Episode 233 "Yeezy, Yeezy"

Episode 233 - "The Baller Alert Show" Feat: Ferrari Simmons, Su Solo & You Know BT Produced by: Octavia March

Special Guest: Omar Bailey the former head of the Adidas Yeezy Innovation Lab

Topics include: our exclusive interview with Omar Bailey: working with Kanye West on the Yeezy brand, Adidas, creating the famous Supreme Slides, his new brand FCTRY LAb & more.

The Baller Alert Show

Featuring @FerrariSimmons @_SuSolo  @Youknowbt @iHandlebars 

":The Culture Deserves It"

IG: @balleralert

Twitter: @balleralert

Facebook: balleralertcom

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, I met with all the Adida's people. Everyone
was just super nice, and you know they can't One
of the gentlemen came into the room and he was like, Yo,
we want to take you to Calabasas to meet to meet. Yeah,
oh word. I was like, damn, I didn't think that
ship was going to happen Calabasas. Like all right, so
they take me, you know, they take me over there
and like they take me to this spot that he

(00:20):
had and I'm sitting in this room like waiting and
I can hear like he had a studio in there
and he was like working on some music or something
because I could just hear like music like pounding through
the walls and just kind of sitting there, wait and
wait and waiting. And then he finally like comes into
the room, and I'd never forget like that, Like that
first image of like him, you know, walking into the space,
I just envisioned like light being behind him. He walks

(00:42):
in all you see it's like a silhouette. It was
not It was dope. It was like like I just
like walked into like another it was on another planet
or something like that. But he came in. We had
this meeting, and you know, he sat across from me
for forty five minutes just like you know, very like
very attentive and like, you know, interested in what I
had to say. And we were talking and I had

(01:02):
my portfolio U in my iPad and put it in
front of him and he's like flipping through. And then
you know I knew, like, you know, we were both creative,
so like we're talking about like what we're creating and
what's and and and projects that I worked on and um,
and we were just vibing over that and it was
like forty five minutes. It was just like uninterrupted time.
You know, he wasn't looking at his phone and like

(01:24):
waiting for when the meeting was gonna be over anything
like that. It was just like it was just a
dope conversation. That was my first time meeting him, in
my first interaction with him. And then in the end
he was like, yo, like let's let's go. We worked
on all that stuff. Question the yeasy slides, remember the
first ones were orange. Yep. Was it was the inspiration
from the prison shoes because that was the that was

(01:47):
the trend, that was the rumor going on circulating online
that the prison shoes looked like this, and Yeasy came
up with the prison shoe look alike. Borrow with me here,
you know, BT so low shout out Oct, no color
what we see? Who get in the blaree? But you

(02:07):
can't stand on the home Susi Ilad. You know he
can't ball with me because you have with the square
to me, they get they called to me. Welcome to
the Bowler Show. Podcasts available everywhere. You get your podcast made.
Sure you like to share and subscribe to your YouTube

(02:28):
page at ball Alert. I go by the name of
Ferrice Simmons. Hey, y'all world, I'm your bestie Sue Solo.
You know bt OCT with that special guests in the building,
it's mister Omar Bailey name Lord. You know Rory think
they're friends now because we just found out all them
that you guys are from the same place. Automatically yep,

(02:50):
shout out to the five six one about this place
you guys come from, because y'all was just so into
with man west Bown Beach known as the county that
messed up the election? What was it? Which election was that?
That was? That was the Bush election? Bush election? Yeah, yeah,
we we were the county that messed up that election
years ago. Very small, very small county. Is it Trump

(03:13):
close to West Palm He lives in West Lago, Man,
it's right across the water. Oh really Yeah, the islands
like our South Beach. Yeah city, and then you go
across the bridge to the beach park right right, and
we're not allowed. Well, I mean they don't say that. Yeah,
so if you go over there there, said, I know,
you don't plan. The fifth grade field trip was at

(03:34):
the jail there and it's very nice. Yeah, it was
a jail over the jail over there, and it's very nice. Damn. Yeah.
It sounds like you guys had a lot going on.
But what was it for you that led you to
fashion from West Palm Beach? Oh? Man, Well, there's nothing
that fashionable about West Palm Beach. Sounds like cargo short. Yeah,

(03:57):
and like uh and uh what's those uh those shirts
that people will be wearing. Umama exactly took the words
right out of mouth, Tommy Bahama. Um So, the way
the story goes real quick is that, like you know,
I start, we moved from from New York to Florida,
and and they knew about my parents knew about to school.

(04:19):
They wanted to put me in this school, but you
had to audition to get in the way that it works.
So so it was either that or John F. Kennedy
Middle School, right, And I was like, I don't want
to go to JFK. Actually, you know, I remember when
we moved to Florida, there was a kid who got
shot over borrowing us um nba jam on Sega genesis

(04:39):
from another student and he didn't bring it back, so
you got shot. I remember being like you sending me
to that school like so so, and then I had
to go and I went there for a year, and
then I had to wait for the audition time and
I end up going to audition my mom, you know,
you know, she's Jamaican and and you know, she's like

(05:01):
very strict about her rules. She was like, you need
to be home at this time. So I go to
audition and then I left and I did part of
my audition, but I didn't do the whole audition because
I was looking at the clock and I was home
when she told me to be home, and then we
ended up getting like an incomplete or I didn't get
into She's like, what happened? And then she ended up
later finding out that, like I left at the time
she told me to leave, she thought the interview would

(05:22):
have been done by that time. So I had to
go to Kennedy for another year as a result of that.
So then the next year she was like, don't come
home until you finish your audition. Okay, yeah, yeah. I
was like, you told me to be home at three,
So I'm at home at three, and that was it.
I was like, I ain't trying to you know, I
don't want to get hurt like you know, so I'm

(05:43):
trying to get home. So anyway, so um so so
fast forward. I ended up getting into the school and
that's where all this started. And then, as I mentioned
drawing and sketching sneakers, I was a terrible student from
the perspective of my academic classes. I was very good
in my heart classes, but not great with my academics.
Most artists are yeah, yeah, exactly. And my teachers, you know,

(06:05):
saw that, and they supported me. And then one magical day,
I think it was the end of my junior year,
going into my senior year, a school came to visit
on a college recruiting visit called the College Cat Studies
in Detroit, Michigan shout out to CCS and they showed
their portfolio of like students who, you know, all the
different types of work, and there was a shoe in there,

(06:27):
and I remember they're doing the power point and I
was like, what is a shoe? What is this? And
they told me about this program called industrial Design and
many students who study industrial design go off and they
design in cars and shoes and other products. And I
was like, that's what I want to you know, that's
where I want to go to school, because before that,
I didn't have a plan if I was going to
go to college or not. Right like, I'm at the
end of my junior year. Everyone's talking about where they're

(06:48):
going to school at the end of next year. I'm
trying to figure out what I'm gonna do. I'm thinking, like,
how do I become a shoe design or do I
get a job at foot locker? Like that's literally what
I thought. Okay, maybe I get a job at foot
Locker selling shoes, and somehow I'll meet somebody at Nike
and they'll give me a job design and sneakers. That's
what I That's literally what I thought until this school
came and then they laid this whole thing out in

(07:08):
front of me and and sort of exposed me to
this world of industrial design, and I became obsessed with it.
You know. I made up all the classes that I failed.
I went to summer school, I did night school my
senior year, made up all the classes that I need
to in long story short, I ended up getting into
the school and got a little bit of a scholarship,
and I moved to Detroit, Michigan site unseen, which is
a whole other conversation in itself. So now you're in college, Yep,

(07:31):
what happens next? You know? I get to Detroit, and
the first thing that let me know that I was
in the right place was I met other like minded
individuals like myself. Be specifically, like some brothers that like
became my brothers, you know, like living similar experiences in
their cities that they came from, you know, like you know,

(07:51):
my also also doing shoes, my boy Jason Maiden. Shout
out to Jay who's like gone and done incredible things
with working with the Swoosh and brand Jordan. You could
look him up and see all the incredible stuff that
he's did that he's done over there in his resume.
You know my other boys, Jonathan, Duane Drew, you know,
they were all doing footwear and very interested in it.

(08:13):
So like, you know, we became close very quickly, and
I got to see like, oh wow, these dudes are
on the same wavelength than I am. But what really
did it for me was, you know I just mentioned
Jason Maiden. You know, he was a designer. I was.
I went in as a freshman. He was in a senior.
He just did an internship with Nike in the Jordan
Brand Jordan department. He was working on the air Jordan seventeen. Right,

(08:37):
so like number two, yeah, yeah, so that that shoe
was dope. That when I came in that and that
came in the briefcase. You remember the league in the
silver briefcase. So think about this for a second, right, Um,
eight like six months earlier, I didn't even really know
or just at the beginning of that year, like I
didn't know if I was going to college or not. Right,
I'm thinking, I have to get a job at foot

(08:57):
locker to design shoes. I get into this college in Detroit.
I moved to Detroit. I meet this dude Jason and
I see Jason working on the air Jordan right like that, Yeah,
that ship was like mind blowing, like knowing where I
came from and seeing that, and I'm like, damn, I'm
in the right place. I better not fuck this opportunity up.

(09:17):
But I think it became something that was more tangible,
like you got to see it, you got to touch it.
You know this person who's working on it. Yeah, man, Yeah,
And I told him like that changed my life. That
moment changed my life because I was like, like you said,
it's attainable. It is real, Like now I see somebody
that looks like me, that's that's in a place where
I'm trying to get to, And for the first time
in my life, I felt like I made a good decision,

(09:39):
like by being in Detroit, Michigan, at this at this school,
so that you know that. To me, that's kind of
how it all, how it all started, from the sketching
on a piece of paper to knowing like damn, like
I can I can I if I do the things
that I need to do, I can be exactly where
he's at. So you go from being around you know
all these people that are actually doing it aspiring you.

(10:00):
But how do you go from that to the infamous
timeless Supreme New York slides, because that's a part of
your history that I was shocked to learn, you know,
when I finished When I finished college, you know, the
first thing I did was I knew I wanted to
work for myself. I had an opportunity to do some
incredible internships with Adida's Casewists and worked with Timberland and

(10:21):
a bunch of different different shoe companies. I knew immediately
that the corporate route wasn't for me. That was what
came out of that. That experience for me was like, Okay,
I don't want to go corporate. I want to work
for myself. That's just the way my mind is wired
and you know, to be independent creator. So what I
did when I finished school was, you know, I started
my own company working for myself. First two people that

(10:44):
I worked with professional athletes, and then that brought me
Gary Sheffield and Alan Houston to be specific, shout out
to shout out to Chef and Allan Shot. Both great
people gave me an opportunity to help them like build
footwear products for themselves, and that brought me to China
for the first time. And I bring that up because

(11:05):
that was where I got to see how the big
machine works. It's one thing to like design a shoe
and sketch it on a piece of paper. It's a
whole other ball game when you're actually bringing it to life.
And the time that the fifteen years that I got
to spend overseas not only in China, but I lived
in India for three years. You know, I spent significant
time in Brazil, Argentina, South Korea wherever shoes were made,

(11:29):
which was not here in the United States. You know,
I spent significant time in these countries understanding what the
process is like from A to Z and scaling a
product and bringing it to market. Right. So the Supreme
Project came about because you know, they were aware that
I had this background, right. I was this this bridge
or this liaison if you will, between a brand and

(11:49):
a factory. Right the factories over in Asia, specifically in China.
They loved me because you know, over there, they ain't
looking at me as like a black man. They're looking
at me as an American that can bring them business.
That's that's what They're looking at me, as like, Yo,
this dude, is like, the is the gateway for opportunity
in the United States, Which that's all they wanted at

(12:11):
the time, is they just want business coming in because
the United States was the you know, one of the
more profitable markets and still is, you know, all the
other countries are catching up in different ways, but like
but but nonetheless that's where That's how they looked at me, right.
So so knowing that this opportunity was Supreme came up.
They needed. You know, this is the first time that

(12:31):
they wanted to develop and create a product that that
a footwear product, specifically without collaborating with a brand, Like
you know, it's like, when have you ever seen Supreme
do a shoe independent of a Nike or Louis Vatan
or something else, right, is usually a collapse. So this
is the first time that they wanted to create a
piece of footwear without that and I was and I

(12:52):
was the person to help facilitate that. So they reached
out and I was able to uh to help create, develop,
and produce at scale that product. We sold out a
ten thousand pairs in thirty minutes aline and across their
four stores from Tokyo, La, New York and London, Um,
and I hope you do that shoe. I created the shoe.
What was that process? Like, it's you know, developing a

(13:15):
shoe is a is it's a it's I like to
use the word a heavy lift, right, because that's where
you're solving all the all the problems to building a shoe.
And you know, and and and I know it's probably
very new for a lot of people that are listening.
You know, you say, oh, it's just a shoe just
falls out of the sky or there's a machine that
pumps it out or whatever. It's like, that's not how
it works, right, Like the way it works is you know,

(13:37):
you have you have specific executions that you want to
come up within the shoe, whether it's material execution, a detail,
a design element. Specifically, you need to identify the method
of make, the method of production, and material that's going
to use that determines what kind of mold you're going
to make. So all of these speak to all of
these like technical things you need to really know and understand.

(14:00):
And it's almost its own language that you need to
know how to speak to the factory in. Right. So
it's like, how do I take what a client wants
like Supreme, right, and then I translate that into a
language through what I can communicate verbally, but what I
can also communicate on engineering documents and drawings back to
the factory. So the execution can be as close, if

(14:21):
not one, to what the client is looking for. And
that's like, that's kind of that's the space that I operated, right,
It's like bringing it from paper to real life. And
that can take anywhere from you know, it could take
a month, it could take two months, it could take
three months, it could take ten months. It really kind
of all depends on the client and like what their

(14:41):
expectations are or what their demands are. You know, Supreme
was definitely like up there in terms of their expectations
and rightfully so right like their world would not renown brand,
and there's and there's a certain expectation level that's coming
from their customer base when they put a product into
the world. So I effected that like you know, the
demands and like what they want is justified, right, Like

(15:04):
they need to make sure that like you know, there's
no air bubbles coming up in the molds when every
part is shot in the in the mold, or like
you know, we need or during quality control, we need
to have like extra eyes on the shoe and make sure,
like you know, there's no imperfection on it at all.
So these are all things that get managed, you know,
through that through that process, where did your inspiration come from?

(15:27):
For the making of the shooting? They wanted their own
version of the ADDI light Adida's slides. Okay, so they
had already what they wanted. You just yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's like, you know, this is this is a super
popular like slide. We want our own version of that.
And that's generally how like most projects start, right, I

(15:49):
was going, I was like, do most people say because
I see like a lot of shoes from different brands,
they all kind of like look similar. Like you'll see
like a popular shoot and you'd be like, wait, Nike
got this shoe out. It looks like that. Now, yeah, yeah,
that's I mean, you just hit the nail on the head,
my friend. There's a method to badness. You know. There's
a lot of reasons for explaining it, but I think
part of it is, you know, listen, at the end

(16:11):
of the day, like big brands and companies have you know,
certain milestones and KPIs that they have to hit at
the end of the day, right, and certain boxes have
to get checked because they have to move certain volumes.
And sometimes those goals and ambitions don't align with the
creativity that the designers want to put into it. So

(16:33):
sometimes it can cause a little bit of friction, if
you will, but not it's not so much because at
the end of the day, of designer wants a job
like that's like they got yeah. Yeah, But that's a
big reason why. Like to answer your question, why you
see some things that look exactly it's like yeah, and

(16:53):
it's selling. You know that the this is what the
consumer is getting. So if it's working at this company,
I want to work over here, how does new fit
in the fold? That's that's also a very interesting thing,
right you need you need bold founders and CEOs and
designers um who are willing to sort of like ignore

(17:16):
the status quo and like create things that they believe
that they really believe in, right, yeah, one or even
thinking easy right, like thinking about Virgil and like even
you know, Jerry fear of God and you're seeing more
you know, and and and more of it um happening
out there too, you know as well. So there's a

(17:37):
there's a few hand handful of like independent creators and
designers out there shout out to to um uh to
say a collective. Uh. Delvin Carter, he's another one. Yeah, man,
that dude is out there crushing. I've been following him
for a while. I don't know him personally, but like
I've been and he's been, he's been. Are you trying

(18:00):
to get a pair? Are you trying to open up
my DM DM spend money with? There? Is You have
a question though, Yeah, because we're talking about all this
stuff right right, there is a fake sneaker network. There
is an unofficial versions because for example, remember you saw

(18:20):
you talked about the mold having bubbles, right those are
supposed to be thrown away. Yep, yeah, sometimes they're not.
Oh you know your stuff. I got a sneaker room.
I don't got a closet. Oh man, I was about
to just break that down. Are you breaking it down
right now? And I know these people take these shoes
and sell them on the black market. Oh you have
a there's a defection um uh period or percentage right

(18:46):
like that? That like every factory's trying to keep as
low as as possible, right, Like it could be five percent,
ten percent or more. That like, you know, one of
every ten pair of shoes you make don't pass the
inspection that it needs to in order to go into
like the main sort of run that's going to be sold.
So then that shoe goes into a basket you know,
over here, and if and if it doesn't meet the

(19:08):
standards of the brand, like it's you know, they keep
going in that basket. Then at the end of the day,
all of a sudden, you know, out of a million
pairs of shoes that were made, you got thirty thousand
of these like effective shoes that to your point, it
might be like a little fit, It might be something
that you wouldn't even care about the average person. Probably. Yeah,
it's like a thread is off or like this color

(19:29):
bleeds into this part of the soul just by a
little bit, and you would never even notice it. Right.
But then what happens after that is the brand has
two choices, right, they can either pay the factory to
destroy those shoes, which cost them more money, or you
can let the factory keep them, and at that point
they can do whatever they want. The answer to that

(19:52):
that is how a lot of those shoes stand up
on the market. So there could be the real thing
coming from the factory that make shoes for one one
of your favorite brands. Um, but it's just that it
didn't pass, you see, and it ended up going into
the other basket that got sold on the market. Now,
that doesn't mean they're not necessarily fake control, quality control,

(20:15):
quality control, not the quality control, y'all. Think of this
defective shoes end up on a VIP table at one
of the clubs in Atlanta. Hold on, But then you
do have factories out there that do make fake shoes, right,
Like I've I've I've spent all these countries to actually,
you know, fultivate your talent. Did you see some of that?

(20:38):
Oh yeah, I gotta show y'all some pictures away I got.
I mean, some of this stuff is just comical. I
remember one time I was visiting this this uh, this factory.
I was just walking through, and you know, every factory
has like a showroom of like their greatest hits. It's like,
oh look, and they know you're Americans, so they're like
they're like, let me take you into the room behind
the room and show you the stuff that we did.

(21:00):
And then you know, and they show you. Sometimes it's
impressive and other times you're like, what the fuck is
One time they showed me these shoes. It was a
Jordan I swear to God, like it was a Jordan logo,
but like the arm was twisted direction. You know, one
foot was bigger than the other. Like I'm not joking,
like it wash. Those are the ones that get sold

(21:22):
to like pay less, like you know in the hair stores. Yeah,
in the Oh my god, man, I used to get
my hair cut there all the time and oh my god. Yeah,
but um but no, but then you know, but sometimes
these these products are also sold outside of the market,

(21:46):
Right's that stuff doesn't even make it here to the US.
And you know, one of the perspectives that I really
got to see it and understand is like, you know,
when you're here in the States, like that's one thing
that's one beast when it comes to marketing and like
the way products and shoes or sold. But then you
know when I'm when I'm in a place like India
for example, right, Like you see, it's very very different

(22:08):
expectation and way of thinking around footwear. Right, Like these
products are sold in markets where they can't sell a
pair of sneakers to somebody for two hundred and dollars
right in India, like my you know, I was designing
shoes for people who, like had they had they had,
they could buy one pair of shoes that lasted them
the whole year. Right, So it had to have a

(22:29):
thick rubber soul. It had to have certain like design
cues and elements on it to give that person confidence
that I'm not going to need to buy another shoe
for three hundred and sixty five days. So like it
changes your your your think, your mentality and thinking. Right.
It's one thing to design for the US market, where
you know, we all in this room probably own way
more shoes than we actually need, right, And but like

(22:52):
we're designing for an aesthetic, we're designing to like appease
like a certain group of people who can afford or
certain it's not a necessity accessory at that point, exactly,
it's an accessory. And then when you're versus designing for
a country where or a market where it is a necessity,
I have to think about it through a completely different lens. Right. So,

(23:13):
so we already know that these corporations are the people
that are making the most profit off of other people's creativity.
Knowing that Supreme Slides weren't crazy, Like, how much money
did you actually make off of your creativity with Supreme Me?
I mean, I probably just got paid. I can't remember exactly,
but I'm sure I just got paid like a vendor

(23:33):
fee or something like that. That work though in your industry?
How does the money work? Um, you know it. There's
different deal structures for for everybody. You know, you can,
you know, depending on how good you are with negotiating
and business tactics, which you know most creatives are not.
But if you but if you are, you can you know,

(23:54):
try and negotiate into the you know, get a percentage
of the cost of good soul on the product. But
it just all depends on what you're bringing to the
table and what you can do to right. Like you know,
at that time, I was also very I was young.
This is like this is thirteen years ago, so you know,
I was, well, i'll be forty next month, so that
was you know, I was in my late twenties. So

(24:15):
at that time for me, it was just like whatever
I could get, you know, like like kill what you
eat kind of thing, or eat what you kill um
sort of. So like so from from that perspective, it's
just like, you know, you're just taking projects and doing
what you can, and for me, it was really just
about experience building. So I don't want to make it
sound like you know, like you know, you're young and

(24:36):
you gotta like you know, make you know, get like
you know, get what you can. But I think there's
you need there needs to be a fine line between
like taking advantage of opportunities and gaining as much experience
as you can and building a portfolio versus like worrying
about royalties and recognition. Right like I didn't get I
wasn't recognized for these projects that I was in, and

(24:58):
that's fine, right Like I feel like I I was
paying my dues and I feel like now you know
that that that is starting, that's paying off. Maybe you know,
I would have been nice as some of this would
have happened like three or four years ago, but that's
that's cool. Like everything happens, you know, for a reason.
So I think, you know, it's it's it's really all about,
like I said, what you can negotiate for yourself and
that's you know, it's like how do you get this

(25:18):
knowledge having good mentors and family or people who have
experience in business to know how to have these these conversations.
But you know, you never know what you can get
until you ask for it, right, And I just didn't
have the experience at the time to ask for that.
If for me, it was more like, oh, this is
a an incredible brand that I can work with independently
and like really kind of you know, build my like

(25:40):
like build a reputation from or continue to build my
reputation from. So for me, it was you know, I'm
told and it was you know, it was ten thousand
pairs of shoes. It wasn't like it was millions of pairs.
We'll be right back with more of the Baller Alert Show.
You're listening to a special edition of the Pallor Alert Show. Hi.
I'm Omar Bay, co founder of Factory Lab, and you're

(26:02):
listening to the ball Or Alert Show. Omar is actually
the former head of easy Adida's innovation and you are
the co founder's right, right? Yeah, thank you? Yea. What
does that mean? So I was living in India at
the time, and I was actually my contract was ending,
and um, I got reached out to by the lovely
folks over at Adidas and they told me about this

(26:23):
opportunity with with Easy and that, Um, you know, Kanye
wanted to have a facility, domestic facility, you know, to
develop in the prototypes and his ideas in the States. Right.
So like if we go back to the conversation, we
had a moment ago about the heavy lift to like
bring shoes to life, right, Like that usually happens with
with the factory overseas. So you can only imagine you

(26:45):
have the cultural barrier, the language barrier, the time, you know, difference,
like all those sort of blocks, but in between, right,
so you're working hard versus if you had a facility
that was you know, States made a lot easier. And
he understood that, right, and he was like, well, I
want something here like local, like yes that like that

(27:08):
I can just give my input and like they can
make another one and make another one until it gets
right and I don't have to wait months and months
and months yeah, wait like months, three months, Yeah, like
to go through a whole process, Like he might want
to make like five changes and then a new mold
needs to be made that takes thirty days, then he
sees it again thirty days later, and he might be

(27:28):
all into the next thing like by that point in time, right,
So he's like, I need something here that that like
I can speed this whole thing up. So that's why
they reached out. That must be really how Kanye talk. Yeah,
this is what I needed to look like this sometimes.
Oh yeah, yeah, of course I came out. You know,
they they hit me and they said, you know, we

(27:49):
feel they felt I had this pedigree in background to
help lead this facility. You know, my background fifteen years.
I was fifteen years in the business already at that point,
primarily over receives. That's why a lot of people when
they say, oh I never heard of this omar dude,
that's because I was like in India. I was in
the trenches. Yeah, like where it happened. I was there

(28:10):
and where it all happened. So now I was like,
now I'm coming back and like and you know, and
and so you know, I got the I got the
receipts man, like they you know, I got I got
a lot of themself. Um, so you know, they hit me.
I ended up coming out to La and uh, interviewed
for the for the role. You know, I met with

(28:31):
all the Adidas people. Everyone was just super nice and cool,
and then they were like and then I remember, you know,
they can't. One of the gentlemen came into the room
and he was like, Yo, we want to take you
to Calabasas to meet to meet. Yeah, oh word. I
was like, damn, I didn't think that shit was gonna
happen Calabasas. Like all right, so they take me, you know,
they take me over there, and like they take me

(28:53):
to this spot that he had and I'm sitting in
this room like waiting, and I can hear like he
had a studio in there and he was like working
on some music or something because I could just hear
like music like pounding through the walls and just kind
of sitting there, wait and wait and waiting, and then
he finally like comes into the room and I'll never
forget like that, like that first image of like him,
you know, walking into the space. This was right after

(29:16):
the Coachella that he did with DMX, because like, I
think his hair is red or someone or whatever. At
that point, he can't he was wearing this one. He's
wearing his gold grill like all the time. And he
walked in the he walked in the room fire. I
just envisioned like light being behind him. He walks in
all you seems like a silhouette. Yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly,
exactly exactly. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. So I met him

(29:41):
at one of his offices, but I get I've never
been to his house. Yeah, I was at like this office,
but it was it was crazy because there was like
just the way it was designed, like on the outside,
it just looked like a normal building, but then when
you went inside, it was like all the corners and
the walls were rounded and there was no door handle.
He probably the all that stuff. It was no, it

(30:02):
was dope. It was like I felt like I just
like walked into like another it was on another planet
or something like that. But he came in. We had
this meeting, and you know, he sat across from me
for forty five minutes just like you know, very like
very attentive and like, you know, interested in what I
had to say. And we were talking and I have
my portfolio in my iPad and put it in front

(30:24):
of him and he's like flipping through and then you know,
I knew like, you know, we were both creative, so
like we're talking about like what we're creating and what's
and and projects that I worked on and um, and
we were just vibing over that and it was like
forty five minutes. It was just like uninterrupted time. You know,
he wasn't looking at his phone and like waiting for
when the meeting was going to be over anything like that.

(30:44):
It was just like it was just a dope conversation.
That was my first time meeting him, in my first
interaction with him, and then in the end he was like, yo,
like let's let's go. And you got it. Well, you
didn't think he was crazy. He's not always crazy. How
people trying to man you know everyone, I mean, listen,
everyone has there, you know, opinions and rightfully so. And
you know, obviously all the recent stuff and everything you

(31:06):
know that went down as just a been fortunate and uh.
But like for me, I've always had real positive experiences
with him, and that's kind of what I keep, you know,
to myself, is he's always been real sweet to me
and my wife and you know, and like anytime I've
come around, whether it's been Sunday services or he comes
into the lab, or he's communicating ideas like the concert

(31:27):
and Atlanta Dona concert that was the last time I
was in the A was for that and um, and
you know he's he's just like, I've only had positive experiences,
you know with him, So you know, I like, that's
all I can speak to is like the way that
he's treated me, like as a human being when i've
you know, when i've when I've been around him, And
I can't really speak for all the other stuff. What

(31:48):
was the shoot that was created or it was oh yeah,
so when so I got there, Yeah, I know, he
spent a lot of time on the interview. But then yeah,
then after that, there was three years after that of
just like me sort of being in that role of
the head of the innovation lab and shout out to
my team and everyone you know on the squad at
that time. Everyone just put in so much hard work
into like getting these products out into the market. From

(32:09):
Foam Runner to four fifty to the to the three eighties,
we worked on all that stuff. So I'm not going
to sit here and take you know, full credit for
any of that stuff. It was fully like a team
effort and how much freedom did he give you guys
on creating the shoes? Oh? Absolute, like maximum amount of freedom.

(32:30):
He was involved too though, right yeah, oh man obviously
was there with you. Yeah. Well, um, at like when
he needed to be and sometimes when and then sometimes
when he just wanted to show up. But I know,
I've never seen a person that was so like heavily involved,
like like someone of that stature, Like and I've worked
with a lot of people. I've worked a lot of

(32:50):
athletes and other entertainers and stuff, but that dude is
like really about it like he was. He was, Yeah, yeah,
just like really involved in the design process, not just
like the shoe itself, but down to like the color
of the packaging, to the name of the shoe, the
shoelace colors, even though he didn't really like shoelaces. Later

(33:11):
on he wanted to do shoes without shoelaces, and then
like and and just everything like just like his attention
to detail. You know, you you understand very quickly, like
from why he's such why everyone calls him sort of
this creative questions that there's a reason for that question.
The yeasy slides, remember the first ones were orange. Yep,

(33:33):
was it was the inspiration from the prison shoes because
that was the that was the trend, that was the
rumor going on circulating online that the prison shoes looked
like this, and Yeasy came up with the prison shoe
look alike up that was Honestly, I can't answer that
question because that was before that was before my time.

(33:55):
That was not me. I plead the fist. I'm telling you,
what did you learn from Kanye West? Um? You know,
I think the biggest thing that I learned from him
and just that experience in general, is that is to
is to is that impossible? Really is nothing? Right? Like

(34:17):
like you know, the jay Z said impossible what impossible
takes a day, difficult takes a week or something like that.
And I learned that, like you know, you can really
push your boundaries creatively. Like I felt like that moment
in that time when I was when I was there,
like I really you know, I was like fifteen years
in the business. I've seen a lot, I've done a lot,

(34:38):
but then like that time there really like let me know,
it is like okay to like push beyond what I know.
You know, it's very very easily whatever industry you're in,
you can get caught up in like the box that's
kind of established in front of you. Right, Oh, you do.
You do have to do things this way and it
can't be changed, and that's just what it is, and
don't challenge it or don't ask about it. Like he

(35:02):
made me feel like or or realize that it was
okay to challenge it and okay to think outside the
box and color outside the lines. And I think that plus,
like the experience that I've had going into that situation
and coming out going into starting this new company has
really um allowed me to just think freer as a

(35:24):
as a creative and not be bounded by like the
restrictions that have may have been put on me by
the big brands and some of the clients that I
may have worked with in the past. So now you
got some new company. Yep, you new suit. Factory Lab.
Shout out, Factory Lab. Shout out to the team. You know,
everybody back back at the back at the lab. So

(35:44):
you know my co founder Abby and Satian and Amaya
and you know the rest of the squad uh Fahad
and everybody over there full like you know, team of uh.
We originally started out as just like a like all
people of color you know, in the in the company.
And uh and we just hired our first white person
not that long ago. So yeah, a little little inside joke.

(36:11):
Shout out to Dylan. He knows it comes from a
good place. YEA, what I'm doing? Yeah yeah, um but
uh but no. So Factory Lab is a you know,
it is a full like footwear innovation lab based here
in the States in Los Angeles downtown in the Arts District.
And our goal is to work with creators and brands,

(36:31):
um and help them build their brands through footwear. Right
like you see many celebrities and creators. Everyone's got a
tequila brand, everyone's got a clothing brand. You know, everyone's
got this. But the one thing that you haven't really
seen it, And And there's been a few who've tried it,
but you never really seen anyone like like build sort
of a brand like out of footwear. Jessica Simpson comes
to mind. She did it with high heels and crushed

(36:51):
it and still is, you know, still is killing it.
But you've never really seen it done, you know, in
the sneaker space. And I think you know, part of
the reasons, or at least one of the reasons that
I can speak to is because you know, it's just
so hard. Right, Like the way that because I'm I'm
able to do what I'm able to do is because
I took this untraditional, unconventional route of going directly overseas

(37:14):
and like and learning. Right, I didn't you know, Nike
Ordida's didn't pay for me to go to China. Like,
I went there on my rim and I knocked on doors,
and I developed relationships, and I cultivated those relationships and
I and I and I was able to learn over
that time the lay of the land and how this works. Okay,
if I want to build you know, a sports or

(37:35):
performance shoe, this is the part of China I go to.
If I want to build you know, women's high heels,
I go to Brazil. If I want to build high
end this, I go to Italy. I go here, and
then you build these relationships in these places and then
you know where to go, Right. It's that's very different
than sitting behind your computer on Ali Baba and Ling
shoe factory and sending us some money. Nine times out
of ten, you're gonna get something back that like you

(37:57):
didn't want. Right, It's like, here's this, you get back
something that doesn't even look anything you know like it? Right, So,
like so factory lab exists to to sort of to
to eliminate that part. Right, Like if you know, if
someone wants to create a brand or or you know,
an influencer or someone who has you know, who has

(38:18):
some audience or who's kind of on the rise, um
who's you know, looking to build, you know, to to
continue to amplify that that that UMU with footwear, like,
we want to come in and be able to help them.
It's fine, you don't like that, and then eventually, you know,
my goal is to really be able to help those
who who don't have the resources too as well. Right,

(38:40):
we're a new companies, so I need to focus on
the things that are gonna that allow us to generate revenue.
But in the end, my goal is to really help
those young creators who don't have the money right to
be able to like to to to to invest into
them and help them rise and grow on their own.
And dare I say, find the next Virgil Oblow or

(39:01):
Jerry Lorenzo you know, or someone like that and give
them to you. Yeah, or I mean I appreciate that
not only are you creating a community out of this right,
but you're also being the person that you may have
needed when you were coming into this world. We're trying
to navigate because you didn't have that, the first person
in your family to break through and do something like this.
I mean, I think it's amazing what you're doing. We're

(39:22):
super excited and proud of you. Most importantly thank you.
We want to see these shoes. Yeah, let's do it.
So we're doing drop two of the night Runner Um.
We're dropping in two new colors. The first drop was,
which sold out, was a black and blue, and this
time we're doing the slime green. You can see right here, man,

(39:43):
there you go. So these are man. The response has
been like, fantastic about this color? Right here? These are?
These are and then so green, and then and then white.
Let me pull up the let me pull up the white.
Before my before my co founder gives me a hard
time about not showing the white shout out to Abby,
but I got was wearing barely take them off my

(40:07):
feet like I wear them. So these are the these
are the white ones. So here you go, white shoes
looking shoes us because y'all didn't half my size when
I was in Utah, you smell your shoes because I
was smelling. Oh God, I do. I was gonna ask,
how did you guys even come up with your production

(40:28):
company Factory Lab. You know, I haven't told too many
people this story, but you know, before I left for UM,
I had my own brand also at one point in time.
So I was in India at on our Bailey Footwear.
We were selling it. I was producing it in New
York in this small shop that I that I had,
and we were selling them overseas in Dubai, specifically level

(40:51):
shoes in the Dubai mall. Do you ever go to
Dubai check out the level shoes, shout out the levels
places and credible. Uh. It's a department store for full ware,
super super dope store. Probably one of the best shoe
stores that you'll see. So I was selling my shoes
there and then I end up getting picked up by
Galleries Lafayette, which is like a well known, like British

(41:13):
UK based retail department store. They have stores around Europe,
and then they opened one in Doha, Qatar, and then
they picked up my brand too as well. So I
had ye guitar. So shout out. Shout out to the
folks in Doha and all that too. Come up with
that design right there that you that you brought us.
So you know, so that that concept was um, you know,

(41:35):
was inspired A lot of people say it looks like
a boat. It was actually inspired by automotive design night run, right, So,
like when you think about, like I went to CCS,
which is an automotive design school, right, and like and
and so I've I'm a big car fan. You know,
I'm also fans of just all different types of vehicles,
and you know, whether it's like you know, you look

(41:58):
at some of the really cool the futuristic cars and
now even now when you think about when we were
growing up, right, like remember when you they would say, oh,
this is what the flying cars and this when we
were like ten and twelve, right, and shows like you
know and and TV shows that like had cars in
them and stuff like that. So like, yeah, the jet
sins and you know, some some other stuff and um,

(42:21):
and and that's what this was inspired by. It was
inspired by automotive design elements, right, and like the name
of shoes, the night Runner Runner, night Runner, night Runner.
So like so you know, so this represents like one
you know, one element of to me of like what
we're going to be putting out into the market. So

(42:42):
you know, factory lab where I like to say we're
sort of brand agnostic, right, We're like more like the
engine or the power to buy, right, So, like, so
what that means is like, you know, we have the
we you know, you see a brand and usually brands
have to be very consistent with how they design product
and put it out and you know, certain sort of
brand elements that you need to follow us and that

(43:02):
there's a consistency in the market and your customers aren't
confused by when you do something different, right, But for us,
like because we are the engine and we are the
powered by that gives us a license to really sort
of create and do things completely you know, outside the box,
which brings me to one of our products that we're
going to be launching next. I'm gonna show you the

(43:27):
first time you're seeing this here. But this it's a boot.
It's called the stamper Um and this is pss it around. Yeah,
a sneaker question. Usually the prototype shoe size is a nine? Correct?

(43:51):
What's your prototype? What's your sample size? Oh man, it's
my size eleven. Okay, but those are not elevens right right?
Are those are actually the prototypes will always be your
size eleven. Yeah, they'll always be my size. But yeah, no,
so these are the these are these are the stompers
we had. Um baby, I gotta I gotta shout out

(44:13):
my man Simba who came through the lab on the
back end. Yeah, little saw the shoe, Thank you and
uh was His reaction was exactly like yours too as well.
So you know we're working on it. Just looks so futuristic.
If I put those on, am I gonna gain an inch? Oh? Yeah? Yeah, exactly?
You better get a few inches grio the way, What

(44:40):
is up with the big oversized shoes? Now? We'll be
right back. Stay tuned with more of the Baller Alert Show.
You're listening to a special edition of the Baller Alert Show. Hi.
I'm Omar Bailey, co founder of Factory Lab, and you're
listening to the ball Or Alert Show. What is up
with the big oversized shoes? Now? I think it's just

(45:00):
the trend in kind of the space that we're living
in right now, right And you know, for me, like
it's it's more about like the You know, when you
have a lot of volume that you're playing with in
terms of like design, I feel like you can be
really creative and expressive. So like the night Runner is
a great example of it. Right. A lot of people
always look really like big in this and you have

(45:21):
all these like weird shapes. But because you have this
like sort of weird, funky shape, it allows you to
really like play with like the execution of the toe shape.
And then even when you look at like some of
these angles in the way that they stick out, you
know on the sides. Um. So for me, like that's
that's why I like sort of sort of big and clunky,
because you know, I get the shape that volume. I

(45:44):
almost imagine it like a piece of clay, right, and
you get to play with that same thing here too.
There's some elements of that in the Stopper, the way
we played with the soul and the way we added
this like this sort of duck boot type of toe
you know, on the on the front and maintain some
of that same um sort of creative approach. Beef and
broccoli version of that cool already started. I already started

(46:08):
on that. So we got Yeah, so we're gonna we're
gonna drop these in the in the fall. Uh. The
date will be released very soon. You gotta follow factory
lab Yeah right now. But ye from you had a
few color waves at the Hennessy Arena, Yeah, there was

(46:30):
a brown color. But the other one is that we
did a gray um as well that with with little
like light purple accents to it. So this little ball
is like a very light purple color like this. And
then and then the color I'm super excited about is
all burgundy, like a dark dark burgundy with like with
two with a little like bright red hints on it.

(46:51):
So um, yeah, we're gonna be sharing this stuff out
hopefully real soon. And uh yeah, and stay out, stay
on the lookout for that drop date on this oper
But but the point is it's like we went from
this to this right and it's like, just imagine what
we're gonna do now. I'm out of time out because
we talk about the shoe box because I'm a sneakerhead.
Bring the box up. It's not your normal square shoe box.

(47:13):
No it's not. It's a one two right, but yeah
six a hexagon. Yeah, everyone says the cast get shaped.
Shout out to to King Saladin, who was like, ye,
pull out, it pulls up, It pulls up, he pulls up.
He was like, yo, is this He's like, is this
a coffin? Because y'all killing it. I think about it

(47:34):
like that. Shout out the saladeine for that one. Yeah,
you can see sort of the way that it in
there in the box, and this is all you know,
this is all by design, right, So like you know,
for me, the packaging, you know, when I was in
I learned very early on in college that, like you know,
we would have to do these design presentations, and yep,

(47:55):
from the brief day, you have to do these presentations
where you put everything out on the wall and you know,
you spend hours and hours and hours sometimes days and
weeks on these projects, and then you have to present
it to your classmates. You don't want to just throw
it up on the wall, so you got to design
the whole presentation. So I learned that from very early on,
if you're going to create a product, it needs to
be presented appropriately. And that's what this represents is it's

(48:17):
a very disruptive way that packaging can be presented. And
this is going to be a theme that We're going
to continue on the packaging for this crazy wait to wait,
to wait, to please please for sure, um man. You know,

(48:39):
just you know, we like to mention. We got our
launch tomorrow April twelfth, UM, the the drop two of
the of the night Runner and Green and White. We
are planning on restocking the White and the and the
Black um later this summer. Um and uh, stay tuned

(48:59):
for that eight as well. We got a really cool
uh story and potential partner of that one too as well. Um.
You know, we we do a lot of things man,
working on you know, we do sports shoes. You know,
we just developed a football cleat for Jalen Ramsey. You
know Jaalen shout out the jailing Yeah yeah, he's in Miami,

(49:19):
Miami Dolphins. So we're getting those new color ways ready
for him right now. So shout out the Jay and
you know the whole crew man that dudes, good people,
and um, you know we're doing that. We got a
couple other guys we're working with. I can't name them
right now at the moment. We got some really follow
follow Factory Lab and you will find out I'm just
following appropriate cool. Appreciate that appreciate that. Follow us and

(49:43):
you'll see. But you know, we're you know, listen, we're
you know, like you know, I said this once before
and I'll say it again. You know, I wanna you know,
my goal is just to like make cool shit with
cool people, um and and work with good people and
put out great product into the world. And I feel like,
you know, this moment in time is uh, I feel
like this is this is my moment, our moment as

(50:04):
factory lab. You know, to do that if you know,
a year ago I was still at Actually I left
Adidas exactly one year ago. Tomorrow is when I left
the company. And since then I was able to go
and raise you know, six million dollars and as one
of the largest seed rounds for a black founder last

(50:28):
year in twenty twenty two and a down market, and
when it was very difficult to raise money, we were
oversubscribed and we have some incredible, incredible investors you know
on board. Shout out to all of them who've believed
in us and who've gotten who've gotten behind behind us.
Was that Are you still cool with Adidas? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
those are my people, man. Yeah, I worked there. I mean,
you know, like I like, I like, you know, I

(50:49):
love that brand in that in that company. I still
wear you know, Adidas and stuff and you know. And
it was my first internship that I ever did in
two thousand and five was with was with a Ditas.
You know, so you know, by no means what you know,
factory lab is am I like ignorant enough to say, oh,
We're gonna be the next you know, the Dita's and
Nike and all that. Like, I'm not. I've been in

(51:10):
this game long enough to know that is just not possible.
I'm just trying to operate in this little small space
that that that companies that are too big to operate
in like even care about, right, And that's like working
with you know, working with creators and like putting product
into the market. It doesn't have for me. It's not
about making millions and millions upon millions of units and

(51:30):
selling into all these markets. It's more about, like smoke,
it focused on smaller volumes and quantities and like and
sort of taking that slow growth approach. Right. Like you know,
back in the day, if you wanted to start a
shoe company, you don't get into the shoe business. What
you did was you would buy, you know, you'd find
a factory order twenty thousand pairs of shoes and find
a retail partner like foot Locker and like Pray that

(51:53):
you could sell like you know, sixty or seventy percent
of your inventory and then all flow the rest of
it at TJ max or something like that. Right now
because of social media and how and how much smaller
the world is. Because as a result of social media,
you know, there are new strategies and steps that you
can take to to get to a mass audience and

(52:14):
sell your products. And that's where I'm that's the niche
in the space that I'm focused on. The big brands
are always going to have their space and do what
they are doing. And by no means am I like,
you know, pronouncing that we're going to take down a
big company. No way, no way, no how, Like those
guys are killing it, and but they are kind of
missing easy though. What's that they are kind of Oh yeah,

(52:34):
and that's an opportunity for us, And that's an opportunity
for others too, you know, Like I mentioned some of
those brands that are you know out there, the you know,
the SSIDA collectives and and and of some of the
others you know that are in the that are in
the footwear space, and hopefully this inspires more like independent
you know footwear brands to to start, like, you know,
there's enough pie for everybody out there to eat, right,

(52:57):
I think it's now it's just about breaking that ecology
that like it's not just the big brands that can
do it, but it's you know, the night Runner to
me represents us like breaking that trend, right, Like, we
didn't think there was going to be such a positive
response to this product so early on. We thought we
were going to need to have to sort of go
through the motions of like building you know, a way

(53:18):
a brand is built. And and it just so happened
that you know, hype Beast shout out to hype Beast,
they did a you know, really incredible piece on this
product going to market and the way we developed it
in one and a half months, and it got a
lot of really positive feedback and reaction, and it went
viral real quick, million views in less than a day
on this video, and that told us something that told

(53:40):
us that there is an appetite, there's a hunger in
the market, there's a gap in the place. Thank you
very ill appreciate that. Yeah, well, you know, we've been
around the block a few times and um, and it
just shows that there's an appetite out there for something
that's new. So, like I said, hopefully what we're doing
inspires others to want to do the same. You know,
there's plenty of space out there for all of us

(54:01):
to swim and flourish and um, yeah, that's that's what
I'm about. In Factory Libster Bailey, we are so proud
of you, proud what you add to the culture. Thank
you for bringing us to shoe as. We can't wait.
All right, go follow Factory Lab. So before we get

(54:23):
out of here, mister Omar Bailey, we gotta pip talk.
My name is Omar Bailey. I am the co founder
of Factory Lab. And you know, my advice to anyone
who is trying to build or create something and and
let their voices be heard is to, you know, focus
less on recognition and more on the experience. And what

(54:46):
I mean by that is, you know, put the horse
blinders on, like lock in on your passion and what
it is that you are really just interested in and love,
and that passion is what's gonna get you. That's gonna
be the throughline for the rest of your career, right Like,
when you focus on that, that's what's going to get
you through the bad times. It's even going to get

(55:07):
you through the good times. But the passion is the
one consistent thing that's always going to be there. So
stay passionate and committed to your craft, and I guarantee
that you will have success. Can't get enough of baller Alert.
Follow us on all social media platforms at baller alert
well go on to baller alert dot com.