The Evolution of Balenciaga: A Conversation with [Designer's Name]

It was a pleasure having [Designer's Name] join us today to discuss their latest endeavors and share insights on the fashion industry. As we sat down, it became clear that this conversation would be more than just an interview – it would be a journey through the world of high-end fashion.

"We're going to post something that people are going to like, yeah yeah," [Designer's Name] started off, referring to their latest design. "It's not working for us, we're going to post that and people will be like what are you doing bro?" He emphasized the importance of taking risks in art, saying "all art is inspired too at the end of the day." This mindset is crucial for any designer looking to make a name for themselves.

The conversation quickly turned to the topic of trends and how designers prepare for them. "[Designer's Name] explained that luxury brands like Balenciaga plan years and years in advance, knowing what's coming and what will be popular before it happens." This forward-thinking approach is key to staying ahead of the curve and setting oneself apart from competitors.

The designer also touched on the importance of innovation and uniqueness in their work. "You gotta be different," he emphasized. "That's really the only way to kind of pop up above all the other brands that are kind of similar to you." This message resonated throughout our conversation, highlighting the need for designers to push boundaries and think outside the box.

As we delved deeper into the topic of innovation, [Designer's Name] shared his thoughts on how his brand approaches trends. "We're not trying to follow trends," he said. "We're trying to be a Trends Setter." This approach has clearly paid off, as his brand continues to gain momentum and recognition in the industry.

One of the most notable aspects of our conversation was [Designer's Name]'s enthusiasm for collaboration. He expressed his desire to work with other brands and artists on future projects, stating that "we're not in competition with each other." This collaborative approach is a refreshing change from the usual cutthroat attitude often seen in the fashion industry.

The conversation also touched on the importance of building a community around one's brand. [Designer's Name] emphasized the need to engage with fans and share knowledge with those interested in the craft. "We're just trying to build a following of people that respect what we're doing," he said. This focus on community has helped him build a loyal following, and his brand continues to grow as a result.

As our conversation came to a close, [Designer's Name] expressed his gratitude for being invited to share his insights with us. He also hinted at the possibility of future collaborations between his brand and other artists, saying "we'll see what happens." With his passion and dedication to innovation, it's clear that this designer is one to watch in the fashion world.

The conversation was filled with laughter and camaraderie, and [Designer's Name] proved himself to be a kindred spirit. As we wrapped up our time together, he even gifted us with an ASOS shirt from his collection – a generous gesture that spoke volumes about his personality. It was clear that this meeting would not only provide valuable insights but also forge a lasting connection between our audience and [Designer's Name].

As we look to the future, it's clear that [Designer's Name] is on a mission to make a mark in the fashion world. With his innovative approach, passion for collaboration, and dedication to community-building, he's an artist to watch. We're excited to see what the future holds for this talented designer, and we're grateful to have had the opportunity to share his story with our audience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhow's it going guys welcome to the asva podcast this is our third episode right third one number three number three and we got a special guest on today we got Derek um this one's this one's special because this is our first real like clothing brand owner guest on here because the whole goal for this podcast was to bring on brand owners Big Brand owners and Derek over here has his own brand iron wi um so we're going to yeah we're going to get some insight from him just talk about his come up and how he got to where he's at uh first you want to just like start a off with introducing yourself and give us like a little background on um how you started and what got you into clothing and like how the brand became about like the very early stages and then we can like get into some deeper questions after that yeah yeah absolutely first of all thanks for having me on yeah course excited to uh be sitting down here with you guys and you know we go we've known each other for a little probably a year and a half two years now almost yeah yeah you know when I first met yval he didn't even have a space and selling kind of the the Vintage te's and things like so it's cool to see what you guys got going but yeah appreciate you guys having me on um but yeah started iron W about 4 and a half years ago now so it's crazy to say that um but yeah man started it in college uh I just got out of the military and uh I quickly realized that just like college wasn't for me you know military definitely wasn't for me um so when I was going through that I was just like man like I just want to create something I want to at the time I was really big into into fashion Street Wear um I've always been very like artsy you know and I also had uh while I was in the military got really big into like working out and fitness and all that and there was no Brands really that existed that um I liked their sty like the style of you know I was always kind of wearing like weird in there you know at the time it was when like tight shirts were still like a thing and just the you know I just didn't really with it you know what I mean so I just wanted to create something uh you know create clothes that I wanted to wear like in and out of the gym stuff that could be versatile um but also create a community of people that were like me you know people who kind of um grew up with not the greatest upbringing um you know I was uh I grew up you know pretty uh you know family pretty impoverished was homeless at various points in my life um you know just kind of like a very Troublesome uh bringing so um you know through all that just uh you know definitely affected up here so I wanted to just create a community of people that uh could confide in each other and um you know resonate with each other and just be on a mission together to uh you know become their best selves and um overcome the things that they're going through so um those kind of two those are the two main reasons that you know I started you know started the brand hence the name iron W and you know again my my uh passion for fashion I guess you could say in the gym and then again my my upbringing so um you know here we are four and a half years later um you know Bas right here in Phoenix with y'all um you know trying to do some cool things just trying to create cool and inspire people at the same time you know what I mean that's really the mission um you know what I mean so yeah it's uh what got us here here today so oh yeah 100% yeah and I feel like it's it's weird cuz like in Arizona there's not many clothing companies so it's like the few that there are we all kind of know each other and mess with each other and it's like you mentioned that we've known each other for a few years now and a big thing that like I learned because I was always coming to you cuz when my brand started to transition from like just being myself to needing help that's like I feel like the main part is when you realize you're growing is when that happens and you need employees and like people to like be part of your team team that's when I started to come to you with questions cuz I noticed I was like oh this guy has like a full team a big Warehouse like so I was like oh like I'm curious how he got to the point he got to and that was like inspiring for me um it almost like led me to make my first hire which is Brock right here so it was like when I saw that you had all those employees I was like you know what like if I want to get to the next level like I got to take that risk and uh take that chance so yeah I just wanted to like tell you that I don't know if you really knew that but I remember like cuz we always have like little conversations about like oh what are you doing for like this shopy app or like this or that but it was like honestly like when I saw all the things you had going on when I went to your Warehouse in person um it made me like want to take mine to that next level um and leading into that like I'm curious what through your brand like what trials and tribulations like you've gone through that have helped you like get to that next level because I know every brand owner like has a story um of like how they started it like what you just told but they also have that story of like what went wrong that had that made them like who they are and got to the point where they are cuz no brand gets big without going through a bunch of and I'm sure you know that so it's like I'm curious if you have any examples of that um that you can share to like of stuff that like went wrong that um helped you get to where you're at yeah yeah definitely man I mean especially for I mean building a brand I mean I I know you're you're aware like a lot of highs and lows um the highs are high but the lows are lows and you know there's there's been times within the in the four and a half years we're just like bro like how are we going to figure this out like literally being so anxious being so kind of scared about how things are going to turn out but you just kind of kind of get through them and um some of the biggest ones were probably our biggest one so far was just like production issues so you know we work overseas we don't print on blanks or anything you know we we do cut and sew um but with working overseas like the production timelines are insane you got to deal with like the holidays that they have over there um again like the shipping takes a long ass time and there's just crazy delays so we we had a lot of drops to where you know we made the mistake of like you know we knew something was going to come in like really close to the drop date or even late and we're like oh it'll only be like a day or two late you know people will understand and then a delay happens right and then a week or two goes by and you know we um you know that happened multiple times um we've had products come in that weren't close to being what we what we ordered and and then when you sell them before they come in before you do those quality checks before you look at those things um you know people are going to get are going to get something that they didn't pay for yeah you know so um having to go through those trials and learn those lessons you know we had to email every single one and say hey like there was a production issue with this like do you still want it you know explaining just explaining what the differences were but saying like do you still want this type of thing um so that really taught us like the importance of really valuing the customer like you know you feel for them right like because you promote this drop they've been seeing it they spend their harder and money bro like even years ago like you know obviously this year is kind of crazy with the economy and but even years ago it wasn't the best and um you know this is like Co era right so a lot of uncertainty and people are spending their money with us you know what I mean so it's like you know you you you feel for them and um you it really taught us like y we got to do whatever we can to make things right and that's kind of a principle that we carried now is like you know we treat our every single customer like they were like they're our last one our only one that we have to build the brand yeah you know so that was the production ones were a huge one and that just taught us to like like we can't drop anything but like we have we we'd rather push the drop and we've had to do that like tell people like hey like our drop is going to be a week later now because we don't want to sacrifice um you know or or risk our our quality and you guys you and something happening to you guys you know what I mean so um that was a big one and then just early on like finding ways to like just get Capital to you know to to grow the brand you know what I mean like kind of the capital bottleneck and you know there's a lot of ways you know we you know I don't get too in depth with with what our strategy was but you know like just trying to figure things out bro because it's like you don't know what you don't know and especially when you start out you're like dude what the hell do I how do I learning new things all the time yeah so just a lot of trial and error um so those are probably the two main ones man and um you know you know just just battling I mean you know this just battling the uncertainty with like how are these colorways going to do or you know you put your all into this and it's like well you know what if type of thing you know what I mean it's just you just got to push through so those are probably the two most spe uh the two specific like big ones that we dealt with um but I mean it's been especially at the level that we're at now I mean every day bro you're getting hit with some with this person you know especially when when you have employees you got M you know you got mouths to feed you got families to that that you got to provide for you know what I mean so the reality that comes with that the pressure the overwhelm on a consistent basis um you know that's a challenge too so yeah those are pretty much some of the main things that you know we've that we had to overcome and you know and there's those times you think it's like the worst thing in the world right and then kind of some of the problems we're even dealing with now you're like damn bro these are those are nothing you know and you thought it was going to end you you know what I mean so just about pushing through bro and just like that's it man just say like not giving up it's cliche but it's cliche for a reason you know what I'm saying it's just like you got to push through and and uh face reality sometimes and and figure out how to how to get through these problems yeah it's funny cuz I feel like we have like all those stories that he told it's like we have like the same same ones like right like it's like similar just same exact things it's like everyone goes through it and it's cool to like not that it's cool that it happened like like like it sucks when it happens anyone but it's good to know that it's like happens to everyone that you're not alone that you're not alone in that cuz like some times like you said like it feels like it's like stressful um and in terms of like design though cuz Brock over here he does um like the like pretty much all our graphic design and like a lot of the creative Direction like we collaborate as a company on the creative Direction but he like is the one that makes those ideas and puts them on to the table so I'm curious CU you used you did design right a little bit in the beginning yeah so I'm curious if like Brock if you have anything for him about design or if you have anything for Brock like cuz you guys are both like yeah designs and creatives what what got in you what got you into design like what what was it that kind of Drew you to designing yeah I uh did you teach yourself or like I I taught myself bro yeah I mean growing up is just kind of like an introverted kid just like just always to myself like I just kind of Drew random you know what I mean I draw like I was big into like wrestling in sports and so I draw like my favorite players and wrestl just like a little illustrations um and I was like 14 I started teaching myself Photoshop okay um it was funny well I didn't actually before that when I was like 9 10 11 um you know we couldn't afford internet so I would just sit there on Microsoft Paint and like that's when I first started to get like digitally creating art you know what I mean and if you want to call it art you know some Doodles on Microsoft Paint yeah um half the people watching this probably won't even remember yall don't know what Microsoft Paint is um but then you know once uh once I learned about Photoshop just kind of kind of started working in that and um you know just kind of honed my skills over that I never like took it too seriously but it was just something I did for fun and was able to kind of um I uh I was playing you know Call of Duty heavily when I was in like high school and stuff and I was in these like Call of Duty Clans this was when like FaZe was just like early on yeah I was doing that stuff too and uh I wasn't I was like good but like not like these trick shot level dudes like like f you know like them uh so where I kind of like created my value was I was always creating the logos and the the YouTube banners for our our Clans and Clans yeah so that was kind of like my first like like on Rust and yeah yeah exactly bro yep our little yep the little Clan The Clan logos and stuff um and then yeah bro just uh I kind of played around with like a little um a uh a little brand when I was in high school and then started like the first iteration of iron W out out of out of uh out of the military and that was like when I kind of like first started putting putting those things to use and then of course like the fir yeah like you've all said the first year and a half two years of the brand I was doing all the designing um thankfully I came across a dude who's just still with us you know now two two years later who's just the absolute goat you know and he was able to take things over and just create crazy stuff um but yeah and then plus just my design capabilities at that point just weren't good enough to keep things going you know what I mean I could create cool minimal placements and stuff but that was really about it so um thankfully he came along and you know I still dabble in in things here and there yeah um I made this hat actually so I still make some stuff here and there um but yeah bro what about you what was your kind of way way of getting into it and and then LED you to asva it's funny to talk about like a smaller brand in high school it was I had a business class that um I took uh and we had to make a mock business and I did uh clothing brand with a friend and uh first it was just messing around with that I didn't know anything about Photoshop or illustrator or anything like that I was was uh drawing on a notepad and then taking a picture of it and trying to edit out the white part of it just so I could put it on a T-shirt and then ended up liking it more than I thought I would and then trying to signed up for actually got a cracked version of Illustrator started learning on that and then yeah it just kind of went from there I ended up really liking it and then just YouTube all day all night just to figure out how to make it work so no classes or anything but do man yeah right really bro it's fun yeah YouTube where it's at right it is 100% I kind of want to touch on you mentioned like and I don't know obviously if you're not comfortable you don't have to talk about it but you mentioned like the homeless thing like I'm sure that's like something that is like extremely like Mo like obviously extremely hard but also extremely motivating and if you could just like kind of tell your story about that like I'm curious to hear it like I think that would just be like really motivational for people to hear cuz I think a lot of people these days like make excuses as to why they can't do this or why they can't follow their passion or follow their dream because the big thing with this podcast is I want people to follow their dream and know that that risk isn't as bad as they think it is and everything that they want to achieve is possible so I think that would just be like a good story that could help people watching know that like hey if I'm passionate about something like the time's ticking like I need to go for it and like there's no point in not going for it because you're not going to lose anything from trying and so yeah I'm just curious if you don't mind like talking about that not at all man not at all um yeah like I said just you know like you know my my parents they did everything they could so my my parents had the divorce when I was a kid um you know they both like worked really hard but just the end of the day like couldn't really figure it out you know what I mean but they did everything they could um but yeah I mean growing up with my mom you know we were I had a a very uh you know abusive stepdad and you know so that relationship was tough but it was kind of like we'd get this one we'd get one apartment you know would be good for a while things would would look promising and then one day the the lights would go out you know and then the next day I'd be showering in the cold and um then a week later we'd get evicted and you know I lived in eight different apartments uh when I was in high school Alone um and again at various times between those apartment living you know living in a van with my mom um so it was definitely a pretty tough time but it was during those years that I realized like yo like you know it it matured me a lot it matured me a lot and I was just like there's no way I'm living a life like this when I'm older there's no way my kids are going to live the way that I had to you know so I was like 14 and I already kind of developed like what the hell you know I was like no like just kind of like the ambition just the drive just was like formed during those years you know during that pain I had to deal with you know I was like I played Sports you know I had like I you know a lot of homies in high school and stuff and I had to like lie to them bro I had to live with my my some of my homies sometimes and I I couldn't even like keep it real about like you know I just I don't even know what I made up but it was it was so embarrassing you know and like I think they knew at the end of the day like my friend's family knew but you know it sucked and um but again there's a lot of that time um spent by myself thinking and and dealing with that pain I was just like no bro this isn't going to be my life um so you know through all that I just kind of carried that ambition that drive through the rest of my life you know what I mean and um you know high school and then I just always knew I wanted to do big things bro I like I was like I I have to do something crazy I have to do big things if I'm going to you know it was just like that's taught me like I want to be financially free I want to be able to do whatever the hell I want to do for my kids um you know I'm nowhere I'm living nowhere near like a a poor lifestyle you know um and uh you know it just kind of led me you know join the military was pretty accomplished there uh went got into Syracuse University just always just had drive to like do do big things you know what I mean and uh um that was yeah that's pretty much it man and that's kind of the story of iron W um you know people ask me like what that name means why I named it that I was like you know when I created that it was I actually put it on a shirt when the brand the brand was originally called something else I started with like a couple friends and uh that quickly dissolved cuz they were like when are we getting paid and I was like bro we've been doing this for three months like what do you mean U so I rebranded it and I actually again I had that uh the name on a shirt and I put it on there originally cuz I was like you know it's like if anything I learned in my life and what I saw my mom go through and what I had to go through um you know like the one thing that she possessed that I possessed to got us through it all was just having like an Iron Wheel yeah you know so that's kind of what the story was there um awesome yeah and it's just kind of led to led to this bro and that's what I'm trying to do now is like people in those positions like you know if you're down if you're hopeless if you're in despair like if you're if you're feeling alone for whatever reason like let that story you like that's that's why I try to leverage my story and the things I learn for those kind of people to like give them hope and get them to understand like yo you can be from whatever means and and you know by no means do I want to like so many people have it way way worse you know what I mean that's just my story but like no matter what man like you can you can get through that like you just got to find it within yourself and and figure out how the hell to to to get out of it and and do the work necessary you know and that's what the Brand's about it's just like you know that's our our slogan is by any means necessary and that's kind of the mentality that I had to get out get out the gutter that I was I was born I was kind of had to go through growing up no that's cool like I I honestly relate like not to the full extent but I grew up single mom like Apartments you know so it's like I get that and it's like in the moment you're like at that age in high school you're like embarrassed and you're like oh my friends have houses why do I have an apartment but then it's like once you get older you realize like that is the biggest blessing because it teaches you like so much hard work and dedication and I guarantee like without that I would have never had like the motivation to always stick with this and to like work those 3:00 a.m. 400 a.m. nights like always grinding like every day like doing whatever it takes to make it happen cuz it's like without that you don't realize how much you can gain from it and it's like it it builds like a strong mentality and like seeing your mom like cry and it's like that shit's like life changing you know so it's like that builds that like that motivation where you're like I'm going to do whatever it takes to make my dream happen and like I don't care what anyone thinks or what what happens it's like you just kind of go for it and it's like without that it's like I don't think I would be either so it's like I think it's like all blessings and disguise for for real man and that's like the tough part like tough thing to understand is like when you're in these moments like even now like you know you get we get caught up in the just whatever struggle whatever whatever thing we're going through and you're just like man this is Terri you know and you're emotional you don't think like that you know but being able to kind of develop the awareness as like of when you're in those in those periods um whether it's like depression or whatever you're going through of just knowing like damn like all right this is for a reason you know cuz we can look back and be like damn like there was a reason for that you know like damn that made me who I am so like you know looking back you're like you know in the moment you're like this is terrible my reality sucks like it's a terrible way to live and then you look back you're like damn I wouldn't have had it any other way you know so it's just like a big lesson there is just you know you're going through it it's like you just got to think of the positive side of again it's cliche and what and whatnot but it's like it's the reality you know what I'm saying yeah for real so yeah I know it's that's an awesome story like I'm glad you told that it's cool cuz like not a lot of Brands really have like a true like meaning in story like a lot of people just like want to make cool you know which is also like respectable like cuz that's kind of like we just like to make cool Street Wear there's not like a crazy story behind our name because our name more just ties into my history and like my past and how I came up um but that's like a great story that like relates directly to the name and it all kind of ties in together which I think makes your brand like super unique um dude did I ever tell you like his Warehouse has like a like a basketball court in it you telling about yeah yeah have you seen the pictures of it and I think so where is check it out man we're on the yeah it's like South Mountain Area okay dude it's like it's like the sickest Warehouse dude I've ever seen like even one time I was there and um like yeah we need I need to show you it though it's so sick and you guys that can go follow his brand and like um go check it out his personal page we'll like link it all there's like probably pictures of it and stuff on your personal last yeah we got but it's so sick they have like all their inventory and then in the middle just like a basketball court and I went over there one time and played or two or two times maybe and played pick up basketball with them and um I posted a picture of my story and I had so many people swipe up we're like bro your Warehouse has a basketball court I was like nah like I'm still trapping out my garage but I I wish that was my warehouse like hey bro but hey man same like we all go through those levels man like I'm so grateful for it now and it's like but I was doing that on my garage from my bedroom to a garage to a to a uh a little business center at my next apartment to 1800 s foot Warehouse you know into the place that we're in now you know so it's just levels to it bro and just consistency you know what I'm saying so like what made I'm just curious sorry I feel like I'm like not letting you letting you talk too much but um I'm curious what made you guys cuz the basketball court was already there right yeah yeah and then it was like a non-negotiable though to leave it or were you guys like ah should we use this space or let's go let's leave the basketball or is it like distracting at work or like yeah we've actually had to get on the team a couple times cuz it's like you know people want to go in the warehouse to they'll shoot around just to like kind of decompress and stuff which is cool but you know we have a warehouse staff that's working you know the whole day back there and it can be distracting you walk in it's just like people playing horse and literally we've had to get you know it's like we noticed couple like bro y' all been back there for two hours in the middle of the day what are y'all doing you know what I mean but no I mean for the most part it's been it's definitely been like a a really good thing for the team like having something like that to to go and decompress the middle of the day just shoot around for 10 20 minutes I mean there's so many nights where I've had a long ass day you know and I just go back there and shoot around for an hour you know what I mean but yeah when we when we got it it was already there um but you know we had to pay for it but we're like dude there's no way we're not like we can't have this here and then get rid of it it's like we got to do it and it's been huge for us man I mean we've had a lot of lot of lot of athletes come through and and hoop with us and um it's kind of just like a a cool thing to say that we got for people that'll get anyone in there you know what I mean it's like you can just tell Deon Booker yo I mean you want some clothes but we could also like practice on your on your game we tried we tried I haven't made that one yet but we'll get there you know what I'm saying no he'll pull up he'll pull up I know it Deon if you're watch you're watching this pull up bro I bet de Booker is not watching this not maybe maybe never never never know bro I have this question this question's kind of for Brock and for you like both of you guys so I'm curious because like Brock knows what kind of Boss and like owner I am cuz like he's obviously we've been working together for like almost a year now so I'm curious like what kind of boss and manager are you like when you're employees like cuz there's it's a tough thing to explain especially like um with him he's like my first guy so it's like he's different it's like we're like very like we work together really well but it's hard like managing personalities and people and like um stuff like that so I'm curious like when someone's like around or like you know like a there's a line where you obviously you have to you have to be like you want to be homies with your employees but you also have to be like Stern at times you know just to get done and make sure that like shit's going right and like because that's your job at the end of the day because you slowly have to as the CEO and the owner like you want to be doing everything but you slowly have to like back up to focus on more bigger and bigger picture and make sure everything's going well for everyone else so I'm curious like what kind of like if if you have an issue with someone like how do you typically usually handle that mhm did you want Brock to no talk about how I handle it I mean you can do you think i' do a good job handling yeah no no I think I mean especially for being the first time I mean it's it's a big CH like he beats the out of I you actually yeah I quit I hate you I'm out of here no I think it's good I mean I think it was different when we when I first joined you cuz it came as well being the first employee but then also it feels more like a team effort as opposed to a hierarchy yeah it wasn't like it was more just like we're collaborating every day cuz we're we're the only two doing everything yeah yeah we're doing like everything together and so and then also living together made a yeah he like live he like there was an open room in my crib and he just moved in too so that made it also so we were always together 24/75 like working in our kitchen like before we had the warehouse yeah like tra and clothes out the kitchen and garage but yeah I don't know no I think I think it's been pretty solid I mean judging by the circumstances of living 247 with each other yeah I think it's been pretty good and then being the first time but yeah having more of like a co-op effort and just kind of working together as opposed to being like Oh do this while I it's like I like trust you you know so it's like I know you know what needs to get done and you trust me it's like a good Dynamic both like obviously yeah we're like collaborating or you're doing what you need to do and I'll do what I need to do yeah but like we got a good system cuz I don't have as many like there's literally like me him um AJ and then Jake who does videography and then we have like some other like remote positions like a customer service person that doesn't live in Arizona and then some people that do Instagram ads that don't live in Arizona so those people are different like remote is different so I feel like you have like how many employees you have nine nine yeah so that's like I feel like you have like nine inperson people it's like a little different than some Curious yeah cuz you probably have to deal with a lot more obviously the more people more personalities you get the harder it gets probably i' assume um so yeah yeah it's I mean it's definitely probably been the hardest thing about being you know being a CEO and um you know a lot of our guys you know had existing friendships with before that you know so bringing them in and then kind of like um yeah you know at certain times like having to kind of like draw that line you know it's it's difficult and um you know I know you understand like it's it's just yeah it's just a difficult thing to do yeah um but I think when everybody is bought into like what the what you guys are doing and loves what you're doing um it's easy and when you know you're not an about things you know but like again you have to put your foot down but like people kind of know that you're in that position like you created it you know what I mean like you're that guy you know you have to be the one to do that you know nobody else you know and obviously you want the the team to like to be able to do that too you know be leaders within the within the brand too um but yeah no it's definitely tough and it's I mean it's been such a learning process for me too um but yeah it's uh dealing with people is definitely the hardest part about building the brand because at the end of day it's like because at the end of the day it's like you just want to create dope clothes you know what I mean but then you you know and you'll learn this as you kind of go too is like a lot of just things back here happen you know like this person's not happy or this person wants to leave or you got to fire this person for lack of performance you know but I think it's just kind of creating a culture of like yo like we're on this Mission together like this is where we want to go this is how we all fall into that mission and you know this is how we all like you you painting the picture of the vision um and at the end of the day just kind of leading from the front you know what I mean like just you know your work ethic is going to is going to inspire the rest of the team you know like what you do and what you say and and how you how you how you operate is going to inspire the rest of the team you know if you have lack standards then the team's going to have lack standards you know if you're afraid of Confrontation then people are going to take advantage of you you know what I mean so you just got to know that like you know you you know as a leader of anything you know what I mean a brand or a team whatever it is like you're kind of under the spot like everybody's kind of watching to see what you do and then they're going to take take action based on that you know so it's a it's a lot of responsibility it's a lot of pressure um but you know it's just kind of one of those things you just got to be like well that's me this is what I signed up for whether I like it or not and what's what I got to deal with you know yeah so for sure yeah oh that's some good Insight um there's one thing too I realized with and just Switching gears here um we both collabed with like athletes and stuff and I I noticed there was like one that we both worked with and he's like a really good guy ish way wght used to play for the Suns now he's in Portland right yeah he unfortunately just got yeah got yeah I was sad I was like oh that was the one Suns player that really like gave love to all the brands out here like he was like super cool um yeah so I was just curious like what that experience was like cuz I saw you guys did some like iners because we've been doing some iners stuff with like we just did one Brock was there with like Sharie O'Neal um we've been doing some other like people um but yeah I was curious ious how that went cuz we both kind of did like similar stuff with like athletes like iners stuff like little interviews and um photo shoot like all that so um how that like relationship came about and then like how that went and how that experience was for you guys yeah and I have the same question for for you for you afterwards but yeah ish is Ish is great bro like I I have so much love for him and he's such a great guy you know he really taught me like you I've always been big into sports and always just you know honestly just been a fan um you know but someone like him really showed me like damn like you know this dude goes through a lot like there's a lot that you don't realize from from these players and um you know made me like you know you look at the comment section on on bleach report and like that and just seeing the people what people say and then once you actually like kind of have relationships with these guys and like actually talk to them and and hear what you know hear about their stories and stuff it's just like bro that shit's so whack yeah everyone just assumes whatever they want to assume without ever knowing like what the actual reality is the situation yeah and we experienced that even with like share right like he was there for share and you can talk about it too after I talk about it but like he was just like so nice in person so humble such a cool good guy and then you go to his comment section even on the photo that we posted and like we're doing some fun photo shoot he's like showing some jewelry and everyone's commenting like daddy's money like all this but in reality he's telling us he's like bro my dad doesn't give me money like I I have to work I have to work for my money I have to get a job like he's actually looking to get into fashion now too like a little bit and I'm not going to talk about where or anything cuz he told us some stuff that hasn't been announced yet but um yeah like so he's it's like the same with them it's like these guys that we've met at least like I thought he was like super humble nice like it was I yeah thought exact same thing it was crazy like we walk in and Brock's like dude is so tall I know bro especially like I mean I already feel short with you V problem you know he's just right there on the same level we're just like no he he even made me like he's yeah anybody you've all look a little shorter yeah I was like even we had took a group picture I was like damn this is the first time I'm not like the tallest one in the group picture and I was by far the shortest that was a fun pick he's like nice to meet you Sharie he's like looking down like half his size yeah no he was a cool guy he was yeah super just down toe humble yeah and like I yeah I mean people of that stature just that that F I guess I just don't expect it um just I mean yeah cuz just like the common person like and um just the way he was just super cool with everybody and just yeah that's dope man that's cool to hear yeah it's like you realize these guys are real people at the end of the day you know what I mean and they go through just like we do you know what I mean they just happen to be in the spotlight and happen to be perceived as these you know I don't know like robots like they don't have they're not real people somehow like this people can just say what the hell they want and you know um but yeah no working with is was really dope bro he's such a great guy um you know we've we' had the pleasure to do like a little documentary style film with him about his story um that was really cool um but yeah man it's been it it was really dope with him and you know we we we we still have some things in the works with him that are excited that definitely want to let you know about closer to the time comes um but yeah it's just about doing things with people that are like-minded and you know and building relationships and just doing cool things for you know we we want to do cool for the city obviously I know you guys want to do that kind of stuff too um you know and he's someone who is really down for that you know he has his cars kicks event um out here you know that he wants to do for the city he loves it out here so um yeah man it was really cool to get tapped in with him and hopefully we can you know continue to kind of do some stuff but yeah how was it with uh you know getting tapped in I want to know how you uh you know for uh how you getting famous decks and you know what's up with that man that's so that's a cool ass thing bro I saw that I was like good for you bro like that's really sick yeah bro so it honestly was one of those things where we we always talked about like me and Brock would talk about it or like me and a we'd be like we want to do some collabs with some people like we see kith and like these brands that we look up to doing collabs with famous people and we're like oh I wonder like how that process goes so we started like diving into it doing a little research and the first person we started with was J crit and the reason like it was honestly one of those things where it was a Snowball Effect like I took a chance on excuse me um on like a Tik tocker honestly I went out to New York um I did a photo shoot with some famous Tik tokers that was my first dabble in doing in-person stuff with someone that we'd call like an influencer or athlete rapper whatever you want to call it for those people and um we went out to New York we did a shoot in Philly actually and then another influencer in New York because I always did Tik Tock stuff like gifting Tik tokers and they'd post stuff on their Tik Tok and I saw a good return on it so I was like huh I'm curious like if I go do inperson stuff because then we can use that content as more like for ads Instagram ads Tik Tok ads whatever so I took a chance on that and then I went out there the manager of the Tik tocker that was there was like yo I know some more people if you're trying to do more like this and I was like okay well who do you know and he's like oh Antonio Brown Jay crit I'm like oh yeah those are some those are some people I'd love to work with so it's like Jay crit he's he's more of like a he's he's not underground but he's like more of an East Coast rapper but like he's been one of my favorite rappers um in high school so when they said that name I was like oh yeah let's do it and Jay crit is kind of tied in with like famous de rich kid um so Jay crit led to famous deck because they're friends um so they were he was like yo they were like I can hook you up with Dex if you want I was like yeah or I can hook you up with rich kid if you want so we actually talked rich kid and Dex Dex was a little more affordable for us CU obviously you got to pay these people to show up do these photo shoots whatever um so yeah we ran out with Dex he happens to live in Arizona so it was just like easy smooth like I mean it wasn't easy but it h like we got it done like it was cool um so yeah that's how that happened just like Snowball Effect like tick tocker to Jake crit to famous decks and then yeah AJ landed us some a r in La that's a big La rapper and then we had like managers reach out to us sometimes for like that's how we got a few of the other ones um share I actually flew to Miami for a weekend just because there was like a big event going on our basil and I knew I was going to meet famous people out there and I ended up meeting like jayen Brown from the Celtics I met share I met uh L meech who's like a big actor I met like all these people out from just taking that trip and just like going and sending it and just being like it this is going to be expensive but I know I'm going to make some connections from it I went to the Nike basketball event and my Miami ran into Shar there and I've spoken to him on Instagram before so I went up to him I was like oh yeah we've talked before like I'd love to do some inperson stuff with you so then that's how that happened like it was all just kind of like being in the right place right time and then meeting people like just networking and that's how that all came about yeah L him in there man just kind of taking that chance bro you didn't know any of that would happened yeah oh no not at all it was all just risk cuz I was like I've never done collabs in person so I'm just going to send it and then it just LED one thing led to another and then now we have like a bunch of others lined up that we could do but I'm like it's expensive so I'm like I'm G take a step back like we can get some crazy people that we have lined up but I'm like I'm just going to wait a little bit like and just like let the the brand continue to grow cuz I don't want to rush in anything yeah um but yeah like that stuff's fun like it's cool gets you really good content for ads like stuff like that really good it's definitely cool what I what I liked about what y'all did with them was like it what the content with them seems so organic you know like they seem like they actually really like the stuff and they really with it I think that's really big too is just like you know like actually having a brand that's you know that you know you guys got some dope you know and I mean and you you guys are good people you know so like when reaching out to these people you know like actually having something that they would act you know actually want you know what I mean cuz I'm sure they're getting hit up left and right you know what I mean but uh I thought that was really cool that they you know like just how kind of personal they and how authentic they sounded when they were talking about acva and and all that kind of it was really cool yeah it was one of those things too where we didn't have scripts for anything like we literally told him we're like I'm like yo Dex like this guy's like you know he he has a personality he's a so he's like I'm not going to use any like adjectives but he's just like he's a rapper like he has a large personality and I was like like we're at to shoot I was like yo Dex just like say what you feel about the brand like we're going to get on video you can say whatever you feel if you think Brand's shitty I like say whatever you want to say and then he that's when he's like he's like I don't have to say whatever no I was like just say what you want use your own lingo because I think that's what makes him more like real so I'm not telling him like hi guys like I love it like he would never say that so he was like he's like what's up boy I don't even know he talks it was just like so like famous Dex like he's like a Dexter like just like screaming into the like just being crazy you know so it was like yeah it was cool I just was like say whatever you feel use your personality I don't want it to be anything scripted like just whatever you feel like say it so I think that's what got us those like organic videos so um but in terms of I was going to talk about like aesthetic and I feel like with your brand you guys have done a really good job of like building like that like like dark gym like aesthetic and I feel like that's something that we are trying to like incorporate more into our business so I'm curious like um what made you like how did you guys build such a good aesthetic where like everything flows like your website matches your Instagram matches your content matches your clothes matches the name it's like everything seems to really tie in with each other and I'm curious how um you like you guys establish that and then also um like your best like we don't have to give too much free game like but like whatever marketing tactic you feel is like worked the best for you guys like it doesn't have to be like specific but like whatever you felt has generated the most sales for you guys I'm just curious like what tactic that is and you don't have to go into like we did this exact that I got game I got some yeah for sure um really our aesthetic bro it's kind of just like me being me me creating what I what I feel and what I want and kind of expressions of my my pain and my experience like you guys can see like the way that I grew up you know a lot of dark times a lot of struggle and that's kind of what led to this kind of dark aesthetic with the name and things like that and um it's kind of just like me expressing myself as authentically as I could you know what I mean there was times throughout that like I kind of went away from that because I thought you know I tried to be logical with certain things like oh let's brighten it up I don't want to scare this type of person away or something like that or just had some idea you know and and that wasn't at the end of the day what should have been done um so I think it's just really staying true to like your vision and staying true to like who you are and kind of creating um authentically through that I think that was the kind of the biggest lesson and that's where we're at right now is um like we're kind of more ourselves than we've ever been and like our content is doing better than it ever has even in times where like you know I mean they say it every damn year but like oh algorithm's everybody up you know what I mean but like our shit's doing better than ever because we kind of like we didn't like Rebrand by any means but we just like kind of found like exactly what we need to do really and that kind of ties into this to to the latter half of your question is like marketing tactic like what did we do like we built a community that was it bro we built a community around our ethos and about our mentality and our attitude and and kind of sh Show I don't want to say we showed it but we like we made Iron W more than just a clothing brand you know we made it a mentality and an attitude for life and it's like an identity Association you know like my my my goal starting out was like yeah I want if you put an iron will piece on like I want you to feel like yo like you know when we first started it was very gym focused right very workout stuff so it's like if you put this on like you you're walking in the gym like yo I'm going to crush today you know because if you kill a workout then you're going to feel better that day about life right if you feel better that day then chances are the next day you'll feel better and then that could turn into just like you over overall like you just becoming who you want to be you know what I mean it all just starts with that one workout um so it was all kind of tied around um again just building a community and rallying them around like what our message was and what our what our identity was and that's kind of our community bro it's just like people who are ambitious dreamers creators people trying to do big in their life and um you know again through through my story a lot of people who have just gone through dark you know what I mean the amount of messages that we've got but we got to we had to dude tattoo the logo on his skull that's CRA B dude and we ran in dude and the craziest thing real quick we ran into him randomly in New York City no way we went to you didn't even know he did that dud we had no idea like we knew we we saw him on Instagram post that yeah but we didn't know who he was or anything it wasn't like you guys like met up or anything no dude so like we got in New York we just went to this random place where we can drop all of our bags off it was like a post office where like they secured it for you um before we could check into our Airbnb we were shooting our fall campaign this past year and we walk out outside and we see this dude in Iron W like dude this is a random Street in Brooklyn he's wearing the clothes too random Street in Brooklyn him and his girl are wearing Iron W and then we and we kind of notice him right away cuz it's like you kind of remember the guy who's got a giant dagger tattooed on his head you know what I'm saying and dude was the craziest thing but you know back to my point um did he tell you like why he decided to do that yeah they were just like they're kind of they just kind of free roam like they just kind of just travel a lot and stay kind of random places and oh no did he tell you why he decided to put it on his head was he like tatted everywhere or that's like he has a lot of tats that his first one I know right his first one just goes sends it fully with a head T dagger dude um so the forehead like 21 Savage yeah imagine that bro you you could lowkey pulled off it looks similar to your logo hey bro 21 put this on for us bro he knew about will early investor imagine that story dude we get 21 Savage to run a campaign with hey never know bro that would be crazy um but uh but now my point was um you know just a lot of people like just the brand means so much to them that they're willing to tattoo it on themselves you know like they live it and they embody it every day and it becomes part of who they are you know and that's true like brand loyalty you know and to survive you need that loyal fan base you know it's like people talk about like having cult followings and you know and it's like sounds like bad but like that's what you need yeah you need that customer attention and that fan base yeah it's you know it's it's not about selling them uh you know even for you guys like I know you you said like you know you don't have like a crazy defined mission that you that you're always talking about and stuff but at the end of the day like what is like what is fashion like it's a way to express yourself yeah it's a way to show your identity to feel confident in yourself and that's at the end of the day like that's what you're selling and you know for us like it was it was expressing that and expressing the rest of our message you know that really got people to buy in because they're like damn like they actually care like this brand is for for us this brand is for me like this is my type of thing you know what I mean so I know that was pretty long-winded but that was that's pretty much what we did man it's just like focusing on our people you know and and creating for them you know and I mean yeah just understanding our our Target demographic and doing everything we can to to make them love the brand you know what and not being manipulative yeah you know a lot of brands are very manipulative like just buy bye byy and this sale and that you know what I mean it's like especially now bro going in 2024 every piece of research I've read every every article business of fashion Forbes even like you know I do a lot of research and brand brand marketing bro I mean it's some game for you like brand marketing bro thing influencer marketing is not the same paid advertising is not the same brand bro what do you stand for that's the biggest thing what do you stand for what are you against and preaching that to the world you know what I mean 100% And I feel like you're like really into meaning and like purpose and what you're doing too so like like I'm curious do you have any insight on like just like I feel like with you you're very like like meticulous with like the meaning of things and like having like good names for products and stuff so I was just curious if you had I mean not to put you on the spot like Crea bro um like why I prefer that or what just like what makes you cuz I know like sometimes we'll be like talking about a product and you're like you'll just you'll want to put more meaning behind it and I've always respected that so I'm like curious cuz you get like excited about that stuff and like you're always like you know what I mean like like even with just like like naming a product like I know you love doing that and it's like it's like a that name of that product gives it that meaning so I've like you're always just like I feel like you're very you're the you bring us that like meaning a lot of the time you know and that like message cuz I'm very like I'm very business-minded like you know like that's where my strengths are yeah um so I'm always trying to figure out like how we can grow scale you know so it's like I feel like you've done a good job of helping us create that like meaning behind and that aesthetic of like vintage 9s clothing but like in our own modern twist you know so yeah honestly it's um just pulling off of uh like conveying emotion with your customer and that the best way to build like a cult following is so I mean the the whole reason that somebody would follow your brand is because your brand makes them feel a certain type of way yeah and they feel heard in whatever niche that is um but I just always appreciate a brand that can make you feel um more than just like going into like a a Forever 21 and getting like a random t-shirt yeah like there's no there's no emotion there and so you like you're like oh that's a cool looking t-shirt I'll wear it for a week and then forget about it but then there's something else they're like oh I've been wanting this um I just this brand speaks to me either VI by like um the people that wear it or the um message they try to deliver yeah and I just feel like it's so powerful and it's the best marketing tactic a brand can use is to use the emotion is to drive a person to purchase as opposed to just all this items on sale this is 50% off you should buy right now yeah for sure i' agree um yeah no that's that no that makes sense that's cool um for you I'm curious cuz like obviously Our Brands are a little different you're more of like a gym brand I'd say right it's like you you guys your focuses around around the gym stuff and we're more of like a street wear fashion Focus like we you guys obviously focus on fashion as well you've done a great job of like incorporating fashion into gym wear but we're more like all fashion and I'm curious if like I'm seeing this the amount of success in the that I'm seeing within some of these gym Brands out there is like insane like you see like the gym sharks and the the la um La what no what is it La young La young LA and uh the the dark Sport and the wol is that the same thing so I'm like I'm curious like where do you find motivation from and like enaka like the the the like big dogs that we would compare to us would be like our ruds and our kiths of the world those are like those guys to you like what do you take from them and it's like exciting because I feel like you guys are headed there which is like a cool thing for you to like think about it's like we're right there like we're going to be you guys are going to be as big as those guys like I see it cuz just everything is cool with what you guys are doing with the message and the clothes are dope and like I really see you guys being one of those Brands up there with those guys so I'm curious like where you find motivation from them and like do you follow any of their owners and like Bradley Martins of the world and those guys like do you like follow kind of what they're doing because I know personally I look up to like the ronies of the world and the ruis of the world and the guys that own those Brands I mentioned so I'm curious like what you kind of take from those guys and how you've Incorporated any of their strategies into to your own cuz I've done that with like those Brands I mentioned so yeah there's a lot to learn from from all those Brands um my biggest thing is like I I take inspiration from them for sure um but like on the fashion side of things like I I'm I'm I'm following the same guys as you like Ronnie is probably my biggest inspiration um uh yeah you know all all those types of guys too um but yeah really for us it's just like creating our own thing you know what I mean at the end of the day like for to me iron W kind of transcends just the the just the gym you know and uh you know and I want I want eventually I want to get into sports and Athletics more um I want to get into peer fashion pieces you know we dabble in things and we've done a lot and had success with like fashion specific pieces like this isn't even the one you're wearing like that's sick yeah like that's like not just gym yeah so I I I very much respect what all of them do I want I just I I I have like a I have a certain I have a vision to me that like no other brand has really ever done and that's where I want to take iron will this to just be in our own lane you know what I mean and and obviously like um you know we have our foot in in the gym industry but then again like I want to be I want to be known as more of like a street wear brand than a gym brand you know what I mean because that that was kind of like my I I love that even more and before that I I got into the gym you know um but yeah it's just like kind of taking the inspiration from different places and and having respect for the the people who have been doing it and who have built those those huge Brands and um you know taking what you what you can in terms of inspiration from them um but also just you know creating your own thing is such a huge thing cuz the only way they got to where they're at is by being like authentically them and creating something new for the world you know and I even got caught up like there's some of those Brands you mentioned I I took too much inspiration from early on yeah you're almost like they're doing so well I want to kind of copy but you got to just do your own it's a lesson a huge lesson learned bro and we actually got kind of like called out for it even once you know one of our designs look similar to one of those Brands and um you know it was like damn bro like why that can't happen again man like it's like that's their staple we got to create our own embarrassing and you realize it's like damn bro like why did I do you know like what I've done the same bro I have a pair we have a pair of shorts that look just like ruds and someone's like uh Walmart Route CH or something it's like yep we're just going to stick in our own lane because it's not going to work we got to just do our own and that's when we started like the patchwork stuff we felt was like this is something that we were like really excited about and we've seen like a lot of people get really excited about it so it's cool to like yeah just kind of just be your own person be creative and just like not it's okay to not have an idea you know and it's like that idea will come and you don't have to like always take it from something else and you can like it's like obviously fashion is very like Trends get circulated it's hard to like do something completely your own thing it's like impossible yeah there like unless you like put a pair of shorts with a hole on the freaking like weird that's the thing is like that shit's going to work for Balenciaga yeah yeah it's not working not working for us we're going to post that people be like what the are you doing bro like what you know what I mean so it's like tough you know cuz I mean all art is inspired too at the end of the day and it's like tough you know when yeah these the the uh you know the ruds balenci all the all the luxury Brands like they're planning everyone's going to look at that it's yeah they're looking at that but they're also planning years and years Advance like they know the trend we they know what's coming that we won't find out for another year you know so it's just trying to innovate and trying to be unique trying to be that Trend Setter yeah yeah just yeah exactly trying to be a Trends Setter and that's really the only way to kind of pop up above you know all the other brands that are kind of similar to you at that you got to be different it's the only way to make a name for yourself you know yeah 100% dope well I feel like we've touched on a lot of things um do you have anything else you want to talk about before we close things up or um I think any questions about ask him like like uh about his designers are they better than no I'm kidding is your designer better than me no I think I think we covered we covered all it yeah yeah like we I kind of talked about everything I was curious about so yeah no I mean I think we touched on a lot bro um oh yeah a lot of respect for what you guys are doing man back the first time we you popped in bro like I got a lot of people hitting me up about advice questions in the D end like lot lot like a ton of that you know it's very rare that I see somebody like with a vision that I really with and a just an energy that I really with and you had that and you have that and that's been a testament to your success and the growth that you've had since we first met um and it just be cool to be doing like like you said at the beginning bro no one no one in Phoenix in Arizona is is putting on for the city putting on for the state you know no brands are coming out of of this state or the city you know trying to put you know trying to do cool things you know for it so uh it's cool to be sitting here next to you on a similar Mission and and obviously we're in kind of different aspects of the industry but you know it's cool for us to and it's a big lesson to learn too is it's like you know like for for people starting brand like it's collaborative bro like we both sell clothes like this ain't competition I want to help you I know you want to help me you know we're trying to win together trying to grow together so um it's just really cool to be here and doing with this with doing this with y'all and yeah I hope your audience was able to get some value today bro yeah 100% like like I said before we're just trying to um yeah just like build a a following of people that respect what people like us are doing and want to learn but also like this is just to like help other people out too like we want people to achieve their dreams their goals if they're interested in clothing to be able to learn from this and yeah we we really appreciate you coming on today we got we got him dripped out on some ASV sir you know got on the resist T right here half the I wanted was already sold out bro so you know I gotta yall got to give me some Early Access next time but hey you to settle for an older shirt no that one's still dope though you actually mentioned you like that one to me like a long time ago so I'm glad I could get it to you abely um but yeah man appreciate you coming on wish you guys nothing but success uh we're obviously going to stay tapped in with each other and uh we definitely got to like talk about doing some work in the future whether it's like a collab or like an event together or something cool for Arizona I think that would be cool cuz uh yeah like you said there's not a lot of stuff going on at least not as much as La New York you know Miami so hey it's it's on us now bro yeah we got we got to get some Happ but appreciate you bro y of course bro let's get it manva baby asva Iron Will collab maybe one day I got to get on your level with the with the following good there bro we good Ro yeah yes sir hell yeah got to wake you up over sleep over there and episode three we'll see you guys next time appreciate youhow's it going guys welcome to the asva podcast this is our third episode right third one number three number three and we got a special guest on today we got Derek um this one's this one's special because this is our first real like clothing brand owner guest on here because the whole goal for this podcast was to bring on brand owners Big Brand owners and Derek over here has his own brand iron wi um so we're going to yeah we're going to get some insight from him just talk about his come up and how he got to where he's at uh first you want to just like start a off with introducing yourself and give us like a little background on um how you started and what got you into clothing and like how the brand became about like the very early stages and then we can like get into some deeper questions after that yeah yeah absolutely first of all thanks for having me on yeah course excited to uh be sitting down here with you guys and you know we go we've known each other for a little probably a year and a half two years now almost yeah yeah you know when I first met yval he didn't even have a space and selling kind of the the Vintage te's and things like so it's cool to see what you guys got going but yeah appreciate you guys having me on um but yeah started iron W about 4 and a half years ago now so it's crazy to say that um but yeah man started it in college uh I just got out of the military and uh I quickly realized that just like college wasn't for me you know military definitely wasn't for me um so when I was going through that I was just like man like I just want to create something I want to at the time I was really big into into fashion Street Wear um I've always been very like artsy you know and I also had uh while I was in the military got really big into like working out and fitness and all that and there was no Brands really that existed that um I liked their sty like the style of you know I was always kind of wearing like weird in there you know at the time it was when like tight shirts were still like a thing and just the you know I just didn't really with it you know what I mean so I just wanted to create something uh you know create clothes that I wanted to wear like in and out of the gym stuff that could be versatile um but also create a community of people that were like me you know people who kind of um grew up with not the greatest upbringing um you know I was uh I grew up you know pretty uh you know family pretty impoverished was homeless at various points in my life um you know just kind of like a very Troublesome uh bringing so um you know through all that just uh you know definitely affected up here so I wanted to just create a community of people that uh could confide in each other and um you know resonate with each other and just be on a mission together to uh you know become their best selves and um overcome the things that they're going through so um those kind of two those are the two main reasons that you know I started you know started the brand hence the name iron W and you know again my my uh passion for fashion I guess you could say in the gym and then again my my upbringing so um you know here we are four and a half years later um you know Bas right here in Phoenix with y'all um you know trying to do some cool things just trying to create cool and inspire people at the same time you know what I mean that's really the mission um you know what I mean so yeah it's uh what got us here here today so oh yeah 100% yeah and I feel like it's it's weird cuz like in Arizona there's not many clothing companies so it's like the few that there are we all kind of know each other and mess with each other and it's like you mentioned that we've known each other for a few years now and a big thing that like I learned because I was always coming to you cuz when my brand started to transition from like just being myself to needing help that's like I feel like the main part is when you realize you're growing is when that happens and you need employees and like people to like be part of your team team that's when I started to come to you with questions cuz I noticed I was like oh this guy has like a full team a big Warehouse like so I was like oh like I'm curious how he got to the point he got to and that was like inspiring for me um it almost like led me to make my first hire which is Brock right here so it was like when I saw that you had all those employees I was like you know what like if I want to get to the next level like I got to take that risk and uh take that chance so yeah I just wanted to like tell you that I don't know if you really knew that but I remember like cuz we always have like little conversations about like oh what are you doing for like this shopy app or like this or that but it was like honestly like when I saw all the things you had going on when I went to your Warehouse in person um it made me like want to take mine to that next level um and leading into that like I'm curious what through your brand like what trials and tribulations like you've gone through that have helped you like get to that next level because I know every brand owner like has a story um of like how they started it like what you just told but they also have that story of like what went wrong that had that made them like who they are and got to the point where they are cuz no brand gets big without going through a bunch of and I'm sure you know that so it's like I'm curious if you have any examples of that um that you can share to like of stuff that like went wrong that um helped you get to where you're at yeah yeah definitely man I mean especially for I mean building a brand I mean I I know you're you're aware like a lot of highs and lows um the highs are high but the lows are lows and you know there's there's been times within the in the four and a half years we're just like bro like how are we going to figure this out like literally being so anxious being so kind of scared about how things are going to turn out but you just kind of kind of get through them and um some of the biggest ones were probably our biggest one so far was just like production issues so you know we work overseas we don't print on blanks or anything you know we we do cut and sew um but with working overseas like the production timelines are insane you got to deal with like the holidays that they have over there um again like the shipping takes a long ass time and there's just crazy delays so we we had a lot of drops to where you know we made the mistake of like you know we knew something was going to come in like really close to the drop date or even late and we're like oh it'll only be like a day or two late you know people will understand and then a delay happens right and then a week or two goes by and you know we um you know that happened multiple times um we've had products come in that weren't close to being what we what we ordered and and then when you sell them before they come in before you do those quality checks before you look at those things um you know people are going to get are going to get something that they didn't pay for yeah you know so um having to go through those trials and learn those lessons you know we had to email every single one and say hey like there was a production issue with this like do you still want it you know explaining just explaining what the differences were but saying like do you still want this type of thing um so that really taught us like the importance of really valuing the customer like you know you feel for them right like because you promote this drop they've been seeing it they spend their harder and money bro like even years ago like you know obviously this year is kind of crazy with the economy and but even years ago it wasn't the best and um you know this is like Co era right so a lot of uncertainty and people are spending their money with us you know what I mean so it's like you know you you you feel for them and um you it really taught us like y we got to do whatever we can to make things right and that's kind of a principle that we carried now is like you know we treat our every single customer like they were like they're our last one our only one that we have to build the brand yeah you know so that was the production ones were a huge one and that just taught us to like like we can't drop anything but like we have we we'd rather push the drop and we've had to do that like tell people like hey like our drop is going to be a week later now because we don't want to sacrifice um you know or or risk our our quality and you guys you and something happening to you guys you know what I mean so um that was a big one and then just early on like finding ways to like just get Capital to you know to to grow the brand you know what I mean like kind of the capital bottleneck and you know there's a lot of ways you know we you know I don't get too in depth with with what our strategy was but you know like just trying to figure things out bro because it's like you don't know what you don't know and especially when you start out you're like dude what the hell do I how do I learning new things all the time yeah so just a lot of trial and error um so those are probably the two main ones man and um you know you know just just battling I mean you know this just battling the uncertainty with like how are these colorways going to do or you know you put your all into this and it's like well you know what if type of thing you know what I mean it's just you just got to push through so those are probably the two most spe uh the two specific like big ones that we dealt with um but I mean it's been especially at the level that we're at now I mean every day bro you're getting hit with some with this person you know especially when when you have employees you got M you know you got mouths to feed you got families to that that you got to provide for you know what I mean so the reality that comes with that the pressure the overwhelm on a consistent basis um you know that's a challenge too so yeah those are pretty much some of the main things that you know we've that we had to overcome and you know and there's those times you think it's like the worst thing in the world right and then kind of some of the problems we're even dealing with now you're like damn bro these are those are nothing you know and you thought it was going to end you you know what I mean so just about pushing through bro and just like that's it man just say like not giving up it's cliche but it's cliche for a reason you know what I'm saying it's just like you got to push through and and uh face reality sometimes and and figure out how to how to get through these problems yeah it's funny cuz I feel like we have like all those stories that he told it's like we have like the same same ones like right like it's like similar just same exact things it's like everyone goes through it and it's cool to like not that it's cool that it happened like like like it sucks when it happens anyone but it's good to know that it's like happens to everyone that you're not alone that you're not alone in that cuz like some times like you said like it feels like it's like stressful um and in terms of like design though cuz Brock over here he does um like the like pretty much all our graphic design and like a lot of the creative Direction like we collaborate as a company on the creative Direction but he like is the one that makes those ideas and puts them on to the table so I'm curious CU you used you did design right a little bit in the beginning yeah so I'm curious if like Brock if you have anything for him about design or if you have anything for Brock like cuz you guys are both like yeah designs and creatives what what got in you what got you into design like what what was it that kind of Drew you to designing yeah I uh did you teach yourself or like I I taught myself bro yeah I mean growing up is just kind of like an introverted kid just like just always to myself like I just kind of Drew random you know what I mean I draw like I was big into like wrestling in sports and so I draw like my favorite players and wrestl just like a little illustrations um and I was like 14 I started teaching myself Photoshop okay um it was funny well I didn't actually before that when I was like 9 10 11 um you know we couldn't afford internet so I would just sit there on Microsoft Paint and like that's when I first started to get like digitally creating art you know what I mean and if you want to call it art you know some Doodles on Microsoft Paint yeah um half the people watching this probably won't even remember yall don't know what Microsoft Paint is um but then you know once uh once I learned about Photoshop just kind of kind of started working in that and um you know just kind of honed my skills over that I never like took it too seriously but it was just something I did for fun and was able to kind of um I uh I was playing you know Call of Duty heavily when I was in like high school and stuff and I was in these like Call of Duty Clans this was when like FaZe was just like early on yeah I was doing that stuff too and uh I wasn't I was like good but like not like these trick shot level dudes like like f you know like them uh so where I kind of like created my value was I was always creating the logos and the the YouTube banners for our our Clans and Clans yeah so that was kind of like my first like like on Rust and yeah yeah exactly bro yep our little yep the little Clan The Clan logos and stuff um and then yeah bro just uh I kind of played around with like a little um a uh a little brand when I was in high school and then started like the first iteration of iron W out out of out of uh out of the military and that was like when I kind of like first started putting putting those things to use and then of course like the fir yeah like you've all said the first year and a half two years of the brand I was doing all the designing um thankfully I came across a dude who's just still with us you know now two two years later who's just the absolute goat you know and he was able to take things over and just create crazy stuff um but yeah and then plus just my design capabilities at that point just weren't good enough to keep things going you know what I mean I could create cool minimal placements and stuff but that was really about it so um thankfully he came along and you know I still dabble in in things here and there yeah um I made this hat actually so I still make some stuff here and there um but yeah bro what about you what was your kind of way way of getting into it and and then LED you to asva it's funny to talk about like a smaller brand in high school it was I had a business class that um I took uh and we had to make a mock business and I did uh clothing brand with a friend and uh first it was just messing around with that I didn't know anything about Photoshop or illustrator or anything like that I was was uh drawing on a notepad and then taking a picture of it and trying to edit out the white part of it just so I could put it on a T-shirt and then ended up liking it more than I thought I would and then trying to signed up for actually got a cracked version of Illustrator started learning on that and then yeah it just kind of went from there I ended up really liking it and then just YouTube all day all night just to figure out how to make it work so no classes or anything but do man yeah right really bro it's fun yeah YouTube where it's at right it is 100% I kind of want to touch on you mentioned like and I don't know obviously if you're not comfortable you don't have to talk about it but you mentioned like the homeless thing like I'm sure that's like something that is like extremely like Mo like obviously extremely hard but also extremely motivating and if you could just like kind of tell your story about that like I'm curious to hear it like I think that would just be like really motivational for people to hear cuz I think a lot of people these days like make excuses as to why they can't do this or why they can't follow their passion or follow their dream because the big thing with this podcast is I want people to follow their dream and know that that risk isn't as bad as they think it is and everything that they want to achieve is possible so I think that would just be like a good story that could help people watching know that like hey if I'm passionate about something like the time's ticking like I need to go for it and like there's no point in not going for it because you're not going to lose anything from trying and so yeah I'm just curious if you don't mind like talking about that not at all man not at all um yeah like I said just you know like you know my my parents they did everything they could so my my parents had the divorce when I was a kid um you know they both like worked really hard but just the end of the day like couldn't really figure it out you know what I mean but they did everything they could um but yeah I mean growing up with my mom you know we were I had a a very uh you know abusive stepdad and you know so that relationship was tough but it was kind of like we'd get this one we'd get one apartment you know would be good for a while things would would look promising and then one day the the lights would go out you know and then the next day I'd be showering in the cold and um then a week later we'd get evicted and you know I lived in eight different apartments uh when I was in high school Alone um and again at various times between those apartment living you know living in a van with my mom um so it was definitely a pretty tough time but it was during those years that I realized like yo like you know it it matured me a lot it matured me a lot and I was just like there's no way I'm living a life like this when I'm older there's no way my kids are going to live the way that I had to you know so I was like 14 and I already kind of developed like what the hell you know I was like no like just kind of like the ambition just the drive just was like formed during those years you know during that pain I had to deal with you know I was like I played Sports you know I had like I you know a lot of homies in high school and stuff and I had to like lie to them bro I had to live with my my some of my homies sometimes and I I couldn't even like keep it real about like you know I just I don't even know what I made up but it was it was so embarrassing you know and like I think they knew at the end of the day like my friend's family knew but you know it sucked and um but again there's a lot of that time um spent by myself thinking and and dealing with that pain I was just like no bro this isn't going to be my life um so you know through all that I just kind of carried that ambition that drive through the rest of my life you know what I mean and um you know high school and then I just always knew I wanted to do big things bro I like I was like I I have to do something crazy I have to do big things if I'm going to you know it was just like that's taught me like I want to be financially free I want to be able to do whatever the hell I want to do for my kids um you know I'm nowhere I'm living nowhere near like a a poor lifestyle you know um and uh you know it just kind of led me you know join the military was pretty accomplished there uh went got into Syracuse University just always just had drive to like do do big things you know what I mean and uh um that was yeah that's pretty much it man and that's kind of the story of iron W um you know people ask me like what that name means why I named it that I was like you know when I created that it was I actually put it on a shirt when the brand the brand was originally called something else I started with like a couple friends and uh that quickly dissolved cuz they were like when are we getting paid and I was like bro we've been doing this for three months like what do you mean U so I rebranded it and I actually again I had that uh the name on a shirt and I put it on there originally cuz I was like you know it's like if anything I learned in my life and what I saw my mom go through and what I had to go through um you know like the one thing that she possessed that I possessed to got us through it all was just having like an Iron Wheel yeah you know so that's kind of what the story was there um awesome yeah and it's just kind of led to led to this bro and that's what I'm trying to do now is like people in those positions like you know if you're down if you're hopeless if you're in despair like if you're if you're feeling alone for whatever reason like let that story you like that's that's why I try to leverage my story and the things I learn for those kind of people to like give them hope and get them to understand like yo you can be from whatever means and and you know by no means do I want to like so many people have it way way worse you know what I mean that's just my story but like no matter what man like you can you can get through that like you just got to find it within yourself and and figure out how the hell to to to get out of it and and do the work necessary you know and that's what the Brand's about it's just like you know that's our our slogan is by any means necessary and that's kind of the mentality that I had to get out get out the gutter that I was I was born I was kind of had to go through growing up no that's cool like I I honestly relate like not to the full extent but I grew up single mom like Apartments you know so it's like I get that and it's like in the moment you're like at that age in high school you're like embarrassed and you're like oh my friends have houses why do I have an apartment but then it's like once you get older you realize like that is the biggest blessing because it teaches you like so much hard work and dedication and I guarantee like without that I would have never had like the motivation to always stick with this and to like work those 3:00 a.m. 400 a.m. nights like always grinding like every day like doing whatever it takes to make it happen cuz it's like without that you don't realize how much you can gain from it and it's like it it builds like a strong mentality and like seeing your mom like cry and it's like that shit's like life changing you know so it's like that builds that like that motivation where you're like I'm going to do whatever it takes to make my dream happen and like I don't care what anyone thinks or what what happens it's like you just kind of go for it and it's like without that it's like I don't think I would be either so it's like I think it's like all blessings and disguise for for real man and that's like the tough part like tough thing to understand is like when you're in these moments like even now like you know you get we get caught up in the just whatever struggle whatever whatever thing we're going through and you're just like man this is Terri you know and you're emotional you don't think like that you know but being able to kind of develop the awareness as like of when you're in those in those periods um whether it's like depression or whatever you're going through of just knowing like damn like all right this is for a reason you know cuz we can look back and be like damn like there was a reason for that you know like damn that made me who I am so like you know looking back you're like you know in the moment you're like this is terrible my reality sucks like it's a terrible way to live and then you look back you're like damn I wouldn't have had it any other way you know so it's just like a big lesson there is just you know you're going through it it's like you just got to think of the positive side of again it's cliche and what and whatnot but it's like it's the reality you know what I'm saying yeah for real so yeah I know it's that's an awesome story like I'm glad you told that it's cool cuz like not a lot of Brands really have like a true like meaning in story like a lot of people just like want to make cool you know which is also like respectable like cuz that's kind of like we just like to make cool Street Wear there's not like a crazy story behind our name because our name more just ties into my history and like my past and how I came up um but that's like a great story that like relates directly to the name and it all kind of ties in together which I think makes your brand like super unique um dude did I ever tell you like his Warehouse has like a like a basketball court in it you telling about yeah yeah have you seen the pictures of it and I think so where is check it out man we're on the yeah it's like South Mountain Area okay dude it's like it's like the sickest Warehouse dude I've ever seen like even one time I was there and um like yeah we need I need to show you it though it's so sick and you guys that can go follow his brand and like um go check it out his personal page we'll like link it all there's like probably pictures of it and stuff on your personal last yeah we got but it's so sick they have like all their inventory and then in the middle just like a basketball court and I went over there one time and played or two or two times maybe and played pick up basketball with them and um I posted a picture of my story and I had so many people swipe up we're like bro your Warehouse has a basketball court I was like nah like I'm still trapping out my garage but I I wish that was my warehouse like hey bro but hey man same like we all go through those levels man like I'm so grateful for it now and it's like but I was doing that on my garage from my bedroom to a garage to a to a uh a little business center at my next apartment to 1800 s foot Warehouse you know into the place that we're in now you know so it's just levels to it bro and just consistency you know what I'm saying so like what made I'm just curious sorry I feel like I'm like not letting you letting you talk too much but um I'm curious what made you guys cuz the basketball court was already there right yeah yeah and then it was like a non-negotiable though to leave it or were you guys like ah should we use this space or let's go let's leave the basketball or is it like distracting at work or like yeah we've actually had to get on the team a couple times cuz it's like you know people want to go in the warehouse to they'll shoot around just to like kind of decompress and stuff which is cool but you know we have a warehouse staff that's working you know the whole day back there and it can be distracting you walk in it's just like people playing horse and literally we've had to get you know it's like we noticed couple like bro y' all been back there for two hours in the middle of the day what are y'all doing you know what I mean but no I mean for the most part it's been it's definitely been like a a really good thing for the team like having something like that to to go and decompress the middle of the day just shoot around for 10 20 minutes I mean there's so many nights where I've had a long ass day you know and I just go back there and shoot around for an hour you know what I mean but yeah when we when we got it it was already there um but you know we had to pay for it but we're like dude there's no way we're not like we can't have this here and then get rid of it it's like we got to do it and it's been huge for us man I mean we've had a lot of lot of lot of athletes come through and and hoop with us and um it's kind of just like a a cool thing to say that we got for people that'll get anyone in there you know what I mean it's like you can just tell Deon Booker yo I mean you want some clothes but we could also like practice on your on your game we tried we tried I haven't made that one yet but we'll get there you know what I'm saying no he'll pull up he'll pull up I know it Deon if you're watch you're watching this pull up bro I bet de Booker is not watching this not maybe maybe never never never know bro I have this question this question's kind of for Brock and for you like both of you guys so I'm curious because like Brock knows what kind of Boss and like owner I am cuz like he's obviously we've been working together for like almost a year now so I'm curious like what kind of boss and manager are you like when you're employees like cuz there's it's a tough thing to explain especially like um with him he's like my first guy so it's like he's different it's like we're like very like we work together really well but it's hard like managing personalities and people and like um stuff like that so I'm curious like when someone's like around or like you know like a there's a line where you obviously you have to you have to be like you want to be homies with your employees but you also have to be like Stern at times you know just to get done and make sure that like shit's going right and like because that's your job at the end of the day because you slowly have to as the CEO and the owner like you want to be doing everything but you slowly have to like back up to focus on more bigger and bigger picture and make sure everything's going well for everyone else so I'm curious like what kind of like if if you have an issue with someone like how do you typically usually handle that mhm did you want Brock to no talk about how I handle it I mean you can do you think i' do a good job handling yeah no no I think I mean especially for being the first time I mean it's it's a big CH like he beats the out of I you actually yeah I quit I hate you I'm out of here no I think it's good I mean I think it was different when we when I first joined you cuz it came as well being the first employee but then also it feels more like a team effort as opposed to a hierarchy yeah it wasn't like it was more just like we're collaborating every day cuz we're we're the only two doing everything yeah yeah we're doing like everything together and so and then also living together made a yeah he like live he like there was an open room in my crib and he just moved in too so that made it also so we were always together 24/75 like working in our kitchen like before we had the warehouse yeah like tra and clothes out the kitchen and garage but yeah I don't know no I think I think it's been pretty solid I mean judging by the circumstances of living 247 with each other yeah I think it's been pretty good and then being the first time but yeah having more of like a co-op effort and just kind of working together as opposed to being like Oh do this while I it's like I like trust you you know so it's like I know you know what needs to get done and you trust me it's like a good Dynamic both like obviously yeah we're like collaborating or you're doing what you need to do and I'll do what I need to do yeah but like we got a good system cuz I don't have as many like there's literally like me him um AJ and then Jake who does videography and then we have like some other like remote positions like a customer service person that doesn't live in Arizona and then some people that do Instagram ads that don't live in Arizona so those people are different like remote is different so I feel like you have like how many employees you have nine nine yeah so that's like I feel like you have like nine inperson people it's like a little different than some Curious yeah cuz you probably have to deal with a lot more obviously the more people more personalities you get the harder it gets probably i' assume um so yeah yeah it's I mean it's definitely probably been the hardest thing about being you know being a CEO and um you know a lot of our guys you know had existing friendships with before that you know so bringing them in and then kind of like um yeah you know at certain times like having to kind of like draw that line you know it's it's difficult and um you know I know you understand like it's it's just yeah it's just a difficult thing to do yeah um but I think when everybody is bought into like what the what you guys are doing and loves what you're doing um it's easy and when you know you're not an about things you know but like again you have to put your foot down but like people kind of know that you're in that position like you created it you know what I mean like you're that guy you know you have to be the one to do that you know nobody else you know and obviously you want the the team to like to be able to do that too you know be leaders within the within the brand too um but yeah no it's definitely tough and it's I mean it's been such a learning process for me too um but yeah it's uh dealing with people is definitely the hardest part about building the brand because at the end of day it's like because at the end of the day it's like you just want to create dope clothes you know what I mean but then you you know and you'll learn this as you kind of go too is like a lot of just things back here happen you know like this person's not happy or this person wants to leave or you got to fire this person for lack of performance you know but I think it's just kind of creating a culture of like yo like we're on this Mission together like this is where we want to go this is how we all fall into that mission and you know this is how we all like you you painting the picture of the vision um and at the end of the day just kind of leading from the front you know what I mean like just you know your work ethic is going to is going to inspire the rest of the team you know like what you do and what you say and and how you how you how you operate is going to inspire the rest of the team you know if you have lack standards then the team's going to have lack standards you know if you're afraid of Confrontation then people are going to take advantage of you you know what I mean so you just got to know that like you know you you know as a leader of anything you know what I mean a brand or a team whatever it is like you're kind of under the spot like everybody's kind of watching to see what you do and then they're going to take take action based on that you know so it's a it's a lot of responsibility it's a lot of pressure um but you know it's just kind of one of those things you just got to be like well that's me this is what I signed up for whether I like it or not and what's what I got to deal with you know yeah so for sure yeah oh that's some good Insight um there's one thing too I realized with and just Switching gears here um we both collabed with like athletes and stuff and I I noticed there was like one that we both worked with and he's like a really good guy ish way wght used to play for the Suns now he's in Portland right yeah he unfortunately just got yeah got yeah I was sad I was like oh that was the one Suns player that really like gave love to all the brands out here like he was like super cool um yeah so I was just curious like what that experience was like cuz I saw you guys did some like iners because we've been doing some iners stuff with like we just did one Brock was there with like Sharie O'Neal um we've been doing some other like people um but yeah I was curious ious how that went cuz we both kind of did like similar stuff with like athletes like iners stuff like little interviews and um photo shoot like all that so um how that like relationship came about and then like how that went and how that experience was for you guys yeah and I have the same question for for you for you afterwards but yeah ish is Ish is great bro like I I have so much love for him and he's such a great guy you know he really taught me like you I've always been big into sports and always just you know honestly just been a fan um you know but someone like him really showed me like damn like you know this dude goes through a lot like there's a lot that you don't realize from from these players and um you know made me like you know you look at the comment section on on bleach report and like that and just seeing the people what people say and then once you actually like kind of have relationships with these guys and like actually talk to them and and hear what you know hear about their stories and stuff it's just like bro that shit's so whack yeah everyone just assumes whatever they want to assume without ever knowing like what the actual reality is the situation yeah and we experienced that even with like share right like he was there for share and you can talk about it too after I talk about it but like he was just like so nice in person so humble such a cool good guy and then you go to his comment section even on the photo that we posted and like we're doing some fun photo shoot he's like showing some jewelry and everyone's commenting like daddy's money like all this but in reality he's telling us he's like bro my dad doesn't give me money like I I have to work I have to work for my money I have to get a job like he's actually looking to get into fashion now too like a little bit and I'm not going to talk about where or anything cuz he told us some stuff that hasn't been announced yet but um yeah like so he's it's like the same with them it's like these guys that we've met at least like I thought he was like super humble nice like it was I yeah thought exact same thing it was crazy like we walk in and Brock's like dude is so tall I know bro especially like I mean I already feel short with you V problem you know he's just right there on the same level we're just like no he he even made me like he's yeah anybody you've all look a little shorter yeah I was like even we had took a group picture I was like damn this is the first time I'm not like the tallest one in the group picture and I was by far the shortest that was a fun pick he's like nice to meet you Sharie he's like looking down like half his size yeah no he was a cool guy he was yeah super just down toe humble yeah and like I yeah I mean people of that stature just that that F I guess I just don't expect it um just I mean yeah cuz just like the common person like and um just the way he was just super cool with everybody and just yeah that's dope man that's cool to hear yeah it's like you realize these guys are real people at the end of the day you know what I mean and they go through just like we do you know what I mean they just happen to be in the spotlight and happen to be perceived as these you know I don't know like robots like they don't have they're not real people somehow like this people can just say what the hell they want and you know um but yeah no working with is was really dope bro he's such a great guy um you know we've we' had the pleasure to do like a little documentary style film with him about his story um that was really cool um but yeah man it's been it it was really dope with him and you know we we we we still have some things in the works with him that are excited that definitely want to let you know about closer to the time comes um but yeah it's just about doing things with people that are like-minded and you know and building relationships and just doing cool things for you know we we want to do cool for the city obviously I know you guys want to do that kind of stuff too um you know and he's someone who is really down for that you know he has his cars kicks event um out here you know that he wants to do for the city he loves it out here so um yeah man it was really cool to get tapped in with him and hopefully we can you know continue to kind of do some stuff but yeah how was it with uh you know getting tapped in I want to know how you uh you know for uh how you getting famous decks and you know what's up with that man that's so that's a cool ass thing bro I saw that I was like good for you bro like that's really sick yeah bro so it honestly was one of those things where we we always talked about like me and Brock would talk about it or like me and a we'd be like we want to do some collabs with some people like we see kith and like these brands that we look up to doing collabs with famous people and we're like oh I wonder like how that process goes so we started like diving into it doing a little research and the first person we started with was J crit and the reason like it was honestly one of those things where it was a Snowball Effect like I took a chance on excuse me um on like a Tik tocker honestly I went out to New York um I did a photo shoot with some famous Tik tokers that was my first dabble in doing in-person stuff with someone that we'd call like an influencer or athlete rapper whatever you want to call it for those people and um we went out to New York we did a shoot in Philly actually and then another influencer in New York because I always did Tik Tock stuff like gifting Tik tokers and they'd post stuff on their Tik Tok and I saw a good return on it so I was like huh I'm curious like if I go do inperson stuff because then we can use that content as more like for ads Instagram ads Tik Tok ads whatever so I took a chance on that and then I went out there the manager of the Tik tocker that was there was like yo I know some more people if you're trying to do more like this and I was like okay well who do you know and he's like oh Antonio Brown Jay crit I'm like oh yeah those are some those are some people I'd love to work with so it's like Jay crit he's he's more of like a he's he's not underground but he's like more of an East Coast rapper but like he's been one of my favorite rappers um in high school so when they said that name I was like oh yeah let's do it and Jay crit is kind of tied in with like famous de rich kid um so Jay crit led to famous deck because they're friends um so they were he was like yo they were like I can hook you up with Dex if you want I was like yeah or I can hook you up with rich kid if you want so we actually talked rich kid and Dex Dex was a little more affordable for us CU obviously you got to pay these people to show up do these photo shoots whatever um so yeah we ran out with Dex he happens to live in Arizona so it was just like easy smooth like I mean it wasn't easy but it h like we got it done like it was cool um so yeah that's how that happened just like Snowball Effect like tick tocker to Jake crit to famous decks and then yeah AJ landed us some a r in La that's a big La rapper and then we had like managers reach out to us sometimes for like that's how we got a few of the other ones um share I actually flew to Miami for a weekend just because there was like a big event going on our basil and I knew I was going to meet famous people out there and I ended up meeting like jayen Brown from the Celtics I met share I met uh L meech who's like a big actor I met like all these people out from just taking that trip and just like going and sending it and just being like it this is going to be expensive but I know I'm going to make some connections from it I went to the Nike basketball event and my Miami ran into Shar there and I've spoken to him on Instagram before so I went up to him I was like oh yeah we've talked before like I'd love to do some inperson stuff with you so then that's how that happened like it was all just kind of like being in the right place right time and then meeting people like just networking and that's how that all came about yeah L him in there man just kind of taking that chance bro you didn't know any of that would happened yeah oh no not at all it was all just risk cuz I was like I've never done collabs in person so I'm just going to send it and then it just LED one thing led to another and then now we have like a bunch of others lined up that we could do but I'm like it's expensive so I'm like I'm G take a step back like we can get some crazy people that we have lined up but I'm like I'm just going to wait a little bit like and just like let the the brand continue to grow cuz I don't want to rush in anything yeah um but yeah like that stuff's fun like it's cool gets you really good content for ads like stuff like that really good it's definitely cool what I what I liked about what y'all did with them was like it what the content with them seems so organic you know like they seem like they actually really like the stuff and they really with it I think that's really big too is just like you know like actually having a brand that's you know that you know you guys got some dope you know and I mean and you you guys are good people you know so like when reaching out to these people you know like actually having something that they would act you know actually want you know what I mean cuz I'm sure they're getting hit up left and right you know what I mean but uh I thought that was really cool that they you know like just how kind of personal they and how authentic they sounded when they were talking about acva and and all that kind of it was really cool yeah it was one of those things too where we didn't have scripts for anything like we literally told him we're like I'm like yo Dex like this guy's like you know he he has a personality he's a so he's like I'm not going to use any like adjectives but he's just like he's a rapper like he has a large personality and I was like like we're at to shoot I was like yo Dex just like say what you feel about the brand like we're going to get on video you can say whatever you feel if you think Brand's shitty I like say whatever you want to say and then he that's when he's like he's like I don't have to say whatever no I was like just say what you want use your own lingo because I think that's what makes him more like real so I'm not telling him like hi guys like I love it like he would never say that so he was like he's like what's up boy I don't even know he talks it was just like so like famous Dex like he's like a Dexter like just like screaming into the like just being crazy you know so it was like yeah it was cool I just was like say whatever you feel use your personality I don't want it to be anything scripted like just whatever you feel like say it so I think that's what got us those like organic videos so um but in terms of I was going to talk about like aesthetic and I feel like with your brand you guys have done a really good job of like building like that like like dark gym like aesthetic and I feel like that's something that we are trying to like incorporate more into our business so I'm curious like um what made you like how did you guys build such a good aesthetic where like everything flows like your website matches your Instagram matches your content matches your clothes matches the name it's like everything seems to really tie in with each other and I'm curious how um you like you guys establish that and then also um like your best like we don't have to give too much free game like but like whatever marketing tactic you feel is like worked the best for you guys like it doesn't have to be like specific but like whatever you felt has generated the most sales for you guys I'm just curious like what tactic that is and you don't have to go into like we did this exact that I got game I got some yeah for sure um really our aesthetic bro it's kind of just like me being me me creating what I what I feel and what I want and kind of expressions of my my pain and my experience like you guys can see like the way that I grew up you know a lot of dark times a lot of struggle and that's kind of what led to this kind of dark aesthetic with the name and things like that and um it's kind of just like me expressing myself as authentically as I could you know what I mean there was times throughout that like I kind of went away from that because I thought you know I tried to be logical with certain things like oh let's brighten it up I don't want to scare this type of person away or something like that or just had some idea you know and and that wasn't at the end of the day what should have been done um so I think it's just really staying true to like your vision and staying true to like who you are and kind of creating um authentically through that I think that was the kind of the biggest lesson and that's where we're at right now is um like we're kind of more ourselves than we've ever been and like our content is doing better than it ever has even in times where like you know I mean they say it every damn year but like oh algorithm's everybody up you know what I mean but like our shit's doing better than ever because we kind of like we didn't like Rebrand by any means but we just like kind of found like exactly what we need to do really and that kind of ties into this to to the latter half of your question is like marketing tactic like what did we do like we built a community that was it bro we built a community around our ethos and about our mentality and our attitude and and kind of sh Show I don't want to say we showed it but we like we made Iron W more than just a clothing brand you know we made it a mentality and an attitude for life and it's like an identity Association you know like my my my goal starting out was like yeah I want if you put an iron will piece on like I want you to feel like yo like you know when we first started it was very gym focused right very workout stuff so it's like if you put this on like you you're walking in the gym like yo I'm going to crush today you know because if you kill a workout then you're going to feel better that day about life right if you feel better that day then chances are the next day you'll feel better and then that could turn into just like you over overall like you just becoming who you want to be you know what I mean it all just starts with that one workout um so it was all kind of tied around um again just building a community and rallying them around like what our message was and what our what our identity was and that's kind of our community bro it's just like people who are ambitious dreamers creators people trying to do big in their life and um you know again through through my story a lot of people who have just gone through dark you know what I mean the amount of messages that we've got but we got to we had to dude tattoo the logo on his skull that's CRA B dude and we ran in dude and the craziest thing real quick we ran into him randomly in New York City no way we went to you didn't even know he did that dud we had no idea like we knew we we saw him on Instagram post that yeah but we didn't know who he was or anything it wasn't like you guys like met up or anything no dude so like we got in New York we just went to this random place where we can drop all of our bags off it was like a post office where like they secured it for you um before we could check into our Airbnb we were shooting our fall campaign this past year and we walk out outside and we see this dude in Iron W like dude this is a random Street in Brooklyn he's wearing the clothes too random Street in Brooklyn him and his girl are wearing Iron W and then we and we kind of notice him right away cuz it's like you kind of remember the guy who's got a giant dagger tattooed on his head you know what I'm saying and dude was the craziest thing but you know back to my point um did he tell you like why he decided to do that yeah they were just like they're kind of they just kind of free roam like they just kind of just travel a lot and stay kind of random places and oh no did he tell you why he decided to put it on his head was he like tatted everywhere or that's like he has a lot of tats that his first one I know right his first one just goes sends it fully with a head T dagger dude um so the forehead like 21 Savage yeah imagine that bro you you could lowkey pulled off it looks similar to your logo hey bro 21 put this on for us bro he knew about will early investor imagine that story dude we get 21 Savage to run a campaign with hey never know bro that would be crazy um but uh but now my point was um you know just a lot of people like just the brand means so much to them that they're willing to tattoo it on themselves you know like they live it and they embody it every day and it becomes part of who they are you know and that's true like brand loyalty you know and to survive you need that loyal fan base you know it's like people talk about like having cult followings and you know and it's like sounds like bad but like that's what you need yeah you need that customer attention and that fan base yeah it's you know it's it's not about selling them uh you know even for you guys like I know you you said like you know you don't have like a crazy defined mission that you that you're always talking about and stuff but at the end of the day like what is like what is fashion like it's a way to express yourself yeah it's a way to show your identity to feel confident in yourself and that's at the end of the day like that's what you're selling and you know for us like it was it was expressing that and expressing the rest of our message you know that really got people to buy in because they're like damn like they actually care like this brand is for for us this brand is for me like this is my type of thing you know what I mean so I know that was pretty long-winded but that was that's pretty much what we did man it's just like focusing on our people you know and and creating for them you know and I mean yeah just understanding our our Target demographic and doing everything we can to to make them love the brand you know what and not being manipulative yeah you know a lot of brands are very manipulative like just buy bye byy and this sale and that you know what I mean it's like especially now bro going in 2024 every piece of research I've read every every article business of fashion Forbes even like you know I do a lot of research and brand brand marketing bro I mean it's some game for you like brand marketing bro thing influencer marketing is not the same paid advertising is not the same brand bro what do you stand for that's the biggest thing what do you stand for what are you against and preaching that to the world you know what I mean 100% And I feel like you're like really into meaning and like purpose and what you're doing too so like like I'm curious do you have any insight on like just like I feel like with you you're very like like meticulous with like the meaning of things and like having like good names for products and stuff so I was just curious if you had I mean not to put you on the spot like Crea bro um like why I prefer that or what just like what makes you cuz I know like sometimes we'll be like talking about a product and you're like you'll just you'll want to put more meaning behind it and I've always respected that so I'm like curious cuz you get like excited about that stuff and like you're always like you know what I mean like like even with just like like naming a product like I know you love doing that and it's like it's like a that name of that product gives it that meaning so I've like you're always just like I feel like you're very you're the you bring us that like meaning a lot of the time you know and that like message cuz I'm very like I'm very business-minded like you know like that's where my strengths are yeah um so I'm always trying to figure out like how we can grow scale you know so it's like I feel like you've done a good job of helping us create that like meaning behind and that aesthetic of like vintage 9s clothing but like in our own modern twist you know so yeah honestly it's um just pulling off of uh like conveying emotion with your customer and that the best way to build like a cult following is so I mean the the whole reason that somebody would follow your brand is because your brand makes them feel a certain type of way yeah and they feel heard in whatever niche that is um but I just always appreciate a brand that can make you feel um more than just like going into like a a Forever 21 and getting like a random t-shirt yeah like there's no there's no emotion there and so you like you're like oh that's a cool looking t-shirt I'll wear it for a week and then forget about it but then there's something else they're like oh I've been wanting this um I just this brand speaks to me either VI by like um the people that wear it or the um message they try to deliver yeah and I just feel like it's so powerful and it's the best marketing tactic a brand can use is to use the emotion is to drive a person to purchase as opposed to just all this items on sale this is 50% off you should buy right now yeah for sure i' agree um yeah no that's that no that makes sense that's cool um for you I'm curious cuz like obviously Our Brands are a little different you're more of like a gym brand I'd say right it's like you you guys your focuses around around the gym stuff and we're more of like a street wear fashion Focus like we you guys obviously focus on fashion as well you've done a great job of like incorporating fashion into gym wear but we're more like all fashion and I'm curious if like I'm seeing this the amount of success in the that I'm seeing within some of these gym Brands out there is like insane like you see like the gym sharks and the the la um La what no what is it La young La young LA and uh the the dark Sport and the wol is that the same thing so I'm like I'm curious like where do you find motivation from and like enaka like the the the like big dogs that we would compare to us would be like our ruds and our kiths of the world those are like those guys to you like what do you take from them and it's like exciting because I feel like you guys are headed there which is like a cool thing for you to like think about it's like we're right there like we're going to be you guys are going to be as big as those guys like I see it cuz just everything is cool with what you guys are doing with the message and the clothes are dope and like I really see you guys being one of those Brands up there with those guys so I'm curious like where you find motivation from them and like do you follow any of their owners and like Bradley Martins of the world and those guys like do you like follow kind of what they're doing because I know personally I look up to like the ronies of the world and the ruis of the world and the guys that own those Brands I mentioned so I'm curious like what you kind of take from those guys and how you've Incorporated any of their strategies into to your own cuz I've done that with like those Brands I mentioned so yeah there's a lot to learn from from all those Brands um my biggest thing is like I I take inspiration from them for sure um but like on the fashion side of things like I I'm I'm I'm following the same guys as you like Ronnie is probably my biggest inspiration um uh yeah you know all all those types of guys too um but yeah really for us it's just like creating our own thing you know what I mean at the end of the day like for to me iron W kind of transcends just the the just the gym you know and uh you know and I want I want eventually I want to get into sports and Athletics more um I want to get into peer fashion pieces you know we dabble in things and we've done a lot and had success with like fashion specific pieces like this isn't even the one you're wearing like that's sick yeah like that's like not just gym yeah so I I I very much respect what all of them do I want I just I I I have like a I have a certain I have a vision to me that like no other brand has really ever done and that's where I want to take iron will this to just be in our own lane you know what I mean and and obviously like um you know we have our foot in in the gym industry but then again like I want to be I want to be known as more of like a street wear brand than a gym brand you know what I mean because that that was kind of like my I I love that even more and before that I I got into the gym you know um but yeah it's just like kind of taking the inspiration from different places and and having respect for the the people who have been doing it and who have built those those huge Brands and um you know taking what you what you can in terms of inspiration from them um but also just you know creating your own thing is such a huge thing cuz the only way they got to where they're at is by being like authentically them and creating something new for the world you know and I even got caught up like there's some of those Brands you mentioned I I took too much inspiration from early on yeah you're almost like they're doing so well I want to kind of copy but you got to just do your own it's a lesson a huge lesson learned bro and we actually got kind of like called out for it even once you know one of our designs look similar to one of those Brands and um you know it was like damn bro like why that can't happen again man like it's like that's their staple we got to create our own embarrassing and you realize it's like damn bro like why did I do you know like what I've done the same bro I have a pair we have a pair of shorts that look just like ruds and someone's like uh Walmart Route CH or something it's like yep we're just going to stick in our own lane because it's not going to work we got to just do our own and that's when we started like the patchwork stuff we felt was like this is something that we were like really excited about and we've seen like a lot of people get really excited about it so it's cool to like yeah just kind of just be your own person be creative and just like not it's okay to not have an idea you know and it's like that idea will come and you don't have to like always take it from something else and you can like it's like obviously fashion is very like Trends get circulated it's hard to like do something completely your own thing it's like impossible yeah there like unless you like put a pair of shorts with a hole on the freaking like weird that's the thing is like that shit's going to work for Balenciaga yeah yeah it's not working not working for us we're going to post that people be like what the are you doing bro like what you know what I mean so it's like tough you know cuz I mean all art is inspired too at the end of the day and it's like tough you know when yeah these the the uh you know the ruds balenci all the all the luxury Brands like they're planning everyone's going to look at that it's yeah they're looking at that but they're also planning years and years Advance like they know the trend we they know what's coming that we won't find out for another year you know so it's just trying to innovate and trying to be unique trying to be that Trend Setter yeah yeah just yeah exactly trying to be a Trends Setter and that's really the only way to kind of pop up above you know all the other brands that are kind of similar to you at that you got to be different it's the only way to make a name for yourself you know yeah 100% dope well I feel like we've touched on a lot of things um do you have anything else you want to talk about before we close things up or um I think any questions about ask him like like uh about his designers are they better than no I'm kidding is your designer better than me no I think I think we covered we covered all it yeah yeah like we I kind of talked about everything I was curious about so yeah no I mean I think we touched on a lot bro um oh yeah a lot of respect for what you guys are doing man back the first time we you popped in bro like I got a lot of people hitting me up about advice questions in the D end like lot lot like a ton of that you know it's very rare that I see somebody like with a vision that I really with and a just an energy that I really with and you had that and you have that and that's been a testament to your success and the growth that you've had since we first met um and it just be cool to be doing like like you said at the beginning bro no one no one in Phoenix in Arizona is is putting on for the city putting on for the state you know no brands are coming out of of this state or the city you know trying to put you know trying to do cool things you know for it so uh it's cool to be sitting here next to you on a similar Mission and and obviously we're in kind of different aspects of the industry but you know it's cool for us to and it's a big lesson to learn too is it's like you know like for for people starting brand like it's collaborative bro like we both sell clothes like this ain't competition I want to help you I know you want to help me you know we're trying to win together trying to grow together so um it's just really cool to be here and doing with this with doing this with y'all and yeah I hope your audience was able to get some value today bro yeah 100% like like I said before we're just trying to um yeah just like build a a following of people that respect what people like us are doing and want to learn but also like this is just to like help other people out too like we want people to achieve their dreams their goals if they're interested in clothing to be able to learn from this and yeah we we really appreciate you coming on today we got we got him dripped out on some ASV sir you know got on the resist T right here half the I wanted was already sold out bro so you know I gotta yall got to give me some Early Access next time but hey you to settle for an older shirt no that one's still dope though you actually mentioned you like that one to me like a long time ago so I'm glad I could get it to you abely um but yeah man appreciate you coming on wish you guys nothing but success uh we're obviously going to stay tapped in with each other and uh we definitely got to like talk about doing some work in the future whether it's like a collab or like an event together or something cool for Arizona I think that would be cool cuz uh yeah like you said there's not a lot of stuff going on at least not as much as La New York you know Miami so hey it's it's on us now bro yeah we got we got to get some Happ but appreciate you bro y of course bro let's get it manva baby asva Iron Will collab maybe one day I got to get on your level with the with the following good there bro we good Ro yeah yes sir hell yeah got to wake you up over sleep over there and episode three we'll see you guys next time appreciate you\n"