We recently connected with Alejandro Hernandez and have shared our conversation below.

Alejandro, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Clothing has always been a form of expression for me. I was always experimenting with my wardrobe. In high school, my friends and I would repurpose our clothes. We’d take plain denim and distress them or bleach dye hats and t-shirts. We treated the hallways as runways. I remember people asking me where I got certain pieces that I would wear, which is when I realized they were paying attention. I never thought I would necessarily have influence in what people wore but I knew that people liked how I put what I wore together. This was the beginning of the idea to start a clothing brand.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

What’s up y’all! My name is Alejandro Hernandez. I’m from Sunset Park in Brooklyn, NY. I’m Dominican and Guatemalan. I’m a fashion designer, business owner and I’ve been in love with fashion since I was a kid. Coming up in Brooklyn, you had to have good drip and fresh sneakers. You couldn’t be seen with bad clothes. This always pushed me to keep up with trends but do it my way.

Growing up in a single-parent household meant I had to make do with my limited resources. Nonetheless, that made me who I am today in every aspect. My mom taught me how to be ambitious and how to be a hustler. I had a few jobs as a teenager but I always knew I wanted more. When the idea for Urban Trend first came to me, I dove in head first.

The name “Urban Trend” was born from the “Urban” community where I was born and raised and the idea that the products we would make would set the “Trend” and not follow them. The mission is to provide fashionable clothing at an affordable price so people could feel like they were in high end designer clothes, yet paying a fraction of the price. We believe in clothing as being a canvas for self expression. Our commitment is threefold: innovation, exclusivity and sustainability. We seek to continue to disrupt the streetwear industry by redefining what it means to be bold, authentic and luxurious – one outfit at a time.

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

Originally, Urban Trend was a local hat brand. We began with dad hats in September of 2016 and over time expanded into other types of headwear such as snapbacks, beanies and bucket hats. At the time, we did not have a website or sell on any e-commerce platform. We only had an Instagram account where we showcased our products and accepted orders via DM. Instagram and word of mouth were our only forms of marketing which allowed us to sell out each drop. Our drops went from a dozen pieces of two colors, to 8 dozen pieces of 8 colors.

As time went on, people began to ask for matching tops for the hats like shirts and hoodies. After roughly two years of being solely a hat brand, we took a two year hiatus where we did extensive research, built connections, gained resources and gathered the money for the production of our first collection. Ultimately, in June of 2020 we launched our first collection of clothing and evolved into a premium streetwear brand. We have dropped seasonally ever since.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media plays the biggest part in our brand presence. It’s a tool that every business should have in order to build their audience. It took us a while to build our audience because we were not as consistent as we should have been and at the time we didn’t know about influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is when a brand collaborates with an influencer to market one of its products or services. The key to influencer marketing is picking an influencer that is immersed in your industry, therefore already has the audience that you seek to build.

We began influencer marketing collaborations in 2023 and our Instagram account tripled in one year. As we continue to grow our social media presence, we also continue to improve our designs and products so every new follower can potentially be a new customer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.urbantrendco.com
• Instagram: urbantrendco
• Twitter: urbantrendco

Image Credits
Kyle Zarba @takemorethanone