Nick Rose is a 17
year-old junior at Haverford High School, and owner of King’s Crown Clothing Company, a Hip-Hop
inspired brand. I had the great opportunity to sit down and talk to him about
the brand, music and quality control . . . .
Most high school
students cannot say they have started their own clothing company while
upholding full time classes. Where did the idea for King’s Crown begin, and how
do you juggle the company and school?
A
couple winters ago, my friend Dan Spadaro approached me with an idea for a
company that would produce lightweight windbreakers for snowboarders. We were
sitting on the chairlift, just bouncing ideas back and forth and we came up
with Common Gear: King’s Crown. Dan [Spadaro] wanted me to do the designs for
them. At that time, we were not going to be a partnership, rather, I was going
to throw him some designs and he would take it from there. Eventually, the idea
to produce windbreakers lead to me and Spadaro deciding on tee-shirts; it was
simpler. We were going in 50/50 on the project. We dropped a couple designs,
things went well, and people reacted positively to the shirts/project.
Eventually, it was evident that a partnership would not be the best in terms of
finances, so we decided to split up and break into our own companies. Now, we
both have sole proprietorships of our companies to maximize our income. I
dropped the prefix “Common Gear” and kept King’s Crown, and here I am, sole
proprietor of King’s Crown Clothing Company.
How do you balance the company with your
schoolwork?
I try
to spend two hours of design work each day, after my homework is done, of
course (to keep my parents happy.) Honestly, I do most of my work from my
iPhone. A lot of the company revolves around having e-mail conversations with
my manufacturers about orders. I can do that on the fly: on the bus, on the
train, in the car. Having the iPhone makes it so easy to advance and progress
the company each day. When I get home, I can do all the design work on Adobe
Illustrator for the website, t-shirts or other designs. The guts of the
company- talking to people, networking, social networking and social media-
comes straight from the iPhone.
What are your future
plans for King’s Crown? Furthermore, where do you see King’s Crown and yourself
in five years?
In five
years, I hope to be in California, continuing the company. Where ever I go,
King’s Crown will go; it will be a nice side job. I want to maximize my income, while
minimizing the amount of time I put into King’s Crown. Hopefully I will find a
way to automate the company, so I can kick back and live the California
lifestyle while King’s Crown generates my income.
Many of the artistic elements
and designs featured in this first drop seem to be influenced by alternative
cultures such as Martial Arts and Hip-Hop. Where did you find this inspiration?
The
Martial Arts came from Hip-Hop. The thing about Hip-Hop is that it has three
general philosophies. The first is Intellectuality,
the ability to think independently. Second is Creativity- graffiti, music,
dance, and, specifically, rap music. It’s the ability to express oneself. Third
is Self-Mastery, and this is where the Martial Arts comes into play. It’s all
about self discipline, and mastering yourself physically and mentally. I think
Martial Arts has a lot to do with the physical part, but also to do with the
mental part, as well. You see that in Kung-Fu films, when they are going
through stages and tests, particularly in the movie “Enter the 36 Chambers.”
The student goes through many chambers, 36 of them, that test him mentally- the
chambers make him discipline himself. Whether it is learning how to respect
your elders, or maintaining a stable mindset no matter what situation you are
facing. I took those qualities of Martial Arts, found similarities with Hip-Hop
and tried to break it down into three central philosophies. I have that in the
short description of the company wherever I go. It says “King’s Crown is a
hip-hop influenced company reflecting the three most prominent philosophies of
hip-hop.”
Do you plan to pursue
a career in marketing/clothing and fashion design in college/after high school?
I do, I
want to be an entrepreneur and plan on majoring in entrepreneurship in college.
Temple University is my number one choice: It is close, and I hear nothing but
good things about Temple.
You talked a lot
about the use of your iPhone and how efficient it can be. What role does social
media play in the livelihood of small companies such as King’s Crown?
Right
now, considering how small I am, it’s everything. [At the time of publishing] I
have yet to drop a product, so I have been trying to develop a social media
following based on graphics, pictures, and “tweets.” It’s an idea right now, so
there is nothing material about King’s Crown. Right now, I am trying to gain a
following, so when I do have a product, people will know it’s King’s Crown.
These days, it’s essential to have a presence on social media.
The brand revolves
heavily around tee-shirts and prints of designs. Any plans to expand in the
future?
Yeah,
the next clothing pieces I want to get into are hats, but I am still trying to
figure out what kind of hats. There are fitted, strapback, snapbacks, which
seem to be very popular right now, as well as 5-panels and beanies. Also, I’d
like to try a women’s clothing line. No matter what I do, it is going to be the
highest quality.
Take us through the
design process of a King’s Crown product.
First,
it starts with the computer design. It’s either Adobe illustrator or Photoshop,
and then I send the image to a manufacturer. To maintain quality, you have to
get samples from these manufacturers. I have to actually test the shirts- I
usually throw them in the wash 10 or 15 times and see which ones hold up the
best. I also need to get samples from label companies. If I am doing a sleeve
label or a neck tag, I need to get those samples and make sure they are durable
and that they hold up. I send the artwork to manufacturers in Clifton and New
York and they do their thing.
Nick, do you have any
advice for young entrepreneurs looking to start in the business early?
Make
sure you do everything with quality, and don’t skimp on anyone. I saw this
firsthand: the first shirts we made were low quality- we made them for some start-up
money, but after I sold them to my friends, you hear a week later “Yo man, this
shirt shrunk, like what the h--?” It makes you feel like crap. So next time, I
promised I’d do it right. The advice I would give someone who is starting out
is to make sure your stuff can compete with the people on top of the market.
You have to have high quality stuff.
Can you shed some
light on the tee-shirts that will be available June 10?
There are eight shirts coming
out, and they will be categorized into three different collections. First
collections is the Intellect Collection, which has four shirts, second is the
Self-Mastery collection, which features two Kung Fu-inspired shirts, and third
is two shirts in the Expression Collection, which is all about graffiti writing.
Each shirt will be unique in that the sleeve label will correlate to the design
on the shirt. It adds a collectability factor to the shirt. It all comes back
to the detail and quality of the products.
The emphasis of the Expression
Collection is scripts and typography. I have a tag shirt, which is a type of hand
style graffiti, also there is a cursive King’s Crown logo in metallic gold,
which has to do with typography. The idea behind that collection is that it is
reflecting the cleanliness of the lines in today’s graffiti writing. Today’s
graffiti writing is insane, in how they can get such clean lines and colors. I
wanted to show that in these designs.
On both
of the Self-Mastery shirts, the main emphasis is a tiger, and he is kind of
hanging out on the tee-shirt. In Chinese culture the tiger represents strength,
and is even respected by his enemies, because of its courage. When you are
trying to master yourself, you must have courage. I wanted to throw the tiger in there to show
how important courage and strength is in mentally and physically mastering
yourself.
One of
the designs in the Intellectuality collection features Ben Franklin’s face in
the middle of a big “KC” in the corner of the shirt. That one is for all the
people who are making money out there. In the description of that shirt is a
quote that says something like, “if you fail to prepare you are only preparing
to fail.” It’s for all the people who hustle, and strive to be successful one
day, for those who implement plans in order to do so. You have to think- that
collection is all about thinking.
How does someone
purchase a King’s Crown product?
If
someone wants a King’s Crown shirt, they can come see me in the hallway come
June, and they will also be able to order online. If you do choose to order
online, a free poster comes with every shirt you purchase. We’ll have a poster
for each of the collections. You can find the company at www.kingscrownco.com
or on social media @kingscrownco, and that’s on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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| Photo courtesy of kingscrownco.com |
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