like that feeling, and maybe it's be just because we came up in like the heyday of it, that's just like,
01:12:21
Speaker
it's hard to replicate yeah it's like music it's like people drop new music and we're like ah like what's like this ain't nothing like the old days like that's kind of how it is with with sneaker culture but it'll i mean it'll come back at some point i imagine it's it ah it always i won't say it always does because i don't know that we've seen this part of the sneaker world but i'm sure that somebody's there's going to be another virgil that does something that yeah that shakes it up so it could be you it could be probably not but i don't know that's a that's a tough a tough role to fill but ah but let everybody know where to find you
01:13:03
Speaker
uh don't don't find me uh no davin underscore gentry instagram uh diet starts monday dot us we're in pretty much all your top boutiques uh we're doing paris fashion week in january and trying to open up some international doors all right we're in pretty much all your your best nordstrom's um Find us there. Find find me ah at Nordstrom and dietstartsmonday.us.
01:13:37
Speaker
ah And other than that, I'll kind of just be laying low. um yeah I'm always like kind of like... Like I'll pop out for a podcast like once a year and then I'll go back into hiding. Huge honor. Huge honor. Thank you. No, I'm honored to be here. So I have fun.
01:13:55
Speaker
Man, I appreciate you. ah You know where to find me. WhoisHas on social media. Going to pass it to myself to talk about the Patreon. Don't forget to sign for the Patreon. Patreon.com slash MyFirstKicks. All of that.
01:14:06
Speaker
Peace. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode with Davin Gentry. You know, we learned a lot about diet, his journey growing up in Kentucky. i really loved our conversations about ComplexCon his mindset going into them. also like what does it take to really run a business like that you know i've been a fan of diet for a little bit it's more relatively new to me um and i didn't really know a ton about his journey so like learning about that with y'all was really cool um
01:14:43
Speaker
I really thought that we really got to see the different sides of like how that business is ran because the soonest for me if you're on Instagram the soonest you're you click on or like you like one of those pictures you're like you're seeing a lot of diet after that like are and it's funny because like the first time I i saw diet was with they did like an all green new era drop And their mets color like the Mets hat was so fire. And I just thought the name of the brand was just hilarious to me. Starts Monday. like It's something that that we say, especially with January coming up. like
01:15:26
Speaker
January coming up and you know, like we always like, yep, we're going to start that diet. like All that procrastination. And me, the king of procrastination. you know As I talked about, it took me forever to start this disease so even start this podcast. So...
01:15:41
Speaker
I just, I really resonated with that and it really spoke to me. So I've been really tapped into what, you know, Davin and his team has been putting out and i really love just like the aesthetic of the brand. So having him on was really cool and hearing what he had to say about his trials and tribulations and everything that goes along with that. Like it's really heartfelt and I i hope y'all hear, you know,
01:16:07
Speaker
you know also me sharing my trials and tribulations, which I touched on during the episode, and that I've been touching touching on for the past, like, five years. Like, I hope you really enjoy that. And don't ever feel discouraged. Like, we're you're always going to be, especially when you're in a creative outlet, as people as being creatives, we are constantly trying things and trying to stay as positive as we can because ah way a lot of this these social media like apps don't really help us out, right? So, you know, this is why I stick to kind of just putting the same stuff everywhere and hoping one of it hits and goes crazy. And then, you know, we got YouTube, we got the Patreon, you know, if you found me throughout, like, any of these apps, like, really appreciate y'all for for sticking around. um I got,
01:17:02
Speaker
pushback last week or a couple weeks ago because i didn't shout out my boy chris who's been listening since episode one he said i didn't shout him out specifically so this is your shout out my boy you've been diehard listening since episode one and forever grateful for your support especially since episode one like man it's been five years and you you've heard the ups and downs and all this other stuff so really appreciate you for for staying locked in with me and it also goes for Like everybody that's all just like tapped in with me and found me through, i don't know, being posted on Complex or like somebody to put you onto the podcast. Like everybody's welcome, new, old, you know, first time, long time. it is such an honor to be able to share my experiences, share these conversations with anyone and finding, you know, new listeners that are are connecting through me, through connecting with me
01:17:59
Speaker
through sneakers. so I always thought that was very cool. So um in the episode, i am wearing these in the episode. These are the Adidas Dio's Superstar XLG. They're oversized. They're oversized shell toes. There we go. They're oversized shell toes. These are really cool. And in the episode, i wanted to wear them especially because You know, what this brand represents is something that this journey also represents, like with the podcast, like this is all about Did It did it Ourselves. Shout out Les or L-E-S, L-E dollar sign. Shout out to and Georgie, who put this shoe together along with Adidas Originals. Shout out to the team at Adidas Originals that sent this over to me.
01:18:55
Speaker
I didn't get a chance to immediately put these on. So like they had a block party in Houston because the brand is based out of Houston. They had a block party in Houston and They really like shelled out. Like I followed Les immediately after because Trey posted that he got the friends and family pair, which is also his fire.
01:19:16
Speaker
And these are really cool in terms of just like they have these tear away uppers on the on the stripes and under it you'll see like leather. But What's really dope about this is that they've been able to incorporate how hard they've worked to become a mainstay in Houston. And so, you know, I'm hoping you know, eventually i get less on the, on an episode when he's up in New York or anybody from that team. That would be really, very cool just to hear about the process and how they were able to get their own Adidas original.
01:19:53
Speaker
and thought it was very cool. So shout out to the team that sent this over to me. This is a huge opportunity and I'm definitely going be wearing these a lot. These are super durable. i think they're like, I love a leather, a leather upper.
01:20:07
Speaker
And so it was very cool. Shout to y'all. And of course, just real quick, you gotta change out those laces. These laces are just, with the gold tip on it, crazy. Like I said, really appreciate anybody who's been tapping in with me, you know.
01:20:23
Speaker
Shout out to Dios. Of course I'm doing this. myself as well so this has been really cool as you saw teased that the final episode of the year is with none other than grits and eggs deontay kyle and big ice cup cat but you know before that we got this episode i got mosh next week if you're listening um Just giving y'all a little bit of it that, like, i these are episodes I've recorded ahead of time, going into the the winter breakout here, but really appreciate y'all tapping in. And of course, we gotta do Patreon shoutouts, and you too can become a patron
01:21:03
Speaker
on patreon by signing up for my patreon patreon.com slash my first kicks so let's do shout outs shout out to ross adams shout out to adam newstetter shout out to derek lipkin shout out to derek hawkins shout out to samia shout out to plox and then shout out to jordan kaiser but we are one more patron away before the patreon exclusive episode uh during the winter break because i have so i've been saying the winter break so my job gives me like the week of christmas off um so i'm gonna catch up on a lot of stuff especially for patreon mainly of focusing on the patreon and adding more to it during that break and making sure that like i unload like all this backlog stuff and people can
01:21:55
Speaker
check it out. I'll probably edit some videos together and stuff like that. I'll do some extra episodes, like the ones I promised before about BFF and trip to Portland, probably a ComplexCon roundup, just to to give y'all the essence of what I was able to see.
01:22:14
Speaker
We also got, I'm possibly doing a solo episode. I don't know if I'm gonna start the year off with it, or if not, hopefully i got a special guest for to start the year off next year. But,
01:22:28
Speaker
I really appreciate y'all for tapping in this week. Hopefully, you know, maybe you cop some diet. Hopefully, you know, I got some merch coming. ah It's in the works and it's very cool.
01:22:40
Speaker
And of course, if you want to check out more of the podcast, check out these two episodes here. And if you want to subscribe to the podcast, click that button right there. And of course, you know what we say each week? Wear your kicks.
01:22:55
Speaker
Peace.