Our Fall 10 lookbook entitled Brick By Brick is now officially online and ready for your eyes. Click HERE to view it! As you can see, we are still very much infatuated with the D.I.Y. mentality. Fall 10 drops in stores and online early October 2010. Tell a friend and stay tuned!
Somehow, this weekend has turned out to be quite eventful for our crew.
First off, our good friends in RX Bandits are playing a string of shows at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, CA from Friday to Sunday.
Here's the catch- each show's set list is dedicated to a separate album from their discography. Not only is the Troubadour one of my favorite venues but I have the pleasure of checking out Saturday's show which features my personal favorite record, And The Battle Begun, so I'm rather excited. I would say to make sure and check these shows out but it looks like they're all already SOLD OUT. If you don't have tickets, tough luck!
Also on Saturday, the good people over at Brooklyn Projects Pasadena will be hosting an event with photographer Jae Bueno to showcase his first photo exhibition entitled Quiet Storm.
There will also be a couple collaboration t-shirts for sale that are actually being printed in our warehouse as I type this. Live music, open bar, free giveaways, and good company. Come hang out and say what's up to our dude Melloe Won!
To round out the weekend, we get to spend our Sunday out in the Inland Empire at this year's KROQ Epicenter Festival to catch up with the guys from A Day To Remember where they get to share the stage with Blink 182, Rise Against, 30 Seconds to Mars, Bad Religion, and Against Me!
It's a trip to see how far these guys have come since we played a random show with them in Arizona when our tours crossed paths. They recently made a press release to debut information on their upcoming album, What Separates Me From You, and even got an L&O tee in the mix. Good looking out, guys! New album drops Nov. 16th on Victory Records!
Can't wait for this weekend to start! Filbert is ready too!
Anyway, let's talk about some stuff not happening this weekend too!
Not sure why it took me so long to post this, but our friend Jonathan Vigil from The Ghost Inside stopped by at our office before one of their tours this summer to pick up some gear. I believe they are currently in Australia right now and will be back for another full US tour and then through Europe as well. Make sure you check them out where ever you are!
Speaking of tours, the "wonderful gentlemen" from The Acacia Strain are currently on tour in Europe and soon after will be embarking on their upcoming full US headlining tour called To Catch A PredaTOUR starting in October. Check out Vincent sporting our Last Wave tee in this promo video.
Last but not least, we've been busy as well. In fact, too busy. We've come to the point where we absolutely need to start taking more people into our staff so that we can continue to stay efficient while also staying productive, moving units, and progressing. Our companies are both growing rapidly and now it is our job to keep up with that pace. 2011 looks like it's going to be another blockbuster year for our group so I hope you all stick around to see what happens.
The official Fall 10 lookbook will be posted next week. Stay tuned.
I don't know why this would be considered "B-sides" or "B-roll" footage. It's certainly not less than "A" material. Let's just call this the "bonus" footage from our Fall / Winter 10 ad campaign and lookbook shoot with the lovely and talented Shay Maria. The release of Fall 10 is coming close so hopefully this makes you hunger for it that much more.
Enjoy! I know you will. And yes, all these photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. You're welcome!
In case you've forgotten, we still have this little promo going for our Karmaloop Kazbah page. We are literally less than 10 customers away from the lucky winner so if you'd like a shot at getting a ton of FREE gear from our upcoming Fall 10 collection, here's your chance! Plus, even if you don't "win", technically you still win because we're sending some free goodies inside each package until a winner is found. Go to loudobnoxious.com/karmaloop and shop now to find out if you're #1000!
Something as simple as putting up signage may seem like a minor detail to any business but for us it's a small victory that represents progress for a growing company.
As some of you may know, we just recently completed our first year at this current office location. Both companies started from scratch at different times but both are now officially two years old as legitimately registered businesses. For those of you just joining the program, when I say "both" I am referring to Loud& Obnoxious, our clothing brand, and Glad Rags Ink, our screen printing services company.
When I was younger, I never thought I would ever be this interested in business. I always saw myself doing something with engineering finding ways to make the world more fuel efficient. Somewhere down the line, my priorities changed and I found myself less interested in having a boss but rather being my own. Even as a kid, I would always see these little shops and businesses all around town and in City of Industry and wonder to myself how these people manage to stay in business. Fast forward a decade and now my friends and I are one of those businesses.
Over these last few years of building our start-up business from nothing, we've learned to appreciate how truly lucky and fortunate we are to be able to do what we do. Sure, it's a ton of hard work and stress. More than any "9-to-5" engineering job I would have had. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. We've found purpose in our lives and by doing it all on our own, we're giving ourselves the tools to build the framework for future entrepreneurial endeavors. The harder we work, the more we gain. Everything we do directly effects our outcome. Everything matters.
Yeah, it's just a sign. But to us, it's a sign of things to come. Bigger things.
We're dudes and we like stuff. You gotta have nice things! Sometimes, Glad Rags Ink gets to the point where equipment needs upgrading and we need to re-invest in ourselves to make our office and warehouse more efficient. As in life, you just need a little change every now and then to keep things moving forward.
I wasn't sure if I had posted this on the blog already, but we had some Bic pens made for ourselves for the Agenda Tradeshow and our recent 3 Year Anniversary event. We've also been giving them out with some of our online orders on Karmaloop and our ONLINE SHOP. Get at it!
I'm not a vinyl collector, but a friend of mine knew I really wanted this Mayer Hawthorne record. Big thanks to Katrina over at Stones Throw! You rule!
Free gifts from Uline.com for buying so many warehouse supplies from their company. Even though they're not doing too well this year, had to stay true to our team!
Got a new refrigerator for $150. Don't ask how.
We work very hard here at the office and most of the time we work really long hours just to finish everything that needs to be done. Trying to run two growing companies can be tough on your mind, body, and soul so we decided it was time to get serious about our health.
As a staff, we've been doing P90X every day after work and it has definitely helped us stay energized and feeling much better overall throughout the days. Some of the guys here are trying to gain weight and add muscle mass, but my goal is to lose some weight and get fit again. Sitting at a desk for the past 3 years hasn't been nice to my body so I'm on a mission to get my athleticism back. Even started playing hockey again! Either way, the program is solid and I'm glad that getting in shape is becoming a trend again in our lives. It's about time!
Also had to invest in some equipment to keep us lean and mean at the warehouse.
I've never done this before but these protein power drinks are essential for the after-workout recovery. Delicious too!
Off topic, but did you know that hot girls love Nong Shim noodle bowls? Ask Shay Maria. Every time she visits, she takes two!
Ok, on to the real toys. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, sometimes an equipment upgrade is necessary. We just recently finally upgraded to a larger, more efficient exposure unit for our silk screens. Already noticing the increase in efficiency after a couple days!
If you are interested in purchasing our previous smaller exposure unit, get in touch with Robert at robert@gladragsink.com. Still works great!
Finally got a REAL screen rack too! Before this, we were just leaning them all against the wall, but that got way to messy.
The last two may seem like nothing to you, but to us they make our lives so much easier! Check out this awesome cart we got. Seriously, it helps.
And before we had these garment baskets with wheels, we just used huge cardboard boxes to catch the shirts. Every time we found a new huge box to use, we were stoked! And now that we have these, you can imagine how excited we were.
We're nerds, I know. Just more small ways that we're helping our companies and ourselves grow and mature. Progress!
That stands for "Brooklyn Projects For The Win!", not "British Petroleum Fucks The World!". Just wanted to clear that up.
Make sure you head over to Green Label Art and VOTE for the Brooklyn Projects X Mountain Dew can design! You can vote up to 7 times so make them count! The contest ends TODAY so hurry because it is a heated race to the finish!
For more info on the project and contest, visit the GLA homepage and see what P-Rod and Mountain Dew have in store! If you can help our friends at BP to win the regional contest, they will have a chance to win the finals and get the can distributed nationwide! Be a part of history and VOTE!
The most hated band on planet Earth. Too much? Not for The Acacia Strain. In fact, that's just how they like it.
We first met these guys when my brother and I were still on tour with Dear Life and our booking agent at the time happened to be the same as theirs. We got thrown into an opening spot on a tour with The Acacia Strain, All Shall Perish, and Since the Flood. Probably the most brutal bands you could think of, yet the nicest guys we've ever encountered.
Ever since then, we've kept in close contact with Vincent and he and the rest of the guys have been representing for the brand around the world in front of hundreds of kids a night.
They just recently had a new record come out called Wormwood and if I had to describe it in two words: FUCKING PISSED. It's heavy, it's raw, and it doesn't pull any punches. They also released a video for their single "The Hills Have Eyes" and as you can see from this screen shot, Vincent is sporting his "made-for-L&O-bands-only" logo tank top.
To go along with the theme of the video, they will be embarking on a US tour cleverly titled "To Catch a PredaTOUR" with The Red Chord, Terror, Gaza, and more. They'll also be hitting Europe hard shortly before that so if you're anywhere close by, don't miss it!
On top of that, TAS was featured in the latest issues of Hails and Horns and Decibel magazines. Check out the spread from Hails and Horns by clicking HERE - check out the L&O tee!
"We don't write songs for people. We write songs for ourselves, with people in mind. Being in a band shouldn't be about writing "hits". It should be about the emotion, the feeling, and the passion in the music. Fuck the hits."
Amen to that.
Last but not least, I've finally started to develop some ideas for a couple little collaboration projects between our brand and the band. I've tapped artist Ed Brescia for one of them and the other will involve someone a little closer to the band so that you get a collective effort from both sides of our worlds.
Pure unadulterated misanthropic creativity. Let's see what happens!
