A few weeks of speaking to the music mangers went by. The conversations were going well and I could tell many were going to move forward. This was a positive and I was pleased. My plan to work with the music artists to sell the custom shoes could work. However, the music managers just wanted to see simple and low priced shoe designs. They weren’t looking for anything extragvent. Which was fine. They already had an established customer base. Music fans who are accustomed to buying $20 hats and $60 t-shirts. I however, wanted to make sure the shoes appealed to both the sneaker and music audience. And in order for that to occur the sneaker audience needed to see something extragvent. They needed to see an Air Jordan 1 shoe. Similar to one I was initially going to customize with the Off-White pattern on it but with a little bit more flair. Nonetheless, it wasn’t going to fly with the music managers. They wanted to do a $200 shoe and I wanted to do a $1,000 shoe.

At this point, I have identified I have a passion for shoe design. I enjoy taking photos of the shoes. I enjoy editing the photos. I enjoy putting the graphics together. However, I won’t be able to do any of that if I don’t work with music artists. Because the music artists have an audience of people to sell to. I don’t have an audience of people to sell to. And in order to make a living from this I need to be able to the shoes to someone. However by working with the music artists I may be forced to customize more simplistic shoes and my full design potential may not be realized. As explained I have identified I have passion for shoe design and now I’m presented with an opportunity to be able to make money from it. Everyone says you want to make money doing something you like, right? So I thought about that for a minute. Then realized that clearly I need to wake up, smell the roses and move forward with these collaborations asap. So I did just that.

The following week I moved forwarded with many and after 2 months I collaborated with 20 music artists, sold roughly 100 pairs of shoes and made nearly $15,000. I was proud of myself. I made some money doing something I like and it felt good. However, it was clear that people weren’t buying the shoes because they necessarily loved the design. They were buying them because they supported the artist. And this was extremely frustrating. Without the music artists I would generate no sales. I essentially became a fulfilment centre fulfilling someone else’s orders. Also the idea that I would get some customers from the music artists audience wasn’t really panning out. Why would some random music artist fan want to buy a pair of $1,000 shoes? Are they a sneaker head? I don’t know, I’m not marketing directly to the sneaker head audience so who knows. I’m just reaching random music artist fans who like shoes. Essentially window shoppers. I like a Porsche but can I buy one, no. So I had to make a decision once again:

Do I keep making money consistently through collaborations? Or do I stop and try to build my own customer base?

I decided to tear the castle down and rebuild it. I needed to build a community of people that subscribed to me. That are sneaker enthusiasts. People that have the money to spend on sneakers. Because I know there is a sneaker head audience. There is an audience of people who pay thousands for shoes. But I’m not going to reach them efficiently through collaborations. It’s like trying to shoot a basketball into a net and just throwing the ball blindly in the air, hoping it miraculously lands in the net. Sure there’s a chance it might although the chances are low. So how will I build my own customer base? How am I going to get someone to buy a pair of $1,000 shoes from me?

September, 18, 2021. First day I’m going to try to build my own customer base. I have $15,000 to spend and want to to profit $1,500 in my first month. How do I execute? I look at that the top shoe customizers and study them. After a few weeks I notice the majority of their growth occurs from being reposted by sneaker pages on Instagram that have millions of followers. Interesting I say. So I reach out to the sneaker pages and ask “Can I get a repost”? One day goes by I refresh my inbox, nothing. Two days go by I refresh my inbox, nothing. Three days go by I refresh my inbox, nothing. Huh, interesting. The sneaker pages are not so easy to crack. I’m going to need to find a different way to market myself to the sneaker head audience. I’ve ran ads in the past, they’ve been effective however in and out of consistency. I might as well try to run ads again I say I have no other real move on the board. I beginning running Instagram ads. Ther’re ok, I get a few followers here and there however, no one is really consistently buying the shoes. I know my approach needs to change. So I think again how can I market the custom shoes better to the sneaker head audience.

I’m trying to sell a premium product, an exclusive product, one thats limited, thats hard to get, that’s expensive, that’s niche. Monday I’m listening to my regular scheduled 8pm podcast Trading Secrets by Jason Tartick where he’s interviewing founder of Zero Ground (essentially a new type of Soho House), Will Markis. Will discusses how Tom Brady and all these cool celebrities are members at his private club in New York and how he has a waitlist of 10,000 people and how his memberships cost thousands. So I think and say well my target customer is someone kinda similar, someone who has money to spend on $1,000 shoes. I already have some celebrities buying from me so I kind of have that angle. I should try to make this like the Soho House of custom shoes. The Label 318 needs to be an exclusive club just like Soho House, that sells custom shoes privately and that also works with members 1 on 1 to design shoes. So the next day I locked the website and just put the 3 simple words “Join Our Club” on the homepage. When you click “Join Our Club” it takes you to a page to input your email address. From there I send you an email explaining what The label 318 is all about. “The Label 318 is a custom shoe studio based in Toronto, Canada. Every couple of weeks we release a handful of shoes to our followers. In between those times we work directly with our club members to design a pair of custom shoes. This is an extremely exclusive club. We only have about 100 members in it as we want to keep limited and exclusive. For more info see our website here:”. From there I started running Instagram ads to sneaker audience. People started singing up instantly. I would spend $200 on an Instagram ad have 100 people sign up to the mailing list and then I would hustle those 100 people to try buy a pair of shoes from me or to work with me design a pair of shoes. I kept repeating this process, increasing my ad spend until I was averaging 1,000 sign ups per week.

For 2 years all my sales would come through collaborations with music artists. After 2 years as explained I decided to tear the castle down and rebuild it. There needed to be a more a solid and sustainable foundation. It’s time to build a customer base I said. This is not about making a quick buck. This needs to last a lifetime.

To date I've sold nearly 400 pairs of shoes and done $200K in sales.

People need to understand that sometimes you have to find creative ways to make money so you can continue following your passion. I worked with music artists so I could make money doing something I’m passionate about. Follow your passion, always. You may need to get creative with how you make money from it but you can do it. Keep pivoting and keep finding the angle, because there’s always an angle, always.