Total accident! I was a photographer exploring freelance, and during that time, my good friend Sean Murray was exploring the idea of half-toning images to make prints on clothing as an art project; I joined him on that journey, and my brain has not been the same since, hahaha. That unlocked a thought that never occurred to me, and I wanted to explore it more, a year or so later, I was making clothes, and shortly after, it became a small business, and I was the founder and lead designer of that business.
I learn from doing, and I need to experience failure multiple times to understand the ins and outs of something. I think it comes from my gaming background; with the games I loved playing, nothing changed except the people I played against. There was very much a right and wrong way to do things, but those things often weren’t taught, and you just had to experience being a noob and then learn from those mistakes and let that inform your future decision. I do that all the time now, both personally and professionally.
Many of the growing pains are really just that: it can be super painful to put something out that you think is cool and no one seems to care about, but it’s up to you to define what that relationship means. Do you care about the opinions of others about your work, or do you want to put ideas that you care about into the world? This is something that I had to learn, in the age of social media its so easy to do things based off how you think people may interact with it. To a degree, that can be a useful tool, but I think learning to create things from an area of pureness and then maybe deciding how this might exist in the world thereafter is a healthier and more productive way of creating and learning.
I love how clothing can make you feel. From getting that piece you’ve been eyeing up for a while or achieving that certain look you’ve been trying to get. You can almost create these identities for yourself and use them to confirm the person you want to be. I like how we can understand what “tribe” we belong to based on our clothing. For example, if you see a person wearing a brand like 18 East, you can assume that they know the shop guys, might be into skating, used to live in Vermont, or have been friends with the owner, Antonio. It’s a way to identify with the world that you are a certain kind of person, which can be really powerful.
I want All Caps to be known as the brand that supports the community and puts self-discovery at the forefront, spreading love and joy as much as possible. If you wear All Caps, you have a family of support behind you that believes you can achieve anything you believe!
I've been exploring this a lot recently. I started with not knowing anything essentially. I would spend days researching and then another few days designing, and then have thoughts about collaborations and developing plans for those. Having a day full of emails was a complete mess. Over the years, I got better at developing a system for myself and understanding how to run a business; I got to that point maybe in 2023. This year is significantly different; my workflow from the Summer until now has changed so much. I wake up at 4:40 am, work out, take care of the pets, have breakfast, and head to the studio. I usually get there around 7:30 am. I then immediately meditate and make coffee; I try to ease into the day. From 8am until noon, I work on the most important thing I have to do that day. Sometimes it's content; other times, it's designing. I have lunch, and then I do admin tasks for about 1-2 hours, answering emails, have meetings, that kinda of stuff. Then, around 3-4 pm, I try to lock in for another 2-3 hours to see if I can finish my second most important task. Then I go home and hang out or do some other admin tasks before bed. I found that trying to do everything is always impossible, and focusing on the most important things will bring the biggest value to yourself and the company. That's where I will focus until we can build a bigger team.
Whatever is the thing that you think about often, whether that’s content creation, DJ’ing, starting a brand, creating a new song, starting a newsletter, going to the gym, or posting on social media more frequently — do one small action towards that thing each day. You’ll be surprised how much those efforts compound to create truly meaningful effects. Start with what you have. Fight the cringe of posting on social media; your bright new future awaits you.
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