Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Daniel Bliley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Daniel , thanks for joining us today. So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of sales or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.

Bigfoot Kick is a 1% for the Planet member and every sale goes to support organizations that help protect natural habitats and the animals that live in them. We focus our efforts on two main objectives: protecting endangered species along with supporting the rewilding and biodiversity of our planet.

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

I’ve been a career marketer, ranging in industries from parking to healthcare to banking. I got into the field because I was fascinated by advertisements…the design, the copywriting, the entire notion that it could convince and sway people’s decision making. I loved working with creatives and building campaigns and doing awesome things. The problem, as you move up in the field, and as more and more pressure builds to deliver return on your budget…you get further away from that creative spirit, or at least that happened to me. So, I wanted to go back and tap into that raw creativity. I wanted to work with talented artists without restrictions or rules or pressure. Let’s just go out and do cool stuff. And I wanted it to be centered around the things that I love that don’t normally go together. Outdoors. Hip hop. Streetwear. Animals. Video games.

Having been around the marketing and advertising world for awhile, it was also important to me to work with creatives that represented diverse backgrounds. I wanted to work with women and minority owned businesses. Small businesses. Artists just starting out along with established illustrators who wanted a project that let them be free. I felt apparel – fashion – was a perfect backdrop to bring all of these elements together and help provide an avenue for creative expression and individuality that also did good in the world.

I’m really proud that the vast majority of our work thus far has either been led by women or minorities, from the creative process to the production to the marketing. And I’m also proud we’ve been able to keep a small footprint in our production cycle, work with sustainable materials in our shipping, and ultimately give money back to our planet.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think two things that have stood our for us in the market are our commitment to quality and putting our creatives out front and center. Look, there’s a lot of t-shirt companies. You can go on any number of e-commerce sites or any number of local pop up markets and see people putting phrases and graphics on blank shirts. And to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But we wanted to be different. We didn’t want the same basic shirts. We didn’t want “merch” that you’d get at a company giveaway. We wanted to have real, legitimate, retail quality garments. Fashion, if you will. So we really sought after the best manufacturers and decorators. We’ve tried a lot and we work with some of the same shops that produce garments you’d find at Sak’s Fifth Avenue or Bloomingdale’s. And I think people really understand that – we’ve heard over and over that when people touch and feel and put on our gear, it’s “wow, this is really good quality, or this is much better than expected”. That makes me feel proud that people notice and it matters.

The second things is giving our artists the freedom to work and show their unique gifts and styles. We work on themes, but we don’t dictate final results or give rounds of revisions. We carefully curate and select artists that fit our vibe and mood and let them do what their best at. And that shows in how fast things sell through and how we’ve been come to be recognized for new, fun, creative, fashionable, unique pieces of art that people love to wear and represent.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Getting started involved doing the research around getting started with branding, initial designs, business formation, securing the assets like domains, etc, and then looking into how much base costs were to make clothes for an initial launch run.

Once I had a number in mind, I began saving up some initial capital and funded the launch and first few production runs from that savings. I’ve been constantly funneling revenue back into product development, artist costs, and supporting our wildlife initiatives from sales ever since. The next step is continue to scale our production and marketing.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.bigfootkick.com
• Instagram: @findbigfootkick
• Facebook: Facebook.com/bigfootkick
• Twitter: @findbigfootkick

Image Credits
Tara Lilly Photography