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So you talked about Kanye and he became a billionaire because of easy licensing deal with Adidas one hundred percent of yeasy, but it was distributed through Adidas, and when Adidas dropped him, he lost four billion dollars in his net worth? Right? So was what does that speak to as far as on the licensing side, did he have a bad licensing deal.
One thousand percent?
Explain?
So, if I remember correctly, in his contract he gave up creative control and which means in his contract he also didn't have the language stated that anything that was developed by the licensee was owned by the licensere. So when I go to the table with my licensees and like we're looking at here, caare like bowls and stuff, right, and they'll develop a different like look of the unicorn, maybe a different polls or a different pattern or something, I still own it. So when they made any variation
of his product, they immediately grabbed ownership. I'm dealing with a situation right now with the company, not on the consumer product side, but it's on a different side on the production side. And I saw how in the beginning they were trying to change the look of the unicorn and trying to change a lot of things about the unicorn because they wanted to own as much of the
property as they possibly could. So they probably tried to pull that on him, and I believe he said something like he don't read contracts.
So have there ever been any issues in terms of trademarking, Like when I mean we come from an everwhere it was like it was my little pony right like that that was and then it was I guess my daughter kind of fell into this like rainbow dash and all those things, and so have you come into contact with people trying to make a similar product or similar trademark, And how's that process been I did.
It's hurtful for one, like I take this personal because what I we didn't talk about how I started the whole why Nipsey and Tupacer up here, like how my marathon continues. How I have this adgas no breaks mentality that I launched this brand. My son was in the hospital for twenty days. When he got out, my favorite uncle died a massive heart attack. Seventeen hours later, my uncle died. Six months later, my grandmother died, and then we were in a global pandemic. I have a lot
of heart and soul into this brand. So when someone tries to come out with their version of Afro Unicorn, it's a serious problem. And so yeah, I had to first I tried to ignore it. My thing was, I'm just gonna work harder, like I'm just gonna outwork them. I'm gonna outwork them. But it starts to become confusion
in the marketplace. And so the trademark attorney was, like, April have confusion in the marketplace because people were purchasing this other brand believing that they were buying Afro Unicorn, so then we had to take it to we had to sue. Yeah, we had took.
A year because it is a domestic trademark or is it international as well?
Only some countries. You know, you have to trademarket in every single country you go to. Right now, we're only in the US and Canada, so we have to strategically get to the other countries and we're working towards it. But it's it definitely is a process. But this particular company, it took us a year to get to to get to a positive resolution that I'm still not really that much happy with. But I'm back to my thing. I'm just gonna outwork them, So.
So don't worry about the how. Yes, what does that mean?
I didn't know how I was going to be on this interview with y'all. I knew it was going to happen because I saw it. So you have to as an entrepreneur, well entrepreneurs, that's what we're speaking to, you have to see the end goal what it is. I knew African Cronin is gonna be a household name in a worldwide brand, point blank period. You couldn't tell me that it wasn't I didn't know how it was going to get there. It's getting there through through licensing. Right,
I'm just a real manifestor. I truly believe that whatever I see already exist in the future. Because you cannot see anything. You can't like, you can't tell your right foot to go like you got it. In order to walk, your brain gotta tell your right foot to take the step right. So I truly believe that before anything can happen, because it already exists. And I'll prove it to you. I know there's so many people out there that have seen ideas that're like, dang, I had that idea because
the moment you thought about it, it already exists. The problem is are you going to be there to see it through? So I don't worry about the how. Once I see it, and everybody knows this around me, they know if April. If April says it's gonna happen, all money.
In, all money in, that's a fact, no money out, sore. Are you using different companies for the like the licensing or is it the same company?
I have over forty five different licensees. Licensing is by category, So there's a company that does underwear Handcraft. There's a company that does apparel, Mad Engine. There every single category. When you start going into stores, start flipping over those packages.
So how'd you find these companies?
Flip over the packages? And I literally was in the stores.
I was.
I would shoot pictures to a ski and be like, this is who I'm gonna get on LinkedIn. I'm gonna find this company and we're gonna find who handles licensing.
And then you reach out to them, yep, directly, and then you so you negotiate with being that they didn't reach out to you, you reached out to them. They have more leverage in this situation, right.
Sometimes, But once you have Walmart, So my spade was Walmart, Like that was my ace. I have Walmart, And once you know you have the attention of Walmart, their antennas are up, okay because everyone wants to get in Walmart. And people I know look at Walmart like it's Walmart because we don't really shop at Walmart. I know, it's not a big thing here in New York. But for retail, they are the god. Walmart is the god of retail.
And if you can't get yoke like everyone it used to be is different now, but they're like in order for a property to be successful, it has to.
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