We recently connected with Darius Payne and have shared our conversation below.
Darius, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
Bullies portray dominate and aggressive behavior which tends to be extremely intimidating, however no two bullies are the same. They are all unique in how they impose their will. “Bully Denim”specializing in denim, every item is designed by hand with a unique combination of patches, paint, and distressing. Although some silhouettes are the same every item is individualized and designed with a different outcome in mind.
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?
Born in Raleigh, the oldest of 4. I graduated from North Carolina A&T State University with a B.S. in exercise science in 2019 one of my greatest accomplishments. Early in my career everything came to a halt due to covid in 2020. I have always had an interest for fashion collecting sneakers and rare fashion items throughout grade school; however I never imagined having a clothing brand. My cousin TJ had been telling me for years to give it a try, and being stuck in the house I began to research. Different fabrics, sewing techniques, tools, and production. There are a plethora of clothing brands so it was imperative to do something different. I decided to specialize but not only be limited to denim. I wanted to focus on the quality and details of the garments; a parity of street wear and luxury. To give the brand more of a luxurious feel I decided to design every item myself. Distressing, painting, and sewing are all apart of my creative process. No two items are the same, every design has a unique finish. Doing everything by hand allows me to give every garment a 1 of 1 feel. Designing everything by hand is an extremely complicated process but the quality and finish is always worth it.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
All of my patches and labels are manufactured. Finding a vendor was extremely challenging. Paying for samples and blueprints from different vendors can become expensive but I feel that is the only way to find the right one by seeing everything in hand. After working with over 5 vendors I finally feel I found the right one after 3 years of designing. I have learned along the way to be very detailed. The correct sizing, color, cut and fabric is just as important as the design itself and without a great relationship with your vendor it becomes challenging bringing your visions to life.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
– [ ] I have always been very resilient, and feel that is one of the keys to being successful. My childhood was very difficult with many roadblocks along the way, but I was always taught fall down nine times but get up ten. I attended NC A&T university, the first person in my family to attend a 4 year university and my freshman year there were so many ups and downs. I played football since 7 and was one of the main reasons for entering my career field in exercise science. One of my biggest goals was to play at the collegiate level. Emergency surgery limiting my mobility and affecting my ability to walk a week before football tryouts. Not long after my grandmother passed away. She was who implanted the seed of college, and was the 1 person I wanted to see me graduate. Contemplating dropping out of school and feeling I was at my lowest I persevered. Finishing the semester and eventually graduating with honors, one of my greatest accomplishments.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bullydenim.com
- Instagram: BullyDenim