We were lucky to catch up with Jayton Metcalf recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jayton thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I started Blind Havoc during the covid-19 pandemic, prior to the pandemic I volunteered at Volunteers Of America in Minneapolis 4 days a week, here I worked with underprivileged youth on completeing their GEDs or graduating from their local highschools. This was my favorite thing in the world, then once the pandemic happened it was shutdown. I knew I still wanted to spread some sort of positivty and thought i could do that through clothing. That’s when I started Blind Havoc, a positive streetwear brand. The name means to be “blind” to the “havoc”/choas in the world, and focus on the positives. I thought I would especially be able to impact the youth by combining a stretwear style with my positive message. Since then it has continued to grow and more and more people are starting to gravitate towards the positive clothing we offer. The whole idea behind the Blind Havoc was to build a community around spreading love and positivity, I chose clothing as the vehicle to do this.

Jayton, 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?

My name is Jayton Metcalf, I was born & raised in Stillwater Minnesota, I’m currently a senior at the U. Prior to starting my buisness my life revolved around basketball, I grew up in an extremly loving and supportive household, being kind, and positive was taught to us daily. I picked it up quickly from watching how my parents went about life, they treat everyone with incredible respect and kindness. At the same time we are also a very competive sports-centered household. This has definitely helped with growing my buisness, the habits I was taught through sports such as work ethic, discipline & how to bouce back after I carried over to my buisness.

From running Blind Havoc for 3+ years the thing I’m most proud of is hearing about the positive impact it has brought into people’s lifes. Getting emails from parents saying they have seen how their child has changed their outlook on life since wearing their Blind Havoc hoodie, t-shirt, etc means the world to me, being the sole reason why I started the buisness.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A time where I had to pivot was 8 months into starting Blind Havoc, the monthly sales started to decrease for the first time, I was still working as hard as in the beginning but the buisness wasn’t growing, this is when I started to research, and learn more about how other successful clothing brands were growing. After researching on Youtube for weeks, I found a clothing brand that’s in Tennesse that does over $1 million annually, after seeing how they built their buisness I saw they had a kiosk in a mall in Tennesse even after growing to a 7 figure buisness, a light bulb went off in my head. I then immediatley started reasearching how I could get a kiosk for Blind Havoc. A few months later I was all set up in Rosedale, I signed a 3 month lease for my kiosk using everything I had saved up. 2 years later I still have the kiosk, and this is the primary reason why Blind Havoc has grown to where it is today, I work it 7 days a week, inlcuding holidays. The consistency and risk I took in geeting the kiosk for my brand has been the best decision I have ever made.

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

The thing that helped me build my reputation within my market would be my consistency, being at the kiosk for 7 days a week, and bringing the same positive energy everyday is something that I think people have noticed and gravitated towards. I also have made an emphesis to not make the kioks transactional. Meaning it’s not just about a salem I really try to get to know the customers that come by, Alot of them I have become friends with. Also consistency with the roducts i create and new collections I comeout with. I try to release new items (or collections) every 6-8 weeks. This has helped build my community immensly, they know something is always coming out next and it keeps my brand at the top of mind.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://blindhavoc.clothing
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blind_havoc/

Image Credits
First pic: Jaymin featured Second pic: Jaymin & Jen featured Third pic: Jayton (owner) & Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee Fourth pic: Second pic: Jaymin & Jen featured