Ready For Anything With Bimma Williams For almost any creative, the dream is to be your own boss and turn your side-hustle into your career. It's shiny, there's freedom, more money if it's successful and so many other possible upsides. When Bimma Williams, sneaker professional turned expert conversationalist and host, left his stable career in the footwear industry to pursue his passion project Claima Stories full-time, these were the things he was after; and over time, he's been getting them, but not without some surprises along the way. Now with nearly fifteen years under his belt as an entrepreneur, five of which on Claima working with and interviewing some of the biggest names in the culture, Bimma has some stories of his own to tell and secrets to share with our community. Read the conversation below! Having left your 9-5 for a life as an entrepreneur and freelancer, what's something others thinking about doing the same should know? When most people consider freelance or starting a business, they often fail to realize what they are agreeing to take on. My creative expression is being a host, speaking, holding conversations, and now teaching as well. When I took that on, I'm not just taking that on. I'm also taking on, "how do I market and put myself out there?" Then you're in on finances. "How do I price myself?" Then you're taking on Operations because you need to figure out how to pay expenses and work on taxes and all of that stuff too. You're very involved in a lot of different things. You need to have the ability to harmonize all these different things. One thing to remember though is, yes, it is challenging but it's not impossible and there's also the opportunity for greater reward. You seem to be very humble with money and smart around spending on creativity. Are you thinking about that a lot? With any creative, when you get access to funds, the first thing you probably want to do is the biggest, shiniest thing possible. If you had all the resources in the world, you would leverage them but the interesting thing about that is, it's a mistake. We've seen it time and time again. When folks get too many resources, it actually diminishes their creativity. Some of the most creative projects and some of the best albums, did not have these glorious, gigantic budgets. They were just pure passion. When we did get that funding and that investment, we made some investments and some enhancements to production, but at the same time, we tried not to spend too much of that revenue. We would reach out to a brand and see if they would send us some microphones or some cameras or anything to keep the cost down. That money goes fast and you want to be super cognizant of how you can leverage it to get things to the next place over and over again. You've spoken about this concept of 'being ready' for opportunity. How does one do that? First of all, no one likes to hear this but you're never ready. It doesn't matter what the opportunity is because likely the opportunities are going to come from a place that you couldn't predict. Secondly, the opportunities are likely going to stretch you and so you have to make a decision on if you feel like you can rise to that occasion. One of the things that Will Smith spoke about in his book, that I love, is when you also are determining if you're ready or not, it also comes down to not being overly analytical and not overthinking the opportunity. When it's someone that you trust and they're bringing you an opportunity, to me, that opportunity is the one you need to say yes to and so sometimes being ready is purely just a mindset thing. You have to be ready in your heart. You need to be ready when it comes to how you want to put yourself in that situation. When you think about being ready, those are the things you need to think about. Once the opportunities and the audience come, it can feel tough to keep up with output demand. Have you every struggled with that feeling? All of these major media companies like Hypebeast or Complex, they all have huge content teams. This is why they can execute so much all of the time but as an individual, execute where you can execute. We've seen time and time again, so many different young creatives that may not have those systems, but they cut through with their thing. One of my favorites is Lynae Vanee. She puts out one video a week, and that thing cooks. She does her thing and she's not trying to compete with volume. She's competing with quality. I think when you have quality and you know your audience and you're hitting that sweet spot, people are always going to respond. They're always going to show up. When I came back, folks had missed me. It was clear. The response was there. So if I go away, it's not like I'm being forgotten in this sea of content or storytelling that's going out. So I think it's just important to remember that. Lastly, what do you think is the most important thing for any creative to understand, regardless of the industry? It's really important to develop a 'no bullshit mindset'. We can come up with a number of reasons why we won't do anything but I made an agreement with myself a long time ago was that there's nothing that's going to replace doing the work. That being said, I'm not going to feel 100% every day and it's okay if I decide, like, today I ain't got it. I'm going to take that break. If I can't put out something meaningful, what's the point? The world's not going to end and my audience isn't going to disappear because I needed to make sure I took care of myself. You can't do anything right if you haven't taken care of yourself first. Make sure to follow Bimma's Instagram for news on all of his upcoming projects and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations just like these!

A Conversation With Photographer Wade Hudson As a creative, there are many avenues that you can take to turn your passion into a career. More often than not, this will require others and understanding how to balance personal efforts and the inclusion of those around you will take you to great heights. Toronto based photographer Wade Hudson understood this early on, partnering with those whom he enjoyed and shared passions with, creating equal value and fostering growth for one another. The secrets of finding great people to work with take time to uncover and we got the chance to catch up with Wade to learn about how he identifies talent around him, capitalizes on opportunities at every moment and produces the best possible outcome within each situation. Take a read through the conversation below to hear from one of Toronto’s best shooters. In 2013 you did a shoot with a wee youngster by the name of Joey Bada$$. How does it feel shooting people at an early age and then watching them blow up into huge superstars? Nearly every person I shoot I am a big fan of so watching them come up is really quite fascinating to me. When I heard [Joey] bada$$, I was like “this guy is going to be a huge star”. It’s obviously hard for me to know at the moment where they’ll be down the line but that doesn’t matter to me when I’m working. When I’m around people like that I try to just be myself and show my interest in them. Joey and so many others are so genuine and great people and that makes it really fun to follow their careers and growth. The best thing is seeing where they are years later and know that their attitudes haven't changed and that they’re still humble. What are some tips you’d give to creatives looking to connect with talent to work with? If you’re seeking out talent to work with, make sure that your skill is at the level that it needs to be to execute your vision with the talent. After that, be ready to move quickly. Opportunities don’t always come with a lot of advanced notice. Be ready to move on things at any moment. I’d also say, from a mental standpoint, know that anyone is accessible if you persevere. This doesn’t mean they are accessible today but if you work hard enough, anyone can be accessible and so you should always shoot your shot. You won’t get anywhere if you never ask. Another way to get buy-in from talent is to remember that someone’s time can be more valuable than money. Don’t overlook experience and the impact that personal connections can make in the long term. Lastly, be patient. Things take time so don’t give up. When you have the time to plan with someone, how long does it take to ideate a shoot? It’s really as long as I have. I usually don’t have a ton of time so I work with the elements in the moment. When I do have time, I’ll just make sure I can complete all the needed - or ideal - steps in that amount of time. Finding references, finding the right people to bring in like stylists, creative directors, etc. is all important. I’ll try to get calls or meetings together beforehand to discuss how we can make the best product possible and how we can cater the shoot to the subject. How involved are the subjects in creating the story for the shoot? For the most part, when I reach out to people I have the concept of what I want them to look like already in mind. If it’s my creative shoot, it has to follow my style and I need you to do what I have envisioned. Obviously I'm open to ideas depending on who you are, like if you’re a creative director you might have good ideas, but if I simply approach you because I like your look, I will have the concept down. This is different though if I’m shooting for a client and their ideated project. In that case, I’m helping execute their vision. Would you say more of your work is client focused or your creative work? It depends on the time of year so that’s hard to say. They go hand in hand though for my career so it’s not too big of a deal to do one more than the other from time to time. My creative work is how I pull clients in and my client work pays for my creative work. I’d always like to do more creative work but client work is needed. Right. That’s a good outlook on the two. Do you think you could ever get to a point where you’re only doing creative work? I think there are photographers that have found a great balance where the work they do on their own and the work they do for clients are very similar but it’s hard to only ever do your own thing, if only due to money. I’m always working to bring my ideas into the client work to make it fun and reduce the space between that and my client work but I don’t think I’d ever stop doing client work. Interesting, and I guess client work also brings new sets of challenges that can make you a better photographer. Changing gears now, what are 5 do’s or don’ts of shooting with someone for the first time? That is true and a great question. I can only give these tips from my perspective but... DON’T have your camera in hand when you first meet someone. This helps to remove the power dynamic of the subject and photographer. DO h ave a conversation with the subject before you shoot. Learn about them and what they are comfortable with. This will make the shoot much better for everyone and deliver the best results. DON’T talk about why you’re qualified or who you’ve worked with in the past. In that moment, nobody cares about who you’ve shot in the past. DON’T show the subject the shots when you’re shooting. It often makes the subjects less comfortable. Instead, talk to them as you shoot. Sometimes you can’t follow this depending on the subject but this is what I find is typically best. DO discuss what the subject should be doing in the photograph before they sit in front of you. You want to make sure everyone knows what they’re going into. You recently became a father (congratulations!). Has that journey with your wife and now your newborn son influenced your work? Thank you! Right now, not too much has changed but I imagine as he grows, it may impact the work, what jobs I take, how I see things, etc. Just a crazy time learning to be a father [laughs]. Although it was published over 7 years ago, your Jamaican Proverb Series still lives as one of the best photography series that we have ever seen. Do you have a proverb that you live by? A lot of these are just kind of always relevant but one that I think back on a lot is “Ebry dawg ave im day, ebry puss im four a clock.” which translates to “Every dog has his day, every cat his 4 o’clock.” This has a few meanings. Some days you win and some days you love. Good fortune comes at different times for everyone. Do not behave as if you are better than others. Oh, love that. Super important as a creative for sure. Do you have a favourite story from your time as a photographer? Yes! About 5 years ago I went to London because I was interested in potentially moving out there and wanted to check out the scene. Some of the modelling agencies out there were having these openings where you can just go and shoot their models. They basically invite you out, introduce you to the models and you shoot for the day. I went out and shot about five or six models that day and got some shots that I really liked. After the shoot I went onto the agency websites to find all of the models I had shot but there was one person I couldn’t find anywhere. It turns out that it was Grace Bol who is a big time model, like she’s been on iPhone backgrounds including my own [laughs] and has modelled for so many major brands. She’s huge! I don’t even know why she was there that day and I had been speaking to her for about twenty minutes without a clue of who she was and it was such a wild moment realizing it after the fact. Honestly, it was probably better that I didn’t know at the time or I likely wouldn’t have had the confidence to ask her to shoot. Wow! That’s insane. I guess sometimes it’s better not knowing all [laughs]. Lastly, now that we are starting to return to some normalcy in the world, what are you most excited for work-wise? I just want to go back home to Jamaica. I have a ton of ideas and people that I want to be with and I just can’t get down right now so that will be the first thing I do when I can. I lived there until I was sixteen and then moved here. Before Covid I was there a few times a year so I really want to get back. Check out more of Wade's work on his website and follow him on Instagram to catch all of his latest work. Keep it locked to Pier Five for more interviews and stories with the coolest entrepreneurs, designers, artists, activists and more.

A Studio Visit With Simon Petepiece Earlier this summer, Pier Five visited industrial-artist Simon Petepiece's montreal studio to tour the new space, chat about what the artist is working on and looking forward to, and of course, pick his brain for some tips for aspiring artists. The Ottawa native, now situated in Montreal, currently co-runs New American House, a joint studio specializing in functional art, objects and furniture as well as his own design practice. He has established himself both through personal and client projects utilizing often unnoticed materials, primarily meant for in construction, in a unique way. Scroll down to watch the video interview with Simon, as well as some behind the scenes photos. Swipe through the slideshow for photos. To learn more about Simon and everything that he has going on, check out New American House and Simon's Instagram and keep it locked to Pier Five for more stories and interviews with our favourite designers, entrepreneurs, creators, brands and more.

My Items I'm a title. ​Click here to edit me. Playing the Game Better With Drew Stevens of Margin Skincare "You're never going to please everyone" is a phrase that set Drew Stevens, founder of the skincare brand Margin, free. In the era of amplified social judgment, and hundreds of new competitors popping up every week, it is more important now than ever to understand what you're in it for, and if that reason is guided by passion, like it is for Drew, then the only way forward is up. Backed by the creative minds of Benjamin Edgar, Chris Black, Ben Sehl (KOTN) and Sam Jayne, Drew has assembled the creative avengers to release what is currently one of the most exciting science-first, aesthetically beautiful skincare brands on the market. We spoke to Drew about his learnings as an entrepreneur, his tips for assembling a great team and how he deals with the competition; good and bad. Scroll down to read! Hey Drew, for those who aren't too familiar with you and Margin, can you tell us how it came together? Hey guys! My name is Drew Stevens and I'm the founder of Margin. I've always been really into skincare, and prior to starting Margin had the chance to spend a lot of time with with the founders of bootstrapped and venture backed businesses both inside and outside the beauty industry through my work in private equity. I was lucky enough to get to know some of the best skin scientists in the world, and in getting to know them had the chance to share (and confirm) a set of beauty industry observations that I thought left a gap serving me effectively and honouring my interest in skin.. Ultimately, Margin was launched as a way for my to offer myself and my peers a skin solution that incorporated best-in-class-ingredients, logic-driven formulations, and product design that I could be confident using and displaying in my home. The whole process started in 2020 and from there, we’ve put together a great team and had a lot of fun working on what is now Margin (which we launched in 2022). With all of the R&D and trials to get the product to be what you envisioned it to be, how do you know when it's finally right? It's really hard to figure out when it's right. I think a lot of it has to come down to me being really proud of the product. If I can stand behind it, and I really love it, and we put it out in the world and it bricks, I'm fine with that because this was me and the team's decision. I don't think I would sleep well at night if we conceded based on a product to try and make everyone happy and didn't put out what we loved the most. Realistically, you're not going to make everyone happy. If you go to a major beauty website and look at their top trending products, what you'll find is that for virtually every product in the world that's ever been released, reviews are normally distributed on both ends. You'll have 20% of people that say that they are absolutely obsessed, you'll have a bunch of people in the middle saying it's pretty good and then you'll have 20% to 30% of the audience saying "I wouldn't put this on my worst enemy", and yet it's a best selling product. At the end of the day, there is no such thing as universally loved anything, so I just try and put out what we really like and if it works, great. You have some pretty established names on your board/co-founder table. What was your process to getting in touch with them and getting them on board? From a cold calling perspective, you'd be surprised at how easy it is to get in touch with people. Social media has totally changed that over the years. If you have a tweet that bangs and somebody replies to it and they're an interesting person, boom, be in their DMs immediately. Same with Instagram and then if you're doing something interesting, offer somebody a little bit of value and something tangible they can act on. Meeting Chris the first time, I had never interacted with him, not on a social platform, nothing before. I knew who he was and I thought he'd be an interesting partner in a venture like this. It was literally me just sending him an email and saying, "This is what I do now. This is what's interesting about what I do now. This is an insight that I think I have that I think would be compelling and I'd love to know your take on it because I think of you as x, y, and z". The biggest thing though is just come to them with a good idea. I came to him with "Here's my insight about skincare and here's what I think we can do about it. Tell me I'm crazy". It wasn't just like, "hey, bro, skincare is really hot right now. Want to do something?" because that's not really actionable and that's not like a nutritious little bite for them or a hook in the water that they may find interesting. You've mastered skincare and the art of networking. What is on your list of things to master in 2024? I'm really trying to master my energy output in the most efficient way. My default is to try and move 30 footballs an inch up the field every day and then at the end of the week, I look back and the 30 footballs have only moved a few inches and that's not really that noticeable of an improvement. I think the right way to work is actually for me to run one football ten yards down the field for like a half day, run another one five yards down the field for a part of the day, and, be very focused on trying to really make progress on a few tasks in a given time period versus trying to do so many tasks at once. That's very difficult, as I'm sure many people reading can relate to this when you're running your own thing or have a side project that you're working on too. It becomes easy to feel busy and tired and feel like you spent energy, but not really have a lot to show for it. So this is what I'm trying to focus on and master in 2024. The beauty industry, like many others, has a ton of players that seem to care more about making a quick buck than an impactful product. What do you think about those types of brands? This is very true. The reason I'm doing this is because I care about products so much and I want the product to be the best it can be. I have a visceral reaction to the idea that someone would try and enter the market with a product that's trendy but potentially ineffective or harmful, but I also know that the answer isn't just for me to go around and say "hey,, that's not OK." There's a game being played, right? We're on this giant field and the way for me to make a point is to just eat their lunch, right? The way to do it is to play the game better than them. If in five years or ten years or twenty years, we've played the game better, then we will be rewarded for that and if we didn't play the game well or the game changed on us and people actually didn't care what they put on their skin then, you know what, I wasn't playing the right game and I lost. However, I can lose feeling good, right? This is my passion, but at the end of the day, I try to remember that there's an element of sports or gamesmanship to this and any other business as an entrepreneur, and just focus on what I can do to play the game better. I think that's a healthier attitude and so when I hear about competitors like that, it's like, okay, great, you're playing the game well right now. Let me see if I can't outscore you. Make sure to check out Margin and keep it locked to Pier Five for more founder interviews just like this! More Doing It Yourself With Carol Pak of Makku The canned beverage space is increasingly competitive, with hundreds of new startup brands entering every year. So, if you're going to enter, you better have something unique to say. Therein lies Carol Pak, founder of SOOL, a Korean beverages company and owner of canned makgeolli beverage brand MAKKU, who is using her experience at ZX Ventures - ABinBev's VC arm - and passion for Korean rice alcohol to offer something fresh and exciting to the North American market. Although it hasn't come without its ups, downs and dozens of learnings, Carol had some great insights to share that can be applied to any small business owner, and of course anyone looking to dip their toes into the world of CPG. Check out some of the hot topics from the conversation below. In the summer of 2023, we noticed a big shift in the brand's social presence around Korean culture. Can you talk about that? At first, I didn't know how much I wanted to position ourselves as a Korean drink because I didn't want to isolate non Koreans. I wanted to be very welcoming, very approachable, and I didn't want to pigeonhole ourselves as a Korean drink for Korean occasions and for Korean customers. So I was very vanilla when it came to our marketing because I didn't want to sway too much but I felt like that really left us with no voice. Recently we did some consumer surveys and a resounding sentiment was, we would like to see more Korean stuff from Makku, whether it's in your packaging, your story, your marketing or your branding. That really motivated me to focus more on Korean culture in general. For us, the most natural area to focus on was the Korean drinking culture, which is a huge part of Korean culture. Later we can move into other segments like food or holiday traditions and things like that. As you grow, have you made any other big shifts in how the brand operates? When it comes to our sales, before, I was relying on our distributors to get into retailers, and they put us in any account that would take our product. We were growing in revenue, and it was great in the short term, but we were seeing a lot of turnover as we lost shelf space to new brands and other promotions. If you go down to your local bodega and offer a promotion for them to buy the case, a lot of times they'll say, yes, but it doesn't mean that's the right account for us. I recently realized that while distributors are our partners, the onus is still on us to steer direction and ensure execution. Another consideration is that these smaller accounts don't provide data on the national level. So if a large retailer will put our brand into scan data, nothing will show up, even though we're in over a thousand accounts. So the investment into the smaller accounts don’t build us much credibility for the larger chains. Can you talk about scan data? What does that mean? There are national companies like IRI and Nielsen that manage this. For accounts like Whole Foods and Total Wine and these other large retailers; if your brand is selling in these stores, they'll report the sales data to IRI or Nielsen. So, when you're trying to sell to other national retailers, they can put in your brand and they can track your growth, sales and all this other data about your brand that these retailers are supplying to them. Since we're mostly selling in smaller accounts or Asian chains that are not providing that kind of data, even though we've been in the market for four years, if an Albertsons or Kroger, looked up our brand in Nielsen or IRI, they wouldn’t be able to find much data. So, it just goes to show that an account is not always equal. I’ve learned we need to rely less heavily on our distributors to be selling on our behalf and instead build a sales team and then get into the retailers that we want to by pitching them directly. Is it daunting pitching to these big retailers? I didn't dare dream of trying to pitch national accounts at first. I just thought it wouldn't be possible without any sales data but I've seen a lot of brands launch after me, like years after me, and their first accounts were like Walmart, Target, Costco. There has been a trend of Asian products in stores and product differentiation is probably helpful there, but at the end of the day, you have to pitch them to know whether you get a yes or no. We just never pitched them. That all gave me confidence though. If you get in front of them, you'll at least be on their radar. You can ask them for information on what they're looking for, what data points they need to see for consideration, when to reach out next. Until you talk to them, you never know so just shoot all your shots. We can definitely see the hustle and passion that you have for the brand. I'm sure that helps when you work on growing the brand with partners? Yes, absolutely. If you're not so passionate about what you're doing and you just think of it as a business opportunity, you're not going to last. Undoubtedly, the best entrepreneurs at every level will still have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and I think the only thing that really keeps you in it is the passion. So, if it's not something that you love and you're happy working 80 hours a week, it's going be really hard. When investors, distributors, retailers and customers are talking to you, they're looking for passion and they can tell if you fake it. That is what makes the difference between the companies that make it and the companies that don't. Make sure to check out Makku's website to find out where you can pick some up and keep it locked to Pier Five for more interviews with entrepreneurs and small business owners coming soon! More Creating Your Identity With Jun Arnaiz of Neutria Creating Your Identity With Jun Arnaiz of Neutria It's not uncommon to find creatives venturing out into their own startups but it is a bit more unique to see them dive into the realm of health and natural supplements, a space that is highly competitive with mass-pharma and can take years of R&D and approval. So, what does it take to dive into this world? We sat down with Jun Arnaiz, a longtime friend and man of many talents, to learn a little bit about it. Jun got his start in the Toronto-nightlife scene, rising up as one of the city's best club videographers by night, while experimenting, formulating and testing supplements by day. As he got deeper into the nightlife world, his sights set onto DJ'ing, which has now grown his name even further as a certified nightlife double threat; but he didn't forget about the pharma. In 2023, Jun and his business partner Andrew Daye launched Neutria, an all-natural supplement brand rooted in ancient herbs and remedies to help those eager to excel do so in a clean and sustainable way. Jun has a lot to say about breaking down barriers to follow your passions. Read through the conversation below! Jun, you seem to have your hand in so many pots and never shy away from opportunities. How does someone like yourself approach all of these new things? Naturally, I'm a very curious person and I have a bunch of interests but I'm very careful to ensure if I do something, it's of quality. It can be daunting but anytime I'm exploring a new craft, I know it will require me to put myself out there no matter what because that's how you get new opportunities. It requires you to be vulnerable but it's necessary. Especially for artistic crafts, showing your work is the only way to get booked. If we reverse engineer that to figure out how to build the confidence to put yourself out there, it really comes down to putting in the reps. You have to practice. Once you really commit and practice, you build the competence in the craft and then you build the confidence. That confidence will be the fuel to put yourself out there in the world and that's when opportunities will come to you. Do you ever feel stuck diving into new things? Luckily not so much but it took time. I think the number one thing that stops people from taking on a new craft is imposter syndrome. People think "I'm not this person, so I'm not going to give it my 100%." I realized that the antidote to that is building up enough evidence for yourself that you do embody this person to the point where it can become your identity. For me, it was hard as a nightlife videographer, who's identity was so ingrained in that, when I wanted to start DJ'ing. I knew people might not take me seriously but I was serious. I didn't want to be a videographer that could also DJ. I wanted to be a DJ. In order to do that, I needed to be consistent. I needed to show up every day. I needed to do shows consistently. I try to embody this mindset with every new thing that I do. It wasn't even up until maybe a couple of months ago that I finally was confident enough to call myself a DJ because I felt like I wasn't there yet. I didn't have that identity yet but I was always pushing for it. Just remember, success isn't an overnight thing. You have to work on it every day but the only way to get there is to start. Can you talk about what pushed you to start Neutria? I worked in a pharmacy for five plus years, so I saw firsthand how people are so reliant on pharmaceuticals just to get by. We're at an age, societally, where people are becoming more health conscious. My partner, Andrew, and I have always been obsessed with finding ways to optimize our health, wellbeing and mindset. We were always experimenting with these different ingredients in college and university. So we've been exposed to the world of natural supplements and natural remedies. We never really had the intention when we were in our early twenties of doing this. It was just a passion to help us optimize our businesses at that time but we sensed this paradigm shift of people who want to excel in their careers or their crafts and find remedies to do so without harming themselves in the process by using synthetic drugs, like Adderall, or excessive melatonin or caffeine. So, we started Neutria and all three of our products are a response to a synthetic version. We have an all-natural sleep support product that uses herbs that have been used for thousands of years, melatonin-free and that's kind of like our counter to melatonin. We have a focus blend that's our counter to excessive caffeine or Adderall. We're not doing this to profit off of people. We're doing this to offer a sustainable solution to these specific needs that we saw. Lastly, what is one of the biggest learnings you've discovered so far as a brand owner? As an e-commerce brand, it's easy to dehumanize the business and diminish it to just numbers and digital screens. For the first half of our existence, Andrew and I lived on our screens and we weren't getting any sort of physical feedback from customers. It was all online-everything. So, one thing that we introduced was more events and collaborations with other brands to get out into the physical world and connect with and build our community. We started selling in local markets, sampling with groups and getting actual feedback on our products. The human connection was also important to help remind us of our purpose and why we started the business, which was very motivating. We really learned the importance of th at macro view on why you do things and I think going physical, going offline as much as possible does that. Make sure to check out Jun and Neutria on Instagram and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with creatives and entrepreneurs just like this! More Ready For Anything With Bimma Williams For almost any creative, the dream is to be your own boss and turn your side-hustle into your career. It's shiny, there's freedom, more money if it's successful and so many other possible upsides. When Bimma Williams, sneaker professional turned expert conversationalist and host, left his stable career in the footwear industry to pursue his passion project Claima Stories full-time, these were the things he was after; and over time, he's been getting them, but not without some surprises along the way. Now with nearly fifteen years under his belt as an entrepreneur, five of which on Claima working with and interviewing some of the biggest names in the culture, Bimma has some stories of his own to tell and secrets to share with our community. Read the conversation below! Having left your 9-5 for a life as an entrepreneur and freelancer, what's something others thinking about doing the same should know? When most people consider freelance or starting a business, they often fail to realize what they are agreeing to take on. My creative expression is being a host, speaking, holding conversations, and now teaching as well. When I took that on, I'm not just taking that on. I'm also taking on, "how do I market and put myself out there?" Then you're in on finances. "How do I price myself?" Then you're taking on Operations because you need to figure out how to pay expenses and work on taxes and all of that stuff too. You're very involved in a lot of different things. You need to have the ability to harmonize all these different things. One thing to remember though is, yes, it is challenging but it's not impossible and there's also the opportunity for greater reward. You seem to be very humble with money and smart around spending on creativity. Are you thinking about that a lot? With any creative, when you get access to funds, the first thing you probably want to do is the biggest, shiniest thing possible. If you had all the resources in the world, you would leverage them but the interesting thing about that is, it's a mistake. We've seen it time and time again. When folks get too many resources, it actually diminishes their creativity. Some of the most creative projects and some of the best albums, did not have these glorious, gigantic budgets. They were just pure passion. When we did get that funding and that investment, we made some investments and some enhancements to production, but at the same time, we tried not to spend too much of that revenue. We would reach out to a brand and see if they would send us some microphones or some cameras or anything to keep the cost down. That money goes fast and you want to be super cognizant of how you can leverage it to get things to the next place over and over again. You've spoken about this concept of 'being ready' for opportunity. How does one do that? First of all, no one likes to hear this but you're never ready. It doesn't matter what the opportunity is because likely the opportunities are going to come from a place that you couldn't predict. Secondly, the opportunities are likely going to stretch you and so you have to make a decision on if you feel like you can rise to that occasion. One of the things that Will Smith spoke about in his book, that I love, is when you also are determining if you're ready or not, it also comes down to not being overly analytical and not overthinking the opportunity. When it's someone that you trust and they're bringing you an opportunity, to me, that opportunity is the one you need to say yes to and so sometimes being ready is purely just a mindset thing. You have to be ready in your heart. You need to be ready when it comes to how you want to put yourself in that situation. When you think about being ready, those are the things you need to think about. Once the opportunities and the audience come, it can feel tough to keep up with output demand. Have you every struggled with that feeling? All of these major media companies like Hypebeast or Complex, they all have huge content teams. This is why they can execute so much all of the time but as an individual, execute where you can execute. We've seen time and time again, so many different young creatives that may not have those systems, but they cut through with their thing. One of my favorites is Lynae Vanee. She puts out one video a week, and that thing cooks. She does her thing and she's not trying to compete with volume. She's competing with quality. I think when you have quality and you know your audience and you're hitting that sweet spot, people are always going to respond. They're always going to show up. When I came back, folks had missed me. It was clear. The response was there. So if I go away, it's not like I'm being forgotten in this sea of content or storytelling that's going out. So I think it's just important to remember that. Lastly, what do you think is the most important thing for any creative to understand, regardless of the industry? It's really important to develop a 'no bullshit mindset'. We can come up with a number of reasons why we won't do anything but I made an agreement with myself a long time ago was that there's nothing that's going to replace doing the work. That being said, I'm not going to feel 100% every day and it's okay if I decide, like, today I ain't got it. I'm going to take that break. If I can't put out something meaningful, what's the point? The world's not going to end and my audience isn't going to disappear because I needed to make sure I took care of myself. You can't do anything right if you haven't taken care of yourself first. Make sure to follow Bimma's Instagram for news on all of his upcoming projects and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations just like these! More Building Your Own Spaces With Monday Girl The job market is a complex one to navigate but if one thing is certain, it's that results won't come without effort. For Rachel Wong & Istiana Bestari, when the market wasn't giving them what they needed to find their next big opportunity, they took matters into their own hands and developed the tools they needed to succeed. Quickly identified as a solution for a major gap in the market, Rachel & Istiana launched Monday Girl, a networking, events and digital platform to help women navigate the workforce and it's been a major success ever since. Now taking their 6-year side hustle full time, we got the chance to speak to the co-founders about their journey and expert tips, from networking to brand partnerships. Read below! Today, Monday Girl has become such an empowering place for women in the workforce. What was the motivation for starting the platform? Istiana: We built the platform that we wished we had, to solve a problem that we were struggling with. When we first met, we were both fresh to Toronto. We didn't know anyone and were trying to get our foot in the door. Rachel: All these rooms that I would walk into, I just felt, wow, I'm very much like the "only", whether it's the only woman, person of colour, or both. I was not getting any shortage of advice but it was a lot of advice that wasn't applicable for myself as a young woman of colour entering the workplace for the very first time. Istiana: For me, I remember attending so many networking events and just very quickly realizing how most networking events were not designed with women in mind. Typically, they were so exhausting. They were awkward. Also, I struggled with connecting with people on LinkedIn and I remember ranting to Rachel when we first met and she felt the same way. Rachel: In that same chat, we came up with the name of Monday Girl. We came up with the next action plans, and then we split up responsibilities. We were at it. You two seem like great business partners. How have you nurtured and grown your own relationship with each other over the years? Istiana: We really are each other's biggest cheerleaders. I don't think either of us could do this by ourselves and every day we're constantly hyping each other up. I think that's really important with having a co-founder is being each other's support systems celebrating our wins together. Rachel: I remember so many times where, for example, Istiana crushes it on a call or nails a presentation and I'm always just so proud of her and it goes both ways when I do things well. We really just hear each other out and hype each other up and that's helped us be such strong business partners. At least on the outside looking in, you seem very busy. Now that you're both in this full time, how do you keep it exciting and fun and not just feeling like a job? Rachel: Every so often, we get this really amazing message from one of our members about something that Monday Girl helped them with, whether that's overcoming a really tricky job situation where they had to deal with micro-aggressions at work or hearing that they used our resources to get a job or a mentor to get a referral. All these things keeps us going. Istiana: Another thing that's really important for us in keeping this excitement and momentum is that what we decide to do is always stuff that we're excited about. We're always planning things that we would love to attend, that we want to go to ourselves, all projects that we're excited about. It definitely is very hard work but it makes it a lot easier when we're building something that we're excited about. Y ou’ve done a really good job working with some major global brands and organizations on events and content for your community. How do you approach getting partnerships like that? Rachel: The first thing I'd say is don't be afraid to get ghosted and constantly reach out. After a certain point, people will get back to you and you just have to be okay with being persistent. Cold emails still work. The second piece is show that you put some level of thought - and it doesn't have to be super comprehensive or a full proposal - into your outreach and articulate how it can help the partner achieve their KPIs. If there's a specific collection or campaign that they're putting out, and you think there's a really strong synergy, talk to that in that very first sentence. People don't have the attention span to read through a long email, so just make that your only point if you have a point. The the third piece of advice is just to keep maintaining and building and give back where you can. Even if it's not always a paid thing, support the brands when you can. I think brands really remember that and that's when they want to work long term with. That's great advice! Lastly, what's a key networking tip you have for anyone that is looking for a new job? Istiana: A lot of people think, when they're starting out, "how can I connect with the CEO of my dream company?" and you're always looking for the most senior person in the room. Later, you'll realize that the most valuable people to network with are your peers. Start with the network that you already have. Tap into the people that you already know because there's a lot of connections there, whether it's your alumni, like clubs, sports teams. Rachel: Those are the people that as you grow, they grow with you and they're going to be able and have much more bandwidth than a CEO to actually help you and connect you with those openings or those roles when they do come up. I'd also say, don't be afraid to do this in an industry agnostic way too. Sometimes we think, "I'm in fashion and I'm only going to network to people in fashion". The reality is they're probably not going to tell you something opens up because they're going to want to go for it. However, if you're networking with people in different industries, there's a little bit more of a gap, so finding open spaces like that can be helpful. Make sure to check out Monday Girl for news about their events and mentor opportunities and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with small business founders. More Protecting Your Brand With Zak Kurtz of Sneaker Legal Almost every creative entrepreneur starts their business out of passion but as time goes on and the business grows, the legal matters of the business become more important but also often fall to the wayside. Zak Kurtz, lawyer and founder of Sneaker & Streetwear Legal Services dba Sneaker Legal, has turned his passion for kicks and coveted streetwear into a business designed to help creative entrepreneurs with all of those legal matters so that they can focus on their passions, while he focuses on his. We got the chance to chat with Zak about how he found an opportunity in a niche legal space, his tips for new creative entrepreneurs and what some of the keys have been to his success. Read the conversation below! Hey Zak! Thanks for chatting with us. Can you tell us a bit about you and your firm? Hey guys! So, my name is Zak Kurtz and I'm the founder of Sneaker & Streetwear Legal Services, also known as Sneaker Legal . Sneaker Legal works with clients in the sneakers, fashion, sports and entertainment space to help them protect their brand across a number of legal matters. You've built a very cool career in an admittedly niche space. What was the key to getting there? If you like something, go do it. I read a good book last week, and a line that I remember from it is, "let your joy be your GPS", meaning, whatever brings you passion, whatever brings you joy, do that in your life. Let that guide you. My grandfather was a judge, so I knew I wanted to be a lawyer but I wasn't sure about what in. I played soccer soccer in college overseas, so I thought I wanted to be a sports lawyer but in law school, while I was doing sports law, and I was president of all these things, and I was making a lot of money, I wasn't happy. I would sit on my computer and I would just look at trademarks like drawings of sneakers. Never did I know that one day I'd have a special law firm that's niche was in sneakers and streetwear. If you never giving up and follow your passions, that will definitely lead you to a good career and also a good life. We love that story and the self awareness about what makes you happy. At the end of the day, just be you. Staying true to yourself and what you love is the most important thing. If you're passionate about something, maybe it's sneakers and law or maybe it's something else, that will find a way to shine. If you want to build a brand and you're a good human being, people will come to you. We only live so long and I think it's important to be yourself and that really attracts people and brings good things into your life. You seem to have a great capability at getting clients. Any secrets there? A lot of the time, people don't reach out to legal because they're afraid of legal's answer always being "no". Due to this, most of the time when people come to lawyers, it's reactive. It's after you're getting a cease and desist or after you're getting a lawsuit. So, it's very important just to be upfront and work with your client so that that stuff doesn't happen. If you're releasing a shoe, come to us and we could say, "hey, this looks like an Adidas or a Nike. You might want to change this" or "this name is already trademarked by another company so you might want to change your name". We always take a very open approach because we believe it's important to be proactive with legal and I think that openness has helped create a welcome environment for new clients. Once you get a new client, what's often the first legal item that they might need help with? Starting is the hardest thing for your brand but once you start, you need to start thinking about all the stuff like establishing an LLC, registering trademarks, bringing on a lawyer or having someone around that you can ask those types of questions to. I can't tell you how many questions I get daily about little things like "should I have a contract for this?" or "do I need an NDA for that?". These are simple questions that a lawyer could answer for free or in a few minutes and I think it's good to start building that network and have that team environment. If I was to focus on one thing though, It would be the trademark. Anyone could actually do their own application or do some research but if you take it the next step and actually hire a lawyer, working on the trademark will really help protect your brand. That way you're boxing out the other people from using that name or that logo. Lastly, outside of the legal field, what's one piece of advice you'd give to a new entrepreneur or small business owner? You need to have a great team and be able to rely on other people because you can't do everything yourself. Then, once you find the right people, you need to trust them and let them do their job. I'm very cautious about every micromanaging them. I want my team to know that, as long they get the work done, they can be creative and flexible with their approach and I feel like that's been a key to the success of my team. Make sure to follow Sneaker Legal for all of your sneakers and streetwear legal info and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with creative entrepreneurs and small business owners. Legal Disclaimer: The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. Readers of this website should contact their attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter. No reader, user, or browser of this site should act or refrain from acting on the basis of information on this site without first seeking legal advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. 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More Pier Five x PUMA: Community Court Day 2023 Earlier this month, Pier Five proudly hosted its first ‘Community Court Day’ event in Toronto in partnership with PUMA. The event was designed to give entrepreneurs and creatives a new way to connect outside of the office in a space that was conducive to conversation and relationship building. As big proponents of 'breaking up the work week', Pier Five brought out 25 of Toronto's cultural change-makers, including business owners, artists, content creators and brand leads to spend a day on the court, a place that fostered so many relationships for us growing up. The day got started with guests arriving to a care package with some of PUMA's newest basketball gear; of course we had to hook them up in the best. From the beginning, strangers instantly started becoming friends and learning about each other. There's something about trying on new sneakers with others that get spirits high. After some introductions, basketball coach/trainer and founder of Core Basketball, Ali Nizam, started the day with warmups and partner drills designed to get people out of their comfort zone. Regardless of experience, every single person was sweating by the end of it. Spirits were definitely high, and safe to say we were all on an equal playing field after that. The warm ups were followed up refreshments from our friends at Neutria and Barbet who kept us hydrated throughout the day and a good 'ol fashioned 'name game' - of course we had to bring some summer camp memories back - to help everyone learn a bit more about who was in the room. After that, guests were put into teams to put their skills to the test. Every single person was playing hard and throwing it down! Lastly, we wrapped the day with a roundtable-style discussion focused on getting out of your comfort zone , something that is key for entrepreneurs and that every guest of the day demonstrated so well that day. The #1 goal of the day was give creatives and entrepreneurs a unique space to get to know each other and we couldn't be more proud of how much that was accomplished. In an age of social media connections and a non-stop grind to the top, finding time to meet likeminded individuals in-person, even those in our own backyard, can be very difficult but when you find a way to do it, break down all of the walls, and just let people jam, the results are incredible. A major thank you to every single person who came out with an open mind and willingness to learn. We can't wait to see how these conversations turn into incredible things outside of the gym doors. As well, thank you to Neutria and Barbet for the incredible drinks and of course, thank you so much to PUMA for supporting our vision of creating unique spaces for inspiring people to connect and grow. We can't wait until the next one! More Embracing Your Community With Sarah Sukumaran of Lilith NYC The realities of starting any business always have two things in common. The first is you can't predict your path. There will always be unknowns. The second is that no matter where that path might take you, anything is possible. Sarah Sukumaran, NYC-based tech exec turned sneaker designer and now founder of Lilith NYC has embraced that wholeheartedly and has some great antidotes for anyone looking to turn their creative passions into a business. The learnings that she has acquired over the years with traditional tech roles, a predictive analytics gig at Nike - a natural fit for a sneaker-loving software product director - to now the life of an entrepreneur, have set her up for years of success and are something we could all benefit from. Scroll down for some gems from the conversation with Sarah. Hi Sarah! You're a big advocate of embracing your community. How did that play a part in getting Lilith off the ground? It's amazing. When you put out in the universe that you're doing something, people will naturally gravitate towards you and start making those connections wherever they can. Lean into that. When I started vocalizing and putting it out there that I was starting a footwear company, people all of a sudden had these connections for me and that's how all of my contacts, angel investors and other people I now work with, have come about. What's it like going from the tech world to now being recognized as a sneaker designer and brand owner? I worked in tech and I thought that was my life. I was ready to become a DevOps engineer and I really thought that's where my career was headed. So now, it's so nice to explore this creative side that I didn't know I had. I really love colour theory and working with materials. When I'm in Portugal, going to the leather supplier and looking at the suede that we're going to go with, or looking at the colour swatches; I have such a strong passion for that. People now refer to me as a creative and I'm still getting used to embracing it because I still am this nerdy tech person but now I'm a creative too which is pretty cool. Any advice to someone who was in your position looking to start their own brand while working a 9-5? I am a big proponent of not quitting your job and working on your side hustle when you're getting a nice check at your current employer. The only reason I quit [Nike] was because it was a clear conflict of interest working for a footwear brand and starting my own. If I was working as a tech company I would definitely have done this as a side hustle and just kept collecting a check. You need to be able to financially support yourself or have savings to be able to take that leap on your dream. Work full time and spend more hours after each day building your startup. There are so many little things you can do to get your startup off the ground, especially in footwear. You can source the factory on the internet and spend $200 to get a sample made. Everything is possible. You just need to take those small steps and making it work doesn't have to involve quitting your job and going bankrupt throughout the process. Lilith has done a bunch of pop-ups and is in a few retailers. Is expanding that a big goal of yours? I think for any brand, you always need to have a multi-channel experience. In year one, we started getting approached by retailers but I just felt like I wasn't ready. However, I realize now how important that is and we're definitely working on getting into more and more doors and doing more pop ups. Online is great but getting people to try on the shoes, especially at my price point it key. Just like any portfolio, you need a diversified approach as an entrepreneur. So true! Lastly, has been one of your biggest learnings since starting Lilith? Shifting away from traditional seeding and actually using your customers as the influencer, that's been an interesting shift and learning for me. I was wasting time seeding people who would post once and never wear the shoe again. Now, I'll surprise a customer who's bought two or three pairs and be like, here's a free shoe because I know that they're going to wear the hell out of it and that's probably better marketing at the end of the day. They're the ones who post the authentic photos, wear the shoes and get complimented in person and get way more excited! They're their own ambassadors to the brand. I love it and they love it. Make sure to follow Lilith for news on their pop-ups and releases and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with creative entrepreneurs like Sarah! More A Strong Foundation With Carlo Aragon of Salomonology If there's something that Carlo Aragon, designer and founder of social gorpcore community, Salomonology, knows, it's the importance of a strong foundation. From URL to IRL, Carlo has taken his childhood loves, from video games to sneakers to outdoors exploration, to build a base for some incredible projects that not only help people dress well, but also care for our planet at the same time. Find out how he does it in our conversation with Carlo below! Hey Carlo! The growth of Salomonolgy has been so incredible over the last few years? What's the goal with the page? To this day, we still get people who are like, "yeah, you wear Salomons, but how many hikes have you done recently?". It's like that"oh, you're wearing the band tee, but do you really listen to that band?" I really try to push the fact that a piece of clothing is meant to be worn, whether it's for its original initial technical purpose or just for casual wear. So the page is really exists to show people that there's nothing wrong with taking something that's meant for something else and just wearing it for a completely different reason. For me, an article of clothing has always been an article of clothing to be enjoyed. Why is it about gorpcore that makes it something you really care about? I want more people to be more conscious about the environment. I think with the way that the the world is projected to look in the next 10, 20 or 30 years, it's not looking great but when people go out and enjoy the outdoors, I think they start to recognize more about how lucky we are to actually have it. If people need to be into a trend for them to finally start hiking to appreciate being outdoors more, then that's awesome. I think gorpcore has really helped people get outdoors more and if Salmonology can be the doorway or that first step in getting people to use that style to be able to get outdoors more and appreciate what we have, it will make people more aware of how we need to be more protective of our world and nature in general. From a strategic standpoint, how do you approach projects longterm to keep your audiences locked in? I think people are always looking for how genuine you are in the work that you produce and how true to yourself you are with what you produce. At the end of the day, if the project stays connected to that one anchor that you started from in the beginning, what you build over time will still be meaningful. Know what your foundation is, stick with that and build off of that so that people can look back at everything that you've produced in the past and to see that you've stayed true to yourself. I think that's what people really recognize and appreciate. Makes so much sense! Lastly, as someone with a fashion brand and a knack for influencing people's style, what tips would you give to someone working on their personal style? When you're trying to find your personal style, I think it's important to focus on silhouettes and fit. That's the best way, because when that becomes your priority, you could go to the thrift store, you could go shopping at the mall, you could go anywhere, and then you could start shopping not for brands, not for labels, but for fit. When you leave the door every day looking like you're wearing the same outfit, but it's actually different clothes, that's when you've kind of achieve the personal style. In addition to that, I feel like it's also important to look back on stuff that make you happy, and then you incorporate that into stuff that interests you. Make sure to check out Salomonology and Carlo's new brand Equipe Works and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with creative entrepreneurs! More Embracing Impermanence With Sandro Petrillo of SSSOAPS Very few things in life last forever but while many try fiercely to hold on, Sandro Petrillo, Canadian DJ, artist and entrepreneur, has learned to find beauty in the impermanence end enjoy the ride. After a period of burnout and time to reevaluate his work habits, Sandro developed and launched his new venture, SSSOAPS, a premium soap brand that encompassed everything that he loved; shape, colour, smell, tactile experience, and every-changing energy (something he grew fond of with music development). We got the chance to chat with Sandro about his journey with SSSOAPS and pocketed a few gems that he had to share throughout the chat. Check them out below! Sandro on Embracing Impermanence In many of the artworks or the creative practices that I lean into, I love the idea of impermanence. I love the idea that what we encounter in our daily life and beyond is truly impermanent. Everything at a certain time will be here, and then it will not and I think getting to know those things and getting to be comfortable with those things and that sort of measure of time and connection to things is really a beautiful connection to the way that we live. Soap, and the time period in which soap disappears and changes form, is very indicative of that transfer of energy in impermanence. Sandro on Trying New Things I'm a very big believer in that life happens for us, not to us. When we have opportunities in life that are challenging, those are opportunities for us to learn and to grow with. Don't be afraid to learn. Don't be afraid to spend a little bit of money and time to try things out. Sandro on Learning To Let Go In this day and age, you will encounter so many opportunities, so many potential lanes to go down, so many new ideas that take you down a different path. I think while that is the case, further sharpening your non-attachment will be a huge tool in making sure that you can maintain your work and stay focused. Understand that, while it's great to have ideas and new experience things, it's important to consider all of that in your calculation of what is your capacity and what you can get done. Then, on top of that, learn to let go of things and understand that you don't have to do everything. Sandro on Scaling With Intention When the opportunity to scale comes, really lean into your intention behind what you're trying to build. It's something you need to be careful of because you can turn it [the business] into a bit of a monster. Like, you can turn it into this thing that you once loved and now fear and resent. Scaling is the inevitability of a business's trajectory but I think it's something to be really mindful of and really careful with. Think about why are you going there, why do you want to move in that direction and what is it going to take to move in that direction. Make sure to follow SSSOAPS on Instagram to get info on Sandro's latest drops and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with creative entrepreneurs. More Doing It His Way With Rae Mendoza of ICYT They say that pressure produces diamonds and this definitely shows through with Rae Mendoza and I'll Call You Tomorrow, his clothing brand and artist collective based out of Edmonton, AB that has been working hard to put their city on the map amongst the heavy hitters of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. We got the opportunity to chat with Rae about the growth of his collective, how it opened up new doors with his agency Tomorrow Works and tips he has for creatives looking to get noticed. Read some excerpts from the conversation below! Rae on Building Things His Way Being housed and running everything from our home city of Edmonton, Alberta is really freeing for us. It lets us build our community how we want to do it and not as a reflection of something else. We just love this challenge of building new infrastructure and new opportunities for people that resonate with our platform where they don't typically exist. It also just lets us be a bigger fish in a small pond. Rae on Working With Friends I was very fortunate from the start to just always be around just super talented people, whether it was photography, design, music, now tattooing and illustration. Once I started working with them though, I really quickly realized where now as a business owner working with my best friends, it's up to me to set those boundaries of like, "in this space we're professionals working together and I'm holding you accountable for deliverables, and we have a specific function we need to do, and then we can go back to being friends outside of that space." In terms of finding the right people, a lot of it comes down to that gut feeling of knowing that we see things eye to eye, whether it's like good product, good design, taste levels, community, or you just knowing that this person's honestly just a good person. Rae on Finding New Opportunities Tomorrow Works as an agency has this living portfolio that is always constantly putting out new work in the form of I'll Call You Tomorrow. The bulk of our business just comes from people seeing our brand and then knowing that they can do something similar for their brand and their business. It's such a small circle these days of who is interconnected, putting your work out there and just showing that what you can do and how you deliver it at a very high level is the most important thing. Most of those things will kind of just sort themselves out and come to you. Then as a consultant and on the agency side, it comes down to you being ready for those looks as they come. Rae on Passing The Torch We started noticing it happening now as me and my team, we're getting a little bit older, where young kids will come up to our events and our parties and they'll be like, "I'm 22 or 21 and the first pop up or cool art party that I ever went to was one of your events and now I'm starting my own t-shirt line or I want to do certain things in the streetwear and arts community because of that event" and seeing that grow outside of us is some true 'pass the torch' legacy type shit. That's the stuff that keeps me up at night that I love. Make sure to follow I'll Call You Tomorrow and Tomorrow Works on IG for news on all of their upcoming events, projects and clothing releases and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with entrepreneurs coming soon. More Slow & Steady with Josh Heares of Porter James Sports Once you get going, it can be hard to slow down but we can't forget the tales of our childhood. You can't rush success. Slow and steady wins the race. Such is true for Josh Heares, founder of New Zealand based clothing brand Porter James Sports, who has spent the last two-and-a-half years carefully crafting his label. With a clear path ahead and a mind that has never been more focused, Josh is on his way to becoming one of the most stand-out menswear street brands in our opinion and we got the chance to chat with him about his journey from advertising to fashion, how he plays the fashion game with an analytical mindset and where he hopes to take the brand in the future. Read the full interview below! Hi Josh, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. For those who aren't familiar, can you tell us a little about yourself and how your brand, Porter James Sports, came to be? Thanks guys! I started Porter James out of my living room in Auckland, NZ about 2.5 years ago, in December 2020. Before that, I spent my career in the advertising and design space so I was new to fashion taking on this project. Today, I would say PJS is the convergence of menswear and streetwear and the values we champion are 'simplicity' and 'timeless design'. We try to be accessible but from day one, I was really keen on ensuring that we didn't look like a 'part-time' fashion brand. I have a high bar for the brands I wear as a consumer and PJS had to match that. With no prior experience in fashion, what was the motivation to pivot from your career in advertising? In my mid-twenties, I got a promotion at my advertising agency and was really excited. At the time, I thought this was my dream job, blending business and creativity together but one day realized that I didn't see a long-term path for this and felt like something was missing for me and wanted to create a change. A mentor told me about this idea of envisioning my dream day instead of my dream job and that changed everything for me. I started thinking about the things I value most like making my own schedule, being able to be creative and work with other passionate people instead of large corporations, and then being able to work from wherever I wanted. Fashion checked a lot of those boxes so I started spending a lot of time looking into how to make that possible. So from there, how did you get started? I threw myself in the deep end. I got an agent out in Guangzhou, China and flew out there to meet him to speak about product development. Luckily he was from New Zealand and spoke perfect English which was a huge help. From there, I just asked a lot of questions. I brushed up on all of the product development information, figured out how much money I would need to start everything. On the other hand, having worked in advertising for so long with brands like Mercedes-Benz, I knew what world-class delivery looked like and had a benchmark for what I wanted to try and hit with my own brand. The reality of leaving your job and starting a brand is that money can get tough. How did you manage there? Absolutely! I knew that I was going to need income from other sources so I started a consulting side-hustle, which allowed me to sustain enough revenue once I left the agency job. I still do it now and it's a great extra job, allowing me to use my past experiences and help others develop their brand plans. I know the brand is strong and will continue growing but it obviously takes time so I didn't want to put all of my eggs in one basket from the beginning. You seem like you're very patient, which doesn't always come so easily to entrepreneurs. I think it's important to look at things like a sliding scale, not a light switch. Success won't come overnight. I heard this great quote that "people overestimate what they can do in a year but underestimate what they can do in ten years". Where you are now, consider it a stepping stone that's planting seeds to where you want to go. I know that if I'm intentional and become comfortable putting in the work, it might take two or three years to start seeing some real return but in ten years I'll be very happy about the work that I put in. Do you have a long term or ten year plan for the brand? I just want to continue to grow the brand bigger, while staying in my lane. I've never been clearer than I am now on what our products look like and what our 'brand filter' is, meaning how I think we should look and what we should be putting out. We're focusing on DTC growth now which I'm really starting to figure out and I think that I'm on the right path which is the most important thing to me. The DTC landscape is ever-changing. What are the most important thing to be thinking about these days when running an online business? This isn't new but the only way to really grow a huge business is by acquiring more customers, so that's where all of my focus is. You need to understand why someone might not buy from you and mitigate all of those barriers. For me, as a brand from New Zealand, it's improving shipping so that new customers can take a chance on the brand. I've worked to ensure I can offer fast-free shipping because I know my quality is good, and that if I can get my products into the hands of the "fashion-guy" of a friend group, they'll influence their ten friends and that's how everything will grow. So I just need to ensure the person landing on my page has no reason not to checkout. Besides the quality being top notch, what's your strategy for the product design and collection building? As you connect with new producers and learn new things around the product, I think it's easy to get overwhelmed. The truth is, you can build a multimillion dollar brand around just five or six styles ( a great shirt, a great pair of trousers, a great hat, etc). I've watched so many brands scale massively by perfecting certain styles and that's what I'm trying to do. That helps me ensure the quality, fit, and look are perfect. Taking inspiration from other trends and brands is ok but apply what works for you and make sure to stay in your lane. I'm also trying to remind myself to slow down and constantly iterate as opposed to pumping out a lot of product quickly. I'm constantly thinking about how I can make the product better, from the stitching to the materials, to the decoration. I'd say taking it slow is what is going to help us win. Love that! Slow and steady wins the race. Make sure to check out Porter James Sports for their newest drop on Monday, July 17th and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with creative entrepreneurs! More

A Conversation With Julie Clark of Province Apothecary Julie Clark is the founder of Province Apothecary, a natural beauty company founded through her experiences crafting natural, organic beauty products out of her kitchen to help her own needs battling eczema and allergies. Julie's goal is to create pure, effective products that benefit even the most sensitive complexions so that you can feel beautiful in your skin. ​ @julie.anne.clark // @provinceapothecary There are so many products/routines out there and skincare can sometimes seem intimidating. What are 5 tips you can give for those starting off in their skincare journey? ​​ Less is more. Begin with a simple 3 step routine of a) cleansing, b) toning/hydrating and c) moisturizing/nourishing so as to not get overwhelmed with too many products or steps. Set a time in the morning + evening that makes sense for YOU so you will follow through + be consistent with your new routine. Try not to rush through your routine, rather, make it a loving self-care ritual that you enjoy doing. Talk to an experienced Skin Therapist to learn about your particular skin needs so you get on the right track with products, ingredients & approach right from the start. Try to look for clean, simple ingredients. If you can’t pronounce them, they are probably harsh chemicals that aren’t good for your skin or body as a whole. Trust that healing & caring for skin is a process, not an event. It sometimes takes time to see results, but with a holistic approach, the results are lifelong. ​ What is your skincare routine? ​ Of course, I always use Province Apothecary products in my daily skincare routine. I always begin with cleansing with our Moisturizing Oil Cleanser & Makeup Remover , morning & evening (even if I don’t have makeup on) as it not only removes dirt, oil, makeup & impurities on the skin, it adds moisture and calms my sensitive and dry skin. I follow up my cleanse (both am & pm) with our Invigorating + Balancing Toner to hydrate + soothe my skin, while prepping it for the next step On damp skin from the toner, I massage my oil-based custom serum into my skin using our Natural Face Lift Massage Ritual, which deeply nourishes my skin with ingredients chosen especially for my specific skin concerns. I do this step morning + evening. Next up I do our Sculpting + Toning Facial Cup protocol, that smooths, plumps & evens out my skin tone. Lastly I seal in all this goodness with either our Nourishing + Revitalizing Moisturizer (summertime) or our Protecting + Restoring Face Balm (wintertime). An extra step if my eczema/sensitivity is in full force, I layer on the Healing Eczema Balm as a night treatment. ​ You talk about diet & nutrition playing a part in healthy skin. What are 5 recipes/ingredients you’ve been having lately that can help with skincare? ​During the cold, dry winter months, making sure I get enough good fats is key to healthy & protected skin. Avocados, olive oil, nuts & seeds are all good sources. Salmon is rich in Vitamin D and healthy omegas which feed skin, hair & nails. Fruits high in Vitamin C such as kiwis, oranges, pineapples help hydrate skin cells and help skin to heal. Sweet potatoes are high in Vitamin A which benefit hair, skin and nails and contain more than 700% of your daily recommended intake. And last but definitely not least, Water. The best thing we can all do for healthy skin is to drink lots of water because the skin, and entire body require it to function properly. ​ We love your blog segment “Women We Admire”. Besides those you’ve featured, who are 5 women you really admire these days? ​My Business Partner Natalie is constantly inspiring me, I am so lucky to work with her everyday! My mom and 2 sisters are really helping me get through this pandemic, thankful for text groups and video chats. They are always doing fun things and cooking delicious meals. ​ What are 5 skincare/beauty products you can’t live without? Daily glow dry brush to support lymphatic drainage Dual Action Jade Roller to stimulate + smooth Sculpting + Toning Facial Cup set Nourishing oil serums-never enough oils! Healing Eczema Balm! This is how Province Apothecary all began! ​ We hear the term “Natural Beauty” a lot these days. From the view of Province Apothecary, what are 5 important things everyone should know about natural beauty? Natural beauty is a glow that comes from within, but can be supported with the right natural skincare products & practices. Taking care of your Whole Self with proper nutrition, sleep/rest, hydration, exercise, being in nature and connecting with others ALL are important parts of achieving Natural Beauty. Natural Beauty is not forced or manipulated, but rather a loving and patient approach to supporting our bodies & our skin in a way that focuses more on acceptance and trust than trying to change something that was never wrong in the first place. Natural Beauty means being mindful & intentional about what we put on our skin and in our bodies, choosing things that are clean, healthy & good for not only US, but for Planet Earth as well. Natural Beauty means knowing yourself & your skin & trusting that IT knows how to find balance if you give it the right support.

Finding That Secret Sauce With Tam Vu When you’re on a team, there is room to be comfortable. Once you’re out on your own, everything falls onto your shoulders. Depending on who you are, this can be daunting or extremely exciting. Vietnamese-Canadian artist Tam Vu sits on the side of excitement having set out on his own, only a little over a year ago, after spending most of his time with different teams in the creative fashion industry. Now on a mission to bring the stories of his native country to North America through a fashion and lifestyle goods import business and visual art, Tam is keeping very busy and having fun doing it. We had the pleasure of speaking with Tam about his business, setting out on his own, how he stays motivated and authentic through his work and his keys to finding the secret sauce that can take any creator to new heights. Hey Tam! Can you talk about the purpose behind your TKV business? I was starting to burn out at the design studio I was working at and it was difficult not to notice that the racist micro aggressions were becoming more and more overt in my daily life during the pandemic. Like, I know racism exists. It didn’t go away while I was too busy head-down-pedal-to-the-metal working. I faced micro aggressions on the daily – but I had learned to deal/cope with it by not giving it any energy otherwise I would just be angry all the time, and I just didn’t have the bandwidth, or personality, for that When the pandemic hit, like many others, I had the time and privilege to reflect on what was going on personally and professionally. This sounds so egocentric... but I thought about how unique and un-unique I was. My whole environment and context of being Vietnamese, being Canadian, belonging, not belonging, working in design and culture, skateboarding, basketball, my life experiences, language, code switching, on and on, makes me a unique person, but I also share a lot of the same challenges and experiences that other diaspora (Vietnamese or not) face. With this line of thinking, I wanted to create something for others like me. I wanted to create a framework that could both support an artistic practice and also support my golf addiction… and to do it in a way that I could still sleep at night. I wanted to create something that I never had when I was younger, something Vietnamese, something ______, something in-between, something – maybe not to look up to – but just something that existed. I want a 12 year old me to look at this project and be like WOW this is so sick, but also if the 12 year old me sees this project and thinks WOW this is so suck, I can do this, but better. That for me, is just as amazing. That’s why it was important to have my Vietnamese name be front facing, so people know – it’s Vietnamese. I don’t know, the long and short of it is exactly that, exactly the name, TKV® Business & Fine Arts. It’s just biz and sometimes it’s not. Do you find that the import business and the art business work together or are they more separate? They definitely work together. The imports help support my art practice and the art practice helps support the business. They go hand in hand. I have a flowchart that I made for myself when I was launching the project that I’ll refer to from time to time that outlines exactly how. It was important for me to create a financial framework where the business side and my art practice could sustain themselves independently of each other. I didn’t want to be put in a position where I had to make weird business decisions to fund an art project, or not be able to make a project because of a lack of funds. I don’t know – even the business side is an art project in itself. At the end of the day, it all works together in one bank account and stews in one brain, so it is what it is. Photo: Ryan Lebel How do you choose which products to import for that portion of TKV? Intuition? A lot of these items are goods that I’ve been drawn to from a young age when I would go to Vietnam. I always liked the slides, dép tổ ong, and learned through my community and family about their cultural significance. There’s no How It’s Made or Wikipedia page on them, the slides have an oral history and I am happy to share this history through TKV. This same thinking is applied to the work suits that I import, the stools, the fans, the bags. These are all common place products in Vietnam – and I love being able to share their significance to a wider audience. The suits are wild. They are labourer uniforms for blue collar workers, made all over Vietnam in hundreds of different colours and materials. The crazy thing is – from factory to factory throughout Vietnam, it’s the same pattern, same cut, same everything, same every time. Having worked in apparel production domestically, I know from experience, even having production replicate a pattern, THAT THEY MADE, is sometimes a harrowing experience. The stools are amazing, it’s like Vietnam’s monobloc chair. Cheaply made, abundant, honestly beautiful. I love going to a food stand and this is what everyone is sitting on. Obama and Bourdain sat on the XL version, but still, same same. These are products that resonated with me and through this project I get to investigate why. When you land on my website – you get all the research, all the why’s and what I’ve found. I invite you to investigate the why’s with me and hope you fall in love with the items too. Or you just like the colour, that’s fine too. Photo: Ryan Lebel What have you learned from launching the project? I learned that you need to try, to try. It’s easy to get stuck trying to perfect the sauce, or what you think is the perfect sauce, but at the end of the day you need to be able to open the restaurant. And if you don’t want to turn on the restaurant OPEN light, at least open the door. You need to be able to do it and to keep it moving. I learn something from everything I do, good and bad. Sometimes I like the feeling of being scared, standing on the top of the cliff getting ready to jump in the water. I’ll stand there for a while, and think about how scared I am, and how cool it is that I am so scared, because how often in life do I feel this scared. Then I jump. The trick for me is acknowledging that I’m scared but that I still need to do it, because I don’t want to climb back down the cliff, dry, and all my friends are there, and they will all post stories on IG that I didn’t jump, and they will laugh, but in a supportive way, and I will feel sheepish, and regret that I didn’t try. I know sometimes this is easier said than done but you really just have to do it. It’ll say on my gravestone “At least he tried” [laughs]. Couldn’t agree more with that. Let’s talk about the art side more. You recently exhibited ‘Their Country’ in Montreal, a painting series which depicts your interpretations of your family’s stories of immigration and painted by painters in Vietnam. Was it challenging working with painters overseas and why was it important for you to pursue that path? So, those painters actually lived three blocks away from my family home in HCMC. I used to walk by them every day and so the communication wasn’t really any more challenging than speaking with apparel suppliers overseas. Being able to speak Vietnamese obviously helped as well. It was important for me to work with the painters in HCMC because they were an integral part of the artworks. The paintings are the “art objects” but the entire process is the art. The communications through the supply chain to make the paintings, the conversations with my family, the translation of the memories, these are the vital and critical parts of the work. For me, outsourcing the paintings to oil painters in Vietnam was not a means to find cheap labour, but to engage the Vietnamese painters into an artwork that also speaks to their experiences and perspectives. The War impacted an entire population and continues to have ripple effects through generations and isn’t bound by geographic borders. The conversations that emerged from these paintings are extremely valuable to me. What was the exhibition experience like? This was my first art show as an artist. It felt like a bootcamp putting everything together. There is some crossover from my previous work doing pop-ups and seeing what it takes to do that, but this is really another learning experience. I was able to see what worked, what didn’t work, what took too much energy, what needed more energy. It was low stakes enough that I could experiment with what felt right to me, but also high enough pressure that I didn’t want to fail. I often struggle a lot with perfectionism in my work but, with this, I really just put it out there and enjoyed myself. Shout out to the ARTCH exhibition team, Sarah, Margot, Myriam, as well as all the participating artists. Everyone was amazing. Well whatever you did, it definitely worked! You also have some other unique ventures in the works; Cheers Mate Soda & Piano Golf. What’s the story behind these? With Piano Golf I wanted to find a way to bring a new perspective to golf. It always felt out of reach with huge cultural barriers. During the pandemic I got into it, and found that it had so many similarities to things that I loved like being outside, competing against myself, hitting a ball. In a way it felt a lot like skateboarding, like knowing where your body is in space, trying the same motion over and over again. Once again, I found that there wasn’t anything out in the golf world that really connected with me. I started this fun business (emphasis on fun) with my friends Myles Perkins and Dylan Bourdeau, it’s a way to intersect golf with other aspects of our interests. Plus it was a way to find more excuses to golf. Cheers Mate (mah-teh) Yerba Soda is an opportunity that presented itself to me at a time where I was looking to work on a project that was a little more biz focused. It’s still in its infancy, a classic – we’ve opened the door to the restaurant but the OPEN sign is not on yet. It’s been a great experience working on this project so far and I’m looking forward to where it’ll lead next… cheers! In an age where everything we see on social media is so calculated, you seem to just have fun with it and post whatever is on your mind. How do you feel about the current state of social media and do you think we all need to be a bit more chill? When I was getting ready to launch TKV® Business & Fine Arts, I put so much time and thought into how my Instagram was going to be, and look and feel, and had this realization like, damn – if I stress like this every time I need to make a post or story, it’s going to be horrible. How do I find a way to make this easy? So I just really post what I think is funny, pertinent and easy, and if my business fails because of this – then there are bigger issues with my business than that. Some of the content have planning behind them, but I do that because I enjoy it – and because I feel like it’s important to tell a certain story a certain way. Honestly I’m just trying to try here. For others, it’s so subjective and so hard for me to say what others should do. People should just do what is comfortable for them. Feel that! Before we let you go, what’s next for Tam Vu? Well, I’m going home to have dinner and that’s exciting [laughs]. I am moving into a new studio which I’m super excited for. I’m going to be setting up a showroom and a space where I can execute more stuff. A severe lockdown mandate in Vietnam was just lifted, so a lot of things are about to start coming in. The supply chain is still a mess, so a 3-4 month forecast is murky, but I have the next few collections and coloured suits coming in. I received some funding to do some more paintings and have some other art projects on the horizon too. I also just received a hand me down golf simulator, so hopefully this will keep me busy over the winter. I’m also learning to play piano… The winter is usually my most productive time… I try to stave off the winter blues this way. Check out Tam's Instagram for news on his upcoming releases and hit the TKV Shop to cop some sweet Vietnamese gear. Keep it locked to Pier Five for more interviews and stories with the coolest entrepreneurs, designers, artists, activists and more.

Doing It Yourself With Carol Pak of Makku The canned beverage space is increasingly competitive, with hundreds of new startup brands entering every year. So, if you're going to enter, you better have something unique to say. Therein lies Carol Pak, founder of SOOL, a Korean beverages company and owner of canned makgeolli beverage brand MAKKU, who is using her experience at ZX Ventures - ABinBev's VC arm - and passion for Korean rice alcohol to offer something fresh and exciting to the North American market. Although it hasn't come without its ups, downs and dozens of learnings, Carol had some great insights to share that can be applied to any small business owner, and of course anyone looking to dip their toes into the world of CPG. Check out some of the hot topics from the conversation below. In the summer of 2023, we noticed a big shift in the brand's social presence around Korean culture. Can you talk about that? At first, I didn't know how much I wanted to position ourselves as a Korean drink because I didn't want to isolate non Koreans. I wanted to be very welcoming, very approachable, and I didn't want to pigeonhole ourselves as a Korean drink for Korean occasions and for Korean customers. So I was very vanilla when it came to our marketing because I didn't want to sway too much but I felt like that really left us with no voice. Recently we did some consumer surveys and a resounding sentiment was, we would like to see more Korean stuff from Makku, whether it's in your packaging, your story, your marketing or your branding. That really motivated me to focus more on Korean culture in general. For us, the most natural area to focus on was the Korean drinking culture, which is a huge part of Korean culture. Later we can move into other segments like food or holiday traditions and things like that. As you grow, have you made any other big shifts in how the brand operates? When it comes to our sales, before, I was relying on our distributors to get into retailers, and they put us in any account that would take our product. We were growing in revenue, and it was great in the short term, but we were seeing a lot of turnover as we lost shelf space to new brands and other promotions. If you go down to your local bodega and offer a promotion for them to buy the case, a lot of times they'll say, yes, but it doesn't mean that's the right account for us. I recently realized that while distributors are our partners, the onus is still on us to steer direction and ensure execution. Another consideration is that these smaller accounts don't provide data on the national level. So if a large retailer will put our brand into scan data, nothing will show up, even though we're in over a thousand accounts. So the investment into the smaller accounts don’t build us much credibility for the larger chains. Can you talk about scan data? What does that mean? There are national companies like IRI and Nielsen that manage this. For accounts like Whole Foods and Total Wine and these other large retailers; if your brand is selling in these stores, they'll report the sales data to IRI or Nielsen. So, when you're trying to sell to other national retailers, they can put in your brand and they can track your growth, sales and all this other data about your brand that these retailers are supplying to them. Since we're mostly selling in smaller accounts or Asian chains that are not providing that kind of data, even though we've been in the market for four years, if an Albertsons or Kroger, looked up our brand in Nielsen or IRI, they wouldn’t be able to find much data. So, it just goes to show that an account is not always equal. I’ve learned we need to rely less heavily on our distributors to be selling on our behalf and instead build a sales team and then get into the retailers that we want to by pitching them directly. Is it daunting pitching to these big retailers? I didn't dare dream of trying to pitch national accounts at first. I just thought it wouldn't be possible without any sales data but I've seen a lot of brands launch after me, like years after me, and their first accounts were like Walmart, Target, Costco. There has been a trend of Asian products in stores and product differentiation is probably helpful there, but at the end of the day, you have to pitch them to know whether you get a yes or no. We just never pitched them. That all gave me confidence though. If you get in front of them, you'll at least be on their radar. You can ask them for information on what they're looking for, what data points they need to see for consideration, when to reach out next. Until you talk to them, you never know so just shoot all your shots. We can definitely see the hustle and passion that you have for the brand. I'm sure that helps when you work on growing the brand with partners? Yes, absolutely. If you're not so passionate about what you're doing and you just think of it as a business opportunity, you're not going to last. Undoubtedly, the best entrepreneurs at every level will still have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and I think the only thing that really keeps you in it is the passion. So, if it's not something that you love and you're happy working 80 hours a week, it's going be really hard. When investors, distributors, retailers and customers are talking to you, they're looking for passion and they can tell if you fake it. That is what makes the difference between the companies that make it and the companies that don't. Make sure to check out Makku's website to find out where you can pick some up and keep it locked to Pier Five for more interviews with entrepreneurs and small business owners coming soon!

Doing It His Way With Rae Mendoza of ICYT They say that pressure produces diamonds and this definitely shows through with Rae Mendoza and I'll Call You Tomorrow, his clothing brand and artist collective based out of Edmonton, AB that has been working hard to put their city on the map amongst the heavy hitters of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. We got the opportunity to chat with Rae about the growth of his collective, how it opened up new doors with his agency Tomorrow Works and tips he has for creatives looking to get noticed. Read some excerpts from the conversation below! Rae on Building Things His Way Being housed and running everything from our home city of Edmonton, Alberta is really freeing for us. It lets us build our community how we want to do it and not as a reflection of something else. We just love this challenge of building new infrastructure and new opportunities for people that resonate with our platform where they don't typically exist. It also just lets us be a bigger fish in a small pond. Rae on Working With Friends I was very fortunate from the start to just always be around just super talented people, whether it was photography, design, music, now tattooing and illustration. Once I started working with them though, I really quickly realized where now as a business owner working with my best friends, it's up to me to set those boundaries of like, "in this space we're professionals working together and I'm holding you accountable for deliverables, and we have a specific function we need to do, and then we can go back to being friends outside of that space." In terms of finding the right people, a lot of it comes down to that gut feeling of knowing that we see things eye to eye, whether it's like good product, good design, taste levels, community, or you just knowing that this person's honestly just a good person. Rae on Finding New Opportunities Tomorrow Works as an agency has this living portfolio that is always constantly putting out new work in the form of I'll Call You Tomorrow. The bulk of our business just comes from people seeing our brand and then knowing that they can do something similar for their brand and their business. It's such a small circle these days of who is interconnected, putting your work out there and just showing that what you can do and how you deliver it at a very high level is the most important thing. Most of those things will kind of just sort themselves out and come to you. Then as a consultant and on the agency side, it comes down to you being ready for those looks as they come. Rae on Passing The Torch We started noticing it happening now as me and my team, we're getting a little bit older, where young kids will come up to our events and our parties and they'll be like, "I'm 22 or 21 and the first pop up or cool art party that I ever went to was one of your events and now I'm starting my own t-shirt line or I want to do certain things in the streetwear and arts community because of that event" and seeing that grow outside of us is some true 'pass the torch' legacy type shit. That's the stuff that keeps me up at night that I love. Make sure to follow I'll Call You Tomorrow and Tomorrow Works on IG for news on all of their upcoming events, projects and clothing releases and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with entrepreneurs coming soon.

June Guest Picks: Kicks with Cereal Artist Guest: Artist & sneaker collector Cereal Artist 1. Nike Sb Dunk Low "Street Hawker" "The 6 different Chinese cities and their signature street food inspiration behind this pair are the perfect representation to celebrate Chinese New Year!" 2. Bad Bunny x Adidas Forum low "Pink Easter Egg" "These are another beautiful holiday themed collab. The extra design details and the different shades of pink just pops!" 3. Puma Suede Mayu UP "Blue-marshmallow" "This blown-up exaggerated proportions take with a bubble-like platform sole are just so cool and gives that old school 90s chunky sneakers vibe I love!" 4. Jordan 1 mid Melody Ehsani "Fearless" "You can't go wrong with this amazing collab by a woman, for women. The mismatched colours and the watch details work so beautifully! 5. Bape x Adidas Superstar "ABC Camo Green" "Lastly, this is another great and somewhat underrated collab. You can't go wrong with the classic superstar silhouette and signature Bape ABC green camo. These took me back to my childhood in Asia!" Check out all of our guest picks for June here and stay tuned to Pier Five for more stories and interviews with the coolest people around.

A Conversation With Obra.Jay Jonathan Rodriguez is the creator behind Obra.Jay, a creative outlet focused on vintage sneakers, fashion & DIY streetwear with a quickly growing, international audience. Coming off the recent release of his 1.0 Obra.Jay sneaker, Jon is making a big splash in the game and when he's not designing, collecting vintage kicks or vetting IG fit-pics, Jon is also a wedding photographer and barista in his home town of Albuquerque, NM. ​ @obra.jay As a leader in fit-pic curation, what are 5 of the hottest poses right now for a great pic? The leg cross Hands together or crossed arms with a nice slouch Leg up with foot on the side of the wall The “candid” walk pose Straight up model shot with the face mask. A big one during these times! What are your top 5 sneaker silhouettes of all-time? Jordan 1 Air Force 1 Nike Dunk (High or Low - both are perfect) Converse Chuck Taylor High (Old model) New Balance 990 (any version!) Once COVID lightens up and we can travel again, where would you love to travel to? ​I'd love to spend a summer in New York. Just do the NY thing! I also have some friends living in Madrid, Spain so I'd love to get out there to see them. Iceland is beautiful. I'd love to shoot some landscapes out there. The Swiss alps would be sweet too and then of course, I'd love to go to Japan to experience the fashion, food and sneaker culture out there! ​ If you could only have 5 shoes for the rest of your life, what would they be? Jordan 1 1985 'Neutral Grey' Nike Dunk High 'Neutral Grey' (with a blueish tint) Any grey New Balance model Nike Air Force 1 w/ the green Swoosh Jordan 1 1985 'Black/White' Lastly, we know the culture's changing all the time but what are 5 trends you love or hate in sneaker culture right now? ​ ​I LOVE that the faded/worn look is in. Vintage tees, worn shoes and painter pants. I HATE the resell market. I'm a part of it but hate that I have to be. I HATE bots (but can't say I haven't tried checking it out. I LOVE the bootleg Jordans trend. It's such a fun way to mix things up. I LOVE & HATE the popularity of dunks. Love it because I love dunks. hate it because prices are going crazy! For more on Obra.Jay, check out his Instagram and keep it locked to Pier Five for more interviews and stories with the coolest entrepreneurs, designers, artists, activists and more.

Writing History With Sam Le Roy of Hartcopy Holding on to the past isn't always a good thing, but in the case of Sam Le Roy and Hartcopy, it couldn't be cooler! As one of Instagram's best new(ish) sneaker pages, storytelling around the coolest pairs of new and old sneakers from around the world, Hartcopy has taken the world by storm with its ethos of embracing traditional print for the digital consumer. We got the chance to speak with Hartcopy's Creative Lead, Sam Le Roy, about what got him involved in "The New Print", where he thinks sneaker culture is going, what it's like diving head first into new creative projects and the importance of confidence to get yourself into your dream position. Read and listen below for the convesation! Getting Started. Hey Sam! Thanks so much for chatting with us. To kick things off, can you tell us how you got involved with Tim and Hartcopy? So before I got started with Hartcopy I was writing for another publication call Sabukaru - great read by the way. I found Hartcopy pretty early on when it launched and then I saw Tim post on Facebook that he had started the page. I sent him a message like "Hey I'm a writer. Can we work on this together?" I wasn't expecting money or anything. Luckily Tim saw my message and I think because of my experiences at Sabukaru, he gave me a shot. This was around March or April of 2020. Damn, just like that? All about shooting your shot! My entire creative journey is all from sending that DM. All opportunities that I've had have been because if sent that message to the right person. I just found a lot of people online and now I can call them friends. Definitely don't be afraid to shoot your shot! (Listen to more below) The Execution. Hartcopy has published nearly 1,400 posts now in not that much time. Firstly, how do you choose what to write about? The biggest thing for Hartcopy is looking into the past and telling the stories of older pairs and silhouettes. A lot of people really fell in love with Hartcopy from our coverage of older grail pairs, older dunks and Jordan sneakers but we really just cover whatever we think is cool. It's really an extension of our own tastes so as long as we think it's cool then we'll post about it. Second question. How do you find the time to do all of this AND pursue a full time career? Luckily, we have a pretty good formula now for creating the content so it doesn't take that long. What is starting to take a lot of time is all of the other partnerships and projects that we are starting to do. I actually just gave my notice this week and will be doing Hartcopy full time now, which is really exciting! Oh wow! What was the thought process like behind that decision? I think it was inevitable at some point for this to happen. I have so many plans for Hartcopy in the future but they would never become a reality if I didn't take the jump now and try it. I had a moment at the Foot Patrol event where I knew that not capitalizing on this would be a massive waste. (Listen to more below) The First Book Signing. Just recently Hartcopy launched its first ever physical print sneaker book with a killer launch event at Foot Patrol in London. What was that like getting to connect with people over Hartcopy in person after being a digital first platform since the beginning? Seeing that many people come together for a product that we made was incredible. It was an amazing feeling and I definitely want to see that again. There's something really charming about bringing people together for a physical product. We've gone through so many followers and likes on Instagram but I can't visualize that. Meeting people in person creates a feeling that I really can't describe. (Photos: Foot Patrol) What's Next? I'm planning books two, three, four and five. Book two is going to be more focused around people than product, but obviously still connected to products. Book three I can't speak about it yet because it's going to be completely out of nowhere [laughs] and I wan't it to be a surprise. Looking forward, now that I'm full time, I want to also be doing things like merchandise like clothing releases in addition to the book releases. I really want to have people getting Hartcopy in hand and a big focus for me is to keep it affordable. We have a lot of things in the works as well that I can't speak about yet but just know we're going to be very busy! And lastly... a reminder from Sam to wear your shoes! Make sure to keep up with Sam and Hartcopy on Instagram for all the best sneaker content and news on their upcoming projects and keep it locked to Pier Five for more conversations with the coolest entrepreneurs, designers, artists, activists and more out there.

A Conversation With Kishan Mistry Kishan Mistry is one of Toronto's most promising up and coming photographers. Having shot some of the city's most iconic moments and talents, Kishan has compiled a very impressive portfolio. Kishan is a regular contributor to the MLB, NBA and hip-hop/rap scene and has photographed the likes of Drake, Travis Scott & Kawhi Leonard's "The Shot". ​ @_kishanmistry What photographers are you paying the most attention to these days? ​ ​I try not to focus on other's work too much so that I can keep my styles my own. That being said, @doncharleone , @jayscale & Marc Blinch are killing it right now. They each have a unique style and have scored some incredible shots. ​ Do you have a top 5 for photos you've taken? ​ Fred VanVleet - Game 6 Playoffs 2019 Kawhi Leonard airborne for "The shot" Demar Derozan and Kyle Lowry hugging post-game Drake & Travis Scott (2018) Portrait of Drake What are 5 tips you'd give to any starting out in photography? Shoot everything! No matter where you go, bring your camera and practice. Fake it ’til you make it. It's not always easy getting your foot in the door early on so do what you can to make your reach seem as big as possible and overtime it will grow naturally. Shoot your shot (no pun intended)! Don't be afraid to reach out to people to shoot. The worst they can say is "no". Use “no” as motivation to keep pushing & be resilient! Network and be kind! A nice attitude will go a long way an create a ton of opportunities.​ ​ What are 5 tricks you use to make your photos pop? ​ Since everyone has their own style, these tricks won't apply to everyone but my 5 tricks are: Invest money into good gear. You'll earn the money back through work! I like to use my music photography edit style for other categories like sports photography. ​Big poses. Vibrant, saturdated colours. Spend lots of time in Lightroom. My special trick is decreasing clarity a bit, but that's just me. Download as many presets as possible and work backwards from them to learn about each element and how they affect your photos. ASK QUESTIONS! Don't be afraid to ask people what gear they use, what settings they use, how they achieved a certain effect. Networking and talking benefits us all.