Tonight, Rick Klotz (Freshjive), Lanie (Hellz Bellz), Ben Hundreds and I led a discussion panel at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles. I want to thank all of you who came out, and because the event reached capacity from the get-go, I also want to thank everyone who made the trek out but was turned away at the door. Hopefully we’ll have more events like this in the future to accomodate all of you who missed out.

Here’s Miss Lawn herself breaking down her brand Hellz to a captive audience. The crowd was solid tonight, a lot of great questions were asked, and it encouraged us to see so many young people putting in work to get their dreams off the ground. Some of the questions that were discussed: streetwear’s impact on the music industry, maintaining brand longevity, the requisite capital to start up a brand, how/who to sell in a climate where stores are dropping off like flies, and why none of this would be possible without skateboarding. A lot of people afterwards thanked us for doing this, but as always, I had to thank them for inspiring us to stay motivated and creative.

by bobbyhundreds