Monday, June 12, 2006

I would just like to start off this week by saying thank God for all the blessings and love this week. It has been truly a lot of growth and learning and all that good stuff. This week I have been building and contemplating foundation, as well as practicing patience, as you can see from the dissertation.

Patience might be one of the greatest virtues known to man. It even takes time to learn that process of patience. To learn how to make yourself patient, and learn the ways of getting around your wants to immediately see the fruits of your labor. Yet in order to plant the seeds you have to ready the dirt, and plow the land. Then you have to plant the seed, care for it, water it, and feed it. Then you watch it grow and become something that you have worked to make happen. I feel like building a brand is the same way. You have to prepare yourself with the knowledge. You have to define who you are and what you do. With that, you have to begin to work the land – i.e. set the foundation for your brand to grow. You have to plant the seed for the growth to be possible – i.e. design create and manufacture your product. Then you have cure the seed, you have to feed it water it so everyone can see it – i.e. put it through the right distribution channels, market, and publicize it for everyone to buy. Yet this process takes time. Some people just want to make t-shirts or other products and get them out as quick as possible. However those that do it right, that take their time and practice those virtues consistently find longevity with their product and brand. Good foundation is essential, it takes time to grow, but if you can allow that patience to happen the fruits of your labor will be priceless.

So enough of that…on to this…some time's relationships get ill:

Through all the pain and struggle and fighting and arguing there is love there. Somewhere buried under all the bullshit we still share that, and that’s the fresh part about stepping away from something. You are able to look @ it from a different perspective. We hate it sometimes but its there. We go through our shit and its still there. We break up and leave one another and its still there. It’s what brought us together in the first place, its what helped us make it this far, and it is what will sustain us until there is nothing left. Without getting to sentimental, that is the beauty of something that genuine & real. It can sustain anything, because it was built on strong foundation.

Furthermore…

I have been reading a lot interviews this week, a lot of good insight and great knowledge being kicked. Most of the stuff I’ve been catching I try to throw up on Culture !s King, because I feel like these interviews are great learning tools for people who want to be involved in this culture & industry. There has been a lot of talk about the culture side of things and how our culture is so driven by these products. How these products have somewhat lead to us straying away from the cultural aspect as well as detracted from the people behind those products. However I believe the products connect us, and its fresh to have dialogue about really good products. We get to converse on tangible objects that we really do love and enjoy, because of the innovation and time it took someone to create such things. That is the greatest thing about art in the context of “street wear” is that it allows for dialogue that quite possibly would never happen. It allows certain individuals to meet people they would never meet. It opens doors some people would never have the chance to walk through. And for some it creates opportunities for them to travel the world, spreading their message - whatever that may be.

The point is that people make these products, people create this culture, people makes the music, someone designs the clothes another figures a dope way to get it to the people and then its bought to an open forum for discussion and dialect. That’s how community is spawned, that’s how you can have roundtable discussions. That is culture, communication through common ground. That’s why this movement is so powerful and so relevant because it speaks directly to the streets. It speaks directly to the people who support it. The music can be felt and heard from the boardroom to the block. That fresh t-shirt can be a statement for someone trying to define there self, albeit the shirt is “limited” and there are only 27 more in the world. But that speaks to that person and who they are as an individual. Moreover speaks to the culture and how the individual wants to define him or herself within that community. All of which I think is amazing, its progression and art at its finest. From a sociological stand point I'm sure someone could write a fairly long thesis on our culture. As Jeff Staple has said we are the most studied “market” out there right now. Products are now catered straight to our needs. All of this built off the business models of brands like Supreme, and Alife. These small groups of people creating movements that are very powerful….

I could go on forever about this, which has led me to think I need to write some formal essay on all of this, because it is what I love, it is what inspires me. It’s a very powerful movement – a revolution if you would. Of people who are smart enough to understand that they can create everything they need themselves and they don’t need any big business’s to help them succeed through that. It is the principle of early Hip Hop music, of early Punk music and now even clothing. The power is in the people and through the forums and context of the internet the possibilities are endless…

In the meantime let’s build, let’s create foundation for ourselves, for our friends for the people we love and even for our brands. Because brands have become more than just products, they have become apart of us. And we are not to be fucked with, ya heard!


Thank you to all those that inspire…

easy.


The greatest-













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