The Exchanges

Q And so I kind of wanted to start there with just, what did you see? Because you were the only one that did it. Everybody else passed.

A I wish I could say that I was a visionary on these type of things. Um, I wasn't. I saw great founders that cared about what they were doing. Um, and actually tell, I went on to Shark Tank, uh, because when they gave me the option, I would tell people it was oh seven, oh eight. I had 10 clothing companies and eight of them were dead because nobody's buying clothing when they can't pay their mortgage. So the, I went on to diversify my portfolio And not get only pitch clothing company, because I was known as the clothing company guy, so the last thing that I wanted to buy was clothing. I invested in these guys, um, but I, I found, I found that I had always had this theory that in business you have to make it first, then you should master your craft, and then you can matter. I can't help anybody else if I can't help myself. These guys flipped me on the head and said, no D, you can make it and you can matter at the same time because when we're buying, when we're selling a pair of socks, we're giving a pair away to those in the homeless community because that's the number one requested clothing item. And, and what they did was show people that, uh, you know, a kid and a mom and anybody who's buying today want to know not only what did you do for me, but what do you do for somebody else? So a kid will sit across a table from a parent and say, You know, you invested the office at the e…

AI assessment note: “I saw great founders that cared about what they were doing.”

Q are pretty incredible about some of the hacky things you did in the beginning. Like stuff that now I think kids who are more risk averse Like, increasingly, they don't do as crazy of things. There's a lot of online interaction. Probably things that, you know, you did, people think, oh, I would never do that now. Like, what were some of the craziest unhinged hacks you did to start?

A I remember when I saw the food with you. Now I sound like your grandfather. I ain't had no shoes. When I saw the food with, there was no internet. And there was barely cell phone. I had to stand outside the Apollo Theater after those people got out in Harlem after watching the comedy show The Apollo. And my customer feedback was what they told me about my shirts and my mother. I had to come home like this. Yo, we gotta make the shirts, we gotta change the blue on that. So, um, and then when I sold you a shirt, there was no internet. I had to find you the next day. I had to go to your house. So other things that I hacked, they used common sense, they used simple things. Uh, I happen to know, uh, a lot of artists, video artists, and I mean, music artists and various other things. I knew their cousins, their brothers, their uncles, I would know they would shoot videos. I took 10 shirts for two years, The same 10. I'd go to every video set I could. I went to 40 video sets. I got kicked off of 18 of them, but the 22 that I got on, I would put an artist, and he'd shoot the video, and I'd take it back. Put another artist, take it back. Um, I remember, uh, I didn't have any money to advertise, but I remember seeing all those nasty storm gates outside the store they pulled down. I go to every place I can. I go, hey, if you can let me Paint a beautiful white sign of this company that I'm…

AI assessment note: “I took 10 shirts for two years... I went to 40 video sets.”

Q And, and I was curious, have you had one of those?

A Plenty of times I've had that. I have it now. I have it now. You know, I was speaking someplace and they said to me, What are your hobbies? I said, oh, you know, snowboarding, going to UFC fights, and fishing. And I said, wait a minute. I really haven't done none of that in the last year. They said, why? I said, because my head is in my hand. Why is your head in your hand, Damon? Because AI is going to turn this country into a civil war. Because when the have-nots don't have anything, they're coming after us. So what am I doing right now with this AI that's clear, that's gonna put me, my company, and my people in the right place to be that small percentage that's gonna be able to thrive because if I don't think and see where that puck is going right now, we're all in trouble in my company and in every company. We're all in trouble. And then I start thinking about it. Wait a minute. What is AI gonna lose and not have? Never gonna have community. People gonna need to piss shit and eat. People gonna need medicine. If we are going into some kind of war or problem because 80% of the people are going to be replaced by autonomous vehicles who are truck drivers, retail is gone, and then all of a sudden you got, ah, Amazon just, ah, bought 750,000 robots, so nothing there. If all those people are gonna need to feed their families and they're gonna come after some of us, well then, I sho…

AI assessment note: “Plenty of times I've had that. I have it now.”

Q It's hardcore. And, you know, whether I believe all of that or not, there's a truth to it. Like, I have never, have you ever met a successful entrepreneur that hasn't had to go through some type of lawsuit?

A Absolutely, you know, you, you, you have to. Um, When you, you know, because, because, because the reason why I think as an entrepreneur you go through a lot of lawsuits is number one, you're taking a lot of swings. Number two, you're really trying to attach to other people because you, you're this hopeless romantic that everybody wants to strive for better things in life. And then you do get someplace, you start to move up here. And these people start to resent you or not understand. You know, you never hear the story of, you always hear, you know, I helped start the company. No, you weren't shit. You didn't help start the company. You came along after we kind of started the company. You wanted a free ride. We had to move on, and now you're the one complaining. Uh, there's a big old five on all the FUBU jerseys. You ever seen this old five? It's a Mnodular Five. Why? Because I always wanted to be five partners. There's only four of us. There's 10 people with that, with that fifth partner that never stuck around. So there's 10 people out there going, you know, I'm the fifth member of FUBU. There's 10 of the fifth Beatles running around.

AI assessment note: “the reason why I think as an entrepreneur you go through a lot of lawsuits”

Q I love that. Why did you do that? Why not just keep it all for yourself?

A Cause first of all, I can't use it all myself. Second of all, it really happened because one of my buddies who was a CEO of a very successful company said, why don't you help me? And I said, I'm the people shark. I'm helping the people. He's like, yeah, I know you're helping the people, but I know this man. And I know this person is some of the, one of the purest people on the planet. And I, and I, he said, I understand you helping everyday entrepreneurs. I think you should, but if you help me, you got more people like me thinking like you and I'm going to help millions of people. And I said, Holy shit, I'm becoming the thing I was fighting against. And I decided to help him, and he decided to help so many more people. So if I can build an army of a couple people like that, um, you know, it's just, it's just great. See, it's why you help people. That's why we help people. You know, the people in our industry who, they come, they go, they show jets, they show cars, they try to sell you this thing. Nothing against them, but the people who are lasting a long time, they get on, they keep talking, they put out more and more books, they help more, they just want to help because we've been rewarded for the people who helped us.

AI assessment note: “Cause first of all, I can't use it all myself.”

Q What is, do any other clothing companies do that? Like I've never heard of somebody having like a Avon sort of style model.

A I'm sure they do. Um, I'm sure that like, uh, I know, I know, uh, my boy, he was young and reckless, but he owns something called, I've got the jean company. What he would do is put in a box. Um, a guy would pay 50 dollars for it. Five, four denim, I think, and a man would get a hundred dollars worth of clothing for 50 dollars a month in this box, and why was that a good model? Well, in the clothing business, the way the retail works, if I made it for 25, I sell it to Macy's for 50, and they sell it for a hundred. I'm, the clothing company's still making the 25 dollars it was sent to put in the box. However, here's the thing about, especially guys, but anybody, If I know now that I got a, I got a 100,000 guys, well, I know how many 34 I need, how many 30 sixes I need, how many 38, all the sizes. I got a lower form of return. Women is a little different because the woman, once she first buys a brand, if you sell her something, she's going to buy two sizes because she doesn't know if she's a 10 or she doesn't know if she's a 12. She doesn't know what, and the jeans fit a little different, but I'm going to have a lower amount of returns. I'm going to know who the customer is. And you know what they started doing after that? They started saying, Hey, Gillette, You want to put your new razor in all the boxes? You give me a million dollars. So there's different ways to have these sub…

AI assessment note: “So there's different ways to have these subscription, these, these subscriptions slash tiered models.”