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Speaker 1: What's goods? What good?
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Speaker 2: What up?
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Speaker 3: As much and you're checking out the Cruise Show podcast?
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Speaker 4: Subscribe right and ship yeoo hey.
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Speaker 5: The Kids of Immigrants new flagship store is officially open here in Los Angeles on Melrose.
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Speaker 3: They are in the Belding. Let's go down your well.
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Speaker 1: It was good, it's good.
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Speaker 3: What's good? Congratulations fellas.
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Speaker 1: Today, today's day ten, open.
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Speaker 3: Day ten at the anniversary ten days.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, every day count every day?
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Speaker 3: Right now, we're opening up a business.
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Speaker 5: Every second counts and every person counts everything, right. They're not necessarily a number. These are people that you hire. This This is a team you know, support your friends, right like, this is a team that you hire and that you trust with your vision every single day when those doors open. Yeah, and we're on Melrose. Congratulations, that's legendary Western.
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Speaker 3: That's it man. Yep. What goes into a flagship store? Eating it? Yeah? I mean I think none of us know what to do.
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Speaker 2: We want to.
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Speaker 3: That's the best part, go in and be childish about it.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 6: Fun.
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Speaker 7: I think what was easy for us is that we've been doing this for ten years, so it was like, you know, a lot of brands start the store early on or somewhere. Sometimes they start as a store first.
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Speaker 3: You know.
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Speaker 7: So we had ten years of history to like look back and say, like, what what of these elements do we want to pull into the store. And for us, it was like we had too much history. We were like, yo, I don't like ten years is a long time?
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Speaker 2: Sure?
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Speaker 1: So present that, yeah, it was. It was hard to like.
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Speaker 7: So it was just more of a curation of the past ten years, like what what things that we did in the past ten years?
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Speaker 1: And like Love Day, for example, it was like, how do we make Love Day here every day?
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Speaker 2: You know?
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Speaker 7: So it was just elements like that and the events that we've had. Now we have a living space that's open every single day, seven days a week. I'm there seven days a week.
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Speaker 5: It sounds like, yeah, we were every day every day, you.
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Speaker 7: Know, I'm turning to that dad that you know, I worked seven days.
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Speaker 8: To put food on this day. To get there every day, I used to walk to work. Yeah, but it is that, right, it's almost a labor of love.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: And then it's part gallery part store, right is that what?
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Speaker 5: So?
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Speaker 7: Yeah, well, yeah, the gallery is a gallery today, but it's the activation space.
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Speaker 1: So it's the space that we.
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Speaker 7: Can interchange into anything and everything. And then we have the parking lot, which is another event space.
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Speaker 4: I don't get a chance to see that the parking lot, No, so we we had we have the park parking lot is also a street soccer pitch and we did an event there before the opening.
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Speaker 7: In May where we closed off four blocks, an event when Nike at YG performed.
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Speaker 1: It was a whole LA function that's it.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a function space as well. It really is, right, but it's also very it's it's it's culture, it's future, it's presence, it's all of that in one shop.
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Speaker 3: Right, what else do we plan on doing with kids of immigrants?
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Speaker 7: Yeah, if we just had a meeting this morning, all right, what's the future. So there's a third space that's closed off, and that would be it's hard to say exactly what is going to be right now, because we wanted to be hospitality in a sense of like food and beverage. But I don't know if LA needs another coffee shop.
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Speaker 1: Okay, maybe maybe we can have limitless coffee shops. I get it, Yeah, maybe why not?
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Speaker 7: But we want that the essence of that along with how that infuses into kids of immigrants.
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Speaker 1: All generations.
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Speaker 7: We're talking about how we're gonna we want the Dognas and the domes of the neighborhood to feel welcome here and not be the cool coffee shop that that everyone's on zoom on their calls and just you know that we want we want that neighborhood to feel part of it. I want the kids to be there, and you know, and everyone else too, like the culture or the cool kids to be there as well. But we want to create a space that you know, the coffee is not going to be nine dollars, you know, or at least for a certain ages, not nine dollars, you know. So I want to create you know, and it's like a thought of a world market if we have, you know, recipes of how to make poopoo be leal or that's some librarian food or for me during food. So yeah, that's going to be the third space that's coming more towards the end of the year.
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Speaker 1: And then now.
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Speaker 7: We're fully activating the space. So we got like Saturday, we're doing something with his brand called Lambs where it's gonna be almost like a creative shark tank. So people are gonna come in show us their things and we give them advice, and then we'll buy into some of the brands as well. Then next week, I don't know. I couldn't announce this yet, but I think we're gonna do something maybe with Pilo.
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Speaker 3: Okay, you know you.
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Speaker 1: Can do it with family, you.
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Speaker 3: Can do it now. We can cut it when it's.
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Speaker 7: Maybe he wants, maybe we should say, and then we have like the homie Angelo from Awake New York. He's gonna do his pop up here at our shop. So you know, our thing was welcome Home for Kids of Immigrants and immigrant culture.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what I was gonna say.
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Speaker 9: I feel like the flagship store comes at such a perfect time because of with every and going on as well, Like at what point in the years I guess, like obviously this is the tenth year of Kids of Immigrants. Aw, what year did you guys start discussing, like, okay, we should start making the flagship. Was it like year eight, year nine? Or was it year ten?
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Speaker 7: Like always part of the plan, but it's just it was last month. How realistic it is. I think it's like seeing where you're at in the journey. I think for us it was that time to evolve. I think what we're going through is more of an evolution even internally of like like we've done.
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Speaker 1: You know, today we stopped. I would be super proud.
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Speaker 7: Of what we've done, but I think, how do you you know, how do you I think for me, it's like, how do we start creating for the next generation and the next you know, I was twenty eight years old when we started this, so I'm thirty eight.
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Speaker 1: I'm not just close to the forty.
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Speaker 3: Hey, come home, yo, Chuck.
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Speaker 1: Chuck is like, I'm.
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Speaker 3: Come on.
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Speaker 7: How do we create that space for the next generation is super important?
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Speaker 1: And I think this kind of this is like.
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Speaker 7: A moment, a full circle moment, like we both come from retail, the retail our whole twenties and teens, and and like what better Like can you imagine like going walking down the street and copping a pair of Nikes at a store called Kids of Immigrants. Yeah, it's insane, And I think.
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Speaker 3: That's like a being more than just buying a pair of shoes at that point.
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Speaker 7: Like we had we we have a Nike account, So imagine instead of going to a full locker, you're like, yo, I'm going to go to just as a fifteen year old, like a teenager being like I'm going to go to the Kids of Immigrants store to get my back to school shoes exactly.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great.
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Speaker 4: What stands out with kids of immigrants is, like I think I mentioned it to you before, Daniels, Like you guys, growing up, we didn't see you know, like we love street where we love hip hop, love all that, but you didn't see people that look like you. So now to like be able to see people that can represent me and like my nephews and nieces is so dope. I know. You guys pour into like a lot of the youth a lot too, right, Can you just talk about that?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's what the space is mostly for.
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Speaker 7: So we're talking to we're working with a few organizations locally and the you know, now, I think a lot of people are referring it to melro Hotel, but the locals like this has just always been Western Melrod's, you know, and that's what that's where the neighborhood is. So we're working with organizations there and now we've been doing so much work with the youth for so long that I feel like what we have now is something that we can create consistency and programming and just long term because a lot of it has been you know, one offs we've done like programs that's probably a few weeks. But now we have a home for all of this and now instead of like going to the school or going to the art program, it's like, nah, come here every Friday at this time.
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Speaker 1: We're also working.
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Speaker 7: On doing like a back to school drives, like how can we get And I think what I like when I think of these ideas that we want to do for the community is my biggest thing has been like not making this the event, and I don't want this to be like the sad come get some school supplies like event. It's like creating a space that's not doesn't It's like, you know, I may help you today, but I may need help tomorrow.
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Speaker 1: So creating a space that has that.
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Speaker 7: You know, we were talking about it this morning when talking about the coffee shop that we want to create. It's like I remember going to the church on the on Saturdays or to the park with my mom and getting groceries in the brown bag that they were giving away, and it's like a little embarrassing, but it was normal because we're in the hood.
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Speaker 5: Your friends are there too, Yeah, exactly with their moms.
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Speaker 1: But it's like, how do.
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Speaker 7: We create that type of support to the community, but not you know, make it feel like it was a fun thing that they did every weekend.
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Speaker 3: You're not there to beg you're there to join us.
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Speaker 7: And it's like, yeah, we're helping you today, but I might need your help tomorrow.
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Speaker 1: This ecosystem.
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Speaker 7: So we were working on a lot of programming there. It's only been ten days.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, take it easy, It's yeah, well.
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Speaker 1: I'm getting there. No, we think about that every day.
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Speaker 9: It's at but like you know, as like you this is your your baby, your business. I mean, out of all these ten years, I mean there's been multiple moments that you guys have probably felt like, Okay, this has felt the most rewarding for each of you. What was that moment if you could pick one, well.
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Speaker 3: Let we'll start. Let we'll start with you whether you said so much ten years, I feel like.
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Speaker 6: Just being able to feel like we've inspired the community that we set out to do. Like everything we've done has been on the basis of like elevating the community. So even when we first started, uh, what we were doing, like we're working with.
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Speaker 2: Inner City Arts and yeah, they're looking for three D.
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Speaker 6: Like a three D printer, and so our first remember at that time, we were like splitting shrimp, burritos and whatnot. To be able to see us going from that getting like facilitating a three D printer to actually having a store where we can now reach out to that program to invite them back in.
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Speaker 1: I think we bought them a three D printer exactly so.
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Speaker 6: And just the idea that they can do it too. You know, it takes a lot of work, and I think that's what we're going with as we go forward.
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Speaker 2: We got different programs like Crafted. We're going to be doing workshops where we're.
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Speaker 6: Getting community creative leads to be able to come in and hopefully teach the kids and not just kids, but people in general, how to just be self sufficient, motivation, self motivation, all those type of things for the community.
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Speaker 7: Because he's going to be doing some cool programming that's more hands on, and I think something that all the problems solving in the world and now we have AI that can solve all of our problems, but most of these problems if you can learn how to solve things with your own hands. It's more of a life skill than it is just you know, if you give me a screw driver, I don't know how.
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Speaker 1: You know, there's a few things I can do. But we're almost.
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Speaker 3: You you and I both.
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Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm like, oh, I do what I'm doing, like the you know, especially now that we have the store, there's something there's a screw a hinge. I mean, we've been fixing the toilet the past week. So I'm like, I need to learn these things more.
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Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, has a as a future husband. Yeah, I have to know what you're doing.
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Speaker 1: Like I'm supposed to build a house one day. You just bought his.
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Speaker 7: First set of power tools, so you're you're I actually bought the power tools today.
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Speaker 3: That's crazy.
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Speaker 7: I didn't go to home Deep Amazon. But still still I'm trying.
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Speaker 1: I'm trying it.
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Speaker 3: There's always task.
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Speaker 1: Task Rabbit. I love.
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Speaker 9: You got the you got the pro membership on time.
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Speaker 7: That's a That's a great thing about Wellen and I just how we started this brand, Like He's We're like the complete opposes in a way, and we were able to I think, as men, really able to put our egos to side and do.
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Speaker 1: What's best for us as.
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Speaker 7: And our intentions and our intentions being a line in ten years later. I think that's probably one of the proudest things, is like, I've been with this guy for thirteen years every single day, and we started the brand ten plus years ago, and to open this store, that's something that's just a brotherhood that you know, I thank God for every single day.
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Speaker 3: This is your emergency contact for show.
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Speaker 7: Yeah, every Sure.
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Speaker 4: If you guys would give ten years ago Daniel and Weller any advice, what would it be?
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Speaker 1: Uh, I don't know.
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Speaker 7: It's a lot, but I think I don't know. I think it's me versus me every single time. So if you can, if you can, just get over yourself as much as possible. But I think the battle of the past ten years as much as easy as it is to talk about circumstances and external things in my life that has caused any delays or pauses or whatever in my life, it's always just me versus me. So the more I get over learn about myself, have grace for myself, remove the guilt and shame and doubt and fear for myself, the more I've been able to just grow as a person in twenty eight I kind of feel bad for him. He was just so I was so hard on myself. I just felt like I didn't deserve anything. I had to work for it, which you do. But it was a mindset of scarcity and lack and almost self sabotage that I'm just learning, like, oh shit, like I need to remove myself from those old.
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Speaker 3: Thoughts behind yourself, get way.
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Speaker 7: I didn't know how to, I didn't know how to do any of those, and it's just we just I just blame it. I would blame things on certain things, if only this, if only that, and it's like now it's just you versus you, and you know, I always knew that that was the issue, but then that that layer of knowing yourself just gets deeper and deeper and deeper, and then like ten years later, you're like wow, I would say, like I think, you know, I think Nipsy said this, and it always stuck. It is like just dream bigger like ten years ago now that it's just like if there was a way that I could have and I'm very happy where I'm at, but I've learned that it's just like the dream is as big as you want it to be you, just you versus you can you believe that you can actually achieve it.
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Speaker 3: What is it tough to stick to the mission statement as you grow?
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Speaker 2: Yeah?
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Speaker 1: I think because I think we're growing as people. Like one thing with me and I mean, like.
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Speaker 7: He said, we used to share burritos because we ain't had no money, and now you know, we have the freedom to do more things. And I think what brings us back the mission itself, I feel like continues to evolve. Now we have a space now it's all about how we are an IRL more than how we tell a story on social media. But I think the baseline, the foundation of us doing this for our family to inspire our community, to spread love and to show like our community how creative we are and that we've always been the creative culture, or at least a big part of it.
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Speaker 1: I don't think that changes.
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Speaker 7: I think how it you know now is I think one thing that's interesting is like the eighteen year old now ten years ago, when you set a brand call. I think I said this before, but like Kiss of Immigrants, we're like, wait, what is that?
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Speaker 3: Now?
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Speaker 1: You have kids of immigrants, you have the pisce of boys, you have Bueno. There's so many Latino or just subculture.
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Speaker 7: Brands of like a lot of African brands that are just showing up and like super Dope.
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Speaker 1: We didn't have that ten years ago. But the kid does have that. That's normal to them. That's not like for us.
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Speaker 7: So I think for us, it's like evolving the mission. It's still the same that kids. I think that kid still deserves it for us to like show some sort of inspiration, but it might be in a different way. It's not seeing immigrant on a shirt for him might be a little bit more normal than it was the first time you saw.
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Speaker 1: You're like, wait, what's the name of this brand?
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Speaker 3: Right right?
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Speaker 2: Yeah?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know.
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Speaker 7: So I think it's just it doesn't change. I think we're growing up. Like I said, I'm closer to Fordy than him to anything else. So now I just want to give this opportunity that I had to the younger generation to Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, my son, he's nine. He has.
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Speaker 5: The footsal jersey that the players were wearing on day. Somebody gave gave it to him off his back a player, so he calls it a game warn jersey.
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Speaker 3: It's crazy.
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Speaker 5: He loves this lime green kids of immigrant Jersey man wore to ice protests. He loves he war to school. He goes, you know, he goes to a different kind of school. So when he wore it, you know, yeah, like you know, teachers are like, oh, we love his shirt.
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Speaker 3: You know what I mean. I'm like, you better fucking recognize that shirt. You feel me. He's a grandkids of immigrants. You know, my kids are grandkids of immigrants, and they they they love it. They love what it means.
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Speaker 5: And they started doing he started doing his own research, and he was watching YouTube stuff and watching you.
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Speaker 3: Guys, and he wants to the store, no store of support.
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Speaker 5: He wants to spend the fast money, you know what I'm saying. So you know, and I'm like, yeah, that's what we should do. You know.
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Speaker 7: We also came bearing gifts here for y'all to look at you, my man, some flagship.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate that.
00:18:50
Speaker 9: Ten years into all of this, looking forward to the future, what do you guys hope that people say about kids of immigrants ten years from now, you got this man.
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Speaker 6: I hope that they feel proud about their beginnings, their origin stories.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: We hope that they dive deeper into those stories.
00:19:07
Speaker 6: To understand who what is it? If you know where you come from, you know how you know kind of set the direction of where you're going. So it's just really taking pride and where you're from. There's different ways to do that. Yeah, Yeah, and just being consistent. I think with ten years, consistencies are huge. I don't want to just title it to the whole immigrant ingenuity and energy, but it's just like something I seen with my parents.
00:19:32
Speaker 2: They showed up every single day.
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Speaker 6: That's something my dad both taught me about life is you know, half the battles showing up yep.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: And then also too, it's weird until it's wise, you know.
00:19:43
Speaker 6: I think a lot of the things that as we're finding ourselves as kids or just as people, that continue to grow. If it's moving your soul, understand that people. If you don't understand it yet, how do you expect anyone else to understand it? The goal is to just remain consistent with that feeling. Hopefully that's shown up for yourself and others while you're doing that. And yeah, just remain consistent with that, because wisdom comes through action and experience, and I feel like that's what we have, That's what we want to share with people. Our goal is to just spread the knowledge. Yeah, we're never victims, We're only victors.
00:20:17
Speaker 3: So that's right. I like that he's on the shirt. Now, put that on the shirt now, Nike signing right next to it. Do it crazy? Now victims, we victors homies.
00:20:32
Speaker 2: Fuck?
00:20:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great.
00:20:35
Speaker 5: You know we hold kids of immigrants so tightly to ourselves, right because it means so much to you guys. Right, But what happens when somebody comes along and says, I want it, I want to purchase it from you guys?
00:20:47
Speaker 1: What happens then I said, we've got shirts for self.
00:20:55
Speaker 3: Put on the logo.
00:20:59
Speaker 7: I think that that's interesting thought because it's like, you know, ten years in you I'm not saying that that's not what never happen.
00:21:07
Speaker 1: I don't know what the future it holds.
00:21:09
Speaker 7: But you know, I think in the sense of startup businesses that you know, you kind of start up a business and you grow it and you get first round of investors and you sell it kind of thing or that was never our aim. Like you know, I think, do one day I want to start a business. I could flip and sell them in five years for one hundred billion dollars. Yeah, I would love that, like one day, but that was never the intention of this. So we never had we have an exit plan. But it's not necessarily to sell the company. It might happen.
00:21:41
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:21:42
Speaker 7: We don't know what the future holds, but I think one thing that we've discussed is that that's never been the first intention of because it's like a brand that's kids of immigrants.
00:21:53
Speaker 1: For the people, by the people.
00:21:56
Speaker 7: It would lose its value and integrity if you sell it. And I think for me, this brand has allowed us to, you know, go into new endeavors of things that he does that I do on the side that you know, I feel like those things could be a little bit more startup and transactional way of like, oh, how do we build this up to be a huge company that we can sell one day? But the brand itself, I feel like it would lose it is the soul of it if if it was on his board of directors man, Yeah, yeah, no, one hundred percent.
00:22:35
Speaker 3: You know.
00:22:35
Speaker 7: Now we're also a little bit older than WHIGINGI like, oh, you can still do things certain ways, but for now, I think I'm putting in another five year bit for every single Like that's my That's like, well that's what we spoke about. Like, yo, for sure the next five years, I'm all the way locked in. And what happens after, you know, I'll be forty three years old, still.
00:23:00
Speaker 3: Young man, You're still you'll still be young.
00:23:03
Speaker 7: Did the street where Coach is a young young Yeah? Yeah, yeah right, you know you these dope brands. I look at the owners, they're like twenty one. I'm like, damn, you're killing.
00:23:16
Speaker 3: It, bro, That's crazy.
00:23:18
Speaker 7: That's I'm happy for them, but it's it's sick. It gets a little younger and you the entry level of it can be fairly easy as far as getting an Instagram and getting a shirt.
00:23:31
Speaker 9: Yeah, they're also opening that new wave of kids who want to be a part of your brand.
00:23:37
Speaker 1: Like that too, So kids of immigrants is it's going to be forever, forever, forever and ever.
00:23:43
Speaker 3: Ever, how did the relationship with Nike come about?
00:23:48
Speaker 4: So?
00:23:49
Speaker 6: Uh?
00:23:50
Speaker 1: Well we did.
00:23:53
Speaker 7: We did Complex Con twenty twenty one and against all odds, We're like, we're not going to sell anything, and we we did thirteen brands up and coming brands of la anything from like coffee shop in Pasadena, True La Cafe to like they were selling plants to like just different brands just showing up. We paid for everything and then when you came to our booth, which we had like our line wrapped the whole weekend, you can you couldn't buy Koi, you had to buy the homies brands. And that was we met like the Nike Global team, which is the relationship that we have. We have the La relationship, but you know that's like a whole matrix of people that you meet over there. But then that was the first time that we were able to talk to Nike Global and they saw what we were doing and just the we positioned ourselves in the market as not just another street where our brand and just this is who we are, Like we see what's going on, but this is this is why you come to Koi, and this is why you can go to other brands too, but this is our distinct positioning.
00:25:09
Speaker 1: And that was the beginning of it.
00:25:11
Speaker 7: That was twenty twenty one, and then since then it's just been conversation after conversation and then what it is today is like I would say, it's a real friendship that we have with the people over there, so I would say it's family. Like they're supporting a lot of our ideas, and anytime they get that we show them an idea that we want to do, they're like, cool, how can we support it? And I think they understand the mission that we're after and what's important to us. And it's cool when you get those partnerships that you feel like you're not like have to compromise your values in order to get a check.
00:25:48
Speaker 1: You know, they're like they under survive.
00:25:50
Speaker 7: Yeah, right, and we've had a lot of those partnerships and it should suck because you're just like, fuck, I don't really want to do this, but they're gonna be.
00:25:58
Speaker 1: It's going to pay for this.
00:25:59
Speaker 3: Need it? We need it.
00:26:00
Speaker 1: We need it. With them, it's been like now five years later, they.
00:26:05
Speaker 3: Like, now I think they understand integrity. Yeah, we really do.
00:26:09
Speaker 5: And we grew up wearing Nikes our whole lives and now look at them, we're in business.
00:26:14
Speaker 3: Yeah that's crazy.
00:26:16
Speaker 1: We bring it to the neighborhood and that's I'm excited.
00:26:19
Speaker 7: I worked at a Sninker store from thirteen till I was like twenty one, so this is.
00:26:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like, I know what to do here. I'm doing it in my whole life.
00:26:32
Speaker 3: Right, I got it. Yeah, I got it.
00:26:35
Speaker 5: Man, Yo for sure forty eight seventy three, Melrose Avenue, KOI Kids of Immigrants, a flagship store officially open for business.
00:26:43
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, let you have something I was gonna say, is there a piece that you guys have created that is like your favorite means something so much too, like means the most to you. It's like so special when you think about it. I'm sure they all do.
00:26:54
Speaker 6: But the first love shirt, I think that was at the time We're We're you think You're on tour. I was working at Blick Art Materials and I just got outed from the Bay and I think that, you know, I had a that was a community project because the hommie that worked with me at Blick we didn't have a computer for the first three years of the brand, so, you know, like people.
00:27:20
Speaker 2: But again, a lot of that was to inspire people to take action.
00:27:23
Speaker 6: You know, it's great to plan, but action trump's all that stuff in terms of like how you're going to put your ideas into how how do you go about manifesting your ideas? So that was like the biggest thing, and then it was a shirt we did direct to garment. We had some old jeans, cut the jeans out, hand painted KOI on the front and stitch I had him stitching. Believe it or not, but but that was stuff that when we were able to express that two people. You know, we have people like, why don't you just go to town and get them screen printed? I feel like, But our whole goal was like, because we knew fashion was in this time of fast fashion and things were hyper disposable. Our whole thing was like, I remember we were talking and like, if you're going through how do we get people? If you're going through your garage or your attic and you come across this old item, but this item reminds you almost like what a baby blanket would do. You think about the experiences, you think about the times you had, you think about the memories, the nostalgia of it. That's how we wanted the feeling of our clothes to be like, because that's what we feel about the people we come across on a daily basis.
00:28:36
Speaker 2: You know, the people in my cart.
00:28:38
Speaker 6: It sounds wild, but the people of MacArthur Park were some of our biggest inspirations was starting this brand, so It's like, we just want people to know, wherever you're at in life, as long as you show up with pride, consistency, work hard.
00:28:51
Speaker 2: You know.
00:28:51
Speaker 6: That's the immigrant spirit and we just hope that that continues. But yeah, that love shirt was probably my favorite piece because of all the people that work.
00:29:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't just me and him, it was literally a community.
00:29:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think support your Friends.
00:29:08
Speaker 7: I mean this shirt too, the shout out to immigrant parents, but I think support your Friends was like the first shirt, well, the love shirt we launched it. We had twenty two shirts sold out in like an hour, and we were like, you couldn't tell us nothing. Support Support your Friends was like the first time that I saw like, wait, we could like scale this and like we were like, oh we could sell we can You know that that was like the first time that we were able to be like, hey, we can pay some bills with this money, because it was like for two years we were like I mean yeah, for a while we just you know, just figuring it out and just a dollar the dream.
00:29:54
Speaker 1: But then Support your Friends was like, wait.
00:29:56
Speaker 7: We can actually scale this message into something that can also help us in the long run, because for a long time, it was just like, yeah, we had to keep several jobs just to keep the brand alive.
00:30:11
Speaker 6: And that piece was like a lot of the ways in which we were able to start these workshops going into grade schools and middle schools about like a lot those pieces were made out of the Salvation Army down the street on Pico.
00:30:25
Speaker 2: It was beautiful to be able to go and show these.
00:30:27
Speaker 6: Kids I think I can't remember who were, but like the Ward on stage, and to be able to get Kline Ward on stage and be able to go into the school and tell kids like some when you look up to this thing that they're wearing, actually was out of the store that's down the street.
00:30:44
Speaker 1: That already had a life, right out of the Salvation Army down the ship.
00:30:47
Speaker 5: We were.
00:30:48
Speaker 7: It was a high school program in Peko Union one too. It was it's not even a high school, was.
00:30:55
Speaker 1: How do you call that? Yeah, yeah, it's the bad high school.
00:31:00
Speaker 3: But brother kids were great though.
00:31:05
Speaker 1: It was fun.
00:31:07
Speaker 3: The best kids are out of that school world.
00:31:09
Speaker 5: That's kind of humans are out of like continuations, man, man, because they deserve it.
00:31:16
Speaker 3: They deserve a chance.
00:31:17
Speaker 5: But it's not about the value the shit, it's about the sentimental value of the shirt.
00:31:20
Speaker 6: Yes, or it is about the value, but it's about like the family value, the environmental value, the pride of who you are value. You know, like everything isn't just a monetary value. We just want to establish or re establish the value in our people because we are extremely valuable to everything that.
00:31:38
Speaker 2: Goes on in the world, you know, and I don't see anyone to ever forget that.
00:31:43
Speaker 6: We're all hyper valuable, especially if you show up every day and you work hard and you make your parents proud. That's what me and him are really fond of. Like, you know, God works on your side for people like that.
00:31:55
Speaker 5: That's it, man, Kids of immigrants, it's on mailros. Congratulations man, flagship stores officially open. We're ten days in, could be twenty by the time you watch this, right, it'll be thirty days in.
00:32:08
Speaker 3: But we here, man, we here. Let's get it. Congratulations God bless man. Let's keep going.
00:32:16
Speaker 9: Pay Jack your Richard of the Cruise Show. Thanks for listening to The Cruise Show podcast. Make sure to subscribe and hey auto download so you don't miss an episode.
00:32:22
Speaker 5: So so
Speaker 1: What's goods? What good?
00:00:03
Speaker 2: What up?
00:00:03
Speaker 3: As much and you're checking out the Cruise Show podcast?
00:00:06
Speaker 4: Subscribe right and ship yeoo hey.
00:00:09
Speaker 5: The Kids of Immigrants new flagship store is officially open here in Los Angeles on Melrose.
00:00:15
Speaker 3: They are in the Belding. Let's go down your well.
00:00:18
Speaker 1: It was good, it's good.
00:00:20
Speaker 3: What's good? Congratulations fellas.
00:00:22
Speaker 1: Today, today's day ten, open.
00:00:25
Speaker 3: Day ten at the anniversary ten days.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, every day count every day?
00:00:31
Speaker 3: Right now, we're opening up a business.
00:00:34
Speaker 5: Every second counts and every person counts everything, right. They're not necessarily a number. These are people that you hire. This This is a team you know, support your friends, right like, this is a team that you hire and that you trust with your vision every single day when those doors open. Yeah, and we're on Melrose. Congratulations, that's legendary Western.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: That's it man. Yep. What goes into a flagship store? Eating it? Yeah? I mean I think none of us know what to do.
00:01:05
Speaker 2: We want to.
00:01:09
Speaker 3: That's the best part, go in and be childish about it.
00:01:12
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:01:12
Speaker 6: Fun.
00:01:13
Speaker 7: I think what was easy for us is that we've been doing this for ten years, so it was like, you know, a lot of brands start the store early on or somewhere. Sometimes they start as a store first.
00:01:27
Speaker 3: You know.
00:01:28
Speaker 7: So we had ten years of history to like look back and say, like, what what of these elements do we want to pull into the store. And for us, it was like we had too much history. We were like, yo, I don't like ten years is a long time?
00:01:43
Speaker 2: Sure?
00:01:43
Speaker 1: So present that, yeah, it was. It was hard to like.
00:01:47
Speaker 7: So it was just more of a curation of the past ten years, like what what things that we did in the past ten years?
00:01:54
Speaker 1: And like Love Day, for example, it was like, how do we make Love Day here every day?
00:01:58
Speaker 2: You know?
00:01:58
Speaker 7: So it was just elements like that and the events that we've had. Now we have a living space that's open every single day, seven days a week. I'm there seven days a week.
00:02:11
Speaker 5: It sounds like, yeah, we were every day every day, you.
00:02:15
Speaker 7: Know, I'm turning to that dad that you know, I worked seven days.
00:02:22
Speaker 8: To put food on this day. To get there every day, I used to walk to work. Yeah, but it is that, right, it's almost a labor of love.
00:02:35
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:02:36
Speaker 4: And then it's part gallery part store, right is that what?
00:02:40
Speaker 5: So?
00:02:40
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, yeah, the gallery is a gallery today, but it's the activation space.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: So it's the space that we.
00:02:46
Speaker 7: Can interchange into anything and everything. And then we have the parking lot, which is another event space.
00:02:54
Speaker 4: I don't get a chance to see that the parking lot, No, so we we had we have the park parking lot is also a street soccer pitch and we did an event there before the opening.
00:03:08
Speaker 7: In May where we closed off four blocks, an event when Nike at YG performed.
00:03:14
Speaker 1: It was a whole LA function that's it.
00:03:17
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a function space as well. It really is, right, but it's also very it's it's it's culture, it's future, it's presence, it's all of that in one shop.
00:03:27
Speaker 3: Right, what else do we plan on doing with kids of immigrants?
00:03:30
Speaker 7: Yeah, if we just had a meeting this morning, all right, what's the future. So there's a third space that's closed off, and that would be it's hard to say exactly what is going to be right now, because we wanted to be hospitality in a sense of like food and beverage. But I don't know if LA needs another coffee shop.
00:03:51
Speaker 1: Okay, maybe maybe we can have limitless coffee shops. I get it, Yeah, maybe why not?
00:03:57
Speaker 7: But we want that the essence of that along with how that infuses into kids of immigrants.
00:04:04
Speaker 1: All generations.
00:04:05
Speaker 7: We're talking about how we're gonna we want the Dognas and the domes of the neighborhood to feel welcome here and not be the cool coffee shop that that everyone's on zoom on their calls and just you know that we want we want that neighborhood to feel part of it. I want the kids to be there, and you know, and everyone else too, like the culture or the cool kids to be there as well. But we want to create a space that you know, the coffee is not going to be nine dollars, you know, or at least for a certain ages, not nine dollars, you know. So I want to create you know, and it's like a thought of a world market if we have, you know, recipes of how to make poopoo be leal or that's some librarian food or for me during food. So yeah, that's going to be the third space that's coming more towards the end of the year.
00:05:02
Speaker 1: And then now.
00:05:04
Speaker 7: We're fully activating the space. So we got like Saturday, we're doing something with his brand called Lambs where it's gonna be almost like a creative shark tank. So people are gonna come in show us their things and we give them advice, and then we'll buy into some of the brands as well. Then next week, I don't know. I couldn't announce this yet, but I think we're gonna do something maybe with Pilo.
00:05:32
Speaker 3: Okay, you know you.
00:05:33
Speaker 1: Can do it with family, you.
00:05:34
Speaker 3: Can do it now. We can cut it when it's.
00:05:36
Speaker 7: Maybe he wants, maybe we should say, and then we have like the homie Angelo from Awake New York. He's gonna do his pop up here at our shop. So you know, our thing was welcome Home for Kids of Immigrants and immigrant culture.
00:05:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what I was gonna say.
00:05:55
Speaker 9: I feel like the flagship store comes at such a perfect time because of with every and going on as well, Like at what point in the years I guess, like obviously this is the tenth year of Kids of Immigrants. Aw, what year did you guys start discussing, like, okay, we should start making the flagship. Was it like year eight, year nine? Or was it year ten?
00:06:14
Speaker 7: Like always part of the plan, but it's just it was last month. How realistic it is. I think it's like seeing where you're at in the journey. I think for us it was that time to evolve. I think what we're going through is more of an evolution even internally of like like we've done.
00:06:33
Speaker 1: You know, today we stopped. I would be super proud.
00:06:37
Speaker 7: Of what we've done, but I think, how do you you know, how do you I think for me, it's like, how do we start creating for the next generation and the next you know, I was twenty eight years old when we started this, so I'm thirty eight.
00:06:50
Speaker 1: I'm not just close to the forty.
00:06:52
Speaker 3: Hey, come home, yo, Chuck.
00:06:54
Speaker 1: Chuck is like, I'm.
00:06:57
Speaker 3: Come on.
00:06:58
Speaker 7: How do we create that space for the next generation is super important?
00:07:04
Speaker 1: And I think this kind of this is like.
00:07:07
Speaker 7: A moment, a full circle moment, like we both come from retail, the retail our whole twenties and teens, and and like what better Like can you imagine like going walking down the street and copping a pair of Nikes at a store called Kids of Immigrants. Yeah, it's insane, And I think.
00:07:26
Speaker 3: That's like a being more than just buying a pair of shoes at that point.
00:07:29
Speaker 7: Like we had we we have a Nike account, So imagine instead of going to a full locker, you're like, yo, I'm going to go to just as a fifteen year old, like a teenager being like I'm going to go to the Kids of Immigrants store to get my back to school shoes exactly.
00:07:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great.
00:07:47
Speaker 4: What stands out with kids of immigrants is, like I think I mentioned it to you before, Daniels, Like you guys, growing up, we didn't see you know, like we love street where we love hip hop, love all that, but you didn't see people that look like you. So now to like be able to see people that can represent me and like my nephews and nieces is so dope. I know. You guys pour into like a lot of the youth a lot too, right, Can you just talk about that?
00:08:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's what the space is mostly for.
00:08:12
Speaker 7: So we're talking to we're working with a few organizations locally and the you know, now, I think a lot of people are referring it to melro Hotel, but the locals like this has just always been Western Melrod's, you know, and that's what that's where the neighborhood is. So we're working with organizations there and now we've been doing so much work with the youth for so long that I feel like what we have now is something that we can create consistency and programming and just long term because a lot of it has been you know, one offs we've done like programs that's probably a few weeks. But now we have a home for all of this and now instead of like going to the school or going to the art program, it's like, nah, come here every Friday at this time.
00:08:57
Speaker 1: We're also working.
00:08:58
Speaker 7: On doing like a back to school drives, like how can we get And I think what I like when I think of these ideas that we want to do for the community is my biggest thing has been like not making this the event, and I don't want this to be like the sad come get some school supplies like event. It's like creating a space that's not doesn't It's like, you know, I may help you today, but I may need help tomorrow.
00:09:23
Speaker 1: So creating a space that has that.
00:09:26
Speaker 7: You know, we were talking about it this morning when talking about the coffee shop that we want to create. It's like I remember going to the church on the on Saturdays or to the park with my mom and getting groceries in the brown bag that they were giving away, and it's like a little embarrassing, but it was normal because we're in the hood.
00:09:42
Speaker 5: Your friends are there too, Yeah, exactly with their moms.
00:09:46
Speaker 1: But it's like, how do.
00:09:47
Speaker 7: We create that type of support to the community, but not you know, make it feel like it was a fun thing that they did every weekend.
00:09:56
Speaker 3: You're not there to beg you're there to join us.
00:09:58
Speaker 7: And it's like, yeah, we're helping you today, but I might need your help tomorrow.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: This ecosystem.
00:10:04
Speaker 7: So we were working on a lot of programming there. It's only been ten days.
00:10:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, take it easy, It's yeah, well.
00:10:12
Speaker 1: I'm getting there. No, we think about that every day.
00:10:16
Speaker 9: It's at but like you know, as like you this is your your baby, your business. I mean, out of all these ten years, I mean there's been multiple moments that you guys have probably felt like, Okay, this has felt the most rewarding for each of you. What was that moment if you could pick one, well.
00:10:35
Speaker 3: Let we'll start. Let we'll start with you whether you said so much ten years, I feel like.
00:10:42
Speaker 6: Just being able to feel like we've inspired the community that we set out to do. Like everything we've done has been on the basis of like elevating the community. So even when we first started, uh, what we were doing, like we're working with.
00:10:54
Speaker 2: Inner City Arts and yeah, they're looking for three D.
00:10:59
Speaker 6: Like a three D printer, and so our first remember at that time, we were like splitting shrimp, burritos and whatnot. To be able to see us going from that getting like facilitating a three D printer to actually having a store where we can now reach out to that program to invite them back in.
00:11:16
Speaker 1: I think we bought them a three D printer exactly so.
00:11:21
Speaker 6: And just the idea that they can do it too. You know, it takes a lot of work, and I think that's what we're going with as we go forward.
00:11:28
Speaker 2: We got different programs like Crafted. We're going to be doing workshops where we're.
00:11:31
Speaker 6: Getting community creative leads to be able to come in and hopefully teach the kids and not just kids, but people in general, how to just be self sufficient, motivation, self motivation, all those type of things for the community.
00:11:45
Speaker 7: Because he's going to be doing some cool programming that's more hands on, and I think something that all the problems solving in the world and now we have AI that can solve all of our problems, but most of these problems if you can learn how to solve things with your own hands. It's more of a life skill than it is just you know, if you give me a screw driver, I don't know how.
00:12:06
Speaker 1: You know, there's a few things I can do. But we're almost.
00:12:09
Speaker 3: You you and I both.
00:12:11
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm like, oh, I do what I'm doing, like the you know, especially now that we have the store, there's something there's a screw a hinge. I mean, we've been fixing the toilet the past week. So I'm like, I need to learn these things more.
00:12:28
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, has a as a future husband. Yeah, I have to know what you're doing.
00:12:34
Speaker 1: Like I'm supposed to build a house one day. You just bought his.
00:12:41
Speaker 7: First set of power tools, so you're you're I actually bought the power tools today.
00:12:47
Speaker 3: That's crazy.
00:12:48
Speaker 7: I didn't go to home Deep Amazon. But still still I'm trying.
00:12:52
Speaker 1: I'm trying it.
00:12:54
Speaker 3: There's always task.
00:12:56
Speaker 1: Task Rabbit. I love.
00:13:00
Speaker 9: You got the you got the pro membership on time.
00:13:02
Speaker 7: That's a That's a great thing about Wellen and I just how we started this brand, Like He's We're like the complete opposes in a way, and we were able to I think, as men, really able to put our egos to side and do.
00:13:18
Speaker 1: What's best for us as.
00:13:21
Speaker 7: And our intentions and our intentions being a line in ten years later. I think that's probably one of the proudest things, is like, I've been with this guy for thirteen years every single day, and we started the brand ten plus years ago, and to open this store, that's something that's just a brotherhood that you know, I thank God for every single day.
00:13:41
Speaker 3: This is your emergency contact for show.
00:13:43
Speaker 7: Yeah, every Sure.
00:13:50
Speaker 4: If you guys would give ten years ago Daniel and Weller any advice, what would it be?
00:13:58
Speaker 1: Uh, I don't know.
00:14:00
Speaker 7: It's a lot, but I think I don't know. I think it's me versus me every single time. So if you can, if you can, just get over yourself as much as possible. But I think the battle of the past ten years as much as easy as it is to talk about circumstances and external things in my life that has caused any delays or pauses or whatever in my life, it's always just me versus me. So the more I get over learn about myself, have grace for myself, remove the guilt and shame and doubt and fear for myself, the more I've been able to just grow as a person in twenty eight I kind of feel bad for him. He was just so I was so hard on myself. I just felt like I didn't deserve anything. I had to work for it, which you do. But it was a mindset of scarcity and lack and almost self sabotage that I'm just learning, like, oh shit, like I need to remove myself from those old.
00:14:59
Speaker 3: Thoughts behind yourself, get way.
00:15:03
Speaker 7: I didn't know how to, I didn't know how to do any of those, and it's just we just I just blame it. I would blame things on certain things, if only this, if only that, and it's like now it's just you versus you, and you know, I always knew that that was the issue, but then that that layer of knowing yourself just gets deeper and deeper and deeper, and then like ten years later, you're like wow, I would say, like I think, you know, I think Nipsy said this, and it always stuck. It is like just dream bigger like ten years ago now that it's just like if there was a way that I could have and I'm very happy where I'm at, but I've learned that it's just like the dream is as big as you want it to be you, just you versus you can you believe that you can actually achieve it.
00:15:53
Speaker 3: What is it tough to stick to the mission statement as you grow?
00:15:58
Speaker 2: Yeah?
00:15:58
Speaker 1: I think because I think we're growing as people. Like one thing with me and I mean, like.
00:16:03
Speaker 7: He said, we used to share burritos because we ain't had no money, and now you know, we have the freedom to do more things. And I think what brings us back the mission itself, I feel like continues to evolve. Now we have a space now it's all about how we are an IRL more than how we tell a story on social media. But I think the baseline, the foundation of us doing this for our family to inspire our community, to spread love and to show like our community how creative we are and that we've always been the creative culture, or at least a big part of it.
00:16:40
Speaker 1: I don't think that changes.
00:16:41
Speaker 7: I think how it you know now is I think one thing that's interesting is like the eighteen year old now ten years ago, when you set a brand call. I think I said this before, but like Kiss of Immigrants, we're like, wait, what is that?
00:16:54
Speaker 3: Now?
00:16:54
Speaker 1: You have kids of immigrants, you have the pisce of boys, you have Bueno. There's so many Latino or just subculture.
00:17:04
Speaker 7: Brands of like a lot of African brands that are just showing up and like super Dope.
00:17:11
Speaker 1: We didn't have that ten years ago. But the kid does have that. That's normal to them. That's not like for us.
00:17:17
Speaker 7: So I think for us, it's like evolving the mission. It's still the same that kids. I think that kid still deserves it for us to like show some sort of inspiration, but it might be in a different way. It's not seeing immigrant on a shirt for him might be a little bit more normal than it was the first time you saw.
00:17:37
Speaker 1: You're like, wait, what's the name of this brand?
00:17:38
Speaker 3: Right right?
00:17:39
Speaker 2: Yeah?
00:17:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know.
00:17:41
Speaker 7: So I think it's just it doesn't change. I think we're growing up. Like I said, I'm closer to Fordy than him to anything else. So now I just want to give this opportunity that I had to the younger generation to Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, my son, he's nine. He has.
00:17:57
Speaker 5: The footsal jersey that the players were wearing on day. Somebody gave gave it to him off his back a player, so he calls it a game warn jersey.
00:18:05
Speaker 3: It's crazy.
00:18:06
Speaker 5: He loves this lime green kids of immigrant Jersey man wore to ice protests. He loves he war to school. He goes, you know, he goes to a different kind of school. So when he wore it, you know, yeah, like you know, teachers are like, oh, we love his shirt.
00:18:19
Speaker 3: You know what I mean. I'm like, you better fucking recognize that shirt. You feel me. He's a grandkids of immigrants. You know, my kids are grandkids of immigrants, and they they they love it. They love what it means.
00:18:29
Speaker 5: And they started doing he started doing his own research, and he was watching YouTube stuff and watching you.
00:18:33
Speaker 3: Guys, and he wants to the store, no store of support.
00:18:38
Speaker 5: He wants to spend the fast money, you know what I'm saying. So you know, and I'm like, yeah, that's what we should do. You know.
00:18:44
Speaker 7: We also came bearing gifts here for y'all to look at you, my man, some flagship.
00:18:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate that.
00:18:50
Speaker 9: Ten years into all of this, looking forward to the future, what do you guys hope that people say about kids of immigrants ten years from now, you got this man.
00:18:59
Speaker 6: I hope that they feel proud about their beginnings, their origin stories.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: We hope that they dive deeper into those stories.
00:19:07
Speaker 6: To understand who what is it? If you know where you come from, you know how you know kind of set the direction of where you're going. So it's just really taking pride and where you're from. There's different ways to do that. Yeah, Yeah, and just being consistent. I think with ten years, consistencies are huge. I don't want to just title it to the whole immigrant ingenuity and energy, but it's just like something I seen with my parents.
00:19:32
Speaker 2: They showed up every single day.
00:19:33
Speaker 6: That's something my dad both taught me about life is you know, half the battles showing up yep.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: And then also too, it's weird until it's wise, you know.
00:19:43
Speaker 6: I think a lot of the things that as we're finding ourselves as kids or just as people, that continue to grow. If it's moving your soul, understand that people. If you don't understand it yet, how do you expect anyone else to understand it? The goal is to just remain consistent with that feeling. Hopefully that's shown up for yourself and others while you're doing that. And yeah, just remain consistent with that, because wisdom comes through action and experience, and I feel like that's what we have, That's what we want to share with people. Our goal is to just spread the knowledge. Yeah, we're never victims, We're only victors.
00:20:17
Speaker 3: So that's right. I like that he's on the shirt. Now, put that on the shirt now, Nike signing right next to it. Do it crazy? Now victims, we victors homies.
00:20:32
Speaker 2: Fuck?
00:20:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great.
00:20:35
Speaker 5: You know we hold kids of immigrants so tightly to ourselves, right because it means so much to you guys. Right, But what happens when somebody comes along and says, I want it, I want to purchase it from you guys?
00:20:47
Speaker 1: What happens then I said, we've got shirts for self.
00:20:55
Speaker 3: Put on the logo.
00:20:59
Speaker 7: I think that that's interesting thought because it's like, you know, ten years in you I'm not saying that that's not what never happen.
00:21:07
Speaker 1: I don't know what the future it holds.
00:21:09
Speaker 7: But you know, I think in the sense of startup businesses that you know, you kind of start up a business and you grow it and you get first round of investors and you sell it kind of thing or that was never our aim. Like you know, I think, do one day I want to start a business. I could flip and sell them in five years for one hundred billion dollars. Yeah, I would love that, like one day, but that was never the intention of this. So we never had we have an exit plan. But it's not necessarily to sell the company. It might happen.
00:21:41
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:21:42
Speaker 7: We don't know what the future holds, but I think one thing that we've discussed is that that's never been the first intention of because it's like a brand that's kids of immigrants.
00:21:53
Speaker 1: For the people, by the people.
00:21:56
Speaker 7: It would lose its value and integrity if you sell it. And I think for me, this brand has allowed us to, you know, go into new endeavors of things that he does that I do on the side that you know, I feel like those things could be a little bit more startup and transactional way of like, oh, how do we build this up to be a huge company that we can sell one day? But the brand itself, I feel like it would lose it is the soul of it if if it was on his board of directors man, Yeah, yeah, no, one hundred percent.
00:22:35
Speaker 3: You know.
00:22:35
Speaker 7: Now we're also a little bit older than WHIGINGI like, oh, you can still do things certain ways, but for now, I think I'm putting in another five year bit for every single Like that's my That's like, well that's what we spoke about. Like, yo, for sure the next five years, I'm all the way locked in. And what happens after, you know, I'll be forty three years old, still.
00:23:00
Speaker 3: Young man, You're still you'll still be young.
00:23:03
Speaker 7: Did the street where Coach is a young young Yeah? Yeah, yeah right, you know you these dope brands. I look at the owners, they're like twenty one. I'm like, damn, you're killing.
00:23:16
Speaker 3: It, bro, That's crazy.
00:23:18
Speaker 7: That's I'm happy for them, but it's it's sick. It gets a little younger and you the entry level of it can be fairly easy as far as getting an Instagram and getting a shirt.
00:23:31
Speaker 9: Yeah, they're also opening that new wave of kids who want to be a part of your brand.
00:23:37
Speaker 1: Like that too, So kids of immigrants is it's going to be forever, forever, forever and ever.
00:23:43
Speaker 3: Ever, how did the relationship with Nike come about?
00:23:48
Speaker 4: So?
00:23:49
Speaker 6: Uh?
00:23:50
Speaker 1: Well we did.
00:23:53
Speaker 7: We did Complex Con twenty twenty one and against all odds, We're like, we're not going to sell anything, and we we did thirteen brands up and coming brands of la anything from like coffee shop in Pasadena, True La Cafe to like they were selling plants to like just different brands just showing up. We paid for everything and then when you came to our booth, which we had like our line wrapped the whole weekend, you can you couldn't buy Koi, you had to buy the homies brands. And that was we met like the Nike Global team, which is the relationship that we have. We have the La relationship, but you know that's like a whole matrix of people that you meet over there. But then that was the first time that we were able to talk to Nike Global and they saw what we were doing and just the we positioned ourselves in the market as not just another street where our brand and just this is who we are, Like we see what's going on, but this is this is why you come to Koi, and this is why you can go to other brands too, but this is our distinct positioning.
00:25:09
Speaker 1: And that was the beginning of it.
00:25:11
Speaker 7: That was twenty twenty one, and then since then it's just been conversation after conversation and then what it is today is like I would say, it's a real friendship that we have with the people over there, so I would say it's family. Like they're supporting a lot of our ideas, and anytime they get that we show them an idea that we want to do, they're like, cool, how can we support it? And I think they understand the mission that we're after and what's important to us. And it's cool when you get those partnerships that you feel like you're not like have to compromise your values in order to get a check.
00:25:48
Speaker 1: You know, they're like they under survive.
00:25:50
Speaker 7: Yeah, right, and we've had a lot of those partnerships and it should suck because you're just like, fuck, I don't really want to do this, but they're gonna be.
00:25:58
Speaker 1: It's going to pay for this.
00:25:59
Speaker 3: Need it? We need it.
00:26:00
Speaker 1: We need it. With them, it's been like now five years later, they.
00:26:05
Speaker 3: Like, now I think they understand integrity. Yeah, we really do.
00:26:09
Speaker 5: And we grew up wearing Nikes our whole lives and now look at them, we're in business.
00:26:14
Speaker 3: Yeah that's crazy.
00:26:16
Speaker 1: We bring it to the neighborhood and that's I'm excited.
00:26:19
Speaker 7: I worked at a Sninker store from thirteen till I was like twenty one, so this is.
00:26:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like, I know what to do here. I'm doing it in my whole life.
00:26:32
Speaker 3: Right, I got it. Yeah, I got it.
00:26:35
Speaker 5: Man, Yo for sure forty eight seventy three, Melrose Avenue, KOI Kids of Immigrants, a flagship store officially open for business.
00:26:43
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, let you have something I was gonna say, is there a piece that you guys have created that is like your favorite means something so much too, like means the most to you. It's like so special when you think about it. I'm sure they all do.
00:26:54
Speaker 6: But the first love shirt, I think that was at the time We're We're you think You're on tour. I was working at Blick Art Materials and I just got outed from the Bay and I think that, you know, I had a that was a community project because the hommie that worked with me at Blick we didn't have a computer for the first three years of the brand, so, you know, like people.
00:27:20
Speaker 2: But again, a lot of that was to inspire people to take action.
00:27:23
Speaker 6: You know, it's great to plan, but action trump's all that stuff in terms of like how you're going to put your ideas into how how do you go about manifesting your ideas? So that was like the biggest thing, and then it was a shirt we did direct to garment. We had some old jeans, cut the jeans out, hand painted KOI on the front and stitch I had him stitching. Believe it or not, but but that was stuff that when we were able to express that two people. You know, we have people like, why don't you just go to town and get them screen printed? I feel like, But our whole goal was like, because we knew fashion was in this time of fast fashion and things were hyper disposable. Our whole thing was like, I remember we were talking and like, if you're going through how do we get people? If you're going through your garage or your attic and you come across this old item, but this item reminds you almost like what a baby blanket would do. You think about the experiences, you think about the times you had, you think about the memories, the nostalgia of it. That's how we wanted the feeling of our clothes to be like, because that's what we feel about the people we come across on a daily basis.
00:28:36
Speaker 2: You know, the people in my cart.
00:28:38
Speaker 6: It sounds wild, but the people of MacArthur Park were some of our biggest inspirations was starting this brand, so It's like, we just want people to know, wherever you're at in life, as long as you show up with pride, consistency, work hard.
00:28:51
Speaker 2: You know.
00:28:51
Speaker 6: That's the immigrant spirit and we just hope that that continues. But yeah, that love shirt was probably my favorite piece because of all the people that work.
00:29:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't just me and him, it was literally a community.
00:29:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think support your Friends.
00:29:08
Speaker 7: I mean this shirt too, the shout out to immigrant parents, but I think support your Friends was like the first shirt, well, the love shirt we launched it. We had twenty two shirts sold out in like an hour, and we were like, you couldn't tell us nothing. Support Support your Friends was like the first time that I saw like, wait, we could like scale this and like we were like, oh we could sell we can You know that that was like the first time that we were able to be like, hey, we can pay some bills with this money, because it was like for two years we were like I mean yeah, for a while we just you know, just figuring it out and just a dollar the dream.
00:29:54
Speaker 1: But then Support your Friends was like, wait.
00:29:56
Speaker 7: We can actually scale this message into something that can also help us in the long run, because for a long time, it was just like, yeah, we had to keep several jobs just to keep the brand alive.
00:30:11
Speaker 6: And that piece was like a lot of the ways in which we were able to start these workshops going into grade schools and middle schools about like a lot those pieces were made out of the Salvation Army down the street on Pico.
00:30:25
Speaker 2: It was beautiful to be able to go and show these.
00:30:27
Speaker 6: Kids I think I can't remember who were, but like the Ward on stage, and to be able to get Kline Ward on stage and be able to go into the school and tell kids like some when you look up to this thing that they're wearing, actually was out of the store that's down the street.
00:30:44
Speaker 1: That already had a life, right out of the Salvation Army down the ship.
00:30:47
Speaker 5: We were.
00:30:48
Speaker 7: It was a high school program in Peko Union one too. It was it's not even a high school, was.
00:30:55
Speaker 1: How do you call that? Yeah, yeah, it's the bad high school.
00:31:00
Speaker 3: But brother kids were great though.
00:31:05
Speaker 1: It was fun.
00:31:07
Speaker 3: The best kids are out of that school world.
00:31:09
Speaker 5: That's kind of humans are out of like continuations, man, man, because they deserve it.
00:31:16
Speaker 3: They deserve a chance.
00:31:17
Speaker 5: But it's not about the value the shit, it's about the sentimental value of the shirt.
00:31:20
Speaker 6: Yes, or it is about the value, but it's about like the family value, the environmental value, the pride of who you are value. You know, like everything isn't just a monetary value. We just want to establish or re establish the value in our people because we are extremely valuable to everything that.
00:31:38
Speaker 2: Goes on in the world, you know, and I don't see anyone to ever forget that.
00:31:43
Speaker 6: We're all hyper valuable, especially if you show up every day and you work hard and you make your parents proud. That's what me and him are really fond of. Like, you know, God works on your side for people like that.
00:31:55
Speaker 5: That's it, man, Kids of immigrants, it's on mailros. Congratulations man, flagship stores officially open. We're ten days in, could be twenty by the time you watch this, right, it'll be thirty days in.
00:32:08
Speaker 3: But we here, man, we here. Let's get it. Congratulations God bless man. Let's keep going.
00:32:16
Speaker 9: Pay Jack your Richard of the Cruise Show. Thanks for listening to The Cruise Show podcast. Make sure to subscribe and hey auto download so you don't miss an episode.
00:32:22
Speaker 5: So so
