We were lucky to catch up with Mekhi Terry recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mekhi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

“Human Target” originated from the events happening in my own life during the pandemic around late 2020. During that time I was enrolled in at Georgia State University for my freshman year. Shortly after only enrolling a couple of months into school, would I end up losing both of my jobs, along with other unforeseen circumstances. My vision for my future quickly started to come into question as to how I would support both myself & my education. I was extremely distraught, confused, & frustrated with life. It felt as if I was being punished or that I was cursed. After seeking out insight & guidance from my father, as to what steps I should take next in order to get back on my feet. When I got off of the phone with my father, with the mix of emotions I was going through it came to me. I grabbed my notebook and started sketching around the idea of being a “human target”, the world was throwing whatever it could at me. I gained inspiration through my own life struggles and built a canvas using my own two eyes.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Early on as a kid, I was always involved in something using my creative talents. Whether it was performing in a showcase, or walking the runway as a model. With the luxury of growing up in Los Angeles and living in Atlanta at an early age, I was able to experience different styles of both streetwear & high fashion. I always knew I’d be apart of the creative community but I didn’t know which route to take, until I dropped out of college. With the inspiration I gained from watching how both Virgil Abloh & Nipsey Hussle built their fashion houses, would I then immerse myself into the fashion industry.

Human Target offers quality streetwear essentials designed for the bold, the creative & unapologetically authentic. With each piece we embrace the spirit of the city where the streets are our canvas and individuality is our art. We help those redefine streetwear & take the world by storm.

The one thing that I am most proud of is the foundation we have built with our community & the potential we have ahead of us with the upcoming rebrand launch dropping this winter. “Human Target” doesn’t relate to just anyone person, thing or object. It is simply the reflection of the beholder’s philosophies & perspective of this thing we call society.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

After choosing to drop out of college, I chose to move to Pittsburgh with my family in order to get back onto my feet and bring my dreams & ambitions into fruition. Early on it took me awhile to figure out how exactly I was going to build a successful streetwear clothing brand. Settling into a new environment was a bit of an adjustment for me as well, not knowing where or who to talk to about establishing a business. Especially since none of my family or friends had never been apart of the fashion industry. Firstly, I had to find how to build the foundation of the brand which included creating our brand identity, generating the business side of the brand, along with creating the artwork. Fortunately, Virgil Abloh created a website with loads of information based on the essential building blocks for creating a successful clothing brand. With having all that information it took me a couple of seasons to fully grasp the concept Virgil was laying out. Applying those concepts allowed me to build a lot of patience which helped me to improve my craft. Going to therapy played a major role as well with the amount of adversity I experienced on my journey to becoming the person I am today.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective way so far for growing our clientele has been word of mouth. Whenever someone is spotted wearing one of our pieces from past collections, the first question they ask is, “where did you get that from?”. No matter where our customers are, whether it be the airport, the bar, or at the mall. We draw a bulk of our audience from these interactions as well as social media marketing. Using social media influencers is another great way for us to grow

Contact Info:

• Website: https://humantarget.us
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/humantarget.us