I was crazy heart-broken back in 2008. I was with this one girl for 10 years and things fell apart. That, plus I was just overall sick of my life. I was sick of working for 'the Man', not being able to elevate in life, being set in life rather than being able to actually live MY life. I was overall just super depressed. I realized the only cure for my depression was when I was creating art and design for the sake of ME. Then one day I just decided to create a random brand name and put my art and design on t-shirts. Hence, FUR FACE BOY!
I started with 2 basic designs (a logo tee and a typeface tee). I thought to myself...."Man, no one is gonna want what they don't know." So that's when I pretty much just gave away my ENTIRE first run of shirts for FREE to random people. I created a Myspace account and gave away free FFB tees to EVERYONE in each U.S. state. In return, I'd ask for a picture of them wearing the shirt. I then posted it on my blog, and ever since then the daily visits to my site grew more and more by the day! Eventually, when my webstore opened up and when I got into some area boutiques, people started to take more notice of the brand and started to actually purchase them! It's been INCREDIBLE to see how the brand has grown from me just simply doing what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it!
The riskiest thing you've done, in terms of the brand was.....
Nothing. I try to be as spontaneous as possible. If things go well, awesome. If not, at least I can say I tried. I seriously try not to think too hard about things and just go with the flow.
Best advice someone has given you.....
"Hard work will ALWAYS pay off." --My Dad.
So now, what's YOUR advice for others trying to create their own line is.....
Have fun. Work hard. Live YOUR life. Follow your passions. Do it for the love and NEVER for the money. Oh...and blog about it.
Best thing about owning a brand would be.....
Me doing me.
And the worst thing would be.....
Coattail riders.
You seem to be one of two more prominent brands in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. You achieved this.....
Again, simply just by doing what I want to do, how I want to do it and just living my life. Those things coupled together with working hard and having common sense can take you a pretty damn long way.
You feel who is your competition, not only local but national.....
No one is my competition. Why would I need to worry about others when I have enough of my own things to worry about? I'm a VERY simple guy and I seriously try not to think too hard about things. I just worry about me and my deal. That's it.
Some plans you have for the brand would be.....
Just more t-shirts. Maybe a sweatshirt and hoody thrown in here and there. Definitely more events. More randomness.. More shops/cities to try to get in to. Even better quality. Just overall making the brand as a whole ten times better. I don't plan out too far ahead in advance. I really just try to take things one week at a time. ♦
WORDS: DOMINICA STEWART
IMAGES: HA MAI
OWNER: HA MAI
SITE: www.furfaceboy.com/
TWITTER: twitter.com/furfaceboy
TUMBLR: furfaceboy.tumblr.com/
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/furfaceboy