What is Future Basics? 

Future Basics is the culmination and evolution of my personal thoughts, projects and experiences on work, fashion and culture. 

Since I could remember, fashion and culture has had an outsized influence on the way I view the world. When I was 15, work permit in hand, I got a job at Mr. Rags--one of the OG streetwear stores that led the way in the late 90s and early 2000s. The internet was hardly a place for discovery at this time.

I quickly learned that there was a community of people passionate about the way they look when they leave the house. They cared about the stories that brands told. They were looking to leave the house and standout, not fit in. The kids in the streets are the ones that made these brands move and mean something. 

I grew up in Santa Rosa, CA, a suburb in the North Bay that's roughly 45 miles from San Francisco. I moved to Seattle in 2008, then New York City in 2010 and finally Philadelphia in 2016. Although always into footwear, I started to learn more about footwear development and construction in 2012 when I was working with Dominic Chambrone, well known as the Shoe Surgeon. At the time, I had recently begun my entrepreneurial journey and Dominic was from my hometown and offering a unique challenge to help grow his business, which was essentially creating 1 of 1 custom Nikes using exotics skins. He was one of the first to create the custom footwear from the ground up, as opposed to sewing material over the existing upper, and utilizing authentic Nike outsoles. It was my gateway into footwear production.

In 2017, I met John Lee. John was determined to scale his retail chain, Kicks USA. I had just got done redoing a 33,000 sq/ft commercial building on South Street in Philadelphia and John wanted to lease the bottom floor. It has an iconic sign that runs three stories tall that he was after. They had a store down the street that he was going to close. After we met, and he learned I was one of the partners in The Shoe Surgeon, he recruited me to sit on the leadership board of KickUSA and oversee his more premium store called UBIQ. At the time, there were 23 Kicks USA stores in PA and NJ and two UBIQs in Phila and DC, respectively. 

John gave me a very unique opportunity to have an impact and front row view on the sneaker and apparel business. I sat on a board with executives at Foot Locker, Nike and Urban Outfitter's. We grew the chain to 73 stores before selling it to the German Retail behemoth the Deichmann Group, who boasts nearly 4600 stores across Europe and North America. 

As a side project, John and I started Garrixon, a Footwear Factory in Philadelphia. It had a good run doing work for Jordan, Nike, Puma, adidas, Diadora, Foot Locker and a number of independents. 

I've been really fortunate to have traveled the world. I've been to most Men's Paris Fashion weeks since 2016. I've been on content trips with Adidas in Seoul and Tokyo. I've seen the factories in China. I've been to all over Italy and seen a good amount of Germany. I've worked intimately with Ye (formerly Kanye West) on footwear, apparel, real estate and creative projects. I've met childhood heroes and athletes. I've been on stage at Nike World HQ in Beaverton and developed product in Herzo at adidas global HQ near Nuremberg. 

It is all these experiences that led me to a thought about complexity. Things that feel hard to do. Ideas that seem so daunting. The thought is that as ideas mature and evolve they simplify and become basic. The things that seem hard now will seem basic in the future so long as you take action and try. 

A complex idea faced with inaction stays complex. But so long as you are willing to stumble your way through the idea in order to gain understanding and learnings, then the complexity begins to give way to simplicity. 

Future Basics is that idea in action. We try hard things. We used to do this only for brands, creators, athletes and anyone with an audience. 

Now we do it for ourselves.