WearYourCity.com is a site that was created for one reason; to allow people from all over the world to wear their cities, towns, and neighborhoods and represent them to the fullest.
Created by two people who had one aim, to allow people to put on for their city.
The Hip Hop Chronicle caught up exclusively with one of the owners Greg Berry about how the company started, how its expanded and whats next.
Where did the idea come from to create Wear Your City?
The idea for WearYourCity came to me while trying to fill a void that I came across in my own life, where most all great ideas stem from. I was looking to buy a birthday gift for a buddy of mine that recently moved due to military obligation and wanted to get him a shirt with our hometown on it to wear out in California. I went to the mall and to my surprise couldn’t find one, and then went home and hit the internet, still couldn’t find anything. I was thinking to myself, if I am looking for it that means somebody else is probably looking for the same thing. That day I bought a heat press from Ebay and made my own shirt and sent it to him. After showing others what I made the idea caught on like wildfire around my neighborhood and city.
At what point did you realize this was something you could make a business out of and reach the world with?
It was after I took on a partner and started to really get my business right that it was realized that WearYourCity was going to turn into a global brand. When I first started, I knew it was a great idea and had super potential but I was in college at the time, heat pressing the shirts in my basement and had another business that I started so I wasn’t paying much attention to it. When I took on my partner, Daniel Taylor, that is when we really started to figure the business out and unlock the secret of producing high quality shirts that were custom made one at a time.
There are places across the world that do t-shirt designs, what separates Wear Your City from all of them?
Basically it’s the idea, the name, the people behind it and what we stand for. The idea is fire; everyone, no matter where they are from loves their city. The name is “Wear Your City,” you can’t beat that name for what we do, which is enable people to wear their cities on the clothing no matter where they live and represent! The people – me and my partner are both young entrepreneurs with the right mindset and the will power to get where we need to be. I think we would make it together in any business because above having that hustler’s ambition, we have the right attitude, positive thinking and also believe in ourselves and each other. What we stand for is being ethical, the powers of karma, positivity and hard work.
Whats the biggest selling design?
It is really hard to say which design is the best seller. I am sure I can go to the stats and find out for ya, but I think it’s really a close call because our customer base stretches across the globe, so everyone has different tastes. We offer over 65 designs on our site because we understand that our customer base is not just “Hip Hop” or “College,” but we have people from everywhere coming in and being receptive to our idea. We have moms coming in to buy their kids a hometown shirt, Companies buying designs customized with their business name, musicians and bands customizing designs to their names, college kids repping their colleges, people representing their block or neighborhood, and then you get the masses that customize a shirt to their city. But as far as a best seller – I believe the whole idea is our best seller!
What’s your favourite design?
I love a lot of them but I think my personal favorite is the Intersection shirt. This shirt goes above and beyond and allows you to represent your Corner! Before we came out with this and besides people that have the ability to make their own shirt, how else would you represent your specific corner, no matter where it is? Now that is individuality, there are billions of corners in the world, but only one that you call your own!
What have you learned about the t-shirt industry?
I have learned that there are a lot of people in it! Everywhere you look there is a new T shirt company popping up. The market is so saturated right now with what’s “in” that the creativity is being sucked right out of the industry. Skull shirts were creative when they first came out, please let them go. I do see some creative shirts on the market though and I respect people that have these great ideas and go ahead and try to show the world their vision. There is a lot of competition out there and unless you have a huge celebrity endorsement or an uncle name Russell, it is hard to eat out here right now. My advice is to make your own lane and try to create your own niche instead of trying to get a piece of the pie that is already established.
Do you have a team behind you or do you do this by yourself?
I am in business with a partner but we also have a strong team behind us. The WearYourCity family has a wide reach. We have Vonni, who runs the PR department and gets us in contact with everyone we need to be in contact with. My main dudes Mak & KB run our street team, which goes to cities all over the country promoting with bumper stickers, banners, flyers, and all types of creative tactics to get the word out. Also, Majesty & Overthrow Corporate Services, which deals with promotions. We have a core group of artists & producers that support us, Poison Pen, Mickey Knoxx, Urb Tactics and Wordsmith to name a few and many, many more. Also we are blessed to have the best web site developer in the world, Daren at www.Cubecartservices.biz. Beyond that we have photographers, movie editors, blog writers, designers, and connections everywhere that are down with us out of love and who believe in our concept.
Wear Your City has so many designs, where does your inspiration come from for the designs?
We get the inspirations from just being the people that wear these shirts! We are not some Madison Ave company that is trying to make a quick buck, we are actually the people who are looking for these types of shirts and also the people that wear them out and represent our cities!
What kind of international cities have placed orders?
Our international customers represent about 25% of our business. We are actually in the process of growing this number with our new wholesale store that is coming out soon. The cities are too many to count but off the top of my head, some of the countries we have seen are New Zealand, Australia, France, UK, Canada, Senegal, Bahamas, Philippines, and many more.
What’s next for Wear Your City, are you branching out to stores?
The next big move for WYC is our wholesale program. This program is going to be one of the most innovative hustles that you have ever seen. Instead of trying to get into big box stores and become what we are trying to avoid, we are going to aim for small community stores across the globe. Conventional wisdom tells us that we would have to target each city & town and market to them via television, newspapers, magazines, etc. But who has the funds for that? We have come up with a new way to penetrate every market across the globe.
We are close to introducing our wholesale website and our innovative affiliate program. Our affiliate program is going to allow people from every neighborhood and every city to hustle and make money with us as a partner. We will be signing up affiliates for each city or neighborhood and providing them with all of the tools they need to approach local store owners. Once they approach the store owner, the affiliate will give the owner instructions on how to purchase these custom shirts at a wholesale rate and sell them locally.
The affiliate will provide the store owner with an Affiliate ID # that is specific for that affiliate. The store owner will now visit the wholesale website and will be required to enter an affiliate ID # or they will not be able to enter the store. Once the store owner uses the affiliates ID # to enter; that is now the affiliates “account,” which means that the affiliate will have a login to the backend and will be able to view all of their accounts, what their “clients” have spent and what we owe them for commission. Our commission program is top notch, and will beat any program out there. We are offering $1 per shirt for the life of the account. That means if you have 10 shops under your affiliate # and they order 20 shirts each per week, you will make $200 / week residual until they stop buying from WearYourCity, all because you gave some store owner an ID #. Now just think about going out and adding 10 new stores per week, that is a full time income!!
Anyone interested, email Sales@WearYourCity.com.
Tell us about the music track you guys are arranging?
We are putting together a callabo made up of artists, known and unknown, throughout the world on the same track. This track is going to let people from across the globe jump onto an Urb Tactics beat and represent their cities in 8 bars. We have been receiving submissions from around the world and also some from well known artists. This is a great chance to give both the artists and WYC worldwide exposure and open more gateways for everyone involved. If interested email Sales@WearYourCity.com
Where can people find out more about Wear Your City?
People can find all about us or purchase a shirt on our website: http://www.WearYourCity.com or hit us up on our myspace: http://www.Myspace.com/WearYourCity.
Look for us at your local neighborhood shop coming in late ’08! We would like to thank The Hip Hop Chronicle for taking the time to interview us and learn more about our company, we appreciate the love!
