I just finished the book, “This is not a T-Shirt.” It is written by Bobby Hundreds chronicling the story of the clothing brand he and his partner Ben Hundreds began while both were in law school that has grown into a multi million dollar clothing company. Here is a picture of myself in the middle with Bobby on my right and his partner Ben on the left at their Santa Monica The Hundreds store on October 25, 2012.
Bobby is my favorite blogger and I remember when he posted a cryptic message on his blog saying to send in an email for the chance to be invited to a special Q&A event at an undisclosed location. Only 50 spots available. I sent in my email and held my breath. I received a response saying I was invited and listed an address in Santa Monica at 7pm. I got approval from my boss to leave work early and I arrived about 25 minutes after the event began.
At the end of the night I waited in line and talked with the other guests for a chance to meet Ben and Bobby. Being as confident as I could I took a deep breath, walked up, and introduced myself to them. Then I asked Bobby if he could photograph me with his camera that he famous posted pictures from on his blog. To my amazement, he did. After meeting and talking a bit I asked to be featured on his website. I can’t remember the answer exactly, but it was something along the lines of, wait and see. I gave Bobby one of my business cards as a further reminder.
The next morning I bolted out of bed and rushed to Bobby’s blog to see if my plan had worked. I read the post about the event which you can still find here https://bit.ly/2mZ2x2N I saw the photo of me that he had taken, but no feature or mention of my brand. He featured the kid behind me in line who I talked while waiting as well. The guy had bought a flight from Florida that same day to make it to the event that night. I understood. The kid had a better story than me.
That was five years ago. Since that day, my brand has grown. I, like Bobby, have my own stories to tell that collectively form a larger story of my brand Vaughn de Heart.
You can find the book This is Not a T-Shirt Here