We recently connected with BEN FAINLIGHT and have shared our conversation below.

BEN, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

It feels overused, but the word that comes to mind to me is “authenticity”. Now more than ever, consumers and fans are looking for brands, products, partnerships, and moments that feel authentic. That doesn’t mean your business can’t be commercially-minded or growth-driven, but consumers are more savvy than ever and want to connect with the businesses they’re supporting. They want to ensure whatever story you’re telling or what you’re trying to sell connects with them on a real level and comes from an honest place, not something overhyped or overblown for the purposes of driving sales.

I come from a streetwear background, where authenticity can be the most important thing to a company’s success. I initially got my brand on the map by making a product I believed in, posting pictures of my friends and people that liked the product on social media, and encouraging people to participate and show their fandom – all contributing to a feedback loop of authentic support, enthusiasm, and growth. When I moved on from my brand, it was important to me to translate the importance of authenticity into other realms and make it scalable.

BEN, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my brand on social media (Tumblr specifically) and eventually grew it to the point I was selling product to Net-A-Porter, Colette, Lane Crawford, some of the top fashion retailers in the world, but I really got into it almost as an accident. I had an idea for some graphic t-shirts, researched where and how to get them made, and just started going for it. I’ve always been a believer in trying to execute on ideas whenever possible, even if it’s just to make me satisfied that I’ve done it.

Since then I’ve worked on everything including brand, partnerships, experiential and cultural marketing, and more for companies like StockX, TYB, Basic.Space, and more, and I’m now the VP of Brand & Partnerships at ghostwrite.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

One of the most interesting sales stories I have was when Net-A-Porter first reached out to me about carrying my brand. I’d never dealt with a store that large before, and the buyer asked to come by my showroom when she was in New York for fashion week. She didn’t know it was just me running my brand out of my apartment in the lower east side, though. I told her I was between offices and could meet elsewhere with samples. She suggested we meet at the restaurant at her hotel, so sure enough I showed up with a duffel bag full of samples and she wrote an order over coffee!

Have you ever had to pivot?

Around 2017 I hit a particularly rough professional patch – I’d been let go from my brand director job and had been unable to find work in the fashion space for months. I was searching for something, anything, that would keep me in the industry and in my apartment, but being an entrepreneur and having the majority of my professional career being a bit of a jack of all trades, my resume didn’t exactly fit any roles in the corporate structure. It got to the point I took a job as a barista at a cafe in midtown Manhattan. I remember on my first day a college friend of mine who had recently started working at Calvin Klein walked in, saw me behind the bar, and asked what I was doing there – I didn’t know what to say. Fast forward a couple weeks the coffee shop was changing their schedule, and the new shift hours would make it really hard for me to interview and find new work. I decided to take the leap and quit, knowing I only had a short lifeline to make something happen. Sure enough only a few days later, a recruiter reached out to me about jobs at StockX and only a couple weeks later I was headed to ComplexCon for my first day on the job.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://temporary.company/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fainlight/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminfainlight/

Image Credits

Portrait, chair photos credit to Sam Sklar