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Becoming New York's Savior with Jae Tips
211 Plays12 days ago
This week Jae Tips is on the podcast, we are catching up from his first appearance. We talk about his run with Saucony, what he has been able to do and build with Savior Worldwide. What it is like to be a sneakerhead working with sneaker brands. How his journey lead him to Beaverton and now working with Nike. Advice he has to aspiring creatives and why staying the course will always be the right path. Plus a ton more!
Follow Jae Tips:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/jaetips
Twitter: https://x.com/jaetips
Savior Worldwide: https://saviorworldwide.com/
Podcast Linktree: https://linktr.ee/myfirstkicks
Sign up for the Patreon: https://patreon.com/MyFirstKicks
Intro & Outro by Sango: https://www.instagram.com/sango_/
Backing Music by The DoppleGangaz: https://thedoppelgangaz.bandcamp.com/
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Transcript
Grishado Shoe and New Balance Interest
00:00:00
Speaker
Like I remember we did Grishado too in Boston at Concepts and some of the homies from New Balance came over and they were like looking at the stitch lines and like looking at how the shoe was manufactured and stuff like they weren't like being spies, but they were just like, so in all the probably just a shoot I never seen before. I never seen this
Omni Shoe and Collaborations with BBC
00:00:21
Speaker
shoe before.
00:00:21
Speaker
But when the Omni came out, it felt like we was, everybody wanted them. Everybody wanted to get close to them. yeah We collaborated with be BBC to do a t-shirt and pop up at the same time. And I was there. You know, and that that was insane. That was insane to be able to set the city on fire like that for being at Boys Club and for Sockney at that same time.
Challenges with the Matrix Shoe at ComplexCon
00:00:45
Speaker
and And then from that, we did The Matrix. yeah And then The Matrix was another complex con. And The Matrix being the silhouette that we knew was going to be hard because we just didn't know how people felt about it. Bless you.
00:00:59
Speaker
Bless
J-Tips Discusses Brand Developments
00:01:00
Speaker
you. Thank you. And, um you know, my friend Noel, he's off camera. he told me not to do that shoot yeah he was like when they pulled that on the table we he said we're not going to do this one and i said nah it's something that it says something about this now i feel like i could figure out he he was like yeah you're bugging
00:01:21
Speaker
What's good, everyone? Welcome back to My First Kiss. This episode 266. No, no, no. 267. My bad. I almost forgot my numbers. We're 267 episodes, and we have a returning guest, J-Tips. Welcome back to the podcast, man. What's going on, brother? Happy to see you again. Yo, come on. I'll just say what you told me last time. was like, yo, I need you to pull up, but you were like, I'm not doing no more interviews, no more.
00:01:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah, no, this is the last one. This is the last one. We going cold turkey the rest
Plans for a Storefront and Cultural Showcases
00:01:50
Speaker
the year. Damn, man. I mean, look, you on a run right now, especially, like, you know, the news, you know, Savior. Savior's going. Are you going to have an actual, like, storefront out here?
00:02:03
Speaker
oh What we're working on right now is um one of the goals for the brand is to definitely um eventually be brick and mortar. It's just so much clothes. and We only pop up when it's like right cultural moments time. So much that sometimes people only i identify with my collaborations a lot. and So I just want to be able to to show people more a brand and what I'm capable of a little bit on an everyday
Six-Year Anniversary Pop-Up with StockX
00:02:29
Speaker
basis. Yeah. the i mean, speaking of pop-up, you we I was pulled up to the the pop-up you did with StockX and Chase?
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah, we had um so we had a pop-up. That's how long we haven't chatted. Yeah. No, but yeah, so we had for my six-year anniversary of my brand, we collaborated with StockX to be able to put my full collection on this display. Mm-hmm.
00:02:51
Speaker
And um Chase helped us create a wall of, um i I'm going to botch it and say it wrong, but we made a wall pretty much where people just want to manifest things. And they wrote out their goals and what they wanted for themselves. And they they were able to like tag the wall in the pop-up.
Hosting NYC Pop-Ups: Challenges and Costs
00:03:08
Speaker
And we used the 55 Delancey space that Anybody can rent. It's ah it's a well-known venue and in New York City. We do a lot of good pop-ups there, but we held it for a month. Every Sunday, food by Sweet Chick, and we we had a good time. We had the ice cream truck out there one day, Mr. Softy, free ice cream. And that's tough, too, in the Lower East Side because people moving around so much that we paid for unlimited ice cream for a certain day, and then when I did the math, I'm like...
00:03:35
Speaker
I'm like, damn, more people need to pull up. the Yeah, for real. Some of this going to waste. Because that's crazy. Yeah, Mr. Safi, especially because like even thinking about it, even just when they pull up to the block and you're like, why is this ice cream $10 now? yeah It was not $10 before. Yeah, so doing the math on like a full buyout definitely wasn't math. That's crazy, man. I hope you've been enjoying this week's episode with J Tips.
Encouraging Podcast Support
00:04:01
Speaker
As you know, please like, subscribe, and leave a comment in the episode if you're watching this on YouTube. Also, if you're listening to this on Apple or Spotify, leave a comment on Spotify, leave a review. Five stars goes a very long way. Gets me into other people's ears on those platforms. And of course, if you want to go the extra, extra, extra bile,
00:04:24
Speaker
Sign up for the Patreon, patreon.com slash myfirstkicks.
Nike Collaboration Speculation at ComplexCon
00:04:28
Speaker
jump bi Let's jump back right into the episode. um But yeah, you you know, you know you're you're making rounds because the news is spread. Thank you. know you you know You're doing amazing things. What news?
00:04:40
Speaker
The news that that you're you're working with Nike. Yeah, and it's a new day. It's a new day. Yeah, and I mean, it's funny because like there was been murmurs ah for a hot minute and then, i mean, I got word.
00:04:55
Speaker
I think I was there when at ComplexCon when people were like, yo, is this really happening? And you will you were like, Yeah, ComplexCon was tough. ComplexCon was tough because, it ah of course, for a while it felt like people um people were asking questions. like I felt like as long as we were figuring out what we needed to figure out, somebody knew. yeah Somebody knew. like I did a podcast. I let people put two and two together like literally a whole year ago. And as soon as the podcast ended, they they was like, ah we did we didn't want to...
00:05:28
Speaker
we didn't We didn't want to ask you about her on air, but we heard something. And, um you know, that probably was the first time anybody's ever said anything. It, like, shocked me. But throughout the year, everybody was just like, we heard, we heard.
00:05:39
Speaker
But I don't know. I don't know if y'all scared of them or y'all had a lot of respect for me because none of them didn't have leaked. Nobody ever said nothing online or anything. But, you know, people so much just sneak ahead. They was just like, if I leak this, I'm probably going to be banned from every app and banned from every event. So respected that. But ComplexCon was one that they were trying to pull me to the side. And they were like, hey, can we get a minute with you? And was like, man, I know what this is about. And I was just like, yo, it's nothing for me to talk about. I'm i'm here. you know Flowers grow uptown. Triumph.
00:06:13
Speaker
Triumph. That's what this about. G-Shock. That's what this is about. But I feel like the streets was talking a little bit and people felt it and people felt like it was real. And for it to be real now is special.
J-Tips as a Brand Influencer and Community Expectations
00:06:28
Speaker
Nah, big time.
00:06:30
Speaker
Like one of the main questions I definitely wanted to ask you is because like, you know, yesterday we was at the gathering. Jeff Staple just put you straight on the on the on the spot yesterday. of Asked you like, you know, ah more of just like gave you the mic to be like, hey, man, you know, you're gonna do amazing things, right?
00:06:48
Speaker
you know I know you call yourself the savior, you know brand savior worldwide. um And it's like the common theme. and even since the last episode was like, you know you're the one saving this brand. So it's just like like, how does that make you feel where people are just like, instead of they they do believe in you crazy, right? Like the community believes in you crazy. But it's like, like,
00:07:11
Speaker
i know I know you personally, so it's like I know that like this is going to be... You're going to do your damn thing, too. It's a part of a work, bro. To be honest, I think I am happy that people are excited for me. I i feel like the discourse is a lot about um what it is I'm going to work on and what's the possibilities, what's the leash that they got them on. stuff like that, which I think is a lot of like, um, misconceived like narratives that I do see online and we joke about it and we talk about like, people are very, very wrong about a lot of things, but
00:07:49
Speaker
It's exciting. It's exciting to be around the people because I always look at it like I'm one of us. I'm one of the, I'm a sneakerhead turned into this position. Right. The other position people think I'm that I'm a sneakerhead. Like, and I can't really think of too many sneakerheads. Yeah. that end up in these situations like who we talking about you know barbito we're talking about clark kent we're talking about what like fat joe in some way but it's to me it's it's even in new york city like new york city of course has like what supreme they have um they have like i think now palace working with nike and things like that so it's like for me to be craziness yesterday yesterday
00:08:31
Speaker
Man, I done seen that type of craziness of up close for $20 profit. Trust me. $20 profit is crazy. I done seen it in person. But no, but we we just, you know, it feels
Turning Passions into Successful Ventures
00:08:42
Speaker
good. It feels good. The city's behind me. um And people like Jeff Staple, who sometimes gets a tough rap online, um even for him, like, to be able to endorse me and stand behind me. and And I think people... know that I'm the right person for it and I'm right person for the opportunity. So, man, it's still work at the end of the day. I'm happy, but I do embrace how happy people are for me, though. Yeah. I mean, that's... I would... I don't know because, like, I i i definitely have felt some of that, too, ever since your your interview. Like, people have been like, yo, oh man, you're really about this. You're really about the culture. And so, like, I get a lot of, like, people pulling up on me and being like...
00:09:22
Speaker
yo, you really doing this thing? And I'll be like, you know, I'm just, I'm trying. I tell people I'm trying all the time, you know? I mean, you got to work hard enough for, like, the things that you're passionate about to become work. Like, trust me, I used to try to this put ComplexCon tickets on multiple credit cards just to try to get in and get one of my homies to come with me. And now we, every year, that's that's work, that's splitting budgets, that's,
00:09:45
Speaker
um freight trucks and lot of different things. You're getting brands to to play nice and boo for the years. We'll throw that out there. Stuff like that. I mean, it's crazy that that like, yo, the the growth, right? So like last time you were on the last, and I was telling you about, telling you this ComplexCon, I was like, yo, last time you were on, the farthest we got to was the the Grid 2s.
00:10:07
Speaker
And then and we haven't spoken since then. Oh, yeah we got long way to go. yeah Yeah. So like, I definitely want to know like when you, Like jumping off of that, the success, like these two shoes. And I i would say the second one, the Grit 2s, like being that line and seeing the line like at ComplexCon, people were lining up for that. People were asking me to to send it to them. And I was like, hell no. um But like, you know, next shoe was it was the Omni 9. And then. Yeah. So the Grit Shadow 2 is the one we're talking about at ComplexCon. Like. To me, that project was the one that um I do feel like we were doing the work. We were happy. But Jason, being a you know great person we work with, he was like, yo, I don't know how long the first shoot's taken.
00:10:51
Speaker
want you start working on something next. So it doesn't feel like it's so long again. Yeah. So we started working on that and that's why it was like a few months after. it was also, I wanted it to literally feel like it was different than the first shoot. I wanted it to, i already knew first shoot people was going to say crazy chaos. I don't know if it's for me, but you know, it did well and it was shoot a year and it was yeah people excited, but it was the second shoot. We wanted it to feel more neutral and more um show people really can flex on the color blocking and stuff like that. And, Then we go into the Omni, which was like a almost a whole year later, but we had leaked it. And then Omni to me was, I tell people all the time, it was the first project and maybe the project in general for Saakini that I felt like we didn't have to do much explaining. Mm-hmm. And not saying that I had to do explaining, but I did interviews where people were like bottering the name and what's the name of these. And you could tell they're examining them, trying to see, understand it. Like I remember we did Grishado 2 in Boston at Concepts and some of the homies from New Balance came over and they were like looking at the stitch lines and like looking at how the shoe was manufactured and stuff. Like they weren't like being spies, but they were just like so...
00:12:09
Speaker
in all the probably just a shoe they never seen before. They never seen this shoe before. But when the Omni came out, it felt like we was, everybody wanted them. Everybody wanted to get close to them. We collaborated with be BBC to do a t-shirt and pop up at the same time. And i was there you know and that that was insane. That was insane to be able to set the city on fire like that for being at Boys Club and for Sockney at that same time. and And then from that, we did the Matrix. yeah And then the Matrix was another complex con. And the Matrix being the silhouette that we knew was going to be hard because we just didn't know how people felt about it. Bless you. Bless you. Thank you. And, um you know, my friend Noel, he's off camera.
00:12:55
Speaker
He told me not to do that shoot. Yeah. He was like, when they pulled that on the table, we he said, we're not going to this one. And I said, nah, it says something about this. now I feel like I can figure out. He he was like, yeah, you're bugging. so um So when we did the Matrix, and to be honest, even still to this day, I feel like the Matrix is a shoot that I like for some reason. but I agree. But I still only really see minds and like,
00:13:20
Speaker
Maybe like the black one or something like that, really in the street like that. and um Like when I saw Jason wearing the orange one, I was like, all right, those are crazy. But like, yeah, yours is fire because like just the color palette yeah alone on the on the blue pair, cranberry pair was fire too. But like the I bought the the blue and pink pair because I had the hat, had the Mets hat from a while back. Yeah. Yeah, but then we built the house at um the No Shoes in the House concept.
00:13:48
Speaker
We brought the Complex Con one side the house, to the other side is the the living room. And it was like an upside down house. We had like bikes hanging off the wall tables broken and things like that, which um which was a big treat for us to be able to show what we could do in a building where like Nike has so much real estate and so much especially that ni he has space and things in there.
00:14:13
Speaker
So we we did our thing. we held We held it down, even with the Matrix. i'm Probably out our least popular drop, but we we also didn't have a ton of units. I knew that that wasn't going to be the one. like So we had we had a little we didn't have as many units as we had as every other shoe. So that was cool. And then we had I Love You But I'm Busy, right which I think had um the biggest hype. Yeah.
00:14:39
Speaker
like after I po posted it Paris Fashion Week we dropped um a few months later and man like our biggest draw on equal like if I never said this before most sign ups probably think the most sold I sold through my dot com and things like that and It was always interesting because by the the end of the year, we didn't really hear a lot of people speak about it. Me? Yeah, like people were making breakdown videos and everything about i love you, but I'm busy. But when it got to the end of the year, everybody was...
00:15:10
Speaker
was wasn't So it kind of threw me off a little bit, but it's also, it happens. Because you got to have staying power too, I guess, when it comes to your drops and your stories and things like that. I mean, you dropped that super early in the year. And like, I mean, when Complex pulled up on me at ComplexCon, I was like, that's going the shoot I'm going to say. So I'm in the video saying that because like...
00:15:31
Speaker
I think that message especially resonated with me throughout the year too because I ended up becoming crazy busy that year too. Y'all learn how to like juggle the workload. yeah And I think in that time, that's what we were kind of doing. And um and then we go into the Triumph Four, which is the Alleghi But i'm Busy collection, which um was the last offering that people have seen for me in um and footwear. And you know it it was the flowers grow uptown.
00:16:01
Speaker
but Flowers Grow Up Town. yeah yeah What did I say? You said love you, but I'm busy collecting. I'm sorry. i like um Flowers Grow Up Town collection. And that was the last offering people seen for me. And man, it was a roller coaster. If the first time I could share with anybody personally, um just behind the scenes, um dealing with just future plans and, you know, wanting to be honest about what was going on with me and having to work at the same time and having to still be good partners to alpha industries and g-shock and sock knee and everybody at the same time well we're also letting them know that you know it's there is a possibility that um that you know um i may you know make some moves and yeah and this and that and and you know i didn't want it to affect the process but in some way it naturally It had to.
00:16:54
Speaker
yeah You know, like I think when you look back at everything and a lot of people felt like, and I think I've seen in a few videos online people were like, oh, it's not going to be in this relationship. Ran this course and all this. I don't think it ran this course. i think I think the last shoe Eternally, people knew that i didn't have any shoes designed. i didn't have any um any business past this point. And it started to make waves around his company. Like, is is is he going to...
00:17:23
Speaker
is he is he gonna You know, step away. And, you know, it was a lot of conversations, daily conversations, weekly conversations, conversations at night, conversations in morning and conversations on email and conversations in person and and trips and flights and things just to see what we were going to do. And, um you know, had to drop a shoe at the same time. Yeah.
00:17:48
Speaker
I mean, i do love those shoes because I have two pairs out of four. And I think that like you got to give your flowers. You got to give yourself flowers at one point. You know, like I think dropping four shoes and again getting people to cop them is like a crazy feat. You know, and no, so I still see people wearing them every day. I still see people every day, but that's one of those moments in your life where you ever like just realize like this is a great moment, but people celebrating me. But personally, I'm going through a lot of stuff right now, but still having a smile and sign boxes and do everything. But, you know, we're here now. Yo, for real. The one thing that like you didn't touch on, I mean, you talked about the shoes, but like at the same time, you're still growing Savior itself, right? Like you're you did you did drops as well to kind of like I've i've always wondered this. It was just like because everybody knows you for J Tips and like this is hat by J Tips, sneaker by J Tips, right? And then now you're like, yo, I have this brand. how did How did it come about where you're just like, yo, got to start pushing this a little bit more?
00:18:52
Speaker
i think that's the the big conversation that we have now about um how do we continue to grow the brand at the same time of J-Tips always getting the flowers? yeah Because to be honest, is my first ever item for Savior said Savior. Mm-hmm.
00:19:09
Speaker
Like, I think the only thing that I've ever really had to do to pivot was when I was working with Hat Club. Hat Club couldn't do Savior Hats. And it's not that they didn't want to do... so It's not that they couldn't do Savior Hats. They didn't want to do Savior Hats. yeah Like, if if I be honest with you, my agreement with Hat Club, we can speak about on it now, that whole agreement was them protecting themselves against me. So it was like, we're not going to put Savior on stuff because...
00:19:36
Speaker
If Savior decides to go full yay, you know, we got nothing to do with him. Like, you know what I'm saying? and I think that was the biggest thing. I was always doing Hat by J-Tips. And I also designed like a hundred hats for Hat Club. So I think that was a lot of visibility of J-Tips, J-Tips, X-J-Tips, X-J-Tips.
00:19:57
Speaker
And also when I started working with Saucony, I remember... they used to say like, you know, if it's just kind of like you have a bigger platform. If if we promote in J Tips, people know what it is. If we put Savior, they may not know what's your shoe, but we still put Savior on everything. Cause always made sure that I'm still pushing that this is my brand, but I look at it like I'm the creative director of Savior worldwide. But when we able to figure out out i knew our new era situation and
00:20:29
Speaker
Everything says Savior since that day. And all our clothes say Savior. All our shoes say Savior. Everything. But everybody's like, oh, that's J-Tips. And Savior's his little thing that he does. So, you know, he's just still trying to figure out that respect. But when we do figure it out, the track record is going to be long. And people's going like, no, this brand been kicking ass for a minute. No, yeah. That's that's definitely like, because even when when you're trying to build something and you're like, yo, this is the platform person, you know, for say or whatever. And you're like, yo, but I'm also this person. And you're like, oh, now you're the person's bigger than, or like did the brand get bigger than the person? And it's like, it's like, yo, now you got to have that conversation of like, yo, which one are we pushing forward more? yeah um And then you got to play that that back and forth. I think a little bit of like, I think early on, I should have did a little bit more.
00:21:15
Speaker
um stuff only on the brand page i was always posting stuff i think that might be the biggest thing too i was always posting stuff on jtips yeah so it'd be like this a new savior drop but on jtips and then my website was shop jtips so we've completely converted to saviorworldwide.com and everything and now we have a whole social team that runs savior worldwide instagram and stuff like that so We got Discord and so we trying to keep it going, but everybody's always like, when is J-Tips?
00:21:49
Speaker
J-Tips gonna pop up. I'm in the Discord too. So it's just like, I see it and they're like, yeah, this is cool. But like, when is the shoot? like yeah Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I was at dinner last night. I wish I got the gentleman's name. was sitting right next to me and he showed me his screen. He was in the Discord. I was like, oh, that man, that's fine, man. Thank you, bro. He's like, make sure you're VIP. Make sure you're VIP. What's really dope, I mean, when I had Muggsy on, we talked about just like the the team you have around you and like, you know, Muggsy has his brand. He's in the building. Shout out. Shout out. Shout out to Big Fly. Big Fly.
00:22:25
Speaker
Big Fly Fest coming soon. Yes. I'm going be at that one for sure. City feel. Oh, word? Oh, Yankee Stadium? But like, I love that, you know, you you built this team because like I've seen, you know, various various variations of the team. But you one thing I love about what you do is that you you make sure that the people around you are also pursuing what they want to do too. Heck yeah, man. i I wouldn't be able to do anything without my friends, largely because I have social anxiety. But two is also that, um,
00:23:02
Speaker
You know, i I have a reason for everyone. my ah Like my friend, Noel, Noel's also off camera, like, man, photo many many months of his Photoshop learning how to do everything and just soaking up free game from just following him around as a buyer in New York City and him creating multiple brands and just one day changing the name and when they changing the llc and then creating a new llc and then jump starting a new career career like he he's the jack of all trades and um and then just like even just all down to like i have a friend called dayday that i used to work with in footlocker and when i used to go to like south by southwest's he was always with it he was always like bro we'll sleep on the air mattress together we'll go
00:23:51
Speaker
sleep. we'll go We'll figure it out. like He didn't even ask questions, bro. We're going to one of them little motels. We're going to stay at somebody else's B&B. We're going to go get to like i said two air mattresses from Walmart or something, and we're going floor it out. We're going to deal with it, bro. We're going to deal with it. and um Even still to this day, like I make sure that those people... stay around me because that's the dna that helped me get here and and man you gotta you know all of all of the you know all the organs keep the the heart pumping so you have to be able to to keep it all together there's a there's a future trust me there's a few other people i'm trying to get around and keep around and figure it out we just got we just need some more money yeah yo i mean look yo fund it fund fund us because i need some money Which means sign up for the Patreon. $5, please. $5. $5 on that Patreon. um
00:24:45
Speaker
It's like, so, I mean, shout out Jordan. You know, Jordan's been crushing it in the photos and been able to like... Jordan as well. Jordan shot every hat club drop for every sock and he dropped for me, the bespoke. You know, and we do the flats for my website now. It's just...
00:25:07
Speaker
me paying paying it forward. Paying it forward to people that was doing stuff for me when they knew I couldn't pay them. yeah You know I'm saying? So, just I'm always gonna, you know, try to be that. it less and and up but But I'm not locking nobody down. but People want to pursue other things in life. I mean, you know, good luck. Yo, I mean, look, I mean, well, even even saying that, like, people think that you now you're locked down. Are you are you are you like, are is it just like, we're just... Oh, he's sneaking into good questions.
00:25:35
Speaker
Lockdown high. What do you mean by this? oh but You can only work with a specific brand. um What do you mean by this?
00:25:46
Speaker
No, there's... No, because you're known for doing several things at one time. I've never worked with another footwear brand before. No, no, no. i'm not saying that. I'm saying like, I'm saying other, like, look, we just talked about doing ah the G-Shock. There's another G-Shock coming. No, but I'm saying like, okay.
00:26:03
Speaker
yeah think maybe that answered my question. Yeah, there's another G-Shock coming. There's another Alpha Industries jacket coming. Trust me, there's there's rules. There's always rules. Yes. But we're in a good place. We're in a good place. But at the end of the day is, who else is there to work with?
00:26:17
Speaker
okay true you know If you want to work with me, we can have a conversation. I don't know if going tell you what you want hear, but we can have a conversation. For other creatives that are listening to this too, right like they I'm And um this is why I think that like a lot of people look up to you, especially because like your your path is super unconventional. You know, nobody's like, all right, cool. I got hats now. Let me let me show my hats to yeah exit X brand. And now I got, you know, a Reebok. So it's like, what is like something that you've learned along the way that people are just like, you know, this is something I should definitely pay attention to. I think you got to do the work.
00:26:56
Speaker
No matter what the what the job is, you got to do the work. um You can't cut corners. If you got a podcast out here, better have video.
00:27:08
Speaker
You better have good edits. You better have clips. You better you got it because that's the work. yeah You have to do the work. I think sometimes people think that whatever parallel to their career is, that there's, we could half-step it. You gotta to do the work. You know what I'm saying? You gotta work on social clips. You gotta turn it around. If people are used to you dropping on a certain day, you gotta reach those days. yeah You gotta do the work. And I think when you train yourself of those methods, you're gonna always stay on top of your game. and um I've just applied that to everything, man. I think I was killing it with music stuff, with everything other than maybe just achieving things. I think with music stuff, my formula, my strategy, the preparation, the marketing, the promotion, the promoters. Like, man, it was...
00:28:03
Speaker
it wasated you can ask mom for mother It was situations where i was just like, yo, I'm going to do a show at s SOBs and i'm a create this lineup and I'm getting all these people in the city to perform. And it was like, as much as it just looked like a show, it was me organizing and putting it together and bringing in this sponsor to do this and explaining to them that I'm going to have a merch table and and we're going to do this and we're going to do that and going to make specialty shirts and do stuff in... I didn't know that I was making myself so prepared for this part of my life. yeah But when ah I made that transition, things just was clicking so fast because I had a work ethic that I trained myself from doing something else that just was easy to apply. as i just already knew the work. There's a lot of talented brands. There's a lot of people who...
00:28:52
Speaker
I've, I like everything that you've seen me do and anybody out there seeing me do, I could name you two or three people that I felt like were in the race with me and in the race with me, meaning that they was just as big as me, just as talented as me.
00:29:12
Speaker
able to sell as much as me on the same showroom floors as me and everybody would compare us and I just think that I just kept switching rooms and doing the same thing and grinding and finding new people that people compare me to and do this and do that and then finding new people here but one thing that never changed is my work So that's why when people get caught up on comparisons and doing stuff, like, who else? I done hurt a million people compared to me, but guess what? I'm still working. yeah you and I'm still working. So um I don't trip up.
00:29:44
Speaker
And i hope that people that motivates people when they see me, that they just never seen me grind. Even when we was outside reselling and we was flipping kicks on 34th Street and trying to do stuff, there was people telling me who was getting more sneakers than me. Like, yo how you only got 21s? I seen somebody get...
00:30:03
Speaker
to 150 Jordan ones like they must have went to Jersey like yeah um I'm thinking bro oh that's great for them it's crazy how people love to compare too because it's just like when you especially when we're on like sneaker Twitter and I know you know everybody on sneaker Twitter loves loves to to pull up the comparisons on and everything and I think it does suck the fun out of it because it's like Comparison is the thief of joy. You know? It's like you're trying to achieve, you're trying to achieve, and when you're the person that's actually in it and you're doing it, you don't see none of that until somebody calls that out to you. And you're like, oh, now you're in your head being like, oh, yeah. The tough part about comparisons is...
00:30:46
Speaker
Sometimes they deffi they decide divide the fan groups. And um I think that's always tough because sometimes people don't celebrate me because they don't want to be looked at a certain type of way or they don't want to miss out on a seating list so they don't want certain things. Or celebrate a brand. Take me out of it. Celebrate brands because they're like, oh, if I do this, then they might not mess with me no more. and I may not get invited. Yeah.
00:31:12
Speaker
It's what it also does with people's mind when people start comparing people too, man. Let everybody be great. It's enough opportunity out here for everybody. Anybody you know that collects sneakers got hundreds in their crib. So you competing for their next purchase don't make sense because they're going to make a purchase right before they purchase yours. So just keep, don't worry about that comparison. Nah, it's crazy that like, yeah, because you say that. Even we're in this we're in world where it's just like, yo, sneakers come out every single week. you go If you have the money, you're going to cop them. And I think that like people who try to take the fun out of it, i always say, yuck people's yum is what I say.
00:31:50
Speaker
and it's just My son an old head. Yeah.
00:31:57
Speaker
Listen, Younger Sweat, Younger Snappy, Youngblood. But like, well, I hate that shit about like some of these people that are in sneakers that they're just like, my thing is just like, if you don't like something, it doesn't need, like you don't need to cast it to the world to be like, yo, this shit is whack, right? Just be like, yo, this is whack into the group chat. You don't got to be like, you know, in the hallway screaming it. Also, let's whack about it. I think you have to be able to, and I think this goes for message don't want to be too preachy, but message anybody that wants a career in this industry, you don't gain anything from saying something's bad. You gain everything from saying what could have made it better.
00:32:36
Speaker
I think you need to learn how to shift your perspective a little bit. Like sometimes you can't always say what's bad until you say what's bad about it. And I think ah we we see that happen all the time. People get into interviews and they say companies are trash, they're doing this, doing How you can say a company's trash, they've been around for a hundred years? yeah You don't know nobody else been around for 100 years. You know what I'm saying? You got to fix your lens a little bit. and Did you, ah like, I'm curious, like, because I got to visit the Nike campus, right? Like, were you able to, have you been able to, because I know, we know, we've heard about the, you banned from the campus. Oh, i been I've been there. Yeah. I've been there a few times. Yeah. I've been there a few times before.
00:33:16
Speaker
Before now though, too. we When we were um early on, man, we actually, you know, a lot of people's favorite person to discuss things with, Robbie. yeah Robbie's first trip to campus, he came with us. So in like what, 2017, 2018? Noel and Noel was there a year before me. Like, so we used to just, we took the advantage of when we met people, we got the a numbers, contacts, stayed in touch with them and any chance we could to go visit, even if we went across the country to
00:33:49
Speaker
to hang out more in Portland and go eat and chill. And maybe one day we could go to campus and and go see some samples and talk to some people and stuff. You know, is we've we've been there. That's something that people maybe don't know about my journey. But, man, in 2019, 2018, man, one time we was in the Jordan building. Man, we was talking in front of, like, 30 people about, like, new innovation and stuff like that. Like, they was... we had That was the first time we ever worked on a deck, we ever worked on anything. yeah
00:34:20
Speaker
It wasn't opportunities to get product, up but it was opportunities for consumer insights and things like that. So we we've been around the company for a while. um But I think I was stint outside of them and doing other things and killing it with hats and killing it with shoes and stuff. I think some people realize, like you ain't those the same kids that that we used to kind of just see on campus all the time? And and a lot of people notice. so but If you go read my comments on thats on the announcement post, you see a lot of people saying, like, like man, I remember when you used to come visit and stuff like that. So, you know, a lot of people are happy for me. No, yeah. I mean, tons of people happy for you. I think it's just like...
00:35:05
Speaker
the way that you moved and you you bring you were breathing culture and you're bringing you're bringing you know or breathing life into culture into the culture again like you know uh that's again savior the savior the savior of of a lot of things in this the but it's like what i think that is really dope about like the way you're transcending and moving everything is that because a lot of A lot of this stems from sneaker culture where it's just like you were part you were part of it so ah long and now you're now you're making it. yeah you know like i don't know Does that hit you where you're just like, yo, I got to look back and be like, yo, I'm actually like...
00:35:44
Speaker
I'm doing the thing that like I wish I was doing before. No, it definitely hits me a lot. It hits me a lot where you start to realize, wow, this is the dream. But it hits me for different reasons. It hits me sometimes when it gets a little easier to ask for shoes, stuff like that. yeah That was impossible. It hits me also like just when I'm able to see my friends reap benefits and things too. like When we go places and like we was in Mexico City and and like everybody was wanting pictures of Muggsy and they telling me, like like you can fall back him. Yeah.
00:36:23
Speaker
Like stuff like that, like it starts to hit me was like, damn, we we came a long way from from growing up and or whatever. Or even when people meet me and they just like, oh my God, where's Noel? I want to meet him. And he's just like, who's that? So it hits me it hits me when you see like the how the universe has has flipped its head on us. Cause man, we was kids in Soho and we were just telling each other like, yo bro, so your food on you today? Nah, food on me last time. Oh man.
00:36:51
Speaker
We uptown, we was those kids, bro. We was those kids sitting on, even last night at Jeff Staple event, I sat in front of the, I sat on the metal part of Mercer just as a seat. And man, that was our bench for many years, waiting for my boy Jason to get off work or Barron or just anybody just to come kick it. It's also like we ain't work there. We ain't want to be in the store too much. Somebody gonna ask us for a size in the shoe. So we just went outside it. I've had nothing but bad experiences there, bro. That's why I hate 21 Versus, bro. I remember... I went one time to cop the 112 dunk, the DJ Clark Kent pack.
00:37:32
Speaker
And they were like, I was like, yo, I'm a go. I'm a cop them. And I was hoping they had 13. They didn't have a 13. They were like, yo, we got a nine. then And then when I go to pick up the box or whatever, they were like, yeah, after I get them, he's like, yeah, but the box is damaged. I'm like, can I get something off? They were like, hell no. Get something off you set yourself up with that one, bro. I was waiting for you to tell something that was be on your side. yeah No store in the city falling for that. Come on. The box was destroyed, bro. Yo, it was terrible. and But like um like the the way Tony, I mean, and and also ah my first time camping out out there was terrible. Never, never again, bro. We've had some stories. We've had some stories.
00:38:12
Speaker
with 21 Merced is very interesting, but man, it is what it is. It what it is. It is what it is. But you know, cause you know, we got a lot of we look at those people like family and stuff, but it was a a store that it was interesting when it came up to releases and and stuff like that. Like sometimes they wouldn't even tell us what it was like. No, no, remember the time they made us, they made us go downtown. He was just like, he was just like, yo, Because you know, backdooring is a big thing. People don't want to be known for backdooring. He's just like, I can't tell you what it is, but yo, know tomorrow, blah, blah, can't tell you what it is, but tomorrow. Bro, we get downtown, bro. It was like all white acronym, Air Force One. and the world looked at each other and said, yo, no, they did not tell us the deal. Oh my God. Nobody want this, bro. Why would I want this? ah you you you yo you you would you know I thought they had Virgil's in there. They didn't have Virgil's. The all white ones. We was like, hell no. Oh man, yo, that's great. I'm not even buying this. You can take you take it back. We went right to the Spring Cafe and then went uptown.
00:39:19
Speaker
The backdooring bro, like backdooring is, I've never like had like a real, like I've never had the opportunity to get a real backdoor pause, but like, but but I think it's just like the way that people make it seem. Time sent that. Cut that out for my boy, heard?
00:39:36
Speaker
but The way that it's like portrayed now where it's like, yo, everybody's back doing pairs. Everybody's back doing pairs or whatever. Even with the Virgils that just dropped. going to be honest with you about back doing, bro. I'm to keep it all the way above.
00:39:51
Speaker
I think if you realize the numbers the stores are really putting up, yo, bro, if you didn't have a chance, you didn't have a chance no matter what. Yeah. Like, I think when people be like, yo, back, you might see somebody get five shoes. You may see somebody get 10 shoes.
00:40:06
Speaker
Bro, stores, yo, some of these drops are in the hundreds of thousands. yeah If you think that five to 10 messed your chances up, you didn't have a chance from the beginning. So think... I think some of that stuff is like, it's real funny when you see people stress those narratives online. Even when you see resellers with 50.
00:40:24
Speaker
Bro, it was 5 million of those. you didn't have If you see somebody with 50 got you tight, you didn't have no chance. So I think a lot of that stuff is is tough, bro. It's a tough conversation. But even from my days, when we was in the well we was outside, man, like...
00:40:41
Speaker
it's it's it's real tough in those those resale streets bro because it's always it's either you're gonna pay on the box or you gotta have some type of extortion level of of business that they put you through where it's like you can't buy something unless you're gonna take 100 pairs or 200 pairs or something like that it's crazy and
00:41:04
Speaker
Yeah, but you got a lot of capital to deal with that. So when people are seeding influences or stuff, one, two, three pairs, man, that's not backdooring. Trust me. We done seen mafia-style hits on stores. So yeah trust me. and We done seen stores say we didn't get that. Yeah. Nah, nah. We don't have no pairs. That didn't come here. Yeah.
00:41:27
Speaker
So trust me. You didn't have a chance already. Yeah. The way, especially like the way you, because you talked about, you know, seating pairs, influences and stuff like that. And the way that you, but throughout these years of releasing sneakers, like, I love your approach of how you decide of like, yo, know I, you get a pair or like, yeah um what what is it about that like way that you're like, yo, gonna be unconventional about it instead of just being like, yo, you know. No, but it's also how I came up, bro. I came up in a way that,
00:41:57
Speaker
i I celebrate being overlooked. I celebrate being an overachiever, but not being like the first selected and stuff like that. Like real black sheep type syndrome. And you just kind of look at it like,
00:42:13
Speaker
I hope I'm not telling no brand secrets, but brands allocate pairs for seating. So if like ah ah I've seen anywhere from a brand give you 100 pairs of shoes to be able to give out to to so influencers and and um people that you're close with or staff or things like that. and And they create sheets and who's this person, what's their relationship, who they work with.
00:42:42
Speaker
why you sending them the shoe this and that and that's on the organized side but me when it's all I'll always take the heat when it comes to Sockney because me I'm saying yo I said to this person random Twitter follower like I'm not sorry it's not SZA sorry it's not 21 Savas but it's like yo supporter you know fan family like you know what saying family staff cousin you know noel's sister like you know what i'm saying mugsy's mother like yeah like you know we're gonna break it down where it's like to me those are the that's the dna of this the dna is taking care of our people and i think that that's something that i think a lot of people don't understand like of course it's like you know we're gonna we're gonna try to send fab a pair we're gonna try to send India love. We're going to to send people that we've been able to meet on the journey that wear it or have worn it. But it's also like my strategy is always taking care home. So I'm going to make sure my kids got a pair, my friends got a pair, staff got a pair, staff's boyfriend, girlfriend is all right, and things like that. And if I got to explain to the brand why I did that, then right, then we'll take it out of our brand.
00:44:01
Speaker
our personals so they're not complaining and or replenish it through our allocation that we have to sell. And um I mean, I'll take the bullet for that because it's at the end of the day, it's like also because I worked at Fullocker and I've been around retail, man, people lose their mind over shoes. And if you don't take care of staff and stuff like that, those are the people also protecting stuff, shipping stuff. Mm-hmm. So you don't even want they mind to be in the wrong places. And I think I've chose great people, but I've worked at Fulaka where, man, they gonna throw a whole shipment into the garbage because they gonna go get that out the garbage later. Like we don't, we we want to kill all vices. That's a different back door. Yeah, that's a criminal. yeah criminal
00:44:50
Speaker
We done seen that. so We trying to stay away from that. and um you know But take care your people. Forget shoes. Even with your brand. Take care them first. One one thing, because you mentioned people go crazy over sneakers.
00:45:05
Speaker
you All-Star Weekend. You're wearing Galaxy phones. The internet goes crazy. What, what like, what a how did, how does that even make you feel? Because it's just like, did you think that there was many, that many eyes on you at that Man, internet went crazy because all of y'all knew.
00:45:19
Speaker
and But, yeah, y'all all been waiting on a moment to say something or get an exclusive or me hinted something. And, um, But it's also, it was the first public thing that I've done where like, you know, the Triumph, you know, Triumph, it was already running its it's like course on release. Like it's already been a new year.
00:45:42
Speaker
um even Even stuff that people didn't really see is we all the models were wearing Air Force One. So we that probably would have got picked up on attention too, but none of those photos got selected. and to go go public with but we we wanted to really just turn over a new leaf like even when i started the new year i changed my instagram photo and stuff like man that's the work we do we we wanted to commit to a new journey and a new stride and and you really got eventually eventually had to you had to see something yeah like eventually you had to see something and trust me
00:46:17
Speaker
Seeing me in a pair galaxies was the last idea. We had many ideas of what we thought we wanted y'all to see. Uh-huh. And that would have... They probably still would have been shaking off of that. We was trying to... We had many conversations on doing something. Something crazy. On...
00:46:34
Speaker
If y'all was excited by billboards and stuff, then yeah. so But we went mild with ah with a Galaxy. Billboard, bro. Like, yeah come on. how that I interviewed, I had Fergie babysit here, and we talked about him being on that billboard. That Nike billboard. Now it's like part of, hopefully, one day me also. but But what did that feel like? You brought... Robbie pulled up, everybody pulled up. like It felt special, man. but It felt special because of the meaning. like And it also what it represent in the day. Amex Day has always been important day because... seeing people like Gabby get a shoe back in the day, like, man, that that did feel like if Gabby could get a shoe, yeah um many of us in the city who've been grinding, there's a way. And seeing like Rox Brown get a shoe and seeing like um even Sean Witherspoon be able to get a shoe and open all around twos and and represent that shoe was a big moment in culture and I remember going to the Air Max party in Brooklyn and doing all that stuff and and just seeing what it represented. So i always was like, Air Max day just felt like new collab moment. So I wanted to be a part of it in a way that I could be a part of it. Um, in,
00:47:52
Speaker
I think I made a big splash, man. People told me I was all over their timeline. It's tough because I'll never see it like that because it's it's like, I only see mine. So in mine, I'm still seeing, like, you know, people take their kids to school and stuff like that. people it's The wholesome stuff? here like Yeah. You're like, damn, why nobody reposting, you know, me? to you I start seeing it when I get tagged. So it's just little stuff. So it was it was definitely a moment, man. And I'm happy. I'm happy I could add on to the history of that day. I mean, the crazy part was your son writing that he was going to model for you. you were nah, let's do it right now. Make it happen, man. was that like? like when you When you tell him, how do you feel about it? No, so last year, um you know, I told both my kids about what what was going to happen and what the future was. And my daughter cried. My daughter...
00:48:45
Speaker
My daughter only knows Sockany so much that maybe she might even think like, it's my company or like, I work there. Like I work there, like I got a desk. yeah Like, so she was, she wasn't happy with it. She, she loves Jason and she loves all of them, but ah nothing changes with Jason. Jason still wanted to, the closest people I think I have my life. And she, you know, having to explain that to her and and stuff like that, she, you know, it was tough on her in that. And my son was just more like, like, he was just like, whatever. He was, he was just like, it's cool.
00:49:21
Speaker
He was like, I support you no matter what. I love you. You're a good dad. He'll do, he'll do something generic like that. But I know he means well. He'll be like, you're a great dad. I love you. Like, so... Yeah, and then like, yeah, when you told them like, yo, let's do this in front of Yankee Stadium. Yeah, but I feel like everybody that we've told personally, you felt the goosebumps. You felt the bright eyes. You felt people get excited. Even having to tell partners a little bit on the low because in meetings they're trying to get...
00:49:54
Speaker
um soccer need to do something for them and i'm just like i just can't and they're like why like they were like why you can't again why you can't again and then having to like ask everybody to leave the room and talk to them and stuff like that and and just explaining it to them you see everybody was excited before so i i knew that when it really was out there people would go crazy No, yeah.
00:50:16
Speaker
My question is like, because I was, this is, I'm trying to just go back to that where it's just like, like fulfilling what your son was wanting to to do in in his yearbook. Like, like when you brought that up to him, where it's like, did he would just be like, all right, cool. Like, because you're making it it seem like he was just like, all right, cool, whatever. think about kids, bro. Like kids.
00:50:38
Speaker
I think sometimes I look back at my own life, bro, and My own life, like I know what hardships is because I've overcome them. yeah If you spoil your kids, if your kids have only been on the up and up, they don't know what anything adversity or anything is. So at the end of the day, my son has only seen me be a superhero. My son's only seen me be able to take him to Disney for his birthday and his sister to Universal or the other way whatever. family trips and being able to make sure he has this for Christmas and he wants to, if if his heart and his mind tells him he wants to unbox a bunch of Pokemon cards tomorrow, be it his dad being able to do that for him. So when you explain it like a transition to him like this one,
00:51:24
Speaker
he may He may get it when he's older. yeah He may get it when he's older, but you could tell like he builds a lot of his confidence through being in shoots. He was also in I Love You But I'm Busy. yeah um So he you could tell he just really looked forward to just what what that feels like. and My kids have grown into everything. Like my daughter's in the campaign for Omni's and she's in i love you but I'm busy. And they're Omni, she was crying. She was like the bright lights of the cameras and the lights and people telling her what to do. She was really getting overwhelmed. so I think um if anything, I'm bracing them for this life, but you know I'm happy that hey they get to be on the journey with me. No, that's sick. I mean, shoot. the I couldn't even think about being in that position too, where it's just like, yeah, your dad's a superhero to you. like Your dad's always going to be a superhero to you in the first place. yeah But then when it's like a ton of people coming up to you and being like, yo, you J-Tips. And you're like, why is people talking to my dad like this? like No, she gets it though. She, if anything, probably a little bit more than my son. she Her school, the kids...
00:52:32
Speaker
Some of the parents, if they didn't grow up with me, they familiar with me from being like this person of the neighborhood to drop shoes. So it's times where I'm picking her up and I'm seeing kids wearing the shadows. I'm seeing kids wearing stuff like little boy on trip had on a savior hat. like And in my mind, it's like, you don't know who his dad is or it's anything, but it could be something like that. Yeah.
00:52:55
Speaker
Like even sometimes when I drop off the teachers, it's just like, congrats, dad, you do great work and stuff like that because they're young. They're like mid-20s and stuff like that. So she's she's hip. She's hip. yeah She knows what's going on. It's crazy, dude. Like like pulling pulling up yeah pulling up to a school and somebody's rocking you know a saver hat is insane.
00:53:15
Speaker
yeah Man, that's, you know, we we work hard we work hard to get this far. Hey, man. Like, ah it's really dope that, like, the one thing that I don't think I touched on enough is that the city really embraced you, right? I think, and I'm learning this the hard way, too, is just, like, that's hard. It's fucking hard to do in here. Like,
00:53:35
Speaker
you know I've been telling people recently, especially just like, you know, a lot of the people I've been talking to a lot recently, it took three years to get there. Like, I just interviewed Nems. That took, I met Nems three years ago. Like, you know, so. Fuck your life. yeah Yeah. But like, the way that New York works, and i don't think, because people think it's just like, oh yeah, you just go to a couple events and now you tapped in. yeah You know, but like. It's a marathon, bro. Yo.
00:54:01
Speaker
It's a marathon, man. I got. Mm-hmm. you know um I'm working with some people now where like my goal is I want to do a Rizzoli book or something like that. But it was like, oh, maybe you're not ready yet. Maybe it sums up. But I'm like, yo, people know me.
00:54:16
Speaker
I think this new herd of people know me Sockany. And then there's a people that know me... um newer and then there's people who who you know on the cusp of I know him from when he was rhyming but you might have knew me when I was rhyming from like the the later years but there's also the early years when we were wearing bait hoodies and going to deadstock Rick shows yeah and going to sneaker pimps and going to dunk exchanges and rapping and stuff like that so it's like all that content is still something that I would love to explain to people because
00:54:51
Speaker
I think people still could scroll my timeline and see that I was doing that stuff and I was like running around and and trying to go to the first Complex Cons and Complex Con in Chicago and hanging out at Atmos and and in hanging out anywhere that we could get something. like You know what I'm saying? yeah and I think that's also why I embrace the love that the city's shown for me because I don't, even if people aren't familiar with my work and they've never even tapped in. like Because I see that online too. I'm seeing people talk about like they never even
00:55:26
Speaker
subscribe to to it, but they still have a lot to say about it because they feel like I still represent something. Like what he was doing with Sockney, maybe I wasn't a fan of it, but he represents this and and stuff. So to me, it was like, I just kind of took a lot of steps towards this direction. and I remember it we were struggling, like...
00:55:48
Speaker
Noelle's off camera, but I remember early on where I was like, yo, I feel like they don't want to let me in the room because i used to resell or they don't want to let me a room because I'm a rapper or they don't want to let me in the room because I do this or or he'll get invited places and I can't go. And I just just kept grinding and trying to figure it out, like how to just really, really like shape up and put it all together. And I think eventually it came together. Eventually,
00:56:17
Speaker
You know what saying? it It all makes sense. Like the same people who I've met for this new situation. I remember two years ago, three years ago, I'm running into one of them at like undefeated New York when it first opened. Yeah. Whenever that opened. So we could timestamp that to whenever people think that whenever it opened. Yeah. And I remember he was just like, bro, I never knew you did all the stuff that I see you do.
00:56:41
Speaker
So being that person being instrumental in this final process is kind of interesting because it was just, I just always stuck around and just kept working. how that that That doesn't, that being told that doesn't deter you from, you know, continuing. Like it doesn't, like you don't be like, damn, like.
00:56:59
Speaker
um not my Because that's not my purpose. I think my purpose is never for one singular person's opinion. I think if you if you decide to throw it all away because one person is not a fan, then you really got to work on like your confidence and the strife to battle this industry, bro. Like...
00:57:20
Speaker
social media streams um apps and all that stuff really sometimes got you skewed to make you think that a hundred views is not a lot of people if a hundred people showed up to your event you're gonna be so happy yeah like you know i'm saying and i think that if you decide to let one person's um opinion kind of throw you off you you're gonna be thrown off yeah and i just think i always wasn't doing it for those reasons and I learned that from music. That's another thing I learned from music. When I used to pitch like stories and music to blogs, if this were one person didn't want to post it on XXL Nah Right or Two Dope Boys or something like that, I felt like I didn't put together a good song. And this, you think about this, this don't nothing to do with them. This has to do with me and the people that
00:58:08
Speaker
are influenced by and are cared by. Stop looking into the crowd at the people that are not here and look at the people that are here. and I think the moment that I flipped that switch was a day that I could appreciate my friends more and appreciate that. Why keep calling Muggsy at two o'clock in the morning and be like, oh my God, this person ain't come or yo, this girl said she was going to come and stuff like that. Because now I'm not appreciating that he's always there. Like, you know what saying? that And that's just something I had to really work on early on that now I'm at this point. I've learned to appreciate a lot more.
00:58:44
Speaker
I mean, I'm hoping now you don't get a ton of people being like, yo, I've always been there. No, but the people that's always been there, man, they know. They know. They know. Trust me. We be at pop-ups telling people straight up, like, yo, bro, he been here. Let him come in now.
00:58:57
Speaker
Like, i get I'm sorry, people online, but that's my boy. yeah Like, come in. You know what I'm saying? now we try to we try to be a people-first brand, man.
00:59:09
Speaker
Soon when you're going get, you on be at you're going to be at an event. They're going to see you. And then somebody's going to be like, man, that's my cousin. That's J-Tips. That's my cousin. j Yo, J. And he'd be like, don't know who the fuck that is. I know who i know who my cousins are. So they start talking crazy. I'm going to be like, yo, twist him. Oh, man. Yo, appreciate you pulling up. Let everybody know where find you, man. Man, you can find me everywhere, man. J-A-E-T-I-P-S.
00:59:35
Speaker
Uptown Savior. J-Tips. I'm happy to be back. This is light, man. you could I thought you was about to ask me. tell us tell us Tell us what the the the model you're working on right now.
00:59:49
Speaker
My first kicks podcast. Yeah. You know where to find me, who is hot on all social media. Follow the podcast at My First Kicks Pod. Hit me up, info at myfirstkicks.com. Write me ah My First Kicks story. Next time J-Tip's on, I can probably read him some stories. You know what I mean? Three times is crazy. Three times, yeah. We'll see.
01:00:10
Speaker
We'll see. If I got to pitch it to him now, I got to give him a deck. you know next episode yeah uh hit me up uh five dollars here on the patreon patreon.com slash my first case i'm about to kick to myself to do the outro peace i hope you enjoyed this week's episode with jtips man it's been a long time coming since the last time he was in the studio it's crazy because thinking about how far we've both come you know i don't think i've gotten that far but like How far you know we've both come, ah like every year it became like a thing to make sure I hit JTip's booth ComplexCon. I'd always hit up his activations. And it really, really, really been thinking about community and like seeing how much the community has embraced him, how much the community has embraced me, especially within New York City. um
01:01:04
Speaker
I wanted to make like a a newsletter post about this on Patreon where... I just want to talk about how much I learned from J-Tips, from Deontay, from, ah you know you know, a lot of people like, you know, D, my boy D, and Oxy, ah these past couple of years about, like, pouring back into the community that you're building, you you know.
01:01:27
Speaker
I think it's very, very, very, very important to show up for your community as much as your community shows up for you. um I've been trying to, like, ruminate and like figure out how I can it explain this as best as I could. um you know for example,
01:01:44
Speaker
you know watching Grits and Eggs and Deontay's progression, um the way he's been able to kind of really tap in with his community that listens to him each week. And I've been trying to do that for years now in terms of just like trying to get people to write in so I can read their My First Kick stories on the podcast, you know, building this Patreon ecosystem, hopefully getting some of y'all in some episodes within the Patreon so we can talk about your first kicks and share some sneaker stories with each other. um
01:02:16
Speaker
I'm trying to build some of that too, because I think it's very important for me to show it for y'all because this stuff and time is precious. If you've seen from previous outros, you know, I've been having lot of like, you know, personal dealings that I've been going through ah being able to have the people ah just kind of like just I've been cherishing time a lot more, making sure i'm present a lot more. The past year,
01:02:50
Speaker
I could talk about where i would go to a ton of events and I'd be Mr. Outside, you know, if you listen to the Nem's episode and a lot of those showing up at events that I'm not invited to or RSVPing to a ton of events and showing up to those events, making sure, you know, people know who I am and talking to people about the podcast, seeing if I can get guests, seeing, you know, what kind of relationships I could build with them, but not looking like an opportunist. These are things that, like, it took me time to learn,
01:03:19
Speaker
but Whenever I would build that, I would also show up for them as well. Whereas would be like, you know, for example, King Studios, like a team, like, you know, I met him at a random extra butter event and we kept talking and I saw that he did dope clothes and, you know, was, he was showing up and we were talking each time and he showed, he showed me mad love. And then he invited me to his show and I was like, yeah, I'm definitely pulling up to that. So I always make an effort to make sure that, you know, people that are,
01:03:51
Speaker
more than just like, you know, they're just trying to get on an episode or they're, you know, they're just trying to, you know, do this or like i'm trying to build relationships. And I know if you listen to like a really old episode from like the hundreds, maybe, or ah where I was always trying to figure out how can I continuously build connections and um what does that look like for me? And, you know, being as an only child, like, how do I do that? Like a lot of these things I'm,
01:04:21
Speaker
been figuring out as in mainly because of this podcast and mainly because of the community building building around this podcast so it's been very interesting uh i do want to still write this out where it's just terms of just like building community and how do we do this you know as accurately as possible um so that it's not just people are coming to just see me I also want to show up for the people that come see me. So whether that be, you know, the Patreon, Patreon shout outs, like I'm going about to do right now, or even, you know, being part of the shows or, you know, doing live shows and making sure the people that are, know,
01:05:02
Speaker
part of the patron get to first dibs at those tickets or first dibs on merch or first dib on whatever cool thing I'm doing first dibs on you know hearing about the cool stuff that my first case will be doing in the future that is something I'm hoping that you know will breathe more communication within you know maybe you're doing some cool stuff you want me to be at it and I would love to do that especially within you know New York City where I can get to or Even like showing up, hopefully, at John Geiger's, you know, friends and family event or whatever event he has in Pittsburgh for the draft. Like being able to do a lot of these things, like I'm only being able to do that because of this podcast. And I don't think, you know, if I was just in my house, what I was in my house doing nothing ah besides playing video games, which is what I was doing before I started this podcast, would have brought me here. So I appreciate everyone.
01:05:59
Speaker
who listens to the podcast and who, and i really, really appreciate you if you reach to the end. Cause I know, I know not a lot of y'all do. So I appreciate y'all for sticking through it. Um, but let's do patron shout outs.
01:06:11
Speaker
We got to do shout outs. Uh, and you too can become a patron at patrion.com slash my first kicks. So let's do it. We got Jordan Kaiser. We got Derek Lipkin. We've got Derek Hawkins. We got Jesse Jesse G. We got Plox.
01:06:26
Speaker
We got Adam Butler. We got Brett. We got Sean Hates You. We got Ross Adams. And we got Adam Neustetter. And we have Samia.
01:06:39
Speaker
Wow. I got them all. I got them all in one shot. ah Really, really appreciate y'all for you know going the extra mile and signing up for the Patreon. $5. Only got one tier. $5 just for now because...
01:06:51
Speaker
your boy is swamped with doing everything. um Catching up with episodes, catching up with clipping, catching up with posting, catching up with being present in the community. And I appreciate y'all for tapping in and checking out the podcast. If this is your first time checking out this podcast, check out these two episodes here.
01:07:09
Speaker
And if you want to subscribe to the podcast and you're on YouTube, hit that button. And of course, you know what we say each week, wear your kicks. Peace.