As always my ambitious, entrepreneurial ideas come from conversations with my friends. We sit around, a random topic arises & then we crack jokes & laugh it off but my brain always locks on to the lucrative ones & wonders if I can actually make them work.
The idea to start up Ace of All Trades Apparel sparked up back in 05′-06′ when my best friend & I were laughing about how every rapper that was out was starting up a clothing line. So as usual, we laughed at it saying “we should start a clothing line” & moved on with our normal day. The rest of the evening, week & month I started plotting which turned to research, then obsession, then action. I found every blog/site that dealt with the streetwear industry & I studied/stalked them every day then I studied the beginnings of every brand that interested me & was successful. This helped me to get a grasp of what made everything as well as everyone tick. I seen the trends of the market & then devised a way to make them better & make designs that everyone could relate to and be proud to wear.
I taught myself how to use photoshop as well as took a class at University at Buffalo where I was going to college at the time then I also studied how to start & sustain a new business. It got a bit strenuous because I was doing everything by myself but then while finding everything out about streetwear & me getting into producing with fruity loops heavy around this time, I came across an artist who would have a heavy impact on me as an artist myself as well as bring me back to a time where I was hitting the rewind button to listen to a metaphor again and go crazy over it. This artist was Wasalu Muhammad Jaco aka Lupe Fiasco and the album was the impeccable 5 star leaked version of Food & Liquor. This album had my mind going crazy. I still believe, as my own personal opinion (I know how the hip hop world can be) the Intro to the leaked version of Food & Liquor is the illest lyrical delivery on a song to this date in hip hop’s history but let’s get back on track.
This album + my entrepreneurial self sufficient spirit which created some crazy ways to fund this project and bring an intern in for free by the way & the genuine love that came to grow for the independent fashion industry helped motivate me to create the first season of Ace of All Trades Apparel which through hard work, dedication & hell my obsession with the fear of losing led to a second even more successful season of the line which added female items to the brand which were actually the first to sell out and helped to get the name of the brand out a little bit more & bring more success.
The video I have above is a trailer for a dvd that I ended up buying that help me gain insight as well as motivation into the dangerous waters I was about to swim through & it might motivate some of you to start your own ventures & take over whatever industry you might be in love with. Now, I didn’t want to end this on a sad note (I mean Whitney Houston’s funeral is on right now. That’s enough sadness) but I just sent in my paperwork to the IRS to let them know I was shutting down the line. I haven’t had the money to really push it to where I want it to be but I still do have back stock which can be purchased through the link on the header bar. So, if you like what you see, go on & purchase & we can make our mark in the streetwear industry & break up the monotony that has taken over the climate + I’ve still got all these damn Yo! MTV Raps cards to give away lol.