The Four Pins Guide To Building With Fam

Aye, what's really good, dawg? How you been? Good though? Rising and grinding? Dope, dope. So, I'm glad I ran into you at this gallery space/open bar/launch party/clothing store/pop-up thing. Yo, do me a favor and grab a Tsingtao and two of those meatball sliders when the girl comes around again? She's all tight at me because I accidentally knocked her tray over while trying to take a selfie with my boy's mixed media graffiti canvas T-shirt earlier. Whatever. Get a real job, amirite?

Anyway listen, you've been doing some really tasteful shit recently—really growing the brand organically, making it a fucking lifestyle and shit. I see you, playboy. As someone who's been out here grinding for a minute, I have nothing but respect for the hustle. But yo, to take your movement to the next level and make it really pop off, you gotta step your fucking game up. You're probably wondering how to do it, right? I'm gonna tell you. But in the meantime, if you see that waitress, for real, grab me a beer, aight? The thirst, bruh, the thirst. Alright fam, here's a foolproof fire guide on how to build with fam, ya dig? Lessgeddit.

Dave Infante is a writer living in New York City. Read more of his work on Thrillist and follow him on Twitter here.

Find Your Fam

The first step to building with fam is figuring out who "fam" is. There are several ways to do this. You could walk into a Team Epiphany party and yell “AYYY FAM-O!” Did someone turn around? Anyone? BOOM. That's fam. Another move is to roll up to a listening event for an up-and-coming rapper who just got signed to a label that's going to drop him in a year and hand out business cards to literally everyone in sight. If they take it, you can technically consider them fam.

Did you grow up with someone who is now Making Moves™? Doesn't matter if you never knew them in high school, or they have a kid now, or their day job is driving an HVAC van around to different government houses to repair A/C units. If they have ever designed a t-shirt/snapback/concert flyer, you are now to refer to them only as "the big homie from way back." You should Instagram a photo of you guys at a younger age and caption it like: "Me n my #brother already getting that work lmao #tbt." Obviously, you're not actually brothers, but, like, just go with it. It's all good, fam.

Grow Your Social Channels

It's incredibly important to have a unique presence on literally every social media platform known to man. That's how fam will see you shine and realize they need to be building with you. Obviously, you're up on the 'Gram, and Twitter and Facebook even though the only people on Facebook these days are corporations and your parents. But are you on Svpply? /r/supremeclothing? Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? What about Weibo, China's struggle version of Twitter? When it comes time to build with fam, you're going to need all the social legs you can get. They'll be judging your reach as much as you're judging theirs because even though it’s fam, it's also business (more on that in a bit.)

Draw inspiration From Meaningful Motifs

Organic inspiration is a crucial component of building with fam. Here are some very unique cultural touchstones that you should look to when brainstorming your joint venture:

-Basquiat

-Irezumi tattoo tradition

-Spelling words without vowels

-A mix of luxury styling and streetwear sensibility

-Harold Hunter (RIP)

-"An unwavering commitment to quality," whatever the fuck that means

Once you've wasted a bunch of time covering your "mood board" with printed out Google Images of your influences and hit, like, several G-Pens together, it'll be clear that there's only one move for you and fam to build: a double-dyed Japanese indigo shirt with a '90s skater hemline, a custom fishscale placket and a stitched label that says "SAMO" because that's something you read on Basquiat's Wikipedia page and it sounds sorta rare, right? Also, quilted calfskin patches on the underside of the armholes for “seasonal versatility”, or something.

Side note: The fuck is the beer girl? They've played "Lifestyle," like, three times since I crushed my last tasty import. Ess-em-eff-ayetch.

Name Your Project

Anyway, you can't just screen-print some Japanese scribbles on a blue shirt with leather armpits and call it a day, bruh. You need a whole vibe to make this capsule collection you've built with fam stand out. Right now, you're probably all like, "Hold up, big homie. Is a single shirt really enough to call a 'capsule'?" Of course it is, man. This is 2014. Try to keep up. As Creative Director/CEO/Sole Employee of your brand, you need a sweg title for this venture to get all the beasts hyped on your delusions of grandeur. Actually, that's it right there: "Delusions of Grandeur." Except remember, vowels are for fuccbois and Catholics, so it'd be "D3LS1XNS XF GR4ND3VR." There you go, fam. That's a gift. Build on it.

Don't Catch Feelings

Remember, even though this is fam you're building with, you still gotta keep things A1, DeVry University, no fugazi professional. You're not in this to make friends. No, you're in this to make a fictitious lifestyle into a physical product, then sell it to Long Island high schoolers who have never to be completed applications to F.I.T. sitting on the hard drives of the MacBook Airs their parents bought them.

Have You Considered An Exclusive Content Series?

Not to be a little bitch or anything, but I'm honestly going to have words with the PR people if I don't get my hands on an Asian beer and some artisanal sliders soon. How did you get your brew? Do I have to, like, go up to the bar like a peasant?

Sorry, lost my train of thought. Oh right, #content. You've gotta tell a super hype story about bringing your fam together to build this collabo. The one thing this industry doesn't have enough of is half-assed advertorials masquerading as compelling narratives, nah mean? Hire some "creative" with a 5D, 10k plus Instagram followers and a dream to cut a video or shoot an editorial of you and your fam explaining the behind-the-scenes perspective of building, then co-author a blog post about "timeless style vs. fleeting fashion" to show the Internet you're fucking legit.

Drop Teasers For The Blogs

Create a new email account that sorta sounds like a publicist (mine is [email protected]) and blast out borderline incoherent press releases at everyone you know with all caps subject lines to grab their attention. Do this again and again, in case they don't see it the first time because, like, emails don't always go through. Make sure you attach several low-res, watermarked shots to generate interest. Obviously, you should also seed your product to tastemakers and influencers before release day in the hopes that they'll do a post about it on Instagram/Weibo.

Release Day

Alright, this is it. You've been grinding for, like, at least a couple weeks. The shirt looks dope and you're about to change the game. Actually, you should definitely tweet that without context for some gravitas: "We about to change the game." Pop a 'gram of you and your fam building D3LS1XNS XF GR4ND3VR in your design studio/studio apartment and don’t forget to put the Big Cartel link in your profile.

CASH OUT.

Find New Fam To Build With

Regardless of how your project does, the key is to always be on the hunt for new fam to build with because that's the only way to keep your personal brand from getting stale. Well, I guess you could just focus on making quality products, growing your reputation slowly over the course of years by establishing trusting relationships with your customers, and eventua...HEY! TSINGTAO CHICK! Yo, I'm gonna go jump this girl for a brew and do a couple of bumps in the bathroom, but when I get back I definitely want to talk to you about this collabo that I think you and I should team up on. Let's build, fam.