April 2014

I was printing all my posters from my home wide format brother printer in my illegal basement. Yes, I only say “illegal basement” because it just makes the story THAT much more New York. For the clothing, I was using a used heat press I bought via Craig’s List. I was able to get straight to the plastisol connect because when I went to meet him at the factory, he was a few minutes behind. It must’ve been meant to be, because while I waited outside, the plastisol transfer connect- Haim, was walking in the facility. He entered a code & while walking in, I asked if I could come inside, I was meeting someone for a tour. Keep in mind, we didn’t know exactly who each other was yet, so I waited in the lobby. My middle man connect still hadn’t shown up, so I decided to take a tour myself after asking the guy behind the desk for permission. When he asked why I was there, I told him I need plastisol transfers for my artwork. He said I have just the guy for you. That’s when he took me to Haim, I grabbed his email. Shortly after I put his email in my phone, the middle man- Kevin, showed up. He awkwardly tried to middle his way back in between us, but it was too late. Moral of the story- take the bull by the horns & make moves with assertiveness to advance. If I would have waited for Kevin another couple of minutes instead of trusting my intuition & taking the tour myself, it would’ve stifled my growth. The middle man prices would’ve been so high I wouldn’t have been able to do many designs. That was a huge difference maker at the time.