July 6, 2023 • 48 mins
In 1988, April Walker opened Fashion in Effect, a custom clothing boutique for the burgeoning hip-hop audience in New York City. In the years that followed, April would launch her own streetwear brand, Walker Wear, and become a pop culture phenomenon, working closely with A-Listers like Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, and Shaquille O'Neal. But just as Walker Wear started to ascend from hip hop staple to mainstream recognition, April made the shocking decision to shut down the brand.
On this week's episode of All Angles, we talk to founder April Walker, assistant Miles Hopkins, lead stylist and designer Gloria Cherubin, and head of marketing Kimya Rainge, to hear the full story of how Walker Wear became the hottest streetwear brand of the ‘90s, and how the brand has re-emerged today with a refreshed approach.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Jay Z was at this time buying stuff from us,
and one day Biggie came in the store. He was
fifteen years old and he was another one of our
first customers. These kinds of stories are important because for
any aspiring entrepreneur, I credit a lot of my journey
to relationships, and I don't mean just texting and think.
(00:24):
You have to be courageous enough to live in your
discomfort zone, to invest into people and to look at
the long game.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to Ourdea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's
most influential brands and the teams that build. 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 the
only way to truly understand success is to look at
(01:03):
it from all angles. Idea Generations All Angles is a
Will Packer Media podcast. In nineteen eighty eight, April Walker
opened Fashion and Effect, a custom clothing boutique for the
burgeoning hip hop audience in New York City. In the
years that followed, April would launch her own streetwear brand,
(01:24):
Walkerware and become a pop culture phenomenon, working closely with
a listers like the notorious Big Tupac and Shaquille O'Neill.
But just as Walkerware started to ascend from hip hop
staple to mainstream recognition, April made the shocking decision to
shut down the brand. On this week's episode of All Angles,
we talked to founder April Walker, assistant Miles Hopkins, lead
(01:45):
stylist and designer Gloria Sharubin, and head of marketing Kimmia
Range to hear the full story of how Walkerware became
the hottest streetwear of the nineties and how the brand
has re emerged today with a refreshed approach. But before
any of that happened, years before Mike Tyson would hit
the ring in Walkerwaar shorts or Tupac would fly her
out to la for an emergency video shoot, April Walker
(02:07):
was just a young kid moving to Harlem with her parents.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
My childhood was very interesting. I had a different mix.
My mom is Mexican and Navajo, and my father is
black Cherokee and probably Heinez fifty seven. There's probably some
other things we don't know about, but it gave me
a unique Lens.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
This is April Walker, founder of Walkerware.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
My father his family is from Culpepper, Virginia, and my
father is an avid music lover and was part of
the music industry, but growing up he just had a
love for jazz and music and all the things in music.
My mom is from Colorado. She was very organized, very cerebral,
(02:58):
and just really really focused on creating a life for
us in stability. My father was going to a university
here in Colorado and my mom was from Colorado. Then
from there we went to La. From La, we went
to Harlem. We lived in Roxbury. We moved around because
my father was chasing those music dreams. As a result,
(03:22):
I got to see different backgrounds, different environments, and in
your formative years, those are everything. So I think it really,
you know, widened my scope, so to speak. And then
I think in terms of traits, I took a little
bit of both of them. Things you love and then
the things you don't. But I think in my DNA,
(03:43):
being as organized and as focused as possible is important,
and at the same time, creating is just in my
bones and just making and moving towards your dreams.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Creativity and organization serves as the two main pillars in
the Walker household. But then April's father opened her eyes
to another world, entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
My father was always finding ways to connect us with
the arts, whether it was dance lessons or music lessons
or acting lessons, all these different things that we grew
up participating in. And he always had these great cocomanni
ideas that were like, oh my god, so embarrassing as
(04:26):
a kid, but looking back in hindsight, I know he
was just trying to spark that imagination and create possibilities
in our minds. One year, it was the bi centennial.
It was huge. It was nineteen seventy six, I believe,
and it was two hundred years they were celebrating. My
(04:46):
father said, we're gonna make some shirts and go out
and sell them for the bi centennial. And I'm like,
how he said, We're going to create a design and
then we're gonna make it. So we actually did that.
We created a design that celebrated the bi centennial. And
then he took me and dragged me to Pearl Paint,
which was it's legendary in New York for any artist,
(05:07):
and it really just had everything in there that a
creator would want we picked out paints for the shirts,
we picked out colors, we actually had a silk screen
made with our design, and then we went home and
we stayed up all night and we actually made those shirts.
We bought the shirts. We actually had to use the
screegee and actually manufacture them by hand and make all
(05:32):
of these shirts. And then the next day we went
to the bi centennial and actually sold the shirts. And
as a kid, it was very jolting. It was very
kind of embarrassing because you know, you're doing something different.
No one else is out there doing that, they're enjoying it,
and you're out there hustling, so to speak. But what
it did would show us shewed me because we sold
(05:56):
all the shirts and I remember him like with a
wide showing it to me, like you see this, this
is what you just did. That always stuck with me.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
April went on to college, but the creativity instilled in
her by her parents and the idea that she could
make a living from her own creations would supersede anything
that she could learn in the classroom.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
By the time I got to college, I knew I
didn't want to work for someone else, but I didn't
know what it would be. I was going to school
for business and communications, and one time I thought I
might be a broadcaster. I wasn't sure. I was definitely
interested in electronic media, so I was taking some courses
there as well. But I was always innately into fashion.
(06:35):
I never owned it, but looking back, there were clues.
I want, you know, best dressed, saved all my tags
and would put them on the wall, and all of
these things. I was different. I would try something different
in fashion ever since I can remember.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
April's pulled towards entrepreneurship naturally led her interest in college
to win.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I was in my junior year in college and I
basically told my dad that I don't want to go
back to school. And he looked at me and he
was taken aback, and he said, why you know? And
I pointed to this girl that was on the phone booth.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
She was in a phone booth and she had on
like some big ear rings and bamboos, and her jacket
was all studed up and crystals and writing all over.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It was really cool. I said, that's what I want
to do. And he said to me, not too long ago,
he told me this story, and he was like, I
looked at that Jackson, and I was like, that's whack.
But I didn't say it out loud. He said, but
I thought it, but I couldn't say it because who
was I, you know, because he was a creator too,
(07:45):
so he supported me on it.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I think the support of her father was massive, but
an encounter with a one of a kind fashion icon
would be the turning point for April.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
One night, I was at the Powow Theater and after
my friends and I we walked over to Deva Danda.
It was this Willy Wonka for me, a fabulosity of
everything that wasn't being created in the stores for us,
and he was doing these one of the cons that
were incredible, that was speaking to my tribe, my culture,
and I wanted in. You know, at that time, the
(08:21):
world was very different and I was very much still Brooklyn.
I hadn't seen the whole world, so Burrows were everything
to me. You know, you had all these pockets. I
just wanted to rep for Brooklyn at that moment and
create for my tribe, and so successfully is Clues and
that's what happened. I reverse engineered into it from the
(08:44):
north Star of hip hop, and I started creating things
that spoke to me that I felt the music was there,
but we didn't have the uniforms, and I just wanted
to create what I was feeling and pour that out.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
With a spark of inspiration from Dapper Dain and the
unwavering support of her father, April decided to leave school early,
and even though she had two secure job opportunities in
front of her, April instead opted to sign a lease
on a small retail space for seven hundred and fifty
dollars a month and to start her own brand.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I got called for two state jobs, I think while
I was in college. I applied for. One was the
fire department, another one was corrections. I got called right
when I was signing the lease, and I remember my
mom was so destroyed because those were considered good jobs.
Everybody thought I was crazy, except for my dad. I
remember one time in the beginning going to the fashion
(09:41):
industry and getting a role of fabric, and I can
remember us being on the train carrying a big role
of fabric home. So he was always like cheerleading.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
As April started her boutique fashion in effect, she knew
hip hop would be her north star and set out
to build a wardrobe for the co.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
The magnet was hip hop and our little shot Fashion
and Effect was literally a hole in the wall that
we created with a homemade signs. We didn't have money
for a sign, so we made our own sign. We
went back to our Pearl paints and we got this
phone board. It was maybe We made it about six feet,
We connected it. We painted it Fashion and Effect with
(10:22):
like this.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
I druid this like graffitiish style and colors neon colors,
and we hung it up over the glass storefront and
in the storefront we would hang up different airbrush, sweatshirts,
different cool outfits that.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
We were making.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
April started to buy fabrics, textiles, and machinery needed for
her cutt and sew operation and recruited other creatives to
help bring her vision to life.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
We amassed a tribe of like minds. And with those
like minds, I think when your passion is fueling you
so so much, you can figure out the rest because
you can look at models that created. And while we
didn't have any models there in what we were doing,
we did have Dapper Dan. So I knew, Okay, I
(11:09):
have to buy jukie machines and I have to buy
industrial singer machines, and then the rest was just figure
it out. So there was the New York Times would
have a liquidation section. That's how I got my singers
and my jokies because I couldn't afford that out the box.
And then I created a cutting table. But that was
(11:29):
literally like putting a big piece of wood and polishing
it and stabilizing that, and that became our cutting table
and just really figuring it out and making something out
of nothing. That's exactly what we did.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
April started creating and selling one of a kind statement
pieces right there in her shop. In addition to being
her production facility in retail space, Fashion Effect also became
a staple hangout in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
When you came in the store and then entry way
to your right would have one wall that had a
big dog on it with the hat to the back
that said FIE, which stood for Fashion and Effect, and
then he had a big clock on that said don't
believe the hype. The dog the had gold teeth in
his mouth like it was a whole vibe. And when
(12:18):
you came in, we had Marcus and you had to
tag your name on the wall. So at one point
the whole wolf was tagged up around this dog, and
then to your left when you came in was a
actual cool sofa that we made. And then we had
these showcases that we got from liquidation and we would
(12:38):
have beeper covers and little trinkets that you could buy.
So for the people that couldn't afford something really expensive,
we had low hanging fruit and spontaneous purchases in the front.
But we didn't know that was the terminology. Then we
just knew we had to pay our rent, so we
had to figure how different way to do that. So
(13:01):
we were like, everyone can't afford in a suit for
X amount. We made fashion and effect T shirts as well,
and we sold those and that those had the dog
on it.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
With a store on Point, April expanded her team of
creatives to help produce bold and beautiful pieces that would
become synonymous with nineties hip hop.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I had a great, amazing artist named Linda Avery. She
was from Pittsburgh. She actually came up and stayed with
us and started doing the acrylic painting in the air brushing.
And then we had someone who worked with us. His
name was Woody and he worked with shirt Kings as well,
and he was doing a lot of airbrushing for us
(13:40):
as well. We also borrowed a few of Dapper Dane's tailors,
and so we had tailors that already understood the culture
and were able to make leather or dentim or whatever
we needed. And it was great because they were able
to teach me as I was learning. I knew business,
and I knew how to go get sales, but I
(14:00):
didn't understand everything needed. Like at first my needles were
breaking a lat because I had the wrong needles and machines,
all these little things. Help having someone that was experienced
to make the things that were in our heads and
pour it out into the world.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Slowly but surely, Fashionate and effect became the place to
be with a team of creatives in place. April also
started recruiting assistants and other local kids to help her
out and began another crucial part of her story, mentorship.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
I started working with April as her assistant. April has
this way of kind of like getting everybody involved in
every part of the business.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
This is Gloria Shrubin, once April's assistant and eventually one
of her lead stylist and designers.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
She was a great teacher in that respect and just
kind of like schooling me and just grooming me for
the apparel industry and just really kind of understanding what
it is to build a brand, brand management. I've always
been this kind of like a low key fashionista, really
into just like design and fashion and just style and wardrobing.
(15:06):
April was like a family friend, so I kind of
grew up under her tutelage for years, just kind of
watching her develop her business. In my old personal journey,
I was actually in undergrad studying to.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Go to law school.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
I got my degree in political science. You know, I
had these dreams and aspirations of being an attorney. I
just wanted, as a young black female coming out of
the hood, just I wanted an industry that was going
to make me a lot of money.
Speaker 6 (15:30):
That was really my attitude.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
And you know, law was what seemed like the best
thing for me because everyone was like, you talk well,
you know, you argue, well, you are a great liar.
So and you know, I had a knack for school
was really easy for me, reading a lot of books
on policy size, really a lot of study around history.
Speaker 6 (15:51):
But in my last year, unfortunately I lost my mom.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
In undergrad and I'd worked through school anyway, so I
was always working. April was like, hey, you know you
should come work for me. You know, you got a
lot of swag and style, you know what I'm saying.
I like the way you put things together just to
really be a great learning experience.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
So I was like, okay, cool. You know, I definitely
loved what she did.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
Loved just kind of being around and had the ability
and access because you know, I gotta hung out with her.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
Little sisters and we were just all kind of friends.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
As Gloria found her role on the team, April empowered
her and looked to Gloria's youthful perspective to lead the
way on projects.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
Day one was herd just kind of like grooming me
and teaching me how to just kind of like understand
what she needed me to do. I remember her taking
me to the garment district and at that time, you
could swatch fat and she was just like, I want
anything that stands out to you for you to grab now.
Mind you, I have no background, no formal training in
anything fash I just know how to wear a flashit.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
I'm a big brand or you know what I'm saying.
From a thousands.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I felt like I had that, but I just felt
it was something that was and anything that I was
trained I with, which is something that I was just
naturally gifted with.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
So her identified that. She she puts me in the
stores for hours.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
I'm going through all this fabrics, watching all this stuff,
and we finally get back to the office. She had
like stacks of magazines, every WWD, every GQ, everything anything
you can think of, just like high fashion magazines. So
this she's like, I want you to go through these
magazines and attack the fabric that you picked to some
of the looks that were in the magazines, Like so
(17:31):
I can kind of like identify what fabrics would work
well with what designs. I did this for hours, but
it was such a great path because it forced me
to kind of see what she saw. Because from that
point on, my main focus in work was always to
kind of like work with her clients in like the
sales capacity. She had like these great books that were
(17:53):
filled with silhouettes and designs or options that they had,
and then it was like these watchbooks of just all
these different fabrics. So my job would be to sit
with the client and allow them to mix and match.
So this task of just kind of like, you know,
seeing it that she would critique it, well, why would
you put this?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
You know?
Speaker 6 (18:09):
It was it was really a learning experience. It grew
me for that role.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
As Fashion and Effect continued to make a name for itself,
a placement on an album cover was about to take
the business to a whole nother level and open additional
revenue streams.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So with Fashion and Effect, it literally became this best
kept secret that finally wasn't a secret. You know. We
were making a lot of clothes, and we were making
them to the point where one day Audio two came
in the store and they wanted outfits made for their
next album cover, and they wanted somebody from Brooklyn to
(18:44):
make them, and they asked if I could make them,
and I said sure, fingers crossed behind my back, you know.
But it worked out, and that album cover was I
Don't Care and it was a crashed up Benz And
they had outfits and they did some turke Kings, did
some artwork from one of the moment I did the suits,
(19:05):
and that was the start of it. Then they came
back and they asked you style a video. I had
no experience in styling. But I found out what styling was.
I told them I could do the video, and I
did a video, and from that video, I created a
new revenue stream. And I said, this is going to
(19:25):
be another revenue stream for us, and I created a
styling division. So from that we started styling.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
However, April's rise was anything but straightforward. Breaking into any
market is hard, but even more challenging as a young
black woman in a male dominated industry.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
A lot of companies were afraid of a very young person.
And at that time I was hip hop out and
I was twenty one, and I was a woman, and
being a young woman in an all male dominated industry
was a lot different. And then I was blexicin so
I didn't really look like the norm of the fashion
(20:06):
industry or speak that language. So that was another factor, right.
What I didn't I was naive to fear and it
served me well because I never thought this isn't going
to happen. It was like, it will happen.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
April did break through and in a big way. Soon
Fashion and Effect became the place for up and coming
rappers to get custom outfits, and the who's who of
New York hip hop would seek out April for their fits.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I'm always looking for ways to expand my spider web
or be the octopus, because I understand that, you know,
this is a foundation, but we have to have different
tentacles in order to grow. So as long as it's
coming from the same base and we can handle it.
And that was unnatural to me because it allowed us
not only to style other artists, but to become bigger
(20:59):
with marketing using a bullhorn by artists working with artists,
and so now they became our tribe and so to speak.
And they were telling two people right. Jay Z was
at this time buying stuff from us and Jazz and
then Shaggy and shine Head. Those were two big artists
(21:22):
from Brooklyn. And one day Biggie came in the store.
He was fifteen years old and he was another one
of our first customers. He saw Rabi and rock Keemp
shirt and Houdini shirt that we airbrushed in the window
and stopped. And I'd see him in the neighborhood because
we lived in the same neighborhood. I'd see him hanging out,
(21:42):
but I didn't know him, just to give each other
not But when he came in to story recognized me
and he asked, is this your shop? And it marked
a conversation and I found out he was into music,
and you know, we just started talking about all things
hip hop and that became our into section. He was
always calm, collective, but he was witty, He was funny,
(22:05):
and he always made you feel like family. You know.
He was just really cool. He was cool with everybody.
He had a charisma about him that was special. He
also was like you knew like you didn't want to
mess with Biggie, you know what I mean at the
same time because of his tribe, but he never gave
that off. It was just like you just knew he
(22:27):
was from Brooklyn, and Brooklyn was different, you know what
I mean. But he was a good he was He
was a really nice guy. He was super talented, super
focused and confident and when he signed to that boy,
he never forgotten was You know, these kinds of stories
are important because for any aspiring entrepreneur, young person or
(22:49):
entrepreneur that's out there. I credit a lot of my
journey to relationships, and I don't mean just texting. I
think you have to be courageous enough to live in
your discomfort zone to invest into people and to look
at the long game. And so a lot of these
artists that are mega artists right now were not then.
Like Biggie didn't even have a deal. You know, he
(23:12):
was fifteen, he had a dream, but I saw how
gifted he was and I believed in him. You know.
So I think that when you're authentic and you really
believe in someone and they believe in you, as you rise,
you rise together.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
April was really iconic in what I would always refer
to as brand leveraging, you know, really knowing how to
see what was coming up next in the hip hop industry,
who the talent was, and really building her product on
them to build more notoriety for her brand, whether it
was run DMC, was Biggie, it was pop. You know,
(23:53):
really knowing where to be, how to be and really
kind of getting that product in those places was really
her art to me.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
After its first year, Fashion and Effect was still in business,
which was a big win for April and her team,
but the margins that come with custom work are thin,
and Fashion Effect was far from being really profitable.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
I think that first year, like none of us were
getting paid. It was shoe string, But I remember the
first year, I found some books and I think we
made like maybe eighty We made eighty something thousand the
first year, and that was like huge for me because
that was back in the day, and we made a
lot of mistakes that first year, so it encouraged me
(24:36):
to do the second year.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
As April continued to grow fashion and effect land placements
with celebrities and style artists, she realized that the one
of a kind business model was very limiting and to
truly expand she would need her own branded clothing line.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
I think that what we noticed was some of the artists,
some of our customers would come in and ask for
the things that we were making for the artists in videos.
So we knew, okay, we have something because he did
the same things we made this rough and rugged suit.
It was a heavy denim suit that we made, and
(25:09):
we were doing a lot of experimenting at that time
with the Lore, So we were doing a lot of
buckets with Gentimen the Lore, and a lot of suits
with Gentimen Thelore, and a lot of contrast stitching so
that it would match up with the Timberlain. So all
of these things became like we caught on like a fire.
It just started like people would ask for the same things.
(25:31):
So that became our proof of concept and that's what
led us to believe we need to do our own
line and just go for it.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
April did decide to go for it and created her
eponymous brand, walker Wear. At the same time, another pivotal
member of the Walkerware team was about to enter the fold.
Speaker 7 (25:51):
I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, and I was able
to go to New York often and dance on broadways.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
This is Kim your Range, an assistant to April and
eventually the head of marketing and promotion for Walkerware.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
I danced from three to probably fifteen years old, so
I really had some opportunities that I did not realize
was not a normal thing growing up until you.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Know, I got to college, I think, and.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Really started to meet people from all over. Then I
went on to University of Massachusetts. That's where I met
my friend m J who introduced me to the Walker family,
and that's how I started connecting with April and we
started going to New York for our spring breaks, and
(26:42):
that's how my connection to Walkerware began. When we started
going to New York. At that time, her business was
fashion and effect. I got to assist on a photo
shoot she was working on. She definitely takes the time
to teach you each moment to teach a bo moment
(27:04):
with her, because you know, she could definitely if she
wanted to.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Eat, sleep, and drink the business.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
So then a couple of years later she started to
build Walkerware, and when I had graduated from college, I
had the opportunity to move to New York City and
then was able to support her in the Walkerware journey.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Can you move to New York and brought with her
some experience that would be pivotal to the growth of Walkerware.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
I was just coming off of a job working with
Russell Stover's Candies, and I had learned how to be
organized because for me, I had not had a supervisor
that lived in.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
The same state as me.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
I was fortunate to get a car with this job,
so that was pretty much my office, where my foul
cabinets was in the trunk of the car. So my
organization in that sales realm was very key. And then
being able to take over if necessary, like when April
(28:14):
wasn't available to be in a place, especially like with
some styling job opportunities there. I was able to step
in also even with buyers.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
Have that conversation with Walker Ware.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
April's goal was to spread the brand beyond the confines
of a brick and mortar store. So, Kim, you began
to oversee marketing and took a page from the music
industry playbook.
Speaker 7 (28:36):
That was the whole goal is, you know, promotions, sales,
all the connections for the marketing of the brand.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
It pretty much.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
Consisted of marketing this closing line like it was a record.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Label, I remember.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
So we just pretty much was taken to the streets,
you know, like this street teams. It was a bunch
of dedicated young people, pretty much interns that would get
out there at the different events and pretty much flood
the areas with all the different promotions that were going on.
(29:18):
We would get behind the bad Boy Street Team. They'd
be on the big megaphone shouting out bad Boy, and
I would just tap him on the shoulder and ask
them to shout out walk Away as well. So just
again taking advantage of opportunity with the relationships that we
were building out there.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Keimya was excellent. She was on that same page. She
was great at marketing and sales. She was a people's person.
She built up relationships. She was really good. I could
pass the ball to her and then she would cultivate
those relationships because at one point I just got really
busy as we were surfling. Up were my responsibilities. So
(30:02):
that's where Kimya came in to play with the marketing,
the PR and really dealing with people.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
With Kimmia on the ground handling marketing NYC. Other opportunities
across the country started to pop up, like a job
for a certain West Coast MC that would put Gloria
through a whirlwind of a weekend.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
All I remember is April Quala being like, Yo, there's
a jet leaving in like two hours. We need everybody
at the house, you know, with a bag coop. You
gotta fly to La and do this video shoot.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
And it was there was no question. You're just was
like okay.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
You know, it becomes that common space where it's not
just like limits just being in New York. You know
what I'm saying is a video shoot. We you know,
got tasked for the style of job. I can't remember
what Phombi was, but there was a song with Pop
Casey and Jojo. We got to squeeze into a limousine
with sub Knight and pop.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
It's me Jackie April, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
And this guy's a big guy and they looking at
me like you the youngest. You gotta sit and foot
is on my lap the whole ride, you know, from
Clinton Hills to some private runway in Jersey and I'm
sitting there like a punk. It doesn't pay being the
new beat in this situation, you know what I'm saying.
But this is the work, you know, all right? So
(31:22):
we touched ground that to Melleblee. They set us up
for the night next day, spent the whole day shopping
to shoot a video on the beach.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
It was like.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
Seventy two hours from hell, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
It just like getting it in, doing the work, blah
blah blah, and then on a plane back to New York,
like this is what needed to be done, this is
what we had to do, and there was no questions asked.
So those eleventh hour industry calls, it was like normal
stuff that just happened, because that's how the industry ran,
you know.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
The co signs from artists like Chupac and Viggie walk
Away had become a premier brand in hip hop and
soon it would become more the most desired street wear
brands for celebrities all over the world.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
There are so many different people, even, you know, with
the Lea, we worked with her doing her first video
and her photo shoot, being able to place some walk
Aware products on her.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
And then Gary Payton we did a whole shoot with
him with the SuperSonics.
Speaker 7 (32:20):
I remember making some pants for Shaq for All.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Star Mike Tyson. He wore our stuff in the ring.
That was probably one of our biggest collapse. I became
the first American designer besides sports like they were doing Everlast,
but as a designer, I was the first to hit
the heavyweight ring. So that was really a big moment
in Walkaware's career. He was famous for wearing his towel out,
(32:47):
but he wore a towel with the W W double
XL on it and the shorts and the sneakers, so
it was huge, you know.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
It was just amazing, I think for me seeing a
bad boy. When they had their first advertisement in Billboard
and it was in the McDonald's setup and it was
Craig Mack had on the Walkaware hockey jersey and it
was Puffy and Biggie in that ad.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
That was amazing.
Speaker 7 (33:16):
Because that was one of my first placements for Walkaware.
So it's like, you don't know where to end up,
but when it does, it's like wow. But it's the
relationship because they had to pick it up and say
this is what I'm aware.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
So it seemed like Walkerware was being worn by every celebrity.
Behind the scenes, the finances remained a struggle. This battle
between creating for fun and creating for profits was taking
a toll on.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
April the nineties, the Golden era was so magnetic, it
was so electric, and it was magical. And then at
the same time, I started when I was twenty one,
and it literally was like eighteen hour days. I want
to say six days a week, but it might have
been even seven times. And then we started growing. Our
(34:03):
growth accelerated fast, and there were a few almost deals,
you know, where I did licensing and it fell through
or it didn't happen. So I was independent. I've been
independent my whole life, but you can imagine financially, it
was a huge burden and blessing. And then I had
a mass of staff. So I had a lot so
(34:27):
starting from a creative lens to becoming management and leadership
and not being able to do as much creative as
you want because now you're running a whole corporation, making
all these decisions, learning about licensing, learning about production, learning
about marketing, learning all these different things. I was at
(34:49):
the helm of that universe, and then I was watching
the actual industry unfold, and if I'm honest, it became
something I didn't like. Over time, it just really became
about the money.
Speaker 7 (35:02):
The downfall might have been not having as much money
as you'd like to have, but eventually.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
The money came.
Speaker 7 (35:10):
But I think that was probably the downfall.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
We were so young.
Speaker 7 (35:15):
I just think we were just for me, not being
from New York being.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Able to be in that element. Urban fashion became oversaturated,
buyers became groupies, Artists wanted in I have no problems
with music artists becoming their own brands and wanting to
monetize every aspect of their business. But if you're going
to do that, you have to take it serious and
(35:40):
create the teams around it that understand those industries so
you can be taken serious. And at that time, I'll
say that some of that was not happening. A lot
of that was not happening, and so as a result,
it was hurting the industry because it truly became a
numbers game. Fashion designers that you really had awesome designs
(36:01):
for being overlooked. It was so lights camera action that
there was little substance, but the hype without substance, it's
not sustainable. And I saw the beginning of the incoming
and that along with becoming burnt out over time. By
the time ninety nine hit, people felt like I was
(36:22):
at the top of my game because it looked like
that from the outside, but I was miserable. I felt
the weight of the world on my shoulder. I had
a New York office, a New York show room, Vegas
had an LA It was just a lot going on,
and I was tired. I was really tired. I was
(36:44):
almost afraid to walk away because April Walker was so
ingrained at the point with walk Away like synonymous, and
I was like, what would I do after? But that's
why I had to walk away. I need to breathe,
and I needed to know that's just what I did
(37:05):
and that I could be good without it, because I
wasn't really happy at that point. I was definitely to
the world in perception winning, but winning has a different
meaning for me. I'm real clear, I'm not now, and
at that time it was becoming great and I wanted
to really have clarity. So I made the decision at
(37:26):
the height of the brand to just take pause, pause,
Let's just pause and really like breathe. I knew I
wasn't taking care of myself. I wasn't doing the things
I was supposed to. It was a lot given all
of this time and energy to the love of my business,
but I was out of sync with the alignment of myself,
(37:47):
my mind, my body, and my soul.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
So I chose that with walk Away on Hold, April
found opportunities working with other brands, but more importantly, she
finally put her own health and wellness, both physical and
mental first.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
I paused walk Away and put it on the shelf,
and then did some things I always wanted to try.
So by this time I knew licensing really well. I
did a bunch of stuff, and then in the interim
of all of that stuff, I got a lot of rest.
I think ninety nine to two thousand and I was
the vice president at that farm with Russell Simmons and
(38:23):
really was overseeing all of his licenses. So me navigating
through all of these different licensees and contracts and magic,
it was just a whole different lens that helped me grow.
And then from there I went to AND one and
I developed a woman's line for AND One. From there,
(38:46):
I did some costume war droveing, and I did some
merchandising with Errika Badu. And these were projects that I
did in between finding myself and having conversations with God
and just taking breaks and getting into nature and really
embracing my spirituality and really figuring out why I got
to the point of burnout, why I had to walk away.
(39:09):
I feel like I really had really grown spiritually and
got to a good place of really nourishing my mind,
my body, my soul, and it was great. So I
started consulting and that's literally how a walker group started.
So really cool projects, all very different, but one thing
(39:31):
I realized what consulting is. You can consult and they
can pay you, but when clients don't take your advice,
it's very frustrating and you see them hitting the wall
and you're like, oh, if I only had my own brand,
and I realized I do, and that is what inspired
me to start walk Away again. That with the fact
(39:54):
that we're in the digital era and I could really
manage my stress, I could create the life I wanted to.
I could really do all the things. I could sell
one piece or one thousand pieces at a time. It's
just how fast I want to put my foot on
the gas pedal because you can really write your own
(40:15):
ticket and story. With the internet now, direct to consumer
has changed the game for all creators. And that's literally
how I looked at it. Once I saw what social
media and the Internet could do, I said, I want
to start creating again. And that's how it started. So
(40:35):
I think at two and eleven I started privately started
doing product development, and by I think twenty twelve, twenty
and thirteen, that's when I started really showing it again.
It was a big learning curve because I didn't beat
my chest until about maybe two thousand and fifteen and sixteen.
(40:56):
We were selling, we were doing pop ups, we were
doing different things or again, and I had to go
through about three different web developers because you know, it
was new, it was new for me and it was
still newer than it is now. I didn't even know
about Shopify things like that, which is the ended up
being our you know, server for where we do our business.
(41:19):
At that time, I just wanted to automate everything that
I could, because coming back I wanted to be lean
and mean and walk away was not going to be
the only thing that I did. It was very inspiring
to be able to create again. When I got on
social media. There were people from all over the world
that were hitting us like, hey, thank you for your contributions,
(41:41):
y'alla y'all and really just really gracious and accolades and
remembering me. And then I realized how cool the tool
could be if I learned it. So part of me
creating was one thing, but also challenging myself to step
into social media, into technology and embrace it as part
(42:02):
of business was another. To learn it because I had
the experience, but if I could grab the technology and
marry that, I feel like I had an advantage because
I have a real story with a lot of history.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Social media had changed the fashion industry. In order to
catch up, April do what she's always done, surrounded herself
with young creatives who would act as reverse mentors.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
The fashion industry when I started. It wasn't an industry
when I started. Now there are so many different players,
so that part was different, and they are way more distractions.
That's different where you were networking a lot more. I
was a lot younger, so I was write that trial
like I knew it inside out. It's different now, you know,
(42:51):
I have to do way more work to know it.
And I really believe in reverse mentorship because I think
that we all can grow from each other generations. Why
so I keep young people around me because they keep
me informed and I get to know how their minds
so thinking.
Speaker 8 (43:09):
And I knew April before the high school. April was
you know April. I always call her the mayor of Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
This is Miles Hopkins and assisted for April at the
revived Walkerware.
Speaker 8 (43:21):
And she doesn't agree, but I always find it funny.
It's like a little joke between us. April knows everybody,
and April and my mom actually go back since they
were kids. They kind of grew up in the same neighborhood.
I didn't really know about the Walkerware side of things
until I got older, because you know, as a kid,
(43:43):
it was just somebody that I know through my mom.
Walkerware was just one of those things that when I
did finally like get to know, I was just very
shocked by how many people wore it. April is one
of those people that's like extremely humble, but people will
run up to her on the streets and just you know,
tell her like how much she means to the community
(44:05):
of fashion and just like to the world. Like her
imprint not only on fashion but just on the world
is amazing. And the fact that people just recognize it
years later. April believes in reverse mentorship, and like that's
kind of the way that Walkerware has been successful over
all those years because April really listens to her customers
(44:26):
and the people around her.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Sue Miles was setting up photo shoots for April, and
by bringing in young creatives to guide her, Walkerware continues
to be ahead of the curve.
Speaker 8 (44:39):
I got a chance to more so like curate a
lot of our photo shoots with some of our younger talent,
Like I worked with guys like Nico Brimm, Jordan Beckford, CJ.
Speaker 6 (44:50):
Wallace and Josh Russa.
Speaker 8 (44:52):
I also want to say for you guys, like please
keep those guys like on the map for you they're
very interesting young gentlem men and they're on the rise.
Not only did I just do the photo shoots and
like kind of curate them and see to it that
they would get done. I did a lot of Instagram
outreach to some of our other like younger followers, and
(45:13):
we just tried to find people that aligned a little
bit more with our brand. It's so surreal to just
see how much like people really genuinely like gravitate towards
the brand once they meet the owner. You know, April
is like one of the most authentic people on the planet.
So no matter who you are, she you know, she
always gives you love.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
As April continues the mentor and reverse mentor, she's always
ready to offer advice to the younger generation of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
I would tell my younger self as an entrepreneur, study
your money and understand that this is a business. Because
most of us are creative. We cannot take the attitude
of its creative and we'll get to the business later. Oh,
I'll just hire people for that. No, understand that this
is a business. Study money. Don't be the smartest person
(46:02):
in the world. You want to surround yourself by people
that are smarter than you and will make you stand
on your tippy toes so that you can continue to grow,
to elevate, to empower each other, and to lift up
your tribe. At the same time, as a.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
April looks to the future, the mission remains the same, teach,
learn and empower the next generation of creatives.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Walk Away as a legacy brand, I want to continue
that creating. We have some really cool collaborations set up.
Next year is fifty years in hip Hop, so I'm
going to be doing a collaboration with Universal Hip Hop
Museum and some other cool collapse I can't really talk
about yet, but you'll see those. I'm starting a digital academy,
(46:52):
really excited about that because it's for makers, entrepreneurs, creators,
and they really hands on experience. So just really the
thing that I'm passionate about is impacting as many people
as I can with the experience I have while I'm
visiting this earth, you know. And so that's my trajectory
work moving forward.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Walkerwaar's story is one of true entrepreneurship, creativity, and dedication
to the culture. When April wanted a space to celebrate
the hip hop world she loved, she went out and
got her own store. When she desired new designs, she
created her own line Along the Way. April assembled a
team of all Stars and Gloria and Kimya, and continues
her mentorship today by helping young creatives.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Like Miles.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
And Through it all, the north Star has always remained
hip hop, creating a space for her tribe to be seen,
heard and worn her Idea Generation. I'm Noah Callahan Bever.
Thanks for listening to the All Angles Pod presented by
(48:01):
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.
This episode was brought to you by Will Packer Executive
produced by John Valachick and Helena Os, Original music by
Valentine Fritz, edit and sound mixed by Nonsensible Production, and
(48:24):
hosted by me Idea Generation founder Noah Callahan Bever. Idea
Generations All Angles is a Will Packer Media podcast
Jay Z was at this time buying stuff from us,
and one day Biggie came in the store. He was
fifteen years old and he was another one of our
first customers. These kinds of stories are important because for
any aspiring entrepreneur, I credit a lot of my journey
to relationships, and I don't mean just texting and think.
(00:24):
You have to be courageous enough to live in your
discomfort zone, to invest into people and to look at
the long game.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to Ourdea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's
most influential brands and the teams that build. 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 the
only way to truly understand success is to look at
(01:03):
it from all angles. Idea Generations All Angles is a
Will Packer Media podcast. In nineteen eighty eight, April Walker
opened Fashion and Effect, a custom clothing boutique for the
burgeoning hip hop audience in New York City. In the
years that followed, April would launch her own streetwear brand,
(01:24):
Walkerware and become a pop culture phenomenon, working closely with
a listers like the notorious Big Tupac and Shaquille O'Neill.
But just as Walkerware started to ascend from hip hop
staple to mainstream recognition, April made the shocking decision to
shut down the brand. On this week's episode of All Angles,
we talked to founder April Walker, assistant Miles Hopkins, lead
(01:45):
stylist and designer Gloria Sharubin, and head of marketing Kimmia
Range to hear the full story of how Walkerware became
the hottest streetwear of the nineties and how the brand
has re emerged today with a refreshed approach. But before
any of that happened, years before Mike Tyson would hit
the ring in Walkerwaar shorts or Tupac would fly her
out to la for an emergency video shoot, April Walker
(02:07):
was just a young kid moving to Harlem with her parents.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
My childhood was very interesting. I had a different mix.
My mom is Mexican and Navajo, and my father is
black Cherokee and probably Heinez fifty seven. There's probably some
other things we don't know about, but it gave me
a unique Lens.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
This is April Walker, founder of Walkerware.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
My father his family is from Culpepper, Virginia, and my
father is an avid music lover and was part of
the music industry, but growing up he just had a
love for jazz and music and all the things in music.
My mom is from Colorado. She was very organized, very cerebral,
(02:58):
and just really really focused on creating a life for
us in stability. My father was going to a university
here in Colorado and my mom was from Colorado. Then
from there we went to La. From La, we went
to Harlem. We lived in Roxbury. We moved around because
my father was chasing those music dreams. As a result,
(03:22):
I got to see different backgrounds, different environments, and in
your formative years, those are everything. So I think it really,
you know, widened my scope, so to speak. And then
I think in terms of traits, I took a little
bit of both of them. Things you love and then
the things you don't. But I think in my DNA,
(03:43):
being as organized and as focused as possible is important,
and at the same time, creating is just in my
bones and just making and moving towards your dreams.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Creativity and organization serves as the two main pillars in
the Walker household. But then April's father opened her eyes
to another world, entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
My father was always finding ways to connect us with
the arts, whether it was dance lessons or music lessons
or acting lessons, all these different things that we grew
up participating in. And he always had these great cocomanni
ideas that were like, oh my god, so embarrassing as
(04:26):
a kid, but looking back in hindsight, I know he
was just trying to spark that imagination and create possibilities
in our minds. One year, it was the bi centennial.
It was huge. It was nineteen seventy six, I believe,
and it was two hundred years they were celebrating. My
(04:46):
father said, we're gonna make some shirts and go out
and sell them for the bi centennial. And I'm like,
how he said, We're going to create a design and
then we're gonna make it. So we actually did that.
We created a design that celebrated the bi centennial. And
then he took me and dragged me to Pearl Paint,
which was it's legendary in New York for any artist,
(05:07):
and it really just had everything in there that a
creator would want we picked out paints for the shirts,
we picked out colors, we actually had a silk screen
made with our design, and then we went home and
we stayed up all night and we actually made those shirts.
We bought the shirts. We actually had to use the
screegee and actually manufacture them by hand and make all
(05:32):
of these shirts. And then the next day we went
to the bi centennial and actually sold the shirts. And
as a kid, it was very jolting. It was very
kind of embarrassing because you know, you're doing something different.
No one else is out there doing that, they're enjoying it,
and you're out there hustling, so to speak. But what
it did would show us shewed me because we sold
(05:56):
all the shirts and I remember him like with a
wide showing it to me, like you see this, this
is what you just did. That always stuck with me.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
April went on to college, but the creativity instilled in
her by her parents and the idea that she could
make a living from her own creations would supersede anything
that she could learn in the classroom.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
By the time I got to college, I knew I
didn't want to work for someone else, but I didn't
know what it would be. I was going to school
for business and communications, and one time I thought I
might be a broadcaster. I wasn't sure. I was definitely
interested in electronic media, so I was taking some courses
there as well. But I was always innately into fashion.
(06:35):
I never owned it, but looking back, there were clues.
I want, you know, best dressed, saved all my tags
and would put them on the wall, and all of
these things. I was different. I would try something different
in fashion ever since I can remember.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
April's pulled towards entrepreneurship naturally led her interest in college
to win.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I was in my junior year in college and I
basically told my dad that I don't want to go
back to school. And he looked at me and he
was taken aback, and he said, why you know? And
I pointed to this girl that was on the phone booth.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
She was in a phone booth and she had on
like some big ear rings and bamboos, and her jacket
was all studed up and crystals and writing all over.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It was really cool. I said, that's what I want
to do. And he said to me, not too long ago,
he told me this story, and he was like, I
looked at that Jackson, and I was like, that's whack.
But I didn't say it out loud. He said, but
I thought it, but I couldn't say it because who
was I, you know, because he was a creator too,
(07:45):
so he supported me on it.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I think the support of her father was massive, but
an encounter with a one of a kind fashion icon
would be the turning point for April.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
One night, I was at the Powow Theater and after
my friends and I we walked over to Deva Danda.
It was this Willy Wonka for me, a fabulosity of
everything that wasn't being created in the stores for us,
and he was doing these one of the cons that
were incredible, that was speaking to my tribe, my culture,
and I wanted in. You know, at that time, the
(08:21):
world was very different and I was very much still Brooklyn.
I hadn't seen the whole world, so Burrows were everything
to me. You know, you had all these pockets. I
just wanted to rep for Brooklyn at that moment and
create for my tribe, and so successfully is Clues and
that's what happened. I reverse engineered into it from the
(08:44):
north Star of hip hop, and I started creating things
that spoke to me that I felt the music was there,
but we didn't have the uniforms, and I just wanted
to create what I was feeling and pour that out.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
With a spark of inspiration from Dapper Dain and the
unwavering support of her father, April decided to leave school early,
and even though she had two secure job opportunities in
front of her, April instead opted to sign a lease
on a small retail space for seven hundred and fifty
dollars a month and to start her own brand.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I got called for two state jobs, I think while
I was in college. I applied for. One was the
fire department, another one was corrections. I got called right
when I was signing the lease, and I remember my
mom was so destroyed because those were considered good jobs.
Everybody thought I was crazy, except for my dad. I
remember one time in the beginning going to the fashion
(09:41):
industry and getting a role of fabric, and I can
remember us being on the train carrying a big role
of fabric home. So he was always like cheerleading.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
As April started her boutique fashion in effect, she knew
hip hop would be her north star and set out
to build a wardrobe for the co.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
The magnet was hip hop and our little shot Fashion
and Effect was literally a hole in the wall that
we created with a homemade signs. We didn't have money
for a sign, so we made our own sign. We
went back to our Pearl paints and we got this
phone board. It was maybe We made it about six feet,
We connected it. We painted it Fashion and Effect with
(10:22):
like this.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
I druid this like graffitiish style and colors neon colors,
and we hung it up over the glass storefront and
in the storefront we would hang up different airbrush, sweatshirts,
different cool outfits that.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
We were making.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
April started to buy fabrics, textiles, and machinery needed for
her cutt and sew operation and recruited other creatives to
help bring her vision to life.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
We amassed a tribe of like minds. And with those
like minds, I think when your passion is fueling you
so so much, you can figure out the rest because
you can look at models that created. And while we
didn't have any models there in what we were doing,
we did have Dapper Dan. So I knew, Okay, I
(11:09):
have to buy jukie machines and I have to buy
industrial singer machines, and then the rest was just figure
it out. So there was the New York Times would
have a liquidation section. That's how I got my singers
and my jokies because I couldn't afford that out the box.
And then I created a cutting table. But that was
(11:29):
literally like putting a big piece of wood and polishing
it and stabilizing that, and that became our cutting table
and just really figuring it out and making something out
of nothing. That's exactly what we did.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
April started creating and selling one of a kind statement
pieces right there in her shop. In addition to being
her production facility in retail space, Fashion Effect also became
a staple hangout in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
When you came in the store and then entry way
to your right would have one wall that had a
big dog on it with the hat to the back
that said FIE, which stood for Fashion and Effect, and
then he had a big clock on that said don't
believe the hype. The dog the had gold teeth in
his mouth like it was a whole vibe. And when
(12:18):
you came in, we had Marcus and you had to
tag your name on the wall. So at one point
the whole wolf was tagged up around this dog, and
then to your left when you came in was a
actual cool sofa that we made. And then we had
these showcases that we got from liquidation and we would
(12:38):
have beeper covers and little trinkets that you could buy.
So for the people that couldn't afford something really expensive,
we had low hanging fruit and spontaneous purchases in the front.
But we didn't know that was the terminology. Then we
just knew we had to pay our rent, so we
had to figure how different way to do that. So
(13:01):
we were like, everyone can't afford in a suit for
X amount. We made fashion and effect T shirts as well,
and we sold those and that those had the dog
on it.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
With a store on Point, April expanded her team of
creatives to help produce bold and beautiful pieces that would
become synonymous with nineties hip hop.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I had a great, amazing artist named Linda Avery. She
was from Pittsburgh. She actually came up and stayed with
us and started doing the acrylic painting in the air brushing.
And then we had someone who worked with us. His
name was Woody and he worked with shirt Kings as well,
and he was doing a lot of airbrushing for us
(13:40):
as well. We also borrowed a few of Dapper Dane's tailors,
and so we had tailors that already understood the culture
and were able to make leather or dentim or whatever
we needed. And it was great because they were able
to teach me as I was learning. I knew business,
and I knew how to go get sales, but I
(14:00):
didn't understand everything needed. Like at first my needles were
breaking a lat because I had the wrong needles and machines,
all these little things. Help having someone that was experienced
to make the things that were in our heads and
pour it out into the world.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Slowly but surely, Fashionate and effect became the place to
be with a team of creatives in place. April also
started recruiting assistants and other local kids to help her
out and began another crucial part of her story, mentorship.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
I started working with April as her assistant. April has
this way of kind of like getting everybody involved in
every part of the business.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
This is Gloria Shrubin, once April's assistant and eventually one
of her lead stylist and designers.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
She was a great teacher in that respect and just
kind of like schooling me and just grooming me for
the apparel industry and just really kind of understanding what
it is to build a brand, brand management. I've always
been this kind of like a low key fashionista, really
into just like design and fashion and just style and wardrobing.
(15:06):
April was like a family friend, so I kind of
grew up under her tutelage for years, just kind of
watching her develop her business. In my old personal journey,
I was actually in undergrad studying to.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Go to law school.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
I got my degree in political science. You know, I
had these dreams and aspirations of being an attorney. I
just wanted, as a young black female coming out of
the hood, just I wanted an industry that was going
to make me a lot of money.
Speaker 6 (15:30):
That was really my attitude.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
And you know, law was what seemed like the best
thing for me because everyone was like, you talk well,
you know, you argue, well, you are a great liar.
So and you know, I had a knack for school
was really easy for me, reading a lot of books
on policy size, really a lot of study around history.
Speaker 6 (15:51):
But in my last year, unfortunately I lost my mom.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
In undergrad and I'd worked through school anyway, so I
was always working. April was like, hey, you know you
should come work for me. You know, you got a
lot of swag and style, you know what I'm saying.
I like the way you put things together just to
really be a great learning experience.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
So I was like, okay, cool. You know, I definitely
loved what she did.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
Loved just kind of being around and had the ability
and access because you know, I gotta hung out with her.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
Little sisters and we were just all kind of friends.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
As Gloria found her role on the team, April empowered
her and looked to Gloria's youthful perspective to lead the
way on projects.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
Day one was herd just kind of like grooming me
and teaching me how to just kind of like understand
what she needed me to do. I remember her taking
me to the garment district and at that time, you
could swatch fat and she was just like, I want
anything that stands out to you for you to grab now.
Mind you, I have no background, no formal training in
anything fash I just know how to wear a flashit.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
I'm a big brand or you know what I'm saying.
From a thousands.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I felt like I had that, but I just felt
it was something that was and anything that I was
trained I with, which is something that I was just
naturally gifted with.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
So her identified that. She she puts me in the
stores for hours.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
I'm going through all this fabrics, watching all this stuff,
and we finally get back to the office. She had
like stacks of magazines, every WWD, every GQ, everything anything
you can think of, just like high fashion magazines. So
this she's like, I want you to go through these
magazines and attack the fabric that you picked to some
of the looks that were in the magazines, Like so
(17:31):
I can kind of like identify what fabrics would work
well with what designs. I did this for hours, but
it was such a great path because it forced me
to kind of see what she saw. Because from that
point on, my main focus in work was always to
kind of like work with her clients in like the
sales capacity. She had like these great books that were
(17:53):
filled with silhouettes and designs or options that they had,
and then it was like these watchbooks of just all
these different fabrics. So my job would be to sit
with the client and allow them to mix and match.
So this task of just kind of like, you know,
seeing it that she would critique it, well, why would
you put this?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
You know?
Speaker 6 (18:09):
It was it was really a learning experience. It grew
me for that role.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
As Fashion and Effect continued to make a name for itself,
a placement on an album cover was about to take
the business to a whole nother level and open additional
revenue streams.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So with Fashion and Effect, it literally became this best
kept secret that finally wasn't a secret. You know. We
were making a lot of clothes, and we were making
them to the point where one day Audio two came
in the store and they wanted outfits made for their
next album cover, and they wanted somebody from Brooklyn to
(18:44):
make them, and they asked if I could make them,
and I said sure, fingers crossed behind my back, you know.
But it worked out, and that album cover was I
Don't Care and it was a crashed up Benz And
they had outfits and they did some turke Kings, did
some artwork from one of the moment I did the suits,
(19:05):
and that was the start of it. Then they came
back and they asked you style a video. I had
no experience in styling. But I found out what styling was.
I told them I could do the video, and I
did a video, and from that video, I created a
new revenue stream. And I said, this is going to
(19:25):
be another revenue stream for us, and I created a
styling division. So from that we started styling.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
However, April's rise was anything but straightforward. Breaking into any
market is hard, but even more challenging as a young
black woman in a male dominated industry.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
A lot of companies were afraid of a very young person.
And at that time I was hip hop out and
I was twenty one, and I was a woman, and
being a young woman in an all male dominated industry
was a lot different. And then I was blexicin so
I didn't really look like the norm of the fashion
(20:06):
industry or speak that language. So that was another factor, right.
What I didn't I was naive to fear and it
served me well because I never thought this isn't going
to happen. It was like, it will happen.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
April did break through and in a big way. Soon
Fashion and Effect became the place for up and coming
rappers to get custom outfits, and the who's who of
New York hip hop would seek out April for their fits.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I'm always looking for ways to expand my spider web
or be the octopus, because I understand that, you know,
this is a foundation, but we have to have different
tentacles in order to grow. So as long as it's
coming from the same base and we can handle it.
And that was unnatural to me because it allowed us
not only to style other artists, but to become bigger
(20:59):
with marketing using a bullhorn by artists working with artists,
and so now they became our tribe and so to speak.
And they were telling two people right. Jay Z was
at this time buying stuff from us and Jazz and
then Shaggy and shine Head. Those were two big artists
(21:22):
from Brooklyn. And one day Biggie came in the store.
He was fifteen years old and he was another one
of our first customers. He saw Rabi and rock Keemp
shirt and Houdini shirt that we airbrushed in the window
and stopped. And I'd see him in the neighborhood because
we lived in the same neighborhood. I'd see him hanging out,
(21:42):
but I didn't know him, just to give each other
not But when he came in to story recognized me
and he asked, is this your shop? And it marked
a conversation and I found out he was into music,
and you know, we just started talking about all things
hip hop and that became our into section. He was
always calm, collective, but he was witty, He was funny,
(22:05):
and he always made you feel like family. You know.
He was just really cool. He was cool with everybody.
He had a charisma about him that was special. He
also was like you knew like you didn't want to
mess with Biggie, you know what I mean at the
same time because of his tribe, but he never gave
that off. It was just like you just knew he
(22:27):
was from Brooklyn, and Brooklyn was different, you know what
I mean. But he was a good he was He
was a really nice guy. He was super talented, super
focused and confident and when he signed to that boy,
he never forgotten was You know, these kinds of stories
are important because for any aspiring entrepreneur, young person or
(22:49):
entrepreneur that's out there. I credit a lot of my
journey to relationships, and I don't mean just texting. I
think you have to be courageous enough to live in
your discomfort zone to invest into people and to look
at the long game. And so a lot of these
artists that are mega artists right now were not then.
Like Biggie didn't even have a deal. You know, he
(23:12):
was fifteen, he had a dream, but I saw how
gifted he was and I believed in him. You know.
So I think that when you're authentic and you really
believe in someone and they believe in you, as you rise,
you rise together.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
April was really iconic in what I would always refer
to as brand leveraging, you know, really knowing how to
see what was coming up next in the hip hop industry,
who the talent was, and really building her product on
them to build more notoriety for her brand, whether it
was run DMC, was Biggie, it was pop. You know,
(23:53):
really knowing where to be, how to be and really
kind of getting that product in those places was really
her art to me.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
After its first year, Fashion and Effect was still in business,
which was a big win for April and her team,
but the margins that come with custom work are thin,
and Fashion Effect was far from being really profitable.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
I think that first year, like none of us were
getting paid. It was shoe string, But I remember the
first year, I found some books and I think we
made like maybe eighty We made eighty something thousand the
first year, and that was like huge for me because
that was back in the day, and we made a
lot of mistakes that first year, so it encouraged me
(24:36):
to do the second year.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
As April continued to grow fashion and effect land placements
with celebrities and style artists, she realized that the one
of a kind business model was very limiting and to
truly expand she would need her own branded clothing line.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
I think that what we noticed was some of the artists,
some of our customers would come in and ask for
the things that we were making for the artists in videos.
So we knew, okay, we have something because he did
the same things we made this rough and rugged suit.
It was a heavy denim suit that we made, and
(25:09):
we were doing a lot of experimenting at that time
with the Lore, So we were doing a lot of
buckets with Gentimen the Lore, and a lot of suits
with Gentimen Thelore, and a lot of contrast stitching so
that it would match up with the Timberlain. So all
of these things became like we caught on like a fire.
It just started like people would ask for the same things.
(25:31):
So that became our proof of concept and that's what
led us to believe we need to do our own
line and just go for it.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
April did decide to go for it and created her
eponymous brand, walker Wear. At the same time, another pivotal
member of the Walkerware team was about to enter the fold.
Speaker 7 (25:51):
I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, and I was able
to go to New York often and dance on broadways.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
This is Kim your Range, an assistant to April and
eventually the head of marketing and promotion for Walkerware.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
I danced from three to probably fifteen years old, so
I really had some opportunities that I did not realize
was not a normal thing growing up until you.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Know, I got to college, I think, and.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Really started to meet people from all over. Then I
went on to University of Massachusetts. That's where I met
my friend m J who introduced me to the Walker family,
and that's how I started connecting with April and we
started going to New York for our spring breaks, and
(26:42):
that's how my connection to Walkerware began. When we started
going to New York. At that time, her business was
fashion and effect. I got to assist on a photo
shoot she was working on. She definitely takes the time
to teach you each moment to teach a bo moment
(27:04):
with her, because you know, she could definitely if she
wanted to.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Eat, sleep, and drink the business.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
So then a couple of years later she started to
build Walkerware, and when I had graduated from college, I
had the opportunity to move to New York City and
then was able to support her in the Walkerware journey.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Can you move to New York and brought with her
some experience that would be pivotal to the growth of Walkerware.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
I was just coming off of a job working with
Russell Stover's Candies, and I had learned how to be
organized because for me, I had not had a supervisor
that lived in.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
The same state as me.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
I was fortunate to get a car with this job,
so that was pretty much my office, where my foul
cabinets was in the trunk of the car. So my
organization in that sales realm was very key. And then
being able to take over if necessary, like when April
(28:14):
wasn't available to be in a place, especially like with
some styling job opportunities there. I was able to step
in also even with buyers.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
Have that conversation with Walker Ware.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
April's goal was to spread the brand beyond the confines
of a brick and mortar store. So, Kim, you began
to oversee marketing and took a page from the music
industry playbook.
Speaker 7 (28:36):
That was the whole goal is, you know, promotions, sales,
all the connections for the marketing of the brand.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
It pretty much.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
Consisted of marketing this closing line like it was a record.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Label, I remember.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
So we just pretty much was taken to the streets,
you know, like this street teams. It was a bunch
of dedicated young people, pretty much interns that would get
out there at the different events and pretty much flood
the areas with all the different promotions that were going on.
(29:18):
We would get behind the bad Boy Street Team. They'd
be on the big megaphone shouting out bad Boy, and
I would just tap him on the shoulder and ask
them to shout out walk Away as well. So just
again taking advantage of opportunity with the relationships that we
were building out there.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Keimya was excellent. She was on that same page. She
was great at marketing and sales. She was a people's person.
She built up relationships. She was really good. I could
pass the ball to her and then she would cultivate
those relationships because at one point I just got really
busy as we were surfling. Up were my responsibilities. So
(30:02):
that's where Kimya came in to play with the marketing,
the PR and really dealing with people.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
With Kimmia on the ground handling marketing NYC. Other opportunities
across the country started to pop up, like a job
for a certain West Coast MC that would put Gloria
through a whirlwind of a weekend.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
All I remember is April Quala being like, Yo, there's
a jet leaving in like two hours. We need everybody
at the house, you know, with a bag coop. You
gotta fly to La and do this video shoot.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
And it was there was no question. You're just was
like okay.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
You know, it becomes that common space where it's not
just like limits just being in New York. You know
what I'm saying is a video shoot. We you know,
got tasked for the style of job. I can't remember
what Phombi was, but there was a song with Pop
Casey and Jojo. We got to squeeze into a limousine
with sub Knight and pop.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
It's me Jackie April, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
And this guy's a big guy and they looking at
me like you the youngest. You gotta sit and foot
is on my lap the whole ride, you know, from
Clinton Hills to some private runway in Jersey and I'm
sitting there like a punk. It doesn't pay being the
new beat in this situation, you know what I'm saying.
But this is the work, you know, all right? So
(31:22):
we touched ground that to Melleblee. They set us up
for the night next day, spent the whole day shopping
to shoot a video on the beach.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
It was like.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
Seventy two hours from hell, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
It just like getting it in, doing the work, blah
blah blah, and then on a plane back to New York,
like this is what needed to be done, this is
what we had to do, and there was no questions asked.
So those eleventh hour industry calls, it was like normal
stuff that just happened, because that's how the industry ran,
you know.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
The co signs from artists like Chupac and Viggie walk
Away had become a premier brand in hip hop and
soon it would become more the most desired street wear
brands for celebrities all over the world.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
There are so many different people, even, you know, with
the Lea, we worked with her doing her first video
and her photo shoot, being able to place some walk
Aware products on her.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
And then Gary Payton we did a whole shoot with
him with the SuperSonics.
Speaker 7 (32:20):
I remember making some pants for Shaq for All.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Star Mike Tyson. He wore our stuff in the ring.
That was probably one of our biggest collapse. I became
the first American designer besides sports like they were doing Everlast,
but as a designer, I was the first to hit
the heavyweight ring. So that was really a big moment
in Walkaware's career. He was famous for wearing his towel out,
(32:47):
but he wore a towel with the W W double
XL on it and the shorts and the sneakers, so
it was huge, you know.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
It was just amazing, I think for me seeing a
bad boy. When they had their first advertisement in Billboard
and it was in the McDonald's setup and it was
Craig Mack had on the Walkaware hockey jersey and it
was Puffy and Biggie in that ad.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
That was amazing.
Speaker 7 (33:16):
Because that was one of my first placements for Walkaware.
So it's like, you don't know where to end up,
but when it does, it's like wow. But it's the
relationship because they had to pick it up and say
this is what I'm aware.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
So it seemed like Walkerware was being worn by every celebrity.
Behind the scenes, the finances remained a struggle. This battle
between creating for fun and creating for profits was taking
a toll on.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
April the nineties, the Golden era was so magnetic, it
was so electric, and it was magical. And then at
the same time, I started when I was twenty one,
and it literally was like eighteen hour days. I want
to say six days a week, but it might have
been even seven times. And then we started growing. Our
(34:03):
growth accelerated fast, and there were a few almost deals,
you know, where I did licensing and it fell through
or it didn't happen. So I was independent. I've been
independent my whole life, but you can imagine financially, it
was a huge burden and blessing. And then I had
a mass of staff. So I had a lot so
(34:27):
starting from a creative lens to becoming management and leadership
and not being able to do as much creative as
you want because now you're running a whole corporation, making
all these decisions, learning about licensing, learning about production, learning
about marketing, learning all these different things. I was at
(34:49):
the helm of that universe, and then I was watching
the actual industry unfold, and if I'm honest, it became
something I didn't like. Over time, it just really became
about the money.
Speaker 7 (35:02):
The downfall might have been not having as much money
as you'd like to have, but eventually.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
The money came.
Speaker 7 (35:10):
But I think that was probably the downfall.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
We were so young.
Speaker 7 (35:15):
I just think we were just for me, not being
from New York being.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Able to be in that element. Urban fashion became oversaturated,
buyers became groupies, Artists wanted in I have no problems
with music artists becoming their own brands and wanting to
monetize every aspect of their business. But if you're going
to do that, you have to take it serious and
(35:40):
create the teams around it that understand those industries so
you can be taken serious. And at that time, I'll
say that some of that was not happening. A lot
of that was not happening, and so as a result,
it was hurting the industry because it truly became a
numbers game. Fashion designers that you really had awesome designs
(36:01):
for being overlooked. It was so lights camera action that
there was little substance, but the hype without substance, it's
not sustainable. And I saw the beginning of the incoming
and that along with becoming burnt out over time. By
the time ninety nine hit, people felt like I was
(36:22):
at the top of my game because it looked like
that from the outside, but I was miserable. I felt
the weight of the world on my shoulder. I had
a New York office, a New York show room, Vegas
had an LA It was just a lot going on,
and I was tired. I was really tired. I was
(36:44):
almost afraid to walk away because April Walker was so
ingrained at the point with walk Away like synonymous, and
I was like, what would I do after? But that's
why I had to walk away. I need to breathe,
and I needed to know that's just what I did
(37:05):
and that I could be good without it, because I
wasn't really happy at that point. I was definitely to
the world in perception winning, but winning has a different
meaning for me. I'm real clear, I'm not now, and
at that time it was becoming great and I wanted
to really have clarity. So I made the decision at
(37:26):
the height of the brand to just take pause, pause,
Let's just pause and really like breathe. I knew I
wasn't taking care of myself. I wasn't doing the things
I was supposed to. It was a lot given all
of this time and energy to the love of my business,
but I was out of sync with the alignment of myself,
(37:47):
my mind, my body, and my soul.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
So I chose that with walk Away on Hold, April
found opportunities working with other brands, but more importantly, she
finally put her own health and wellness, both physical and
mental first.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
I paused walk Away and put it on the shelf,
and then did some things I always wanted to try.
So by this time I knew licensing really well. I
did a bunch of stuff, and then in the interim
of all of that stuff, I got a lot of rest.
I think ninety nine to two thousand and I was
the vice president at that farm with Russell Simmons and
(38:23):
really was overseeing all of his licenses. So me navigating
through all of these different licensees and contracts and magic,
it was just a whole different lens that helped me grow.
And then from there I went to AND one and
I developed a woman's line for AND One. From there,
(38:46):
I did some costume war droveing, and I did some
merchandising with Errika Badu. And these were projects that I
did in between finding myself and having conversations with God
and just taking breaks and getting into nature and really
embracing my spirituality and really figuring out why I got
to the point of burnout, why I had to walk away.
(39:09):
I feel like I really had really grown spiritually and
got to a good place of really nourishing my mind,
my body, my soul, and it was great. So I
started consulting and that's literally how a walker group started.
So really cool projects, all very different, but one thing
(39:31):
I realized what consulting is. You can consult and they
can pay you, but when clients don't take your advice,
it's very frustrating and you see them hitting the wall
and you're like, oh, if I only had my own brand,
and I realized I do, and that is what inspired
me to start walk Away again. That with the fact
(39:54):
that we're in the digital era and I could really
manage my stress, I could create the life I wanted to.
I could really do all the things. I could sell
one piece or one thousand pieces at a time. It's
just how fast I want to put my foot on
the gas pedal because you can really write your own
(40:15):
ticket and story. With the internet now, direct to consumer
has changed the game for all creators. And that's literally
how I looked at it. Once I saw what social
media and the Internet could do, I said, I want
to start creating again. And that's how it started. So
(40:35):
I think at two and eleven I started privately started
doing product development, and by I think twenty twelve, twenty
and thirteen, that's when I started really showing it again.
It was a big learning curve because I didn't beat
my chest until about maybe two thousand and fifteen and sixteen.
(40:56):
We were selling, we were doing pop ups, we were
doing different things or again, and I had to go
through about three different web developers because you know, it
was new, it was new for me and it was
still newer than it is now. I didn't even know
about Shopify things like that, which is the ended up
being our you know, server for where we do our business.
(41:19):
At that time, I just wanted to automate everything that
I could, because coming back I wanted to be lean
and mean and walk away was not going to be
the only thing that I did. It was very inspiring
to be able to create again. When I got on
social media. There were people from all over the world
that were hitting us like, hey, thank you for your contributions,
(41:41):
y'alla y'all and really just really gracious and accolades and
remembering me. And then I realized how cool the tool
could be if I learned it. So part of me
creating was one thing, but also challenging myself to step
into social media, into technology and embrace it as part
(42:02):
of business was another. To learn it because I had
the experience, but if I could grab the technology and
marry that, I feel like I had an advantage because
I have a real story with a lot of history.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Social media had changed the fashion industry. In order to
catch up, April do what she's always done, surrounded herself
with young creatives who would act as reverse mentors.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
The fashion industry when I started. It wasn't an industry
when I started. Now there are so many different players,
so that part was different, and they are way more distractions.
That's different where you were networking a lot more. I
was a lot younger, so I was write that trial
like I knew it inside out. It's different now, you know,
(42:51):
I have to do way more work to know it.
And I really believe in reverse mentorship because I think
that we all can grow from each other generations. Why
so I keep young people around me because they keep
me informed and I get to know how their minds
so thinking.
Speaker 8 (43:09):
And I knew April before the high school. April was
you know April. I always call her the mayor of Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
This is Miles Hopkins and assisted for April at the
revived Walkerware.
Speaker 8 (43:21):
And she doesn't agree, but I always find it funny.
It's like a little joke between us. April knows everybody,
and April and my mom actually go back since they
were kids. They kind of grew up in the same neighborhood.
I didn't really know about the Walkerware side of things
until I got older, because you know, as a kid,
(43:43):
it was just somebody that I know through my mom.
Walkerware was just one of those things that when I
did finally like get to know, I was just very
shocked by how many people wore it. April is one
of those people that's like extremely humble, but people will
run up to her on the streets and just you know,
tell her like how much she means to the community
(44:05):
of fashion and just like to the world. Like her
imprint not only on fashion but just on the world
is amazing. And the fact that people just recognize it
years later. April believes in reverse mentorship, and like that's
kind of the way that Walkerware has been successful over
all those years because April really listens to her customers
(44:26):
and the people around her.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Sue Miles was setting up photo shoots for April, and
by bringing in young creatives to guide her, Walkerware continues
to be ahead of the curve.
Speaker 8 (44:39):
I got a chance to more so like curate a
lot of our photo shoots with some of our younger talent,
Like I worked with guys like Nico Brimm, Jordan Beckford, CJ.
Speaker 6 (44:50):
Wallace and Josh Russa.
Speaker 8 (44:52):
I also want to say for you guys, like please
keep those guys like on the map for you they're
very interesting young gentlem men and they're on the rise.
Not only did I just do the photo shoots and
like kind of curate them and see to it that
they would get done. I did a lot of Instagram
outreach to some of our other like younger followers, and
(45:13):
we just tried to find people that aligned a little
bit more with our brand. It's so surreal to just
see how much like people really genuinely like gravitate towards
the brand once they meet the owner. You know, April
is like one of the most authentic people on the planet.
So no matter who you are, she you know, she
always gives you love.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
As April continues the mentor and reverse mentor, she's always
ready to offer advice to the younger generation of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
I would tell my younger self as an entrepreneur, study
your money and understand that this is a business. Because
most of us are creative. We cannot take the attitude
of its creative and we'll get to the business later. Oh,
I'll just hire people for that. No, understand that this
is a business. Study money. Don't be the smartest person
(46:02):
in the world. You want to surround yourself by people
that are smarter than you and will make you stand
on your tippy toes so that you can continue to grow,
to elevate, to empower each other, and to lift up
your tribe. At the same time, as a.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
April looks to the future, the mission remains the same, teach,
learn and empower the next generation of creatives.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Walk Away as a legacy brand, I want to continue
that creating. We have some really cool collaborations set up.
Next year is fifty years in hip Hop, so I'm
going to be doing a collaboration with Universal Hip Hop
Museum and some other cool collapse I can't really talk
about yet, but you'll see those. I'm starting a digital academy,
(46:52):
really excited about that because it's for makers, entrepreneurs, creators,
and they really hands on experience. So just really the
thing that I'm passionate about is impacting as many people
as I can with the experience I have while I'm
visiting this earth, you know. And so that's my trajectory
work moving forward.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Walkerwaar's story is one of true entrepreneurship, creativity, and dedication
to the culture. When April wanted a space to celebrate
the hip hop world she loved, she went out and
got her own store. When she desired new designs, she
created her own line Along the Way. April assembled a
team of all Stars and Gloria and Kimya, and continues
her mentorship today by helping young creatives.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Like Miles.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
And Through it all, the north Star has always remained
hip hop, creating a space for her tribe to be seen,
heard and worn her Idea Generation. I'm Noah Callahan Bever.
Thanks for listening to the All Angles Pod presented by
(48:01):
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.
This episode was brought to you by Will Packer Executive
produced by John Valachick and Helena Os, Original music by
Valentine Fritz, edit and sound mixed by Nonsensible Production, and
(48:24):
hosted by me Idea Generation founder Noah Callahan Bever. Idea
Generations All Angles is a Will Packer Media podcast
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