In 2002, accomplished SUPREME creative director Brendon Babenzien took his first swing at entrepreneurship and launched NOAH, a menswear brand born at the intersection of nautical living and skate culture. However, despite critical acclaim and downtown cool, the brand barely made it a few seasons before Brendon was forced to put NOAH on the backburner, and resume his role at Supreme.
After a decade at the house James Jebbia built, in which he helped take SUPREME from a skate shop in soho to a global brand, Brendon decided it was time to revisit NOAH, and with the help of then new wife Estelle Bailey-Babenzien, he relaunched the brand in 2015 to industry fanfare.
In the 8 years since, NOAH has grown slowly and steadily while maintaining the core philosophical commitments that animate Brendon and Estelle. NOAH is a beacon of hope in menswear and fashion, exalting virtuous values like sustainability, quality over quantity, and forward-leaning but timeless designs.
On this week's episode of All Angles, we talk to founders Brendon and Estelle, as well as Brand Energy Director Johnny Knapp, to hear the full story of NOAH, and find out how the little shop on the corner of Mulberry street in lower Manhattan became an industry thought leader and global brand.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You can have tons of money and still being measurable, right, So,
like that was what I was going through at the time.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's like kind of like reckoning this.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Understanding of like no amount of money is going to
make me happy if I'm doing things I don't love,
if I'm not.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Contributing the way I think I should be. And you can't.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You can't run away from that, you know, Like, once
you know it, you know it. And I knew it,
so I was like, I need to go do something else.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome to Idea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's
most influential brands and the teams that built them. If
you're an entrepreneur, creative, or anyone interested in harnessing the
power of collaboration, join me Noah Callahan Bever each week
as we dissect the most dynamic companies in culture, because
(00:54):
the only way to truly understand success is.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
To look at it from all angles.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Idea Generation's Ball Angles is a Will Packer Media podcast.
In two thousand and two, accomplished Supreme creative director Brendan
Babinzian took his first swing at entrepreneurship and launched Noah,
a men'swear brand born at the intersection of nautical living
(01:22):
and skate culture. However, despite critical acclaim in downtown Cool,
the brand barely made it a few seasons before Brendan
was forced to put Noah on the back burner and
resume his role at Supreme. But after a decade in
the house that James Jebia built, in which he helped
take Supreme from a local skate shop and Soho to
(01:43):
a global brand, Brendan decided it was time to revisit Noah,
and with the help of his then new wife, a
Stelle Bailey Babinzian, he relaunched the brand in twenty fifteen
to industry fan a free In the eight years since,
Noah has grown slowly and steadily while maintaining the core
philosophical commitments to animate Brendan and Estelle, Noah is a
(02:05):
beacon of hope and men'swear in fashion, exulting virtuous values
like sustainability, quality over quantity, and forward leaning but timeless designs.
On this week's episode of All Angles, we talked to
founders Brendan and Estelle, as well as brand energy director
Johnny Napp to hear the full story of Noah and
find out how the little shop on the corner of
(02:26):
Mulberry Street in Lower Manhattan, became an industry thought leader
and a global brand.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
But before any of that happened.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Years before collaborations with Puma, Adidas or being tapped as
the creative director of j crue Men's, Brendan was just
a teenager at East dicelip Long Island looking for his
first job.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
My first job was at the shop surf Shop, skate shop.
Back then, most shops were like surf.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Skate This is Brendan Babinzian, founder of Noah.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
For the most part of that job is a couple
of years, four years, maths, right high school or whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But I was fortunate enough to.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Start when I was thirteen, so I went from thirteen
all the way to.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Like twenty one.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So when I first started working there, the shop wasn't
even a full blown shop yet.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
This is in my hometown.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It was called cards and stuff, and it was like
greeting cards and birthday cards.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And magazines and cigarettes and like all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And several years before I started there, some of the
really older guys who were kids at the time were like, hey, man,
you should sell skateboards or whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So he brought in a few skateboards, and then that
aisle in the shop grew and then there was like
boogie boards and stickers.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Started popping up behind the counter and this and that,
and like over time it really got taken over and
became more of a serf skate shop.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
And then we moved.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And the move is really what put the shop on
the map because we moved into like a freestanding house
that had been there forever on a street called Carlton Avenue.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
The house was.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
A former funeral partler, so it's like old and holy
creepy and had like multiple rooms stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
But like you converted it and turned it into a shop.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I think at thirteen you have you don't have expertise
and anything, but like I was a pretty good skateboarder
and like I knew kids, and I was into cool stuff.
So I got the job and then started just as
like behind the counter kid my primary responsibility when I
first started, pulled the T shirts, pulled the sweatshirts, put
the skateboards together. When people came into buy gear, you know,
that was it. And then within a year or two
(04:27):
I started going to the trade shows with Rick that
was my boss, and started like participating in the buys.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
By fifteen, I was like buying.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
By fifteen it was like, hey, go take that appointment
with you know, name them bill a Bomb, Quicksilver, this
one that one go do the buy right, plus finding
new stuff, right because at this time surf and skate
they're pretty much what you think of the surf and skate,
But there was this whole other thing happening, right Like
we were into other stuff, right, Like you listened to
(04:59):
hip hop, you know, not just like punk and new wave.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
We listened to other things, and coming out of New.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
York, we were seeing other things, like from a clothing
perspective and mixing it all up.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So we were like, what are those things that you
can pull in to this world?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
And you know, to be fair, most of that stuff
came through the skateboarding lens, not the surfing lens.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Surfing was surfing for the most part, Quick Silver.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
At Billibomb, there was companies like Instinct, there was a
ton right, so that was kind of its own thing.
But like skateboarding, you could bring in other things and
it would work for your skateboard customer, right, Like you
could bring in brands that had very little to do
with skateboarding specifically, but tangentially were really interesting, right, So
like I was really into like music and dance and whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So like I mean, there was all these weird little brands.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We sold a brand called Label Whore, We sold a
brand called Swank.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
As the head buyer for Rick Surf Shop at just
fifteen years old, Brandan set out to find exciting underground
brands for the store to care. He didn't have to
go far to find one brand in particular that would
be very influential, both on the market and in Brendan's life.
Another Long Island native, Don Busweiler, had started his own
clothing line, Pervert, and was starting to gain some momentum
(06:14):
in the local scene.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Pervert, for instance, Don started making T shirts in eighty eight,
and we had Pervert T shirts when he made them,
right like a few months after he started making, were like, hey,
we want to carry those. We were like a dozen
or two dozen of every design he had. I think
he was still in high school probably right. I meet
Don in Sabo, Long Island at a carnival. I actually
met him when I was around thirteen. It was really
(06:37):
a group of people I met.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
He was one of them. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So there was a whole crew from this town called Bayport,
Long Island. My friend Chris Nicosia, his nickname is scrubb,
his brother Stephen, his other brother Larry, Don was part
of that crew, and there was a whole bunch of guys.
And there's a bunch of us that went there to
skate at the carnival. Like we're like, oh, we'll just go.
It's like in like a parking lot. We'll just skate
and hang out or whatever. So like two groups of
(07:00):
kind of outcasts met and became friends. I really became
close with scrub Chritis and his whole crew, but Don.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Was part of that. Over time, Don and I got
closer and closer.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
He eventually moved to Miami to go to college, and
he was a little bit older, so he was gone.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
He left all of us. He went out to the world.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Don moved to Miami to continue to build Pervert, which
became one of the defining streetwear brands of the early nineties.
Soon everyone from the Beastie Boys to get At Jackson
were rocking Pervert. Meanwhile, Brendan, still on Long Island, tried
to figure out.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
What his move was going to be. After high school.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I go through high school. I work in the shop.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
You know, it was a funny time because I was
so into skateboarding and surfing and music and at that
point now snowboarding.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
We got snowboarding pretty early and just all just different shit,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I liked the music nobody else liked, and like it
was always like I always felt like I wasn't connecting
with But I also had this whole other life where
I played lacrosse. That was something I did right, and
like it was very complex for me because lacrosse. I
actually loved the sport. I don't necessarily love the tangential
culture of it all the time, but the sport itself,
the origins of the sport being like you know, a
(08:18):
native sport and the way it's played and everything behind it.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I think it's a great sport. But I wasn't like
a jock. But I was good. I was like quite good.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I played on the Empire State team, which was a
pretty big deal. I probably could have been better if
I committed myself more of that kind of thing, but like.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I was good enough to.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Like have college be part of the conversation for a sport,
right I was like, Okay, I guess that's what I'll do.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I didn't know anything, dude. I was like, I guess
I'm going to try and go to college and play lacrosse.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Brenda headed to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania to play lacrosse,
but he quickly realized that it wasn't for him disaster.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I hated it. I didn't fit in.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I missed the ocean, I missed New York. It was
like nice place, great.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
School, people were, but like, I didn't connect him anybody.
So I just left.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I went for a year and I didn't go back,
and then I just bounced around trying to figure out
what to do.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And at that point that's when Donald was like, Hey,
come work with me. Let's do this thing.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Don's brand Perbert was blowing up and he needed some help,
so he'd reached out to Brandan to see if he'd
be interested in joining him in Miami to continue to
build Pervert.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
He got to a point where he needed help and
he needed people he trusted and knew the history and
he knew kind of like thought like.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Him and everything. So eventually I went to work with
him after.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
The shop, helping Don build Pervert in Miami sounded amazing
to Brendan, but he'd have to make a short detour first.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I moved to Ohio first. His partner was based in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
He was partners with a guy named Jimmy George, whose
family owned a shop and the Midwest skateboard distribution company.
So the warehouse for Pervert was based in Dayton, Ohio
because that's where this guy was from.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So I had to go to Date for like two
months to.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Clear out the warehouse. Felt through as much stock as possible.
We were like calling the shops being like, hey, you
need some stuff whatever. We're like trying to get get
rid of it so we didn't have to move it.
And that was a really difficult, difficult thing to do
because I was I hated Dayton, Ohio so much. I
was so depressed being there because all we did was
work for eight weeks straight in a place where we
(10:22):
didn't know anybody, where the weather was bad. It was
super depressed and I just was like, this is brutal. Eventually,
we packed up a thirty foot rider truck. I drove
the truck from Ohio to Miami without a cofirre.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Finally, after putting in some time in Dayton, Brendan headed
to Miami to work with Don.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
When I first went to work with him, I was
like helping the sales and just doing whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Right, it was Don's saying he was the designer whatever.
But it became it's.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Kind of complicated because like I wasn't officially designing, but
like everything I was saying is making and then some thing,
you know, it was like hey, you know what I mean, Like, hey, what,
let's still let's do this or whatever, and then I'm like, Don,
I'm gonna go do it right, So, like I don't
know what you call it.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I was just like doing whatever.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
While Brendan acted as a pseudo designer and creative director,
he helped Don take Pervert national. Unbeknownt to Brendan, over
four thousand miles away, his future wife and business partner
was also getting her feet wet in the world of fashion,
but having a much different experience.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
I grew up in England. I grew up in West Sussex,
which is thirty miles outside of London.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
This is a stale Bailey babinzeean co founder of Noah.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
I studied fashion communication and promotion at Central Saint Martin's
in London. I was feeling really disheartened by the fashion industry.
It was quite vapid. It was really pretentious, very self serving,
and also at that time, not at all diverse. It
was basically high society, very white, a lot of cocaine.
(11:59):
I didn't take drugs. I'm a person of color, and
I was just didn't even though I went to an
incredible school and I loved my school, you know, it
was like the best fashion school in the world, and
I love their ability to, you know, really look at
things in a really truly artistic way and not just
a commercial way, which was amazing. I just didn't really
fit into the industry there, and I started feeling like, I,
(12:23):
you know, I've always wanted to have a purpose driven
life and career and be part of something meaningful and
that could actually kind of make a difference in a
positive way. So I started thinking, well, if it's not fashion,
maybe it's I love music and music changes people's lives,
you know, Like, maybe I need to be working in
a creative role in the music industry. So then I
(12:45):
came for my year out. I came to New York
and I was looking for a job in the music
industry in a creative role, and I got really lucky.
My school approved it. Through a friend of a friend,
I got connected to Dominic Trinier, who had a label
called Tuba Sound, which was part of the Records and
we had DiAngelo and Mark Ronson and Nika Costa and
(13:06):
just by luck, his assistant Jody Patterson, who's amazing. She
was going to be taking maternity leave and he was like, Okay,
you can take her job if you want. I was
like perfect. I moved to New York, got involved with
the music industry.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Eager for a new experience. Still, moved from London to
New York to begin working in music. But it didn't
take long for her to discover that the music and
fashion industries really aren't all that different.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
The music industry also proved to be not really a
great place for women. It was total boys club, and
you kind of really had to compete with other women
as well, and competing with the men and having to
be a bit of a bitch really to sort of
like make a difference or sort of climb to the top.
I was like, this isn't the life that I want.
(13:58):
This isn't conducers. I want which is I love music,
this isn't making me happy, and I don't want to
compete in this way and I don't want this lifestyle.
So I had to went back to the drawing board
of just well, you know what, if I always loved
what do I really want to do? I had always
loved just brand creation, and even with artists, that's what
(14:20):
I was really interested in, like creating the lifestyle, the brand,
all of the things around the music, the expression of it,
the visuals. I always had this dream of having a
concept store, like I love to collect concept store, and
I always had this idea of creating a brand and
a store that was a little bit more purpose driven,
(14:42):
was also kind of rooted in creating or manifesting change,
somewhat in responsibly sourced and made and more ethical practices
and sustainable practices, but also was cool and not crunchy guanola,
because at that time, anything that was like use the
word responsible or sustainable or all those things was like
(15:04):
totally hippie.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
It was even before birkenstarts were cool. You know, it
had a really different perception to what it means now.
But that was sort of something I wanted to be
involved with, and I also loved interior design and store
design and just hospitality in general, and how to kind
of combine all of those elements into one.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
A still's desire to world build letter to directing photo
shoots and helping brands with visual merchandising.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
You know, I was producing photo shoots art directing photo shoots.
I started working back in fashion and interior design, and
I was doing this like store design with Donna Karen
and Victoria's Secret and visual merchandising with on a freelance
basis for different brands. I did have a network already
from just my music industry days and then also just
(15:57):
you know, producing photo shoots and just having relationships with
people that knew my work, that knew my creative ability
that I could help them, whether whether it's a logo
design or a photo shoot. I was never really a
corporate girl. I was always an entrepreneurial and always liked
to work for myself and do my own thing. So
(16:18):
it was just about finding the jobs that fit, and
they tend to find me too. So for a minute,
when I decided to leave the music industry, I just
started freelancing and I got some great projects and It
was great, and I actually made some incredible friends from
that time up staying up late, you know, doing visual
merchandising in stores, like doing all nights, and it was
(16:40):
crazy time. It was good, it was good money and
made some incredible relationships from that time.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
As a still gainer footing in New York and honed
in on her career, Brendan's work was about to take
a one to eighty. Don Buswiler, Brendan's friend, founder of
Pervert and the reason that Brendan had moved to Miami,
decided to leave his brand at the peak of its popularity,
give up all his possessions, and join a mysterious religious
cult known as the Brethren. In an instant, Don was
(17:15):
gone and wouldn't be seen or heard from again for years.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
So eventually Don left.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
That's a story, right, I mean, I don't know if
I can even start that story, because that's you know,
trying to abbreviate it and say, like Don basically decided
one day he was going to.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Leave with these dudes and live like Jesus.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Gives all the way all his possessions, signs his clothing
brand over to his one partner, his other business, which
was a retail store in Miami called Animal Farm to
his other partner, and six weeks later or so.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
He's gone. I was like, Okay, I guess I guess
I'm going back to New York.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Though his future was uncertain, Brendan's return to New York
was coming at the perfect time. Another up and coming
streetwear brand I had just launched in nineteen ninety four,
and its founder, James Jeba, was looking for some help.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
When I was coming back to New York.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
James at the time had a Stuicye store in Miami
and his brother was down there, Dan Jeba and Bianca,
who is now wife, mother of his children, was down there,
and I guess she told him or somebody told him, oh,
Brennan's coming back to New York.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
We didn't really know each other. I mean, we might
have met once or twice. I'd shopped in the store.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
They were buying Pervert from us, so he was like, oh, cool,
maybe I'll talk to him about coming to Supreme.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
The time, the shop was like multi brand.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
He was doing stuff already, just not a ton of it,
and it was kind of my job to figure out
how to do it, find resources to make stuff, use
his existing resources to get stuff made, just like literally
helped build it from like the very little bit he
had done thus far. It was multi brand, but also
had he had like Supreme T shirts, he had hats,
(18:56):
had some sweatshirts. He'd had like a Jack Eber too,
Like he had stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
It was probably like.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Ninety six at that point or something, and like, you know,
but he was going to do it one way or
the other.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Right, It's James. It was going to get done.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I just happened to be the guy that like got
in there at that point and was like, Okay, I
can help try and figure this out.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Over the next years, Brendan helped James grow Supreme, but
the idea of starting his own brand was growing as well.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I knew I wanted to do my own thing at
that point. Eventually, I want to do my own thing,
and I had other things I wanted to do. Right,
Like Supreme was Supreme. The brand was fairly solid at
that point, like it was going to be what it
was going to be. And as someone who grew up
as a skateboarder and into the things I was into,
I think at that point I was like I was
young enough to still be like holding on to like
(19:43):
the pureness of things, and I was like, ah, this
is getting.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Kind of bigger now.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Tangentially next to that, you have the commercialization of like
hip hop, like apparel, all the brands that were like
just going after and it was all looking the same
to me, and it was all becoming big business, and
they were all trying to throw a big part. He's
at trade shows and like to get your attention.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Whatever. I'm like, this is.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I didn't sign up with this, So I was like,
maybe go somewhere else and do something different, And that
was more or less what I wanted to do with
Noah was like the opposite of that.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
At the time. It was really based on like going
back to like how I grew up with, like nautical culture,
like water and what does that look like.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Brendan left Supreme to start his own brand based on
his nautical roots and skateboard culture. But when thinking about
what to call the brand, there was simply no better
name than Noah.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
It relates to Noah, like the boat and water and
just a fair amount of Biblical references and what I do,
like we definitely go in and out of religious points
of reference, not because I'm like this religious person, but
because I did go on a bit of.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
A journey when Don left looking into religions.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Generally, my best friend left, disappeared, He's gone, He's out
of my life.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
One of the most influential people in my life is
now gone. Dude.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I learned so much from and with Guy, went to
shows with, you know, learn about music with, skateboarded with,
did things with is gone, right, So it forced me
to look at religion and be.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Like, why is he doing this?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And I up to that point where I've had no religion.
I wasn't raised with religion, so I just went into
this deep dive. I mean I studied the Bible with
these like rostas in Miami, like in Liberty City. I
started seeing how religion is essentially just like it's still ongoing, right,
the power structure and its involvement in warfare. And you know,
(21:27):
that brought me to like the Knight's Templar, right, like
secret societies and that's the red cross is the cross
of the Templars. And what I've discovered was it's funny
because I was always thinking, like secret societies, they want
to take over the world.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
The cohoots with the devil and Da da da da da, Right,
It's like, that's actually not accurate.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
That's church propaganda because secret societies back then were secret
because these people were sharing ideas that would get them killed.
The church would be like, that's heretical. You're burning at
the stake or you're hanging or THROWNI and a prison
cell forever.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
So like that's why they were secret.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
They were actually the enlightened people, right, like shepherding and
new ideas. But that's how that's where Noah came from
and Lacross and I also discovered the Knights Templar I
had like the largest.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Naval fleet in the world. One thing we do know
is that they had ships and they fled, not all
of them. A lot of them were capturingly killed, but.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Some of them fled and escaped and you know, essentially
became aulas and pirates, which.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Is another theme I've always been interested in.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So I'm able to track all these things I've been
interested in where they actually they overlap.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
After years of helping other designers build their brands, Brendan
finally had a label of his own. But the challenges
that come with running your own small business were not few,
and Brenda was not yet equipped to keep up.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
He failed the first time around, not because it wasn't
critically acclaimed or that people didn't want it, but just
the business structure that you need to have and support
that he just didn't really have the bandwidth or he
wasn't ready for that at that time. Like he was
getting all kind of crazy orders and couldn't keep up
with the orders and then you know, not delivering on time,
and it just all became a little bit much, and
(23:14):
so he shut it down, put it on hold. But
in his head, he was like, and we'll do it again.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
One day.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
After just a couple of years, Brenda decided to shut
Heer Noah and to return to Supreme. But his second
stint at Supreme would be much different than the first.
Working with other like minded creatives, Brendan was reinvigorated, and
over the next decade, Supreme would become a well oiled
machine and make claim as the most popular streetwear brand
in the world.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
When I went back, it was really fun for a while.
It's like incredible, we were able to put together good
team of people. Was really booming and you know, it's
getting really popular. But it was still not like mainstream
style popular. It's just like the right people knew. Still,
it was incredible. There was like a good run where
it's just like we made great stuff. Stores were open,
like it was this cool going to Paris all the time,
(24:03):
and you know, we would as a team, we'd go
to Tokyo a couple of times a year and like
invented shopping, catch up with the you know, the supreme
people over there.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
It was just a really good time.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
While traveling the world and running around New York as
creative director for one of the hottest brands out, it
was only a matter of time before Brendan would cross
paths with his dell.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
My friend Beth Bokett Gibbs. She was married to Chris Gibbs.
They have union and they moved to la and you know,
that's best like family to me. She was always trying
to like hook me up, and I'm like, I don't
want to be hooked up. But she's like, Okay, well
I'm coming to New York. We're working on this little
fashion film. We'd love you to like art direct it.
I'm styling it. This is the concept. Let's work together
(24:46):
on this little film. And it was just a fun
kind of art project. It was like, okay, cool.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
My friend Jake Davis, who was filmmaker, He's like, oh,
you should come out. Beth's in town working on her
project together Mont we all go have a drink whatever.
Like the way they tell it now is like that
they kind of planned it. I don't know if that's
accurate or not, but like that's the way they tell it.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
So me, Beth, and Jay grew all chatting, and then
Beth and Jake were like, we should introduce a Stelle
to Brendan. And at the time Brendan was the crave
director at Supreme. I was like sure. I mean, I'm
sure it should be fun. I was like, but I'm
not interested. Please don't try to hook me up. That's
not my style. Like, I just wasn't in the into
the idea of being hooked up. But then we did
(25:29):
all meet friendly in a way, all of us together,
and Brendan and I just, I don't know, we just
kind of locked eyes for that moment, and I think
in that exact moment it's like I knew, but I
put the idea to the very very back of my
mind because in my mind that he wasn't my type.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, we met went to Peasant just like next to
every day.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
They have a win wine bard downstairs was really cool
and it's like a cold, snowy night.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
It was just like tiny little room just hanging out.
It was fun cool.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
I just just didn't like this idea of being hooked
up period, and then yeah, I just put that to
the back of my mind. But I was like, you're
gonna be my best friend. I want to know you,
I want to hang out with you. And then we
started hanging out and we became like super super close,
like I wanted to be with him every single day,
but like, this isn't a date. We're not dating. We're
just good friends. And then eventually it was like, look,
(26:23):
either are we going to start dating or I'm going
to start dating somebody else. I was like, okay, I
date somebody else, and then he dated somebody else. I
was like, oh, I don't like that one of what
you're doing. It doesn't work out. And then you know,
a month later, I'm like completely in love and I'd
gotten over myself and these silly ideas of what I
thought I will need to be with because I guess
(26:45):
we just kind of knew our dreams were aligned, we
were interested in the same things, We had the same principles.
At that time, he was you know, working his ass
off at Supreme, but still like very humbly, and the
designs and stuff of Supreme are really reflective of Brendan's
life growing up.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Brendan and Estelle were in love, but a decade into
his second stint at Supreme, Brendan was falling out of
love with the brand and felt his time at Supreme
was coming to an end.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
At that point, I was a lot older, had a
lot more experience, at a much clearer vision of what
I wanted to do. The world had changed dramatically right
now we have the Internet and websites and social media,
and also, quite frankly, what I viewed as a need
for someone to emerge out of the space that I'd.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Been living in, which I don't even know how to
define it anymore, like is it streetwears it skateboarding? Like
what is it?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
But I just felt like somebody needs to like be
I don't want to say better, because that implies that
like we think we're better than others, like but like
a better, more responsible business structure, but still speaking to
like fun and interesting things. But a big part of
that was the product. I just wanted to make really
great product. It's not that we want to make a
great product in Supreme. It's just a different type of product, right.
(28:07):
It's great for a certain audience.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
And a certain thing.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
I mean, it still is cool, but it was really
at that moment when the hype was serious, which was
also a little concerning because it's like shopping became the sport,
you know. It wasn't about what you do in this stuff.
It wasn't about like street culture. It was about like
flexing and having stuff just for the sake of having it,
(28:32):
and people seriously lining up. And I guess Brendan was
a little disheartened by some of that. And also we
just started having mixed feelings about putting guns on shirts
and stuff, you know, like there was all these mass
shootings happening, and starting thinking about how things are made
and where things are made, and what do we want
(28:53):
our legacy to be and what do we want to
support and what that means.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I wanted to use better material. I just wanted to
do it differently. I didn't want to make clothes in
Asia anymore. That was a problem for me.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
So Noah gave me the opportunity to use the best
materials I could see in the world. You know, Italian mills,
English mills. We just use the best stuff basically, And
for me, a garment is the clod. But you can
buy a cheap garment that's got cheap cloth. In a
year from now, it's going to be like a dish
rag or whatever, you know. Like I want things that
last a really long time. And I think that's how
everybody should function. If we're going to like stop the
(29:27):
kind of like overproduction and overuse and destruction of resources, basically,
we need to like pull it back. I'm not an extremist.
I'm not like, yo, that's a living caves. That's not
my style at all, but I do think that we
overdo it. For me, it's like keep it longer, you know.
And in capitalism that's controversial, right because it's like capitalism
(29:47):
is like no man, like go make as much money
as you can, Like why would you leave any money
on the table, like you're supposed to like build, build,
build build build.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
It's absurd.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
We take these great ideas and then we kind of
like beaten and I can't speak for others, but like
for me, making the most money possible wasn't and isn't necessary. Yeah,
I want to be comfortable. I want to take care
of my family. I want them to have a future,
you know, I want to all be good.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
But how much do you need? You can have tons
of money and still be miserable. So like that was
what I was going through at the time.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
It's like kind of like reckoning this understanding of like
no amount of money is going to make me happy.
If I'm doing things I don't love, I'm not contributing
the way I think I should be.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
And you can't. You can't run away from that, you know,
Like once you know it, you know it. And I
knew it. So I was like, I need to go
do something else.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
As Brendan thought more about his future and the legacy
that he wished to leave, it led him back to
his roots and back to no one.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
It was like, I will do it again one day,
and I think just me coming along and was like, yes,
now is the time, like we have we need to
do this and let's start doing it now. And it
do happen right away. Working on it for a couple
of years, before like several years actually, like we launched
it at the same time as like when after we
were married, we kind of we had our baby Sailor,
(31:09):
and that's seven and a half years ago, and we
opened up our pop up shop at the same time
in twenty fifteen, so you know, and if we met
in I guess three or four years before that, we
were just working on it that whole time, just you know,
doing all the things that you need to do and
really not just the structure, like finding the lawyers and
writing a business plan and you know, it's like setting
(31:32):
up the LLC. And but also it's like what do
we want to create here, to create like a heritage brand,
and how do we want to start a brand and
a business that is purpose driven and meaningful and not
just for the hype, you know, or not just to
put more products into the world, because we're getting a
little bit disenchanted by just consumerism and hype, but still
(31:56):
being able to put out cool, interesting quality products that
have value, have meaning, have referenced, have good style, good quality,
but a maid really responsibly and also what does it
mean to have a brand and to have a shop
and a community space and create that experience. So it
was really fun because I had my ideas and obviously
(32:19):
Brendan has all of his ideas, and it's rooted in
what the general design direction was of Noah from the beginning,
and then sort of just merging these concepts together to
sort of give birth to Noah again.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Brendan left Supreme for a second time and went all
in on a second attempt at Noah, but this time
he now had an extra ten years of experience, a
focused vision for what the brand would represent, and the
support of his wife, Estelle, who had her own point
of view and her own entrepreneurial experience.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
I was never used to having like a steady job
with a steady income. Sometimes I was had great money,
other times like shit, am I going to pay my rent?
So I wasn't afraid. And actually my family life growing
up was kind of like that too, Like we went
through a recession. I remember at one point I felt
like we're not wealthy, but I was like, oh, this
is good, Like we're shopping at Harrod's and getting ice cream,
(33:13):
and then two years later we're like, oh shit, we
have to sell our house and move into a rental.
And you know, I'd been through these extremes up and downs,
and then I moved here by myself, an illegal immigrant essentially,
so I wasn't afraid of taking risks and I don't
really have that anxiety of that or that I don't
sit in that comfort zone. I was like down for whatever.
(33:33):
I was like, okay, cool, Like you're talented. I'm talented.
We have nothing to lose, I guess a little bit
naive everything to gain. I was also kind of a
bit younger than Brendan, so I was just like, you're amazing,
Like we've got to do this, Like what let's do it.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Brendan and Estelle had a new vision for Noah, but
instead of building the brand out of their own pockets,
they put together a business plan and went looking for
our investors so that they could start with some capital.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
We had a business plan that was good, and we
raised enough money to open the shop and build the website.
We raised a few hundred thousand, like less than a million,
like seven hundred thousand dollars, so not even that much,
which was great. We had a really solid business plan.
We didn't even give up that much of a percentage
to raise that much money. So it was good because
(34:22):
ultimately we still we only gave up I think like
seven percent or something of our business at that point,
which is pretty incredible. But that is because Brennan came
from Supreme and people had trust in him and that
he would be able to design clothes that people would want.
And also we were very resourceful with that money at
that time to be able to sort of do all
(34:43):
the things that we did with our small team. We
started with our office in our house and then we
opened the shop and our office was in the basement
of the shop.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
With funding in hand, Brendan and Estelle went about building
the business of Noah based on one key word, responsibility.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Then obviously business of the brand was also important to
like build a different type of business.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
The first time, I wasn't thinking that way. I was
too young. It wasn't there yet. I had all these
seeds of like caring about the world and the environment
and this and that whatever, but like I wasn't old
enough or smart enough to figure out what it all meant.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yet. It wasn't until I relaunched Noah that like we
figured out, you know, some when I were together, we
were having a child, and it was like I just need.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
To do a business that does something good, it gives back,
not just in one way but multiple ways, Like and
that was it. It was like the only way we
go forward in this world, like having a child and
feeling good about ourselves is like we start building something
that we feel like eventually at least would be part
of the solution, part of the problem. The fundamental belief was,
(35:48):
forget sustainability, just use the word responsible. Make responsible decisions
as a business that you can feel good about if.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
You do that, that's like phase one, Right, We're not
developing new cloths. We're not heavy going it, like I
can't invent to new fabric, I don't have R and
D teams being like we need to replace whatever, so
we have to rely on the industry to do it.
And then we try and become early adopters of things.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
But our fundamental belief is like make a great product,
educate people about wearing products longer, keeping products longer, focusing
on their own interior.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Belief structure, like what are you about? Who are you
as an individual? Forget the shit we show you on Instagram?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Forget like the trend of this or that whatever, Like
that shit is corruptive corruptive, corruptive, corruptor. It does have
power over people. It's crazy how powerful that stuff is.
But we're you know, we were like, we'll just no
great shit and encourage people to look at it from
their own lens and use it how they want to
use it. It just goes back to being a kid
(36:45):
again and being an individual and being into what you're
into organically and letting that be the thing, as opposed
to trying to fit in with the thing that's happening.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
In twenty fifteen, Noah officially relaunched.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
As the brand started to make a name for itself
in the streets of New York, it would eventually land
on the radar of another soon to be important part
of the Noah team.
Speaker 7 (37:09):
I grew up in Bellport, Long Island, so it's like
a coastal on the Great South Bay right by Fire Island.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
This is Johnny Knapp, director of Energy at.
Speaker 7 (37:18):
Noah Brendon and I we have I mean, we came
from a very very similar place. Like the Great South
Bay is kind of like the major waterway that kind
of like all life is kind of centralized around and
especially if you're like coastal like we were when I
graduated school was I graduated in two thousand and seven,
we saw that recession happening.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So the town that I'm from was pretty much like
a ghost.
Speaker 7 (37:43):
Town during that recession, like there was a lot of vacancies,
and some friends and I we started a shop called
Corner Store Collective pretty much this store that was like
on the four corners. It originally started as we got
in touch with the landlord and we were like, hey,
it's kind of like an eyesore to have like one
of this beautiful buildings in town kind of vacant, Like
(38:03):
why don't we do like a little window installation for
you and take it from there. So overnight, we hold
what we can from like barns and addicts and basements,
and we created this whole like summer display kind of
an homage to the town. We got a lot of
positive feedback from that, and the landlord was kind of like, oh,
why don't you just like hop in and like do
a store here for the summer. So we were kind
(38:25):
of very you know inspired. There was this very like
kind of collective like bringing all sorts of walks of life,
like all this mixed bag and like you put him
onto one roof and kind of like see what happens
from there, and we were super successful. We had like
a print story in Vanity Fair, New York Times, did
something online.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
The Corner Store Collective was a hit, and it taught
Johnny valuable lessons that would prove useful when it came
time to work with Brendan and Noah. But before Johnny
would end up there, he still had some surfing to do.
Speaker 7 (38:55):
After that, my two partners at the time, they were
still in college and so they went back to school.
I was older and I still had this like itch
to scratch of like wanting to go travel the world
and surf. So I went to Hawaii for a while
for that whole season and kind of like did my
time there. But during my whole time in Hawaii, I
(39:16):
was like really thinking about New York. When I came
back from Hawaii. Is when I got an apartment.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
In the city.
Speaker 7 (39:29):
It was just literally like a glorified locker just to
like have your clothed, shower, rest your head, and then
get out the next day like from sun up to sundown,
and then some you were just like out in the city.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Now living in New York City and with the background
so similar to Brendan's, Noah landed on Johnny's radar Quickly.
The shop, located at one ninety five Mulberry Street, became
a cultural destination. The store offered a comfortable, inviting atmosphere,
and customers came for the vibe as much as the clothes.
Speaker 5 (40:00):
In the shop. It's super important to create this atmosphere
in this experience that feels informative but not intimidating, super welcoming,
because it's all about the experience right when you go
into one of these shops. We try to also create
that experience online a little bit by just showing people
what we're interested in and what we care about, and
(40:21):
that kind of draws the attention. People that care about
this kind of stuff are then drawn to our brand.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
One of those people that was drawn to the brand
was Johnny, who we continue to keep tabs on Noah.
Speaker 7 (40:33):
As funny as it may sound, this is going to
sound super like cliche, but as I was doing an
investigation into the brand and I checked out the about page,
I'm always like, that's something that I'll always like look
on when it comes to whatever it is, you know,
I'll always be like, what's your mission statement. What you're
about say, it's create the best possible products that inspire
(40:56):
our staff, partners, and customers to seek adventure and actively
engage in the world around them. Expand on what it
means to be a clothing brand by breaking down the
walls of where the brand customer relationship begins and ends.
Share our adventures with our customers and encourage them to
share their adventures with us. Promote goodness, and challenge conventional wisdom.
(41:17):
And when I clicked on that and kind of like
read it, like what was said like really resonated with me,
and it was kind of like the thing that was
just like kind of pulled me into the door or
it was like I kind of want to be around that.
Like for me, that's like science they all delivered, you know,
that was like I don't see other brands in that
(41:37):
space like talking that way.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
With a clear, impactful mission statement and the help of
Brendan's pedigree, Noah quickly received rave reviews from both the
press pen customers.
Speaker 5 (41:48):
Obviously, you know, Brendan being from Supreme gave us an
advantage where people were interested to see like what it
was going to be and what it was going to
look like and we got some great press from that
because everyone was I did to.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
See what it was.
Speaker 5 (42:01):
It was an excellent platform for us to launch from, actually,
and it was a great captivated audience from the beginning,
and we really appreciated that. So, I mean, and you know,
nobody knew of me. I'm just liking the background, and
that's I'm happy to sort of be in that role,
just in the background, sort of helping to manifest and
build and bring everything together. And I guess being in
(42:23):
love kind of gave him a little extra motivation and
that extra push, you know, like we were like part
that partnership kind of drive. And in hindsight, maybe you know,
it would have been definitely safer because like right after that,
Supreme like sold or got that massive investment.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Shortly after leaving Supreme, the brand sold the VF Corporation
for a whapping one point two billion dollars. Brenda missed
out on the payday from Supreme, but he had gained
everything with his own brand.
Speaker 5 (42:53):
Everyone got nice big checks and like great, but we
missed out on that. But what we did gain was
something that we felt really good about. And you know,
it's definitely not been like the easiest ride. But it
was received really well and people were supporting, were supportive
of what we were doing. I don't know, it was
just a funny time. I wasn't really thinking. And I
(43:15):
think when you're pregnant too, and then you give me
you're just in this mode of you have this extra motivation.
I think a lot of women when they're pregnant actually
start businesses funnily enough, because it's just this time of
like you've purpose driven, and we just were young minded,
had this you know, like new family coming and I
(43:37):
knew it could work. I knew it could work.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
No success was instant, and the company was profitable from
year one, but the seemingly overnight success was actually a
long process of foundation building by the team that happened
over years.
Speaker 5 (43:52):
We were like profitable from year one, which was really
incredible and impressive at the time because I think we
did have a really good business plan that didn't rely
on a massive investment at the beginning. It was like
slow and steady, and even now, because we have in
our minds to be a heritage brand, like we want
to be around for a long time. This is not
a model that we're trying to build a business fast
(44:15):
and super successful and get super hype and then sell
it for millions of dollars. Like, that's not what we're
trying to do. We're trying to grow a family business,
a heritage brand that will be around for a really
long time, making really good stuff. And we're down for
the slow and steady thing. And actually we never really
wanted to be like a hype brand at the beginning,
because then you can just fall off the edge of
the cliff and then nobody cares anymore.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
As in the years since it's launch, Noah has established
itself as a true staple within the men'swear world, and
no fashion tends to be led by trends and youth,
Brendan is still finding inspiration, creativity, and the will to
push Noah forward.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Sometimes the inspiration comes from like negative shit, but like
you like it motivate you to do something, so like skateboarding, surfing,
like these things like those are the expression of something
that comes before it. Like you mentioned the word curiosity earlier,
that's the thing. You still want to see things that
when you know things, are still interested in what's going
on out there. And if you can retain that, you
(45:24):
do extend you're kind of like we're not just like
your relevance, your creativity, like you can still be.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
A part of things.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
And what's really interesting is like historically there's rules, but
they're bake Like who made these rules? Right that, Like
you get to a certain age and then you got
to like behave a certain way, address a certain way.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Like they're kind of silly, do you know what I mean?
So like if you can kind of withstand that and
like push back on that, you stay a part of everything.
David Byrne.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
I'm not sure how old he is, but like I
see him, you seeming openings and he's around, he's riding
his bike, Like he's still relevant, he's still curious, still creating, right,
you know when you think about the path from thirteen
to fifty one, you know, I'm like kind of still
the same person doing the same thing, which I love. Like,
(46:13):
I mean, I've managed to do what I set out
to do, which is like stay connected to these things.
But it's rewarding, you know, And I think I used
to be really concerned about aging, but you know what
I realized is like I know everything I.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Know because I've been around for so long, Like I.
Speaker 7 (46:32):
Can use that information being as environmentally conscious as you can.
If you're creating something, there's going to be a byproduct
to it, and what is that byproduct? The neat thing
is is that we, you know, want to commit to
keeping that shirt, garment, whatever it may be in rotation,
you know, not to kind of discard it for reasons
(46:55):
that it's like not holding up.
Speaker 5 (46:57):
It's scary because we're going from like pop. It really
feels like we're still a mom and pop brand and
I think people think we're kind of bigger than what
we are. But you know, I'm still going to the
store here and like fixing stuff, and you know, it's
like a mom and pop family sharp Still it just
still feels like that, which I think is part of
the beauty and I want it to I want every
store to have that feel. It's an exciting time to
(47:19):
think about, well, how do we maintain the ethics of
the brand and that feeling and the soul of the brand.
And it's all about really just caring for your people
and for your team and for them really caring about
the brand still sort of kind of building the family,
but keeping that trust and that kind of connection to
(47:39):
each other within the company, and then also to the
customers and the community around it.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
The story of Noah is one of second chances.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
When Brendan left Supreme the first time, he gave Noah
a shot and realized quickly that he was neither ready
to lead nor had his personal vision come into focus. Thankfully,
he was able to return to Supreme to continue to
hone his craft until he felt prepared to revisit Noah.
With ten more years of storytelling and brand building under
his belt, Brendan then knew how to weave his interest
(48:13):
in surf, skate and a roots nautical aesthetic into a
coherent and comprehensive identity. And just as important, the addition
of Estelle imbued Noah's second iteration with an entrepreneurial acumen and.
Speaker 4 (48:26):
A focused philosophy.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Together, they knew how the clothes should look, how the
business should operate, and how the brand should make you feel.
And with that unity of purpose, Noah has booked the
fast fashioned industry trends and built a generational foundation for
idea generation. I'm Noah Callahan Bever. Thanks for listening to
(48:51):
the All Angles podcast presented by will Packer Media. If
you've enjoyed this episode. Please don't hesitate to like, comment
DM or tell a friend to tell a friend about
Idea Generation and the All Angles Podcast. We can't do
any of this without your help, and honestly, your support
means everything.
Speaker 4 (49:10):
We do this for you, and we can't do it
without you.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
This episode was brought to you by Will Packer, Executive
produced by John Balachik and Helena Ox. Original music by
Valentine Fritz, editing sound mix by Nonsensible Production, and hosted
by me Idea Generation founder Noah Callahan Beveret Idea Generations.
Speaker 4 (49:31):
All Angles is a Will Packer Media podcast
You can have tons of money and still being measurable, right, So,
like that was what I was going through at the time.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's like kind of like reckoning this.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Understanding of like no amount of money is going to
make me happy if I'm doing things I don't love,
if I'm not.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Contributing the way I think I should be. And you can't.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You can't run away from that, you know, Like, once
you know it, you know it. And I knew it,
so I was like, I need to go do something else.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome to Idea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's
most influential brands and the teams that built them. If
you're an entrepreneur, creative, or anyone interested in harnessing the
power of collaboration, join me Noah Callahan Bever each week
as we dissect the most dynamic companies in culture, because
(00:54):
the only way to truly understand success is.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
To look at it from all angles.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Idea Generation's Ball Angles is a Will Packer Media podcast.
In two thousand and two, accomplished Supreme creative director Brendan
Babinzian took his first swing at entrepreneurship and launched Noah,
a men'swear brand born at the intersection of nautical living
(01:22):
and skate culture. However, despite critical acclaim in downtown Cool,
the brand barely made it a few seasons before Brendan
was forced to put Noah on the back burner and
resume his role at Supreme. But after a decade in
the house that James Jebia built, in which he helped
take Supreme from a local skate shop and Soho to
(01:43):
a global brand, Brendan decided it was time to revisit Noah,
and with the help of his then new wife, a
Stelle Bailey Babinzian, he relaunched the brand in twenty fifteen
to industry fan a free In the eight years since,
Noah has grown slowly and steadily while maintaining the core
philosophical commitments to animate Brendan and Estelle, Noah is a
(02:05):
beacon of hope and men'swear in fashion, exulting virtuous values
like sustainability, quality over quantity, and forward leaning but timeless designs.
On this week's episode of All Angles, we talked to
founders Brendan and Estelle, as well as brand energy director
Johnny Napp to hear the full story of Noah and
find out how the little shop on the corner of
(02:26):
Mulberry Street in Lower Manhattan, became an industry thought leader
and a global brand.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
But before any of that happened.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Years before collaborations with Puma, Adidas or being tapped as
the creative director of j crue Men's, Brendan was just
a teenager at East dicelip Long Island looking for his
first job.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
My first job was at the shop surf Shop, skate shop.
Back then, most shops were like surf.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Skate This is Brendan Babinzian, founder of Noah.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
For the most part of that job is a couple
of years, four years, maths, right high school or whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But I was fortunate enough to.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Start when I was thirteen, so I went from thirteen
all the way to.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Like twenty one.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So when I first started working there, the shop wasn't
even a full blown shop yet.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
This is in my hometown.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It was called cards and stuff, and it was like
greeting cards and birthday cards.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And magazines and cigarettes and like all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And several years before I started there, some of the
really older guys who were kids at the time were like, hey, man,
you should sell skateboards or whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So he brought in a few skateboards, and then that
aisle in the shop grew and then there was like
boogie boards and stickers.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Started popping up behind the counter and this and that,
and like over time it really got taken over and
became more of a serf skate shop.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
And then we moved.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And the move is really what put the shop on
the map because we moved into like a freestanding house
that had been there forever on a street called Carlton Avenue.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
The house was.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
A former funeral partler, so it's like old and holy
creepy and had like multiple rooms stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
But like you converted it and turned it into a shop.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I think at thirteen you have you don't have expertise
and anything, but like I was a pretty good skateboarder
and like I knew kids, and I was into cool stuff.
So I got the job and then started just as
like behind the counter kid my primary responsibility when I
first started, pulled the T shirts, pulled the sweatshirts, put
the skateboards together. When people came into buy gear, you know,
that was it. And then within a year or two
(04:27):
I started going to the trade shows with Rick that
was my boss, and started like participating in the buys.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
By fifteen, I was like buying.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
By fifteen it was like, hey, go take that appointment
with you know, name them bill a Bomb, Quicksilver, this
one that one go do the buy right, plus finding
new stuff, right because at this time surf and skate
they're pretty much what you think of the surf and skate,
But there was this whole other thing happening, right Like
we were into other stuff, right, Like you listened to
(04:59):
hip hop, you know, not just like punk and new wave.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
We listened to other things, and coming out of New.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
York, we were seeing other things, like from a clothing
perspective and mixing it all up.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So we were like, what are those things that you
can pull in to this world?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
And you know, to be fair, most of that stuff
came through the skateboarding lens, not the surfing lens.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Surfing was surfing for the most part, Quick Silver.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
At Billibomb, there was companies like Instinct, there was a
ton right, so that was kind of its own thing.
But like skateboarding, you could bring in other things and
it would work for your skateboard customer, right, Like you
could bring in brands that had very little to do
with skateboarding specifically, but tangentially were really interesting, right, So
like I was really into like music and dance and whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So like I mean, there was all these weird little brands.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We sold a brand called Label Whore, We sold a
brand called Swank.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
As the head buyer for Rick Surf Shop at just
fifteen years old, Brandan set out to find exciting underground
brands for the store to care. He didn't have to
go far to find one brand in particular that would
be very influential, both on the market and in Brendan's life.
Another Long Island native, Don Busweiler, had started his own
clothing line, Pervert, and was starting to gain some momentum
(06:14):
in the local scene.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Pervert, for instance, Don started making T shirts in eighty eight,
and we had Pervert T shirts when he made them,
right like a few months after he started making, were like, hey,
we want to carry those. We were like a dozen
or two dozen of every design he had. I think
he was still in high school probably right. I meet
Don in Sabo, Long Island at a carnival. I actually
met him when I was around thirteen. It was really
(06:37):
a group of people I met.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
He was one of them. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So there was a whole crew from this town called Bayport,
Long Island. My friend Chris Nicosia, his nickname is scrubb,
his brother Stephen, his other brother Larry, Don was part
of that crew, and there was a whole bunch of guys.
And there's a bunch of us that went there to
skate at the carnival. Like we're like, oh, we'll just go.
It's like in like a parking lot. We'll just skate
and hang out or whatever. So like two groups of
(07:00):
kind of outcasts met and became friends. I really became
close with scrub Chritis and his whole crew, but Don.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Was part of that. Over time, Don and I got
closer and closer.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
He eventually moved to Miami to go to college, and
he was a little bit older, so he was gone.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
He left all of us. He went out to the world.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Don moved to Miami to continue to build Pervert, which
became one of the defining streetwear brands of the early nineties.
Soon everyone from the Beastie Boys to get At Jackson
were rocking Pervert. Meanwhile, Brendan, still on Long Island, tried
to figure out.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
What his move was going to be. After high school.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I go through high school. I work in the shop.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
You know, it was a funny time because I was
so into skateboarding and surfing and music and at that
point now snowboarding.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
We got snowboarding pretty early and just all just different shit,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I liked the music nobody else liked, and like it
was always like I always felt like I wasn't connecting
with But I also had this whole other life where
I played lacrosse. That was something I did right, and
like it was very complex for me because lacrosse. I
actually loved the sport. I don't necessarily love the tangential
culture of it all the time, but the sport itself,
the origins of the sport being like you know, a
(08:18):
native sport and the way it's played and everything behind it.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I think it's a great sport. But I wasn't like
a jock. But I was good. I was like quite good.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I played on the Empire State team, which was a
pretty big deal. I probably could have been better if
I committed myself more of that kind of thing, but like.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I was good enough to.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Like have college be part of the conversation for a sport,
right I was like, Okay, I guess that's what I'll do.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I didn't know anything, dude. I was like, I guess
I'm going to try and go to college and play lacrosse.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Brenda headed to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania to play lacrosse,
but he quickly realized that it wasn't for him disaster.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I hated it. I didn't fit in.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I missed the ocean, I missed New York. It was
like nice place, great.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
School, people were, but like, I didn't connect him anybody.
So I just left.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I went for a year and I didn't go back,
and then I just bounced around trying to figure out
what to do.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And at that point that's when Donald was like, Hey,
come work with me. Let's do this thing.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Don's brand Perbert was blowing up and he needed some help,
so he'd reached out to Brandan to see if he'd
be interested in joining him in Miami to continue to
build Pervert.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
He got to a point where he needed help and
he needed people he trusted and knew the history and
he knew kind of like thought like.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Him and everything. So eventually I went to work with
him after.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
The shop, helping Don build Pervert in Miami sounded amazing
to Brendan, but he'd have to make a short detour first.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I moved to Ohio first. His partner was based in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
He was partners with a guy named Jimmy George, whose
family owned a shop and the Midwest skateboard distribution company.
So the warehouse for Pervert was based in Dayton, Ohio
because that's where this guy was from.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So I had to go to Date for like two
months to.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Clear out the warehouse. Felt through as much stock as possible.
We were like calling the shops being like, hey, you
need some stuff whatever. We're like trying to get get
rid of it so we didn't have to move it.
And that was a really difficult, difficult thing to do
because I was I hated Dayton, Ohio so much. I
was so depressed being there because all we did was
work for eight weeks straight in a place where we
(10:22):
didn't know anybody, where the weather was bad. It was
super depressed and I just was like, this is brutal. Eventually,
we packed up a thirty foot rider truck. I drove
the truck from Ohio to Miami without a cofirre.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Finally, after putting in some time in Dayton, Brendan headed
to Miami to work with Don.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
When I first went to work with him, I was
like helping the sales and just doing whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Right, it was Don's saying he was the designer whatever.
But it became it's.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Kind of complicated because like I wasn't officially designing, but
like everything I was saying is making and then some thing,
you know, it was like hey, you know what I mean, Like, hey, what,
let's still let's do this or whatever, and then I'm like, Don,
I'm gonna go do it right, So, like I don't
know what you call it.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I was just like doing whatever.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
While Brendan acted as a pseudo designer and creative director,
he helped Don take Pervert national. Unbeknownt to Brendan, over
four thousand miles away, his future wife and business partner
was also getting her feet wet in the world of fashion,
but having a much different experience.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
I grew up in England. I grew up in West Sussex,
which is thirty miles outside of London.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
This is a stale Bailey babinzeean co founder of Noah.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
I studied fashion communication and promotion at Central Saint Martin's
in London. I was feeling really disheartened by the fashion industry.
It was quite vapid. It was really pretentious, very self serving,
and also at that time, not at all diverse. It
was basically high society, very white, a lot of cocaine.
(11:59):
I didn't take drugs. I'm a person of color, and
I was just didn't even though I went to an
incredible school and I loved my school, you know, it
was like the best fashion school in the world, and
I love their ability to, you know, really look at
things in a really truly artistic way and not just
a commercial way, which was amazing. I just didn't really
fit into the industry there, and I started feeling like, I,
(12:23):
you know, I've always wanted to have a purpose driven
life and career and be part of something meaningful and
that could actually kind of make a difference in a
positive way. So I started thinking, well, if it's not fashion,
maybe it's I love music and music changes people's lives,
you know, Like, maybe I need to be working in
a creative role in the music industry. So then I
(12:45):
came for my year out. I came to New York
and I was looking for a job in the music
industry in a creative role, and I got really lucky.
My school approved it. Through a friend of a friend,
I got connected to Dominic Trinier, who had a label
called Tuba Sound, which was part of the Records and
we had DiAngelo and Mark Ronson and Nika Costa and
(13:06):
just by luck, his assistant Jody Patterson, who's amazing. She
was going to be taking maternity leave and he was like, Okay,
you can take her job if you want. I was
like perfect. I moved to New York, got involved with
the music industry.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Eager for a new experience. Still, moved from London to
New York to begin working in music. But it didn't
take long for her to discover that the music and
fashion industries really aren't all that different.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
The music industry also proved to be not really a
great place for women. It was total boys club, and
you kind of really had to compete with other women
as well, and competing with the men and having to
be a bit of a bitch really to sort of
like make a difference or sort of climb to the top.
I was like, this isn't the life that I want.
(13:58):
This isn't conducers. I want which is I love music,
this isn't making me happy, and I don't want to
compete in this way and I don't want this lifestyle.
So I had to went back to the drawing board
of just well, you know what, if I always loved
what do I really want to do? I had always
loved just brand creation, and even with artists, that's what
(14:20):
I was really interested in, like creating the lifestyle, the brand,
all of the things around the music, the expression of it,
the visuals. I always had this dream of having a
concept store, like I love to collect concept store, and
I always had this idea of creating a brand and
a store that was a little bit more purpose driven,
(14:42):
was also kind of rooted in creating or manifesting change,
somewhat in responsibly sourced and made and more ethical practices
and sustainable practices, but also was cool and not crunchy guanola,
because at that time, anything that was like use the
word responsible or sustainable or all those things was like
(15:04):
totally hippie.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
It was even before birkenstarts were cool. You know, it
had a really different perception to what it means now.
But that was sort of something I wanted to be
involved with, and I also loved interior design and store
design and just hospitality in general, and how to kind
of combine all of those elements into one.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
A still's desire to world build letter to directing photo
shoots and helping brands with visual merchandising.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
You know, I was producing photo shoots art directing photo shoots.
I started working back in fashion and interior design, and
I was doing this like store design with Donna Karen
and Victoria's Secret and visual merchandising with on a freelance
basis for different brands. I did have a network already
from just my music industry days and then also just
(15:57):
you know, producing photo shoots and just having relationships with
people that knew my work, that knew my creative ability
that I could help them, whether whether it's a logo
design or a photo shoot. I was never really a
corporate girl. I was always an entrepreneurial and always liked
to work for myself and do my own thing. So
(16:18):
it was just about finding the jobs that fit, and
they tend to find me too. So for a minute,
when I decided to leave the music industry, I just
started freelancing and I got some great projects and It
was great, and I actually made some incredible friends from
that time up staying up late, you know, doing visual
merchandising in stores, like doing all nights, and it was
(16:40):
crazy time. It was good, it was good money and
made some incredible relationships from that time.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
As a still gainer footing in New York and honed
in on her career, Brendan's work was about to take
a one to eighty. Don Buswiler, Brendan's friend, founder of
Pervert and the reason that Brendan had moved to Miami,
decided to leave his brand at the peak of its popularity,
give up all his possessions, and join a mysterious religious
cult known as the Brethren. In an instant, Don was
(17:15):
gone and wouldn't be seen or heard from again for years.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
So eventually Don left.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
That's a story, right, I mean, I don't know if
I can even start that story, because that's you know,
trying to abbreviate it and say, like Don basically decided
one day he was going to.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Leave with these dudes and live like Jesus.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Gives all the way all his possessions, signs his clothing
brand over to his one partner, his other business, which
was a retail store in Miami called Animal Farm to
his other partner, and six weeks later or so.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
He's gone. I was like, Okay, I guess I guess
I'm going back to New York.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Though his future was uncertain, Brendan's return to New York
was coming at the perfect time. Another up and coming
streetwear brand I had just launched in nineteen ninety four,
and its founder, James Jeba, was looking for some help.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
When I was coming back to New York.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
James at the time had a Stuicye store in Miami
and his brother was down there, Dan Jeba and Bianca,
who is now wife, mother of his children, was down there,
and I guess she told him or somebody told him, oh,
Brennan's coming back to New York.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
We didn't really know each other. I mean, we might
have met once or twice. I'd shopped in the store.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
They were buying Pervert from us, so he was like, oh, cool,
maybe I'll talk to him about coming to Supreme.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
The time, the shop was like multi brand.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
He was doing stuff already, just not a ton of it,
and it was kind of my job to figure out
how to do it, find resources to make stuff, use
his existing resources to get stuff made, just like literally
helped build it from like the very little bit he
had done thus far. It was multi brand, but also
had he had like Supreme T shirts, he had hats,
(18:56):
had some sweatshirts. He'd had like a Jack Eber too,
Like he had stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
It was probably like.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Ninety six at that point or something, and like, you know,
but he was going to do it one way or
the other.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Right, It's James. It was going to get done.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I just happened to be the guy that like got
in there at that point and was like, Okay, I
can help try and figure this out.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Over the next years, Brendan helped James grow Supreme, but
the idea of starting his own brand was growing as well.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I knew I wanted to do my own thing at
that point. Eventually, I want to do my own thing,
and I had other things I wanted to do. Right,
Like Supreme was Supreme. The brand was fairly solid at
that point, like it was going to be what it
was going to be. And as someone who grew up
as a skateboarder and into the things I was into,
I think at that point I was like I was
young enough to still be like holding on to like
(19:43):
the pureness of things, and I was like, ah, this
is getting.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Kind of bigger now.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Tangentially next to that, you have the commercialization of like
hip hop, like apparel, all the brands that were like
just going after and it was all looking the same
to me, and it was all becoming big business, and
they were all trying to throw a big part. He's
at trade shows and like to get your attention.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Whatever. I'm like, this is.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I didn't sign up with this, So I was like,
maybe go somewhere else and do something different, And that
was more or less what I wanted to do with
Noah was like the opposite of that.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
At the time. It was really based on like going
back to like how I grew up with, like nautical culture,
like water and what does that look like.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Brendan left Supreme to start his own brand based on
his nautical roots and skateboard culture. But when thinking about
what to call the brand, there was simply no better
name than Noah.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
It relates to Noah, like the boat and water and
just a fair amount of Biblical references and what I do,
like we definitely go in and out of religious points
of reference, not because I'm like this religious person, but
because I did go on a bit of.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
A journey when Don left looking into religions.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Generally, my best friend left, disappeared, He's gone, He's out
of my life.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
One of the most influential people in my life is
now gone. Dude.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I learned so much from and with Guy, went to
shows with, you know, learn about music with, skateboarded with,
did things with is gone, right, So it forced me
to look at religion and be.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Like, why is he doing this?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And I up to that point where I've had no religion.
I wasn't raised with religion, so I just went into
this deep dive. I mean I studied the Bible with
these like rostas in Miami, like in Liberty City. I
started seeing how religion is essentially just like it's still ongoing, right,
the power structure and its involvement in warfare. And you know,
(21:27):
that brought me to like the Knight's Templar, right, like
secret societies and that's the red cross is the cross
of the Templars. And what I've discovered was it's funny
because I was always thinking, like secret societies, they want
to take over the world.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
The cohoots with the devil and Da da da da da, Right,
It's like, that's actually not accurate.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
That's church propaganda because secret societies back then were secret
because these people were sharing ideas that would get them killed.
The church would be like, that's heretical. You're burning at
the stake or you're hanging or THROWNI and a prison
cell forever.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
So like that's why they were secret.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
They were actually the enlightened people, right, like shepherding and
new ideas. But that's how that's where Noah came from
and Lacross and I also discovered the Knights Templar I
had like the largest.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Naval fleet in the world. One thing we do know
is that they had ships and they fled, not all
of them. A lot of them were capturingly killed, but.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Some of them fled and escaped and you know, essentially
became aulas and pirates, which.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Is another theme I've always been interested in.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So I'm able to track all these things I've been
interested in where they actually they overlap.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
After years of helping other designers build their brands, Brendan
finally had a label of his own. But the challenges
that come with running your own small business were not few,
and Brenda was not yet equipped to keep up.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
He failed the first time around, not because it wasn't
critically acclaimed or that people didn't want it, but just
the business structure that you need to have and support
that he just didn't really have the bandwidth or he
wasn't ready for that at that time. Like he was
getting all kind of crazy orders and couldn't keep up
with the orders and then you know, not delivering on time,
and it just all became a little bit much, and
(23:14):
so he shut it down, put it on hold. But
in his head, he was like, and we'll do it again.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
One day.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
After just a couple of years, Brenda decided to shut
Heer Noah and to return to Supreme. But his second
stint at Supreme would be much different than the first.
Working with other like minded creatives, Brendan was reinvigorated, and
over the next decade, Supreme would become a well oiled
machine and make claim as the most popular streetwear brand
in the world.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
When I went back, it was really fun for a while.
It's like incredible, we were able to put together good
team of people. Was really booming and you know, it's
getting really popular. But it was still not like mainstream
style popular. It's just like the right people knew. Still,
it was incredible. There was like a good run where
it's just like we made great stuff. Stores were open,
like it was this cool going to Paris all the time,
(24:03):
and you know, we would as a team, we'd go
to Tokyo a couple of times a year and like
invented shopping, catch up with the you know, the supreme
people over there.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
It was just a really good time.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
While traveling the world and running around New York as
creative director for one of the hottest brands out, it
was only a matter of time before Brendan would cross
paths with his dell.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
My friend Beth Bokett Gibbs. She was married to Chris Gibbs.
They have union and they moved to la and you know,
that's best like family to me. She was always trying
to like hook me up, and I'm like, I don't
want to be hooked up. But she's like, Okay, well
I'm coming to New York. We're working on this little
fashion film. We'd love you to like art direct it.
I'm styling it. This is the concept. Let's work together
(24:46):
on this little film. And it was just a fun
kind of art project. It was like, okay, cool.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
My friend Jake Davis, who was filmmaker, He's like, oh,
you should come out. Beth's in town working on her
project together Mont we all go have a drink whatever.
Like the way they tell it now is like that
they kind of planned it. I don't know if that's
accurate or not, but like that's the way they tell it.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
So me, Beth, and Jay grew all chatting, and then
Beth and Jake were like, we should introduce a Stelle
to Brendan. And at the time Brendan was the crave
director at Supreme. I was like sure. I mean, I'm
sure it should be fun. I was like, but I'm
not interested. Please don't try to hook me up. That's
not my style. Like, I just wasn't in the into
the idea of being hooked up. But then we did
(25:29):
all meet friendly in a way, all of us together,
and Brendan and I just, I don't know, we just
kind of locked eyes for that moment, and I think
in that exact moment it's like I knew, but I
put the idea to the very very back of my
mind because in my mind that he wasn't my type.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, we met went to Peasant just like next to
every day.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
They have a win wine bard downstairs was really cool
and it's like a cold, snowy night.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
It was just like tiny little room just hanging out.
It was fun cool.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
I just just didn't like this idea of being hooked
up period, and then yeah, I just put that to
the back of my mind. But I was like, you're
gonna be my best friend. I want to know you,
I want to hang out with you. And then we
started hanging out and we became like super super close,
like I wanted to be with him every single day,
but like, this isn't a date. We're not dating. We're
just good friends. And then eventually it was like, look,
(26:23):
either are we going to start dating or I'm going
to start dating somebody else. I was like, okay, I
date somebody else, and then he dated somebody else. I
was like, oh, I don't like that one of what
you're doing. It doesn't work out. And then you know,
a month later, I'm like completely in love and I'd
gotten over myself and these silly ideas of what I
thought I will need to be with because I guess
(26:45):
we just kind of knew our dreams were aligned, we
were interested in the same things, We had the same principles.
At that time, he was you know, working his ass
off at Supreme, but still like very humbly, and the
designs and stuff of Supreme are really reflective of Brendan's
life growing up.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Brendan and Estelle were in love, but a decade into
his second stint at Supreme, Brendan was falling out of
love with the brand and felt his time at Supreme
was coming to an end.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
At that point, I was a lot older, had a
lot more experience, at a much clearer vision of what
I wanted to do. The world had changed dramatically right
now we have the Internet and websites and social media,
and also, quite frankly, what I viewed as a need
for someone to emerge out of the space that I'd.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Been living in, which I don't even know how to
define it anymore, like is it streetwears it skateboarding? Like
what is it?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
But I just felt like somebody needs to like be
I don't want to say better, because that implies that
like we think we're better than others, like but like
a better, more responsible business structure, but still speaking to
like fun and interesting things. But a big part of
that was the product. I just wanted to make really
great product. It's not that we want to make a
great product in Supreme. It's just a different type of product, right.
(28:07):
It's great for a certain audience.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
And a certain thing.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
I mean, it still is cool, but it was really
at that moment when the hype was serious, which was
also a little concerning because it's like shopping became the sport,
you know. It wasn't about what you do in this stuff.
It wasn't about like street culture. It was about like
flexing and having stuff just for the sake of having it,
(28:32):
and people seriously lining up. And I guess Brendan was
a little disheartened by some of that. And also we
just started having mixed feelings about putting guns on shirts
and stuff, you know, like there was all these mass
shootings happening, and starting thinking about how things are made
and where things are made, and what do we want
(28:53):
our legacy to be and what do we want to
support and what that means.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I wanted to use better material. I just wanted to
do it differently. I didn't want to make clothes in
Asia anymore. That was a problem for me.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
So Noah gave me the opportunity to use the best
materials I could see in the world. You know, Italian mills,
English mills. We just use the best stuff basically, And
for me, a garment is the clod. But you can
buy a cheap garment that's got cheap cloth. In a
year from now, it's going to be like a dish
rag or whatever, you know. Like I want things that
last a really long time. And I think that's how
everybody should function. If we're going to like stop the
(29:27):
kind of like overproduction and overuse and destruction of resources, basically,
we need to like pull it back. I'm not an extremist.
I'm not like, yo, that's a living caves. That's not
my style at all, but I do think that we
overdo it. For me, it's like keep it longer, you know.
And in capitalism that's controversial, right because it's like capitalism
(29:47):
is like no man, like go make as much money
as you can, Like why would you leave any money
on the table, like you're supposed to like build, build,
build build build.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
It's absurd.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
We take these great ideas and then we kind of
like beaten and I can't speak for others, but like
for me, making the most money possible wasn't and isn't necessary. Yeah,
I want to be comfortable. I want to take care
of my family. I want them to have a future,
you know, I want to all be good.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
But how much do you need? You can have tons
of money and still be miserable. So like that was
what I was going through at the time.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
It's like kind of like reckoning this understanding of like
no amount of money is going to make me happy.
If I'm doing things I don't love, I'm not contributing
the way I think I should be.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
And you can't. You can't run away from that, you know,
Like once you know it, you know it. And I
knew it. So I was like, I need to go
do something else.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
As Brendan thought more about his future and the legacy
that he wished to leave, it led him back to
his roots and back to no one.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
It was like, I will do it again one day,
and I think just me coming along and was like, yes,
now is the time, like we have we need to
do this and let's start doing it now. And it
do happen right away. Working on it for a couple
of years, before like several years actually, like we launched
it at the same time as like when after we
were married, we kind of we had our baby Sailor,
(31:09):
and that's seven and a half years ago, and we
opened up our pop up shop at the same time
in twenty fifteen, so you know, and if we met
in I guess three or four years before that, we
were just working on it that whole time, just you know,
doing all the things that you need to do and
really not just the structure, like finding the lawyers and
writing a business plan and you know, it's like setting
(31:32):
up the LLC. And but also it's like what do
we want to create here, to create like a heritage brand,
and how do we want to start a brand and
a business that is purpose driven and meaningful and not
just for the hype, you know, or not just to
put more products into the world, because we're getting a
little bit disenchanted by just consumerism and hype, but still
(31:56):
being able to put out cool, interesting quality products that
have value, have meaning, have referenced, have good style, good quality,
but a maid really responsibly and also what does it
mean to have a brand and to have a shop
and a community space and create that experience. So it
was really fun because I had my ideas and obviously
(32:19):
Brendan has all of his ideas, and it's rooted in
what the general design direction was of Noah from the beginning,
and then sort of just merging these concepts together to
sort of give birth to Noah again.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Brendan left Supreme for a second time and went all
in on a second attempt at Noah, but this time
he now had an extra ten years of experience, a
focused vision for what the brand would represent, and the
support of his wife, Estelle, who had her own point
of view and her own entrepreneurial experience.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
I was never used to having like a steady job
with a steady income. Sometimes I was had great money,
other times like shit, am I going to pay my rent?
So I wasn't afraid. And actually my family life growing
up was kind of like that too, Like we went
through a recession. I remember at one point I felt
like we're not wealthy, but I was like, oh, this
is good, Like we're shopping at Harrod's and getting ice cream,
(33:13):
and then two years later we're like, oh shit, we
have to sell our house and move into a rental.
And you know, I'd been through these extremes up and downs,
and then I moved here by myself, an illegal immigrant essentially,
so I wasn't afraid of taking risks and I don't
really have that anxiety of that or that I don't
sit in that comfort zone. I was like down for whatever.
(33:33):
I was like, okay, cool, Like you're talented. I'm talented.
We have nothing to lose, I guess a little bit
naive everything to gain. I was also kind of a
bit younger than Brendan, so I was just like, you're amazing,
Like we've got to do this, Like what let's do it.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Brendan and Estelle had a new vision for Noah, but
instead of building the brand out of their own pockets,
they put together a business plan and went looking for
our investors so that they could start with some capital.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
We had a business plan that was good, and we
raised enough money to open the shop and build the website.
We raised a few hundred thousand, like less than a million,
like seven hundred thousand dollars, so not even that much,
which was great. We had a really solid business plan.
We didn't even give up that much of a percentage
to raise that much money. So it was good because
(34:22):
ultimately we still we only gave up I think like
seven percent or something of our business at that point,
which is pretty incredible. But that is because Brennan came
from Supreme and people had trust in him and that
he would be able to design clothes that people would want.
And also we were very resourceful with that money at
that time to be able to sort of do all
(34:43):
the things that we did with our small team. We
started with our office in our house and then we
opened the shop and our office was in the basement
of the shop.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
With funding in hand, Brendan and Estelle went about building
the business of Noah based on one key word, responsibility.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Then obviously business of the brand was also important to
like build a different type of business.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
The first time, I wasn't thinking that way. I was
too young. It wasn't there yet. I had all these
seeds of like caring about the world and the environment
and this and that whatever, but like I wasn't old
enough or smart enough to figure out what it all meant.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yet. It wasn't until I relaunched Noah that like we
figured out, you know, some when I were together, we
were having a child, and it was like I just need.
Speaker 6 (35:27):
To do a business that does something good, it gives back,
not just in one way but multiple ways, Like and
that was it. It was like the only way we
go forward in this world, like having a child and
feeling good about ourselves is like we start building something
that we feel like eventually at least would be part
of the solution, part of the problem. The fundamental belief was,
(35:48):
forget sustainability, just use the word responsible. Make responsible decisions
as a business that you can feel good about if.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
You do that, that's like phase one, Right, We're not
developing new cloths. We're not heavy going it, like I
can't invent to new fabric, I don't have R and
D teams being like we need to replace whatever, so
we have to rely on the industry to do it.
And then we try and become early adopters of things.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
But our fundamental belief is like make a great product,
educate people about wearing products longer, keeping products longer, focusing
on their own interior.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Belief structure, like what are you about? Who are you
as an individual? Forget the shit we show you on Instagram?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Forget like the trend of this or that whatever, Like
that shit is corruptive corruptive, corruptive, corruptor. It does have
power over people. It's crazy how powerful that stuff is.
But we're you know, we were like, we'll just no
great shit and encourage people to look at it from
their own lens and use it how they want to
use it. It just goes back to being a kid
(36:45):
again and being an individual and being into what you're
into organically and letting that be the thing, as opposed
to trying to fit in with the thing that's happening.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
In twenty fifteen, Noah officially relaunched.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
As the brand started to make a name for itself
in the streets of New York, it would eventually land
on the radar of another soon to be important part
of the Noah team.
Speaker 7 (37:09):
I grew up in Bellport, Long Island, so it's like
a coastal on the Great South Bay right by Fire Island.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
This is Johnny Knapp, director of Energy at.
Speaker 7 (37:18):
Noah Brendon and I we have I mean, we came
from a very very similar place. Like the Great South
Bay is kind of like the major waterway that kind
of like all life is kind of centralized around and
especially if you're like coastal like we were when I
graduated school was I graduated in two thousand and seven,
we saw that recession happening.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So the town that I'm from was pretty much like
a ghost.
Speaker 7 (37:43):
Town during that recession, like there was a lot of vacancies,
and some friends and I we started a shop called
Corner Store Collective pretty much this store that was like
on the four corners. It originally started as we got
in touch with the landlord and we were like, hey,
it's kind of like an eyesore to have like one
of this beautiful buildings in town kind of vacant, Like
(38:03):
why don't we do like a little window installation for
you and take it from there. So overnight, we hold
what we can from like barns and addicts and basements,
and we created this whole like summer display kind of
an homage to the town. We got a lot of
positive feedback from that, and the landlord was kind of like, oh,
why don't you just like hop in and like do
a store here for the summer. So we were kind
(38:25):
of very you know inspired. There was this very like
kind of collective like bringing all sorts of walks of life,
like all this mixed bag and like you put him
onto one roof and kind of like see what happens
from there, and we were super successful. We had like
a print story in Vanity Fair, New York Times, did
something online.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
The Corner Store Collective was a hit, and it taught
Johnny valuable lessons that would prove useful when it came
time to work with Brendan and Noah. But before Johnny
would end up there, he still had some surfing to do.
Speaker 7 (38:55):
After that, my two partners at the time, they were
still in college and so they went back to school.
I was older and I still had this like itch
to scratch of like wanting to go travel the world
and surf. So I went to Hawaii for a while
for that whole season and kind of like did my
time there. But during my whole time in Hawaii, I
(39:16):
was like really thinking about New York. When I came
back from Hawaii. Is when I got an apartment.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
In the city.
Speaker 7 (39:29):
It was just literally like a glorified locker just to
like have your clothed, shower, rest your head, and then
get out the next day like from sun up to sundown,
and then some you were just like out in the city.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Now living in New York City and with the background
so similar to Brendan's, Noah landed on Johnny's radar Quickly.
The shop, located at one ninety five Mulberry Street, became
a cultural destination. The store offered a comfortable, inviting atmosphere,
and customers came for the vibe as much as the clothes.
Speaker 5 (40:00):
In the shop. It's super important to create this atmosphere
in this experience that feels informative but not intimidating, super welcoming,
because it's all about the experience right when you go
into one of these shops. We try to also create
that experience online a little bit by just showing people
what we're interested in and what we care about, and
(40:21):
that kind of draws the attention. People that care about
this kind of stuff are then drawn to our brand.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
One of those people that was drawn to the brand
was Johnny, who we continue to keep tabs on Noah.
Speaker 7 (40:33):
As funny as it may sound, this is going to
sound super like cliche, but as I was doing an
investigation into the brand and I checked out the about page,
I'm always like, that's something that I'll always like look
on when it comes to whatever it is, you know,
I'll always be like, what's your mission statement. What you're
about say, it's create the best possible products that inspire
(40:56):
our staff, partners, and customers to seek adventure and actively
engage in the world around them. Expand on what it
means to be a clothing brand by breaking down the
walls of where the brand customer relationship begins and ends.
Share our adventures with our customers and encourage them to
share their adventures with us. Promote goodness, and challenge conventional wisdom.
(41:17):
And when I clicked on that and kind of like
read it, like what was said like really resonated with me,
and it was kind of like the thing that was
just like kind of pulled me into the door or
it was like I kind of want to be around that.
Like for me, that's like science they all delivered, you know,
that was like I don't see other brands in that
(41:37):
space like talking that way.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
With a clear, impactful mission statement and the help of
Brendan's pedigree, Noah quickly received rave reviews from both the
press pen customers.
Speaker 5 (41:48):
Obviously, you know, Brendan being from Supreme gave us an
advantage where people were interested to see like what it
was going to be and what it was going to
look like and we got some great press from that
because everyone was I did to.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
See what it was.
Speaker 5 (42:01):
It was an excellent platform for us to launch from, actually,
and it was a great captivated audience from the beginning,
and we really appreciated that. So, I mean, and you know,
nobody knew of me. I'm just liking the background, and
that's I'm happy to sort of be in that role,
just in the background, sort of helping to manifest and
build and bring everything together. And I guess being in
(42:23):
love kind of gave him a little extra motivation and
that extra push, you know, like we were like part
that partnership kind of drive. And in hindsight, maybe you know,
it would have been definitely safer because like right after that,
Supreme like sold or got that massive investment.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Shortly after leaving Supreme, the brand sold the VF Corporation
for a whapping one point two billion dollars. Brenda missed
out on the payday from Supreme, but he had gained
everything with his own brand.
Speaker 5 (42:53):
Everyone got nice big checks and like great, but we
missed out on that. But what we did gain was
something that we felt really good about. And you know,
it's definitely not been like the easiest ride. But it
was received really well and people were supporting, were supportive
of what we were doing. I don't know, it was
just a funny time. I wasn't really thinking. And I
(43:15):
think when you're pregnant too, and then you give me
you're just in this mode of you have this extra motivation.
I think a lot of women when they're pregnant actually
start businesses funnily enough, because it's just this time of
like you've purpose driven, and we just were young minded,
had this you know, like new family coming and I
(43:37):
knew it could work. I knew it could work.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
No success was instant, and the company was profitable from
year one, but the seemingly overnight success was actually a
long process of foundation building by the team that happened
over years.
Speaker 5 (43:52):
We were like profitable from year one, which was really
incredible and impressive at the time because I think we
did have a really good business plan that didn't rely
on a massive investment at the beginning. It was like
slow and steady, and even now, because we have in
our minds to be a heritage brand, like we want
to be around for a long time. This is not
a model that we're trying to build a business fast
(44:15):
and super successful and get super hype and then sell
it for millions of dollars. Like, that's not what we're
trying to do. We're trying to grow a family business,
a heritage brand that will be around for a really
long time, making really good stuff. And we're down for
the slow and steady thing. And actually we never really
wanted to be like a hype brand at the beginning,
because then you can just fall off the edge of
the cliff and then nobody cares anymore.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
As in the years since it's launch, Noah has established
itself as a true staple within the men'swear world, and
no fashion tends to be led by trends and youth,
Brendan is still finding inspiration, creativity, and the will to
push Noah forward.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Sometimes the inspiration comes from like negative shit, but like
you like it motivate you to do something, so like skateboarding, surfing,
like these things like those are the expression of something
that comes before it. Like you mentioned the word curiosity earlier,
that's the thing. You still want to see things that
when you know things, are still interested in what's going
on out there. And if you can retain that, you
(45:24):
do extend you're kind of like we're not just like
your relevance, your creativity, like you can still be.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
A part of things.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
And what's really interesting is like historically there's rules, but
they're bake Like who made these rules? Right that, Like
you get to a certain age and then you got
to like behave a certain way, address a certain way.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Like they're kind of silly, do you know what I mean?
So like if you can kind of withstand that and
like push back on that, you stay a part of everything.
David Byrne.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
I'm not sure how old he is, but like I
see him, you seeming openings and he's around, he's riding
his bike, Like he's still relevant, he's still curious, still creating, right,
you know when you think about the path from thirteen
to fifty one, you know, I'm like kind of still
the same person doing the same thing, which I love. Like,
(46:13):
I mean, I've managed to do what I set out
to do, which is like stay connected to these things.
But it's rewarding, you know, And I think I used
to be really concerned about aging, but you know what
I realized is like I know everything I.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Know because I've been around for so long, Like I.
Speaker 7 (46:32):
Can use that information being as environmentally conscious as you can.
If you're creating something, there's going to be a byproduct
to it, and what is that byproduct? The neat thing
is is that we, you know, want to commit to
keeping that shirt, garment, whatever it may be in rotation,
you know, not to kind of discard it for reasons
(46:55):
that it's like not holding up.
Speaker 5 (46:57):
It's scary because we're going from like pop. It really
feels like we're still a mom and pop brand and
I think people think we're kind of bigger than what
we are. But you know, I'm still going to the
store here and like fixing stuff, and you know, it's
like a mom and pop family sharp Still it just
still feels like that, which I think is part of
the beauty and I want it to I want every
store to have that feel. It's an exciting time to
(47:19):
think about, well, how do we maintain the ethics of
the brand and that feeling and the soul of the brand.
And it's all about really just caring for your people
and for your team and for them really caring about
the brand still sort of kind of building the family,
but keeping that trust and that kind of connection to
(47:39):
each other within the company, and then also to the
customers and the community around it.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
The story of Noah is one of second chances.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
When Brendan left Supreme the first time, he gave Noah
a shot and realized quickly that he was neither ready
to lead nor had his personal vision come into focus. Thankfully,
he was able to return to Supreme to continue to
hone his craft until he felt prepared to revisit Noah.
With ten more years of storytelling and brand building under
his belt, Brendan then knew how to weave his interest
(48:13):
in surf, skate and a roots nautical aesthetic into a
coherent and comprehensive identity. And just as important, the addition
of Estelle imbued Noah's second iteration with an entrepreneurial acumen and.
Speaker 4 (48:26):
A focused philosophy.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Together, they knew how the clothes should look, how the
business should operate, and how the brand should make you feel.
And with that unity of purpose, Noah has booked the
fast fashioned industry trends and built a generational foundation for
idea generation. I'm Noah Callahan Bever. Thanks for listening to
(48:51):
the All Angles podcast presented by will Packer Media. If
you've enjoyed this episode. Please don't hesitate to like, comment
DM or tell a friend to tell a friend about
Idea Generation and the All Angles Podcast. We can't do
any of this without your help, and honestly, your support
means everything.
Speaker 4 (49:10):
We do this for you, and we can't do it
without you.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
This episode was brought to you by Will Packer, Executive
produced by John Balachik and Helena Ox. Original music by
Valentine Fritz, editing sound mix by Nonsensible Production, and hosted
by me Idea Generation founder Noah Callahan Beveret Idea Generations.
Speaker 4 (49:31):
All Angles is a Will Packer Media podcast
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com