No Sleep Society
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No Sleep Society 〰️
Sleepless
For 6 years I ran my own clothing line “No Sleep Society” and grew it to one of the largest brands in the greater Sacramento area, selling out of 5 different retail locations across Northern California. During the course of running my brand, I learned many valuable skills. Most importantly, how to be a leader and business owner. Running a business was a lot different than just making the designs. I knew nothing about owning a brand. Not what type of shirts to use, not who to contact for printing… I knew nothing. Knowing how little I knew then, I know now that this would eventually turn into my biggest strength. I was so motivated to learn that even the biggest of mistakes felt small in the grand scheme of things. No matter how many times I fell I got back up, over and over again. Not only did this give me the thickest of skin it made me unafraid to fail. I wasn’t scared to get laughed at or made fun of. I wasn’t scared to get told no, and that kept me asking. Vendor by vendor, and store by store I contacted them one by one. Eventually, after tons of no’s I got my first yes, and that was the only motivation I needed to take my brand to the next level. During my time running No Sleep Society I designed over 500 clothing designs, recorded 6 commercials, built 3 websites and conducted over 20 photoshoots.
Brand line sheet.
No Sleep Society not only helped to shape who I am as a designer, but who I am as an individual. Owning a clothing line is not for the faint of heart, and looking back i’m grateful for every trial I was put through. My dreams of designing for a career were one of my biggest motivations for not giving up. I had reached a point where people wanted to not only buy my art, but to wear it as a representation of who they are. That was huge to me.
I had been doing photography for a while prior to starting my brand. This gave me a massive advantage over my local competitors. Not only did my brand have awesome imagery but was “free” because I was the one doing all of the shooting. Most local competitors at that time looked like their brand pictures had been taken with a potato, which made outshining their product pictures very easy. Not only did my brand benefit from my photography my photography greatly improved due to all of the “practice” I got photographing my brand.
Wearing so many hats has it’s benefits and caveats. I learned more from running my brand than any book or youtube tutorial could have ever taught me. I gained real-world experience and immersed myself into the streetwear culture, unafraid to learn and unwilling to quit. After about 3 years my brand had seen enough success to allow me to open my own print shop. Running a print shop is night and day different from running and operating a brand. I again had many failures with my print shop, but didn’t quit and was rewarded with the knowledge of not only how to operate the machinery but to also run and manage a print shop. During my time printing I learned the crucial skills of delegation and leadership.
