EYL#198 Former Inmate Turned Luxury Brand CEO

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I had to sacrifice the season to be able to get on point within the season. No, So my only advice for people that's trying to get into the business, no matter what it is, do your research because a lot of my fails happened because I didn't have the proper research. You know, when you're incarcerated, you can only get but so much information. And when I came home, I thought I knew everything, and I didn't know anything.

My graduates from my school being false bad drop drop, Mike, drop back drop.

All right, guys, welcome back, e y L were back home. It's been a minute, very rare, exciting. So this is this is an interview that is really dope for a variety of different reasons. But Daryl Austin, so one of these things that we always talked about being in the right place at the right time. We're talking about investments coming up, and it's very important to put yourself around

He called me at the front of the stage, right and did us met us in the back of the stage. It wasn't even you, it was your.

Man, like yo, no, my man, my man caught here, like yeah, we cat caught you.

We came all away from Philly. This has to happen, bro, and I think we walked all the way to the car, like, Yo, we're gonna make it happen.

Let's do this.

But but the thing I liked about it, and we'll talk about the brand. But so it's a luxury brand. And so if anybody follows me, you know, I do the Drip Report, Legendary Drip Report where I chronicle my outfits, and like, I like these like Goodman shoes, like I like come from that era where it's like products but like real simple dress type of shoes. So when he showed me these, and I'll show it to you if you can see it. These are these are one of

I appreciate it. Yeah, and the show man, I appreciate it.

Long journey here, he said, he willing to go anywhere. You know, our next three stops.

You got to. You already know you got to. So let's let's get into this. So Bungee Chi, that's how you pronounce it, Say it correctly, Bungee that's the name of the brand. Yeah, okay, that's the first question is what does that mean? Why did you name it that?

All right, Bungie?

It was for all the ups and downs in my life, because you know, at a certain period of my life, I would.

Do really well.

You know, I was out on tour, I was rapping, and then I'll get locked up. So now I'm back down at the bottom of the barrel. I get out of jail, get back out on the road, start rapping. Then I'm back in jail. And it was just a non stop up and down part of my life. And then even after I came home from prison, I started this business, it just seemed like everything was up and down, you know what I mean, Like I didn't really know what the future was going to be. It was just

It was the rapper in me. It was like, no, I'm not going for that.

So I ended up, you know, google searching syndonyms for apparel and I couldn't find anything, and I started searching other languages and then nabla chenny just stuck out.

And then I had to figure out how to say it. You know what I'm saying, because I.

Thought it was out, but I just knew that the wording just looked good together, you know, So I ended up searching how to say it, and abli chenny it is.

So there's been barriers with that. I'm sure right when people thinking you said that to us, one of the things we talked about is like you just simplified.

Yeah.

When people hear the name, I'm sure they were like, well, you need to change this, but you didn't. So what was it that you said? Look, I got to stick to my guns on this.

Well, I think that for the most part, you know, I hear it a lot, like people are like, why don't you just call it abli Chenni?

Why does it have to be Bungie?

And then it's like why do you have to have abli Chenny At the end we can't even pronounce it, but if people see it and they can't search it. But I just kind of feel like that's what's in my heart, like that Bungie Abli Chenny. It brings back so many memories of like when I was incarcerated, when I was going through all the different things. I lost my grandfather when I was in there. I come home, my grandmother doesn't remember who I am because you know,

It's like, biaga, Yeah, you know how to say that. You say that exactly for sure.

You know how to pay for it too.

Out find a way, all right, So let's get this backstory. It was a very interesting backstory. So you're from Pennsylvania outside of Philly, right, Yeah, what's the exact area.

Pali, Pennsylvania, Like ten minutes from Coltsville.

Okay. So you grow up and at what point do you do you get incarcerated.

I got incarcerated when I turned like twenty two. It was like right after I turned twenty two, that was my first first taste of prison.

Okay, and then from then it was an ongoing in and out of jail type situation right there.

It was the same thing that Meet Mill was going through.

It's like, you know, you go to prison, you come home, you violateing probation and parole all the time. You know, they'll put like a crazy curfew on you. If you missed the curfew, they catch you, you're done. I never did drugs. I never drank before. But what I didn't know at the time was when I'm bagging up my work, I didn't realize that it was getting in my sister here. Yeah, so whenever I would go do with your incest, it

So what was the longest stretch that you was in there?

Six and a half six and a half years.

Yeah, so and you've been home for seven years. Yeah, all right. So you're going through the system, in and out, parole, violations, getting locked up, getting violated, getting locked up. You would actually in jail with another alumni friend of ours, wallow Ye, shout out to wallow to six seven, shout out to six seven. And so at what point do you say, Okay, this is enough, I'm tired. Because a lot of people have similar situations right where it's like it's hard. You

Well, first, I felt like the whole time that I wanted to do more of my life, and I was selling drugs to be able to get to that point because I just felt like it was the fastest money that I could possibly get. So I always knew that I wanted to do something morebl when I got caught that last time, I started losing family members because I was going for that six and a half years. So it's like once my grandfather passed away, his last memory of me is getting dragged off his porch and getting

With yourself.

But right now they're doing background checks for people that you know that are trying to get jobs for when you're trying to move into a place, whatever it is that you you gotta do. There was a background a check attached to that, and she was like, the only way you're gonna be able to survive out here is if you create your own business. So at that point, you know, I just went back to the cell man I prayed for the first time.

I never really was a religious dude or nothing like that.

I prayed and I was like, I don't know where I should go with my life, but I just need some sort of guidance.

And I just left it at that.

And then like two hours later, I wake up something told me to sketch. I sketched a pair of sneakers and it looked like I took the sneaker and placed it on the shoot.

That's how good it was.

I never sketched before in my life, so once I seen that, I'm like, damn, maybe I can just make a living sketching, you know, sneakers. I didn't think about a sneaker brand at that time. I was just focused on sketching sneakers. And you know, I kept showing all the different you know, walkies and sellies and stuff like that, and they're like, yo, like you need to think about doing your own brand. So then I ended up creating

What you think if I added that? What if I take it off?

This in jail? Yeah, so you created your own sneaker on paper. Yeah, you didn't physically you have a sneaker, you know, you created it the idea.

Yeah, And then what happened was I didn't. I wasn't really a great artist because I just started while I was there. So when I used to go out to the yard, I used to take a keyboard with me and I used to just you know, make beats, and I used to have all the rappers rap all the time.

So that's yep, yep.

So after I started doing that, I stopped walking with the keyboard as much and I just started going around just picking information from people. So it's like I would get this artist that would show me how to do shading. This artist would teach me how to like make it where like if you turn it to the side or to look this way, or if you sketch it this

So you got the architects skills from walking around, you got the business ideas, and you had a license to be a barber all in the same time, so you're maximizing your time absolutely. So who's the person that obviously when you start the sketches at the how many sketches are you showing? And who's the person that's like, look, let's sit down and really draw this business planning up. Is it somebody?

It wasn't.

There was multiple people, and everyone that I talked to was like, Yo, you're not supposed to be here, Like you're running around doing these different things. You're supposed to be out there doing something in the world. You're not supposed to be here. And every time I heard that, it was from different people, but they were saying the

So your mom said something I was very insightful. She said, you just said it, So the only opportunity to start your own business. What was the exact quote.

She taught me, The only way that I'm going to survive out here is if I create my own business.

And I'll never forget that, she said that.

And this business, like the other part is that you've never had a job in your life. Never It was fourteen it was selling drugs and wrapping. Then you get locked up, going and out, but you've never had so the business is the first time you're ever going to be not even employed, but making money for yourself.

Yeah, well that's that's a very insightful commentary on her part. And yeah, it's something that it's the harsh reality. It's a harsh reality, right because it's like especially you know, having felonies going to jail, same thing on nature. Yeah, of course there's always going to be you know, people that find a way that you know, but for the

I came home from prison and I come home to a new world Facebook, Instagram.

I never heard of any of it when I was what's the time period.

I came home and the like, when was it I got to the halfway house, I want to say, in like twenty fifteen something like that. So it's like I had no idea any of this stuff was even going on, you know what I'm saying, And I had I had to figure out how to use it, you know, And I was like I remember, like the very first time

And I'm seeing.

People like, hey, I'm over here, I'm doing this. I just couldn't relate to that. So like the very first picture, I'm like, I was over there. People think that I was over there, but I'm really over here? Is I took that picture over there and I posted it later. So like I did that for a while, like you know, because I just couldn't get used to telling people what I was doing. And then it was just like you know, once I ended up getting to that point where I kind of got used to the to the you know,

Anyway.

To get to the point I ended up launching, I want to say I didn't even launch.

I bought samples for like the first three years.

I didn't have enough money to be able to even get an order in you know what I mean. I just didn't have the money and I didn't want to go back to selling drugs and games.

I didn't want to go back to jail.

So for the first three years of me being home, I was just getting samples and changing the name and going back and forth for different ideas. And then you know, finally that one day that guy came in the barbershop and he was like, Yo, do you have His name is Ernest, by the way, I want call him that guy earn This comes in the barbershop and he's like, yo, like do you have these in the size such and such? And I was like no, And he's like, well, what do I need to do to be able to get

Earnest, what's going on?

Check this out. We're gonna do something really special for y'all.

I know y'all enjoying this episode with my brother Dalel Oilson and his luxury sneaker brand.

All right, show, here's what we're gonna do.

When you head over to a Bungee brand dot com, We're giving you fifty dollars off your purchase of men's apparel, women's apparel and footwear.

That's fifty dollars off. Here's what you gotta do. Use the code EYL that sucks eyls real simple, fifty dollars off and.

Get your drip on.

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And he was like, meet me at the bank tomorrow.

I'm gonna show you how to get the II in number and all that, because he asked me if I knew how, and I was like nah, And he ended up taking me to the bank and the money in there. But then two days of that meeting, and that's how I got gonna start.

So that's that's pretty incredible. Sout to Ernest. So the picture, he's he you have the shoes on display in the barber shop so people can come in, they can actually see the point.

I didn't do it for the people to see how I was doing it, because you got to remember, I was a bench warmer.

I just came home. I'm in there. No one wants to get in my chair, you know.

So he was a barber.

Yeah, I was a barber, So no one wanted to get my chair because no one around there knew me as a barber. They knew me as a drug dealer and that was it. So no, like they would bypass my chair and go to the other dudes. So I would just put the sneakers in the window and just look to see like what can I change on it?

What can I do to make it look better?

Like, you know, so you're watching the people walking by, seeing if they're getting interested in. Yeah, Okay, this one is gonna be This's gonna work. Yeah, people keep stopping.

Yeah that's how So the first so you said the SAMP, so you're just like getting like one off from like China and something like that. And just like I went to.

Ali Baba dot Com.

I found a little manufacturer right there, and uh, you know, I was getting samples and the thing is like when you get the samples from these places, they're expecting you to place order and I wasn't place in order, so they'd be like, nah, we ain't doing no more samples for you, like ten out of time, so I have to do like other I would have to do other manufacturers. So I would have like seven samples but from seven different factories, you know what I'm saying.

And they all expected you.

Yeah, and they all expected the bulk order and I just didn't have the money to do it next, so like they go find another one. Check the reviews.

Anybody that's not familiar with samps. So it's like what he was. So like we get our stuff made overseas, and like before we actually decided we're gonna work with this guy, like we gave him like a couple, like a track suit, hoodie, T shirt dad, and then he made like, let's say, like ten pieces of clothes for us, sent it to us. We paid for it, but he sent it to us so that way we can check the material, see if it's right, go back and say, nah,

Because I didn't have the money, I don't know money to get the samples made. And you know, like a sneaker sample is different than like a hoodie and a T shirt and stuff.

It's a lot more involved with it.

And I didn't know that involvement at the time, you know what I mean, I'm thinking, they make sneakers. I send them a sketch, They tell me what materials it is, They let me know everything because they already make sneakers.

But I didn't realize that.

You know, you have to handpick every single thing of your shoes. So like my samples were just what they created off of my sketch, and you know, we were getting a lot of people looking at them just because it was new.

But one thing that I learned, and I had to learn the hard way.

Is I had hundreds of people coming through that barbershop at that time, and they would all be like, Yo, I want to sign such and such, I want to size just want to size that. So I based my order off of how many people were saying that they wanted them. Once I got them back, knowing wanted I'm chasing them down like, hey, yo, like remember you said you want to size nine and they here, I don't

I thought I was popping right.

All I kept seeing was all these different comments saying what are those? And my dumb ass is sitting there hitting them back like yeah, this is the new bunge out the chitty, and I'm thinking that one of those is a compliment because I didn't know what that meant. And then you know, one of my homies hit me up. I was like, yo, they playing you roll like, stop responding.

I'm just in these kids these days. Man.

Yeah. It was crazy.

And the one thing that I noticed is that, like everyone that made those comments, I would click on their page to see who they were, and they all had Jordans on their page. So I knew right then and there and anyone that likes George, They're not gonna like my brand.

You know what I'm saying. It's just that simple.

So when you send the samples and even putting them up on Instagram, because it's almost like when we put up a pool, it's like we had to trademark that power. What is that like? Do you have to make a patent for that design? Do you have to trademark design.

Yeah, it's tricky.

It's tricky with shoes because there's only but so many silhouettes that you can do. So what we experienced was you couldn't really trademark the silhouette. You had to trademark like the design of it or the logo on it. And sometimes you can like patent or trademark of color, but it has to be a color that's not already out there, you know what I mean, So you got

But like I had the cop I had to, I had to.

I always grab the stuff that doesn't look normal, you know what I mean. And I'm really surprised with how many people will not wear something that's not normal until they see someone else.

Wearing it and that's the validation.

Yeah, And that's the difficult part for me because I'm the kind of person where I can walk into a store and I can scan the room and I know within three seconds if I want that or that or that, you know what I mean, and I'll grab it and I keep it moving. There's other people that are out there that I'm realizing that it's like it's going to take them a long time. They don't know which color to get. They like this shoe, but they like, you know, I don't know do you have it in blue? Or

It's like for me, I don't.

Care how you know Gucci got the beginning. If I like a Gucci snick, I'm grabbing them. Like I never really took the time out to like do that kind of research. So I'm really surprised that people do that much. So it's like, you know, when it comes time for us, it's like number one, they look at me as being a black owned business, so they equate black with being cheap.

You know what I'm saying.

And it's just a harsh reality. And every time someone sees my merchandise in person or actually touches it, they're like, oh, how did you do this? You know what I'm saying, how are you able to do this? And like at trade shows, like black people would actually come up to me and say that, oh man, how did you get to this?

You own this, this is your company.

Yeah, And they just don't understand that a black person can have a quality sneaker, you know what I mean. It's not like, you know, a pair or anything like that. It's much more difficult to do. But you know, they just automatically as soon as we're going to have something cheap, Like it's crazy.

So you get to fifty thousand, Yeah, in your mind you're thinking like, oh, this is.

Enough, but because I thought I made it.

Yeah, you've been scrambling with what you had and now you got fifty. So what's the process now that you got to fifty? What's the next step?

But what I did was I ended up placing the order with China, and I ended up getting the sneaker order, and I was in for a route awakening because I had no idea that I had to pay for customs, I had to pay for export tax. I didn't know anything about any of this stuff. All I know is when I got my samples, they would make them and they would send them to my house. So I thought it was going directly to my house. It was nothing like that.

You know.

I had to pay for cargo ship. I had to pay for the space on the ship. I had to pay for truck drivers. Like all these different things I didn't equate. So by the time I ended up getting the sneaker order back, I remember Customs ended up taking the package because I was a new business and they wanted to search it. They ended up searching I had to pay them for searching it. And then I remember hiring a trucking service to pick it up and take it to my storage facility. And I got to the

I made it. Check it out, look look.

And you know, everybody was all like cheering me on, like yo, that's crazy. You did it blah blah blah. And in my mind, I'm thinking I ran through that fifty but I got about a quarter million dollars worth of stuff here, you know what I'm saying. I remember after I got off Facebook Live, I opened the box up, opened a sneaker up, and I'm like.

What the f is this? Because it was poly your theme leather. It wasn't leather. It wasn't the same leather that they used on the samples.

They basically got my order that got the money, and then they gave me the cheapest leather that they can get so they can make more.

Of a profit.

You sent them the nah nah.

Like the way it was, I think it was like twenty eight thousand for the whole order. Then it was like, you know, ten thousand to get it shipped over here. Then it was like, you know, two thousand with the import export stuff, and like it was all broke down to damn near forty three thousand or something like that. And the product was it was it was trash.

So what'd you do? I was trying to sell it anyway.

And I stepped on Yeah, yes, one of those dudes.

I was running around saying, yo, this is top notch, just top quality. Yo, check this out.

And at the time I didn't realize that, you know those dudes that buy top quality stuff, no, that it's not top quality.

So, you know, I equated it to like the music business.

Sometimes when I used to do the music thing, and I'll be able to walk into a room with someone major that can put me in a good position. Sometimes you only got that one time to get their eared If it's not right, you're not getting their ear back, you know what I mean. So I felt like around my way, I kind of messed up my reputation with the clothes and the sneaks that I was getting because I was literally that dude that was going to buy

I didn't know.

So yes, I'm thinking I got this high end name. I got a high end brand.

Now.

So after I ended up doing all that, it didn't work out. For me, and I didn't sell anything, and no one was really buying ex stuff for like the core people that really wanted to help me out, I didn't really sell much of anything. So at that point, yeah, yeah, I'm selling them. I'm selling them out the barbershop and going to my man's barbershop. Like people are getting to know who I am and what I'm doing. But they just wasn't fans of the sneakers. So and then a

Stuff.

They wanted to support, they would, but what happened was it just got to a standstill one day where I couldn't sell anything. And I remember that the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and when they won that Super Bowl, were in there watching the Super Ball parade, and one of the customers in there turned around, looked at me and was like, yo, if you had something with the Eagles on it, you'd be rich right now. So soon as he said it, I started brainstorming and I started

I'm going down there. So I went and got a little Uhau truck.

Put all them sneakers in the back, and I drove down Center City, which is about thirty five minutes from my house, and I remember walking up the sidewalk with a wagon like it was a wagon literally with boxes and sneakers on it, with an Eagle sneaker in my hand, And as soon as I walked up, you know, the news cast people were outside. As soon as I walked up, they were just like yo, like what's that? And then

I wasn't supposed to be selling them Egle sneakers, you know what I'm saying. Like, I didn't I didn't get permission from the Eagles and do that.

It was like somebody on it was like the logo, did the.

Logo everything everything.

I'm gonna show you guys a picture before it's over, right, So you know what I mean, Like, yeah, I had the whole thing. I had the Super Bowl to tag and everything on it. Right, So you know, I ended up selling out that day. So I ended up making a lot of money back, you know what I mean.

How much did it colost to make those niggers?

At that time?

It was like thirty two dollars to make a pair, and I was selling them for one seventy five, you know what I mean. But when you add in the shipping costs and all that, it came out to being like sixty something dollars a pair.

Hundred margin.

Yeah good, Yeah.

And I was always told you're supposed to mark up at least three times. And I understand now because even like in my position when I did the foot locker deal, like foot Locker is only going to pay like forty five percent at max of the retail costs. So it's like I really only made like twenty dollars off the foot Locker off of each pair, you know what I'm saying.

But for me, it was the exposure. It wasn't really about the money.

But it's like those are the things that I had to had to learn through trial and error. But after I ended up doing the Eagles thing, I'm like that I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go get more Eagle sneakers made. I'm gonna kill him for Christmas, you know what I'm saying, because you know, football season is still in during Christmas.

So I'm thinking I'm gonna do that.

And I'm literally like two days after I blew up off of that, I'm at the barbershop and I had my new samples on and a guy came that I knew and asked me if I knew someone that wanted the TV. And I'm like nah, and he was like, yo, like, I got this TV my boss is giving away. You might want to you might want to take this or give it to somebody. It's really nice, Like all right, So I ride down there and I was just spending tea before. Like the dude's crib was huge. The fence

A mile along.

I got animals on both sides of the gate, and I was just blown away because I didn't realize that this kind of house was even in my area because I lived in my area and I never left. I was never really on a plane before, nothing like I just stayed in my hood.

That was it.

So after that happened, I go inside with picking the TV up, and his boss's wife comes out and.

She's like, oh my god, where'd you get those sneakers? And I put the TV down, my elevator pitch. You know what I'm saying.

You know, yeah, I did this, I did that, and I broke it all down to her. It's like, we do you have a website? And the website was trash. Website was tracked because it was just I used my cell phone. I just made a website real quick. And she still liked it enough for her to get her employee to call me back and set up a meeting between me and her husband. So me and her husband met at his house, and you know, I basically explained to him, like listen, I don't want to waste your time.

And he laughed at me. I'm like, yeah, that's not funny, man, you know what I mean.

But anyway, he was like, y'all, I'm not worried about that, Like, what's going on with your business?

What is it?

And I told him everything that was going on, and that's when he told me, I wouldn't recommend you using those ego sneakers again, like you'll.

Get in trouble for that.

So I was happy that he taught me that because I'm like, if I would have got another order, they would have got seized or something I'd have been done, that would have been my last bit of money, you know what I mean. So after that, by the time he got done, you know, talking for about two hours, he was like, I know someone that was in your shoes just two years ago when he's a millionaire of the day. He didn't do fashion, but he was just starting a business, and he was like, I really want

So to get back to what I was.

Saying, there are all these people are coming into the room, and I had no idea who they were, you know what I mean. So I'm just sitting there and I'm like, all right, I'm going to keep entertaining all these different people until the guy comes in. He comes in, He's like, Yo, did he get it? Did he get an opportunity to

And they were like, how much money do you need?

And I was like seven grand and they laughed at me, like, you don't need seven grand for real, We're gonna put you with these financial people. They gonna tell us how much money you need, so you know, after that, they was like, oh, you're interested in telling your story and I was like, no, is this embarrassing to talk about being in prison?

And they were like, look, man, you need to.

Tell your story and shared us with the world because you may be able to inspire someone and you may be able to.

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An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from El Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Nohm, the United States

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So I told them that I would do it. Shortly after that, I ended up getting with the Financial Group. I didn't realize at the time I was in a real live shark tank. So fortunately for me, I knew the business well enough to be able to break it down to them, and they all congratulated me for a good pitch and all that, and I ended up leaving out. I met with the financial Group and they decided that I needed at least a million dollars and I left. I'm like, who's going to give me a million dollars? Bro?

Like cut it out, you know what I'm saying, So like that.

Yeah, So they ended up getting with the investors, and the investors greed, but they were like, we're not going to do a million, We'll do seven fifty just to see, you know, if this works out. And that was like the beginning, but it wasn't. It wasn't all good after that. The bungeie still was bouncing up and down.

So it was like private equity farm.

Yeah, yeah, they they're actually it people. They never invested in fashion or anything like that. I was the first guy. And the thing that I liked about these guys is, you know, they came at a time where, you know, they just wanted to help a black owned business, So they didn't really try to knock me over the head with a large amount of percentages.

Like I still own the majority of the business.

They gave me a lot of money towards it, and they still gave me a lot of the equity of the business, and I appreciate it.

So it's like they became an angel investors. Yeah, and they took a percentage of the company and they gave you money. Yeah, were there are the strings attached to it or you had free range to kind of.

No no strings attached. They just, you know, they just wanted to see me successful. They gave me the money and they gave me the connections, and they were like, listen, whatever you need to do to go find better mans manufacturing, go ahead. So I ended up flying out the Vegas to one of the manufacturing trade shows and that's how I.

Ended up meeting the companies I deal with.

So now instead of the whole China you know, poly your thane, leather, now I'm dealing with Italy, I deal with Portugal, I deal with Spain. So I have all those type of guys you know with me now. And there's a couple of high end sneaker companies that go through the same factories as mine.

So you get the You got the fifteen, and it was business scaled up, and now you've got the seven fifteen.

I didn't get to seven fifty.

You didn't get the seven fifty. They just invested.

Nah, they told me that like we were going to do seven fifty, and then after we ended up talking about that, they gave me a small amount I think it was like twenty five thousand just to be able to get my office started, get furniture, get embroidery machines, and all that stuff. As matter of fact, was more than that, because I got the embroidery machine was much

So, so you're making the clothes in the shop.

Yeah, what I do is I make the original thing, and then I send it out to the manufacturers.

We just copy off of what I do.

Is it just you? So like you're doing this, I'm thinking like, maybe there's a team, but is it just.

Oh no, I have a team now, But at the time I didn't have a team twenty twenty, yeah, twenty it was just me locked in the office. So I ended up, you know, creating all these different pieces. And when they came in, they were just like blowing away with everything that they saw, and it was like, there's no way that we could cheat the world by not letting the world see what you're doing. So at that point they're like, look, go ahead and get your first shoemade.

Like everywhere outside of that they wear my stuff. But I think I might have messed my name up with the people around the way.

But anyway, after that ended up happening Inside Edition called, So I did Inside Edition after Inside Edition, then Fox News called, and Fox when I did my Fox News interview was all business and at the time I was just learning business. I didn't know anything about return on investments and all that kind of stuff. So they're asking me all these questions and I'm like, uh, I didn't know what to say. So after that, I started getting all these hate emails from you know, the you know,

Maybe you'll learn your business better. Like they was grinding me up. So at this point, I'm insecure. I don't want to get on TV anymore. But then the Today's Show hit me up.

When I did the Today's Show interview, like you know, when they hit me up, I I gotta do it. I gotta try to, you know, make a comeback off of this. And they gave me a nice amount of time. And with that interview, the guy the CEO, Dick Johnson from the CEO foot Locker, he saw the interview and he reached out to my camp and was like, listen, you know, we want to we want to put him in foot Locker now. This time, I just started hiring employees, which was the first time that I ever had to

Where'd you come from?

I started like they literally only gave me like two minutes to say what I needed to say. So I said everything about the prison and all that, and he was so blown away that by the time he went to the next commercial, I'm like, all right, man, nice meeting you.

He's like, nah, man, give me a hug. Dog.

So I gave him a hug and then he walks over to the side with me and he's like, yo, like where how did you start this? And then I had other sneakers for him. I had different color of these. I gave him knees. I gave him like three other pair and he was like, I just want to know how you started this.

Man.

He was like, I see a lot of people with clothing brands, but I never seen anyone with a sneaker brand like this. So I told him what I did, and that split a couple of minutes and then he's like, YO, give me your numbers. I gave him the number. I'm like, Nick, you know you're not gonna call me. You're about to pull one of them. Uh what's the boys name that was on Martin You know what I'm talking about, Tommy Davison.

Dude. He's like, if you was in l A, you be on my ship. Like I told Hi, I was like, don't Varnel help me, man, I don't do that till don't Varnell hear me. He was like I'm not, man, I'm telling you, I got you. So he was like all right.

So I left and by the time I got to my off office, he had already texted me saying that he was gonna, you know, get back at me. And then his producer's call and was like, YO, like, we want you to come to the show on Monday. Nick's really excited. He wants you to be on the show like asat So I'm like, all right, cool. So I ended up leaving the office or whatever got everything set up for that Monday because it was literally like a Friday, and I ended up going to the show and you know,

Man.

It worked out.

So after we ended up doing that interview, it just kept like spiraling out of control, like with all the different things that was happening. And that's why I knew that I was supposed to be here when I made that prayer all the way back when I was in prison, and after I made that prayer, everything is just is just flowing smoothly. Even if I have a little down time, it goes way back past what I could have ever expected.

Next you're walking into the store and somebody.

Said, yeah, what happened was they was actually having a Nema Marcus event. And I had this bright orange job of Chenny sweater with an a T underneath of it, and then I had my sneaks on the match the sweater, and when I got to the top of the escalator, it seemed like everybody just went like this I'm like, I don't know what's going on, but you know, yeah. So next thing, you know, everyone started to talk to me.

So in your mind, right as you're you're you're looking at these events, you're very intentionally going to these events, right, Are you just saying, let me design a fit that's going to make draw people's attention, or you're just saying let me just come fresh, Like I just come fresh, Come fresh.

Yeah, I just come fresh. And it just seems like everywhere I go it was like Yo, what's that? Yo? How did you get that?

What is that? And it's always my stuff? So it's like I get a chance to explain what it is.

So when they today want to do something, who explain that story? How did that story goes?

Well, we were just trying to figure out a collaboration. We didn't know if we were going to do like an in store event. They didn't know if they were going to carry my merch and you know what was crazy was that I tried to like shop it to them before and they were like, nah, you're not ready. And this is before I got the Italy connects and stuff like that. And then I just you know, got something with vibrum souls. So a lot of these sneakers want to have vibrum souls on them, which is what

And then the next thing, you.

Know, I get hit up by a Banana Republic and then they want to do a joint venture. So I'm trying to do something with Banana Republic right now as well. So we have a lot of things going on business.

So as you're getting more exposure, I'm assuming that the business, the sales are picking up. Were you prepared for that? Because a lot of times people go into business and we always talk about being prepared for success, right Like when you didn't have the website, it was like, damn, the moment's here, but I'm not ready. Yeah, were at that time as a business of scale and you're getting more exposure. Were you cemented and being ready for this moment?

I wasn't, because what my mistake was is I would get a nice sample, and I was so excited about the sample. I'm starting to post the samples. So now people are hitting me up like I want that, but I didn't have that. I only have this over here. So then when they go to the website and they don't see that, it's like, well, where's that?

You know?

So and then when I finally get the stuff, it's like months later. Because with sneakers, it's not like apparel. You can get your apparel back in two weeks. You know, sometimes within thirty days you can get your apparel back, But for sneakers, that six six months, nine months, sometimes a year to develop. So I'm thinking that I'm going to have this shoe ready for release in the spring and then it.

Doesn't come into the fall.

So now I got spring colors that's going in the wintertime, and I didn't realize how picky people were. It's like, yo, I'm not wearing that this wintertime. I need a dark sneaker, but I have the light sneaker now, like I don't want that.

I went the dark sneaker.

So it took me a couple of years just to catch up with the seasons. You know, Like even when I was getting my hoodies and stuff, I would order the hoodies like a couple months before the wintertime, but I was so picky and particular about what I wanted, I didn't get the hoodies back.

Until spring was coming, you know what I mean.

So now when I'm trying to go to these stories and try to shot my stuff, They're like, look, we got t shirts and shorts out here like you behind. So it just took like a little as a matter of fact, I had to sacrifice the season to be able to get on point with the season.

Know.

So my only advice for people that's trying to get into the business, no matter what it is, do your research, because a lot of my fails happened because I didn't have the proper research. You know, when you're incarcerated, you can only get but so much information. And when I came home, I thought I knew everything, and I didn't know anything. So it's like, you know, I didn't know anything about finding our demograph because I'm thinking to myself, everyone's going.

To wear these shoes.

I didn't know I had to pick a demographic that we were going to start marketing to. I didn't know anything about you know, male or female stuff. Like I'm thinking, I'm going to make, you know, a line that caters to male in women, but it doesn't work that easily. Like it was so many different things that I had to learn that was like difficult for me, you know, in this particular process that is amazing.

So you're in Nemen markets now October October how many stores We.

Don't know yet.

We'll we're still working things out at the moment. All the stuff that's going in NEMA markets is still in production, so we're still trying to like iron things out.

And so you'll be the first black sneaker own sneaker company to be like, you.

Know, of course there was all white and stuff like that, but I own my company. I'm not going through anyone else for distribution and stuff like that.

We handle everything in the house.

So what made you once again going back to this luxury brand because we see a lot of what quote unquote urban clothes this you know, you only see too many sneakers period, but you know, hoodies, t shirt things of that nature, and if it is some footwear, maybe maybe sneakers. Every once in a while you see a pair of sneakers. But like I said, these these they remind me of you know, those sneakers that are in like North from Nemhen Markets, Goodman brand, stuff like that.

All right, A few reasons.

The first one is because with the street where I started to notice that with our people, everything kind of is like a phase, you know what I mean. They usually jump on it and then they phase you right out. I wanted to try to get past that. I didn't want to be like, you know, looking like like you're played out after you want from one summer and the next summer it's like.

What are you doing? What are those I didn't want that.

And then the second thing was, you know, again I started off as a rap artist, so for me, every time I hit that stage, I had to make sure that I had to fresh the stuff that I could possibly think of, and I would a high end type dude, So I wanted to make sneakers that I knew I

But I couldn't pull that off, you know what I mean.

So I kind of hurt myself at the same time as me trying to create this, and you know, again, I just kind of feel like I'm more of a leader when it comes time for what I wear. I don't care if I see someone else wearing my stuff for or not my stuff, but a certain thing. If I like it, I'm buying it. So I created this brand for the people that are i'man leaders, not followers. So if everyone else wants to follow later, that's fine, but I made these for people that want to step out and be different.

It's very simplistic too, like I said, like I was actually looking for a pair of white sneakers, like that shoe sneakers, and that's the kind of shoes that I like where it's not too much going on, like you know what I'm saying, like whether it's blue, gray, skyboo or whatever, and like these in line with that.

So this is funny that you say that, because when I first started out, I felt like my name had to be on everything, and it was the people that I that I value their opinions on that wear high end stuff. It's like, bro, like no one's gonna be wearing all the way across the side, Like they're not going to do that. I just got to the habit of not even putting anything on it. I just left them blank and Appertiti's on the inside. Are you still designing shoes.

I know you said a lot of these, these these models have come from when you in prison, you with throwing up the sketches. Are you still designing because I'm sure there's there's one shoe which is like your best seller, and then you have a few designs. Do you keep it simple, like maybe just five?

Well, I designed still, and I hired a designer too, so you know, him and I collaborate back and forth. So I have I haven't nice little team, and you know, we all collaborate now instead of it just being me. But for the most part, we designed pretty much every every day. I feel like I'd rather have five thousand designs rather than us just designing something for that season.

Is the best? You know? So is this better than this?

Because this is twenty twenty four, and it's better than twenty twenty three. I'm going with this one to go for twenty twenty three and then we'll develop something else for twenty twenty four. So that's pretty much how we do it.

What is the price point for the sneakers.

Well, when we first started with the manufacturers over there in Spain and Italy and all that, the price points was the cheapest that I had was three twenty five. And this again goes to the fact that I didn't know how to do certain business. And what happened was I have sneakers at a minimum of three twenty five foot locker calls.

They're like, look, we're gonna go ahead and rock out with you.

You could keep that price point, but all my people are like, there's no way you're going to sell three hundred twenty five dollars sneakers of foot locker.

It's not gonna work.

So I had to take a huge loss and put these three hundred dollars sneakers in foot locker for one seventy five, one seventy one ninety you know.

So that's pretty much what I had to do.

But now with Nema Marcus now I'm back up to like the five hundred dollars range, you know, because these are all stuff that I'm getting produced right now, so no one's really seen them. I did show you guys, like at least one or two baar of them, but like those prices are gonna go anywhere from between five hundred and seven hundred and seventy five and the seven hundred and seventy five dollars pair.

We're doing something special with that.

Where that very first order that I told you guys about that I couldn't sell the part of your thing another, well, I have the original sketch to that. So what we're gonna do is we wanna package the original sneaker that I made back in the day along with the original sketch, and then you're gonna get the sneaker that's seven seventy five. So I'm putting all that in there as one package. So like I look at it, like look at like this.

Yeah, start from the top. I feel like, you know, there's always there's different there's different avenues with different people. And you know, when we talked about luxury brands, whether there's watches, whether there's cars, whether there's clothes whatever, like we always like discount black. Yeah, black is more like just affordable where that's cool, that's needed as well, But why can't they be black on the high end.

Well, what I think happens, and we talk about this in the barbershop black when I go to get my cuts and all that. We have this discussion all the time, And I think what happens is when you think about Italy, everyone thinks quality.

Because that's all they usually see from Italy. You don't never see a white person or any other race running around trying to sell stuff in the street. That's number two. Number three.

Most of the time when you get something in the barbershop in the street is mostly bootleg, you know what I mean. So our own people are used to that. So whenever someone comes up and tries to sell you something out the trunk in her car, you automatically think it's either stolen or it's cheap. So we kind of put ourselves in that situation. And that's again the reason why I'm always amazed when people come up to me at trade shows and they're like, so you own this?

Do you work there or do you own this?

But it's also propagaind the media too. Could imagine you shot the nineteen keys. He had posted something like about media, and it's like, you know, even what we do with finances, all of report to like Black network is going to be zero in twenty thirty, and it's like black unemployment

It's crazy that you say that.

I went to a high school because I was given a lecture out of high school and I had my assistant with me and she's white. And after I got them given a lecture, I was like, yeah, you know, you guys, can you know, reach out to me through DMS or whatever and I'll try to help you guys get your your plans in order to be able to try to you know, create a business or whatever you

So you're in emn markets, I'm wondering if there's going to be scaling to other luxury good stores sacks with the avenue blooming deals.

Well, that's the plan.

That's the plan.

That's the plan.

And in terms of that, right, So this is happening during COVID, so everybody supply chains has been affected, everybody's inventory. So what was that process for you? Obviously growing at a time where there's going to be delays and shipments and inventory can be rattled by all these types of things, how did you manage.

Well the way that I did it.

Fortunately for me, I got lucky in this process because I already had the merchandise. When they decided to do deals with me, my foot locker came, I already had the merchandise, so all I had to do was just sell it to them. When it came time for the Nima Marcus thing, it was a little bit different because I don't have the merchandise and once they said that they wanted to do it. I had to like rush and try to hurry up and get this stuff done. And that's the difference. So now I'm hoping That's the

Get held up, that may get pushed back.

So I'm kind of, you know, giving that information prematurely, but I'm so excited about it, and I had to share it with you guys. You guys, Yeah, you guys are the first guys that even know about this. So and if you guys are around in October, come through Philly man and come out, that'd be Yeah, that'd be a huge thing.

Yeah yeah, sure.

Before we leave, can you just quickly tell a story about Bernard Hopkins, another Philly legend.

Yeah. Yeah.

I ended up meeting Bernard because the customer came into the barbershops that I was working at the time, and I had these boxing sneakers on. They were my box and sneakers I created, and the customers like yo, I got a meeting with be hop tomorrow for me to call him and see.

You know, if it's cool for me to bring you, you can show them your sneaks.

I'm like, yeah, like hook that up. So the next day we go and Bernard said it was cool. The next day we go in and I was only supposed to get the last five minutes of the meeting. So when I get into the meeting, immediately he's like, where's the sneaker guy.

Tell him to come in.

We're at this restaurant. So he's like, yeah, I went the sneaker guy. And I'm like, yoh, you said the last five minutes. I went the first five minutes. He's like, Yo, come on, man, if you want, if you want to talk to me, come on. So I came in with my bag. I pulled the sneakers out and put them all on the table and he was looking like and and now that I know him, I know how sarcastic he is. I know what he was thinking when he's seen it. And again, this was my first sneaker thing

I would never wear anything like that. I'm too old.

So I'm like, all right, man, I just asked you one question before I walk away. And he was like, what's up now? This time it was only about forty five seconds into my three minutes or five minutes whatever it was, and he was like, what's up? I was like, how did you get from being incarcerated getting off parole and then becoming the guy who.

You are today?

And then you know, he just kind of looked at me like how did I know that he was even incarcerated? And he was like, what made you ask me that? And I was like, well, I asked you because I was at greater for it and I saw your mirror on the wall.

And right now I'm on parole and I'm just.

Trying to figure out how can what type of steps did I need to do to get off of parole to be able to get my business going because I created all this stuff while I was in prison. And he was like, you did what you created all this while you was in prison? I said, I didn't make them while I was in prison but I created the business while I was in prison. And he was just like, yo, I'm not doing the other meeting. Come on, let's go

Whatever sneakers you have, give them to me.

And he got in the ring and started dancing around with the box of sneakers, started to give me a little promotional video. He took pictures in the clothes and he was like, listen, man. He was like, you re mimmy and my little brother. He was like, the way that your hustle is, the way that you speak to me, the way everything is your mimmy and my little brother and or no, I don't know if he said a little brother, but he said his brother. And after that he was just like yo, like you know, if you

So I woke up.

I woke up, got dressed, went and met up with him, and he ended up taking me to Nema Marcus.

He took me to Sacks. With that, he took me to Boyds, he took me to all these.

Different high end stores and he was personally picking the sneakers up and was like, listen, if you want to be successful in this business and you want people like me to wear this, you gotta.

Get your stuff on this level.

And at that particular moment, I didn't know how to get to that level. I was just like, all right, cool, and I started asking the manufacturers that I was using if they had this, you know, type of material, because I would literally go to Neiman Marcus or I would go to SaaS fidth Av and I would pick the sneakers up. I would google search what the sneakers are, what they were made of, and all that, and then I would hit my manufacturers up and be like, yo,

I gotta find something else.

And then, you know, it's a very long story that I'm not going to get into on how I got to the next level of manufacturers. But my man Rob Pervey, which is the guy that you met Rob Hervey. He's like a sneaker guy who he helped develop the you know, the Kobe's, the first Kobe's. He helped develop Alan Iverson's shoe. He worked with Reebok, he worked with Adidas, he worked

So again it's it's a.

Lot of stuff that goes on in this business is not as easy as just you know, picking it up and just saying you want to do it.

It's a lot of work that goes into this.

So so how can they how can they buy the sneakers, the shoes, the merch what's the website, social media and all that.

The website is bungeebrand dot com b U n g E E b r A n D. And our Instagram page is Bungee Brand, you know what I mean. And then uh, our personal Facebook page. I have a personal Facebook page called Bungie Raiment. It's I b U n G E E r A I M E n C. And that's what we do, like all the behind the

Yeah, definitely support the brother, But more so I feel like the word Charlotte Dery Falcon, the word support is a little misleading because it's almost like you're doing somebody a favor by supporting them. If you if you like the quality, which is high level of quality. You never have to support balinc Yaga, you never. You never people say I'm supporting Gucci. You like the product, you buy it. You don't. You don't negotiate prices, you don't say it

I was with you in the barber sho you don't remember, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know.

Respect, respect the luxury, respect the entrepreneur, Respect the entrepreneur for sure. Choy Housekey Idols.

Shout out to everybody on patreon dot com. Shout out to all our earners on E y L University, the number one place for everything in the world of business and entrepreneurs. Uh that are just making a killing man. Shout to everybody that's spreading the word, telling a friend to tell a friend, and executing on information. Love is love. We greatly appreciate you, and shout everybody to support the mercery. I know we talked about footwear. Else got a vision

Thank you, guys for rocking us to see you next week. Peace.

Peace, Peace. You guys had.

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