How to Start a Streetwear Brand | Humble Pirates | Startup Interview #2

What was your reason or motivation for starting a streetwear brand?

My motivation for starting my own street wear brand began when I was around 10 and discovered with my older brother at Staples those Avery T-shirt Transfers papers where one can easily just use their inkjet printer to print a design and iron it onto a t-shirt. Seeing at a young age how cool it was to rock my own gear that I designed inspired me later on to take it a bit further. Something else that motivated me as well was noticing that the streetwear market has been doing the same thing for a while now. In my opinion it sometimes feels that it has been focusing a bit too much within the skater community or has been giving a vibe where you need to spend a lot of money just to be considered a streetwear head. Not just that but the GIRLS don’t even get the attention they deserve within the streetwear community! I have had a lot of girls complaining how there’s really no attention given to them and they are stuck wearing their boyfriend’s gear or just straight up buy men clothes since they don’t want to rock that girly shit. The market tends to believe that all girls have the same style and personality when they don’t.

 What was your biggest challenge to get going?

The biggest challenge I had to face with the co-founder of Humble Pirates was the amount of pain and nonsense we had to deal with every time we had our hopes high and finding out that something would go wrong. I remember when I would buy wholesale products from China and go to the mall and try to have people buy what I had in order to save up for the money that was required for the LLC.  I dealt with people rejecting me consistently to the point where I was about to have a mental breakdown since I couldn’t believe that I couldn’t sell products on a weekend inside a mall. But I kept my promise to myself and succeeded in selling at least one before I left the mall.  That’s where I realized that anything is possible even when all odds seemed to be against me during my situation.

 Any advice to the youngbloods thinking about following in your foot steps? 

The best advice I can give to anyone out there is that those walls you’re about to face are there for a reason. It is meant to separate those who don’t have the drive to get past them and those who can. I usually tend to view it as a sign of the universe testing me to see whether I’m ready for what lies ahead. Another tip I can give you is to not be afraid of fucking up on your goals. Failure is natural and as cliché as it may sound it tends to bring the best lessons in life that will be hard to forget. The more you rise up from your failures the stronger you’ll be the next time you approach a difficult situation.

Whats your favorite get motivated quote?

“Break the cycle many get caught on.”- Alex Navarrete

This quote I made up for myself is what always keeps me going when I face hard situations in my life. It tends to remind me that life is short and that I shouldn’t be caught in a cycle that someone else has already lived.

"For me giving up is way harder than trying" - Kanye West. I like this quote because it represents my drive and my attitude towards certain goals.

One product (only) are you most proud of and why?

The product I’m most proud of is the Messiah t-shirts that are in the Humble Pirates website because it is the first design my team has came up with. The Messiah shirts represent for me that everything my team and I have went through even when it seemed like the odds were against us was worth it. It is our visual representation of not just what we accomplished but prove to others that they can accomplish something dope as well. Put it this way, if I started this clothing brand in April when I wasn’t even 18 yet and still in high school then you can do it too.  

I highly recommend following their streetwear squad on Twitter or head to HumblePirates.com