We were lucky to catch up with Khairie Alim recently and have shared our conversation below.

Khairie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Finding those key vendors can often be make or break for a brand. Can you talk to us about how you found your key vendors?

Well, when it comes to photography and videography, it’s a little different because finding clientele is hard because you have to put out a lot of free work to bait paying customers it’s a lot of learning on the fly, and eventually you have enough work for people to gauge what your content looks like, and then you will get the people to book with you But when it comes to being a fashion designer and finding vendors that want to work with you and manufacturers that want to create your product I had to use the fact that I’m a photographer and make my stuff look appealing and hashtagging on social media. So I started off printing on already made tees and would just promote my brand using celebrity whether local or not endorsements. I took professional photos and through time vendors/manufacturers would hit me up on social media asking to print product and make clothes for me. Three years ago I gave a factory out of Pakistan a chance to see what they can do with my ideas and now three years later we have an amazing working relationship and made a lot of money. So now I have 3 Pakistan factories that I work with and they provide me with everything I need as far as creating apparel.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Well, I have always been an artist and I picked up a camera around 2017 it was just supposed to be a hobby because I stop drawing when I was like 12 so I needed another way to kinda express my artistic expression and I just wanted to do neighborhood, videos and photos for my friends and it turned out. I was pretty good at it and I went on YouTube and learned a lot to the point where I actually started to make some money for the videos and photos that I was doing and I took it pretty serious and even went to media school where I was teaching the teachers how to do complex editing as far as video so at that point, I knew that I was going somewhere with what I was doing. I got a job working for Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Arnold classic And I met a lot of people and thought to myself. This is what I wanna do. I got sick after that, I had a stroke. I lost my eyesight, and I wasn’t able to do what it is that I newly love to do for about almost 2 years so that took a toll on me , but when I finally got my eyesight back enough to where I can pick the camera up again at that point I had a new outlet on how I wanted to express myself. I also wanted to provide clothing for myself. It started off that way and then it turned into me doing a brand that people actually were into. So I use my ability to create appealing photos to help me raise awareness for my new brand, and at the same time I was getting better at photography and videography as well traveling, and making money for my new talents so for the last few years of my life, I have been doing both and loving it and traveling and being publish and meeting cool people and trailblazing doing both of these amazing careers. It’s a lot of work because at any time you could be like anyone else and quit if things aren’t going your way but the thing about me is I’ve always had something I view as a superpower which is I have ADHD and when I’m fixed on something, I tend to go hard on it, I don’t let a lot of things deter me from getting the goal done. There were times where I had a lot of ups and sold my product out in a week and there were times where I held onto product for six months and Counting but the process of it is to be patient and understand that everything is a slow grind and it’s a building stage in my city. A lot of things are oversaturated it being such a small big city, but I feel as though my clothing Brand stands out for being a super authentic brand that means something. Helmsdale x Rugby was started so that I can express myself and my life and what I’ve been through all in one entity and I’m very proud of it. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever created. Helmsdale is a place where I have experience, growth, life, and being a father, for the first time and rugby is where, I experience pain and lose my eyesight and overcoming so they mean a lot to me and my brand typically has a bunch of deep meaning in the designs. I have done New York fashion week last year for my brand, and it was a very proud moment for me and this year I also have New York fashion week and I just want to put on for Cleveland Ohio the city that raise me by being a brand that show out

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I feel like building my reputation was one of the hardest things I had to do when it comes to the brand building my reputation with photography is still a work in progress because of the work I put in for the clothing brand I sometimes neglect the outreach that I could be doing for photography and videography but as far as the clothing brand goes i spent a lot of money I’m just going to be honest, I utilize the PPP loans i utilize good credit and banking loans. I invest in a lot of fashion shows around the country and social media, marketing, and Google marketing and pop shops and the fact that I am a peer support and outreach coordinator for my career job it helps me with, knowing how to network with people that are interested in what you may do in business, they say that you don’t make as much money as you want to until after the first five years I think I am living proof of that because I had to invest thousands and thousands of dollars and made half of that back in sales but if you look at my insights you would say hey the business is doing good but you don’t know how much I had to invest and I feel like anyone who wants to invest into a business have to understand that you’re going to spend money and you’re not going to always like it but it is what it is necessary to build your brand I typically do get a lot of people who buy from me from other cities more than my own city so I obviously did something right when it comes to marketing I could do more when it comes to marketing but again it cost money and when you are one person it typically gets harder because life still goes on. I still have kids I still have bills I still have responsibilities I think it’s better to build a team Ive learned so now I have people on my team that I delegated jobs too to make it a bit easier on me, so sometimes some things have to wait but that’s OK as a business owner that shouldn’t make you stop. It should just make you want to go harder and I also paid a lot of celebrities for their celebrity endorsements for anyone who use a celebrity endorsement to move their brand be careful because it doesn’t always mean more conversions for your brand or your content so be smart about how you invest I’ve had billboards in New York Time square and California and brought me minimal amount of customers and I have had pop shops that brought a crazy amount of customers and that is on a local side so be smart about how you invest your money

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn is thinking that I didn’t need help or if it don’t come from me it won’t be done right or I have to do everything “right now”. I had to learn how to be more patient with my Brand because the things I came up with at first and the style I came up with at first or the way I wanted the brand to look at first isn’t what it is today so sometimes you have to let things unpack is self and grow into what it is going to be And I would spend thousands of dollars on a item that someone likes today and once the time has passed on that item and the steam has boiled down now I’m stuck with product that isn’t really what my brand is anymore or logos or mottos so I typically try to be a little bit more patient with my creativity today I sit on things for a little longer. I let things come to me and I listen to the people that I’m trying to entice because as an artist I’m sensitive about my brain, and what I create, but that’s fine if I think this is amazing this is awesome but the people who are buying are going to tell you what they like. It’s up to you whether you want to listen or not and I’ve made that mistake of not listening and suffering the expensive consequences so I listen to my consumers a lot more it’s OK to do that and still create what you want to create you just combine both, so now I have a graphic designer on staff that creates exactly what I want from my head but it’ took me a long time to play well with others and now I am more than willing these days and with photography and videography I’ve learned to have a plan to write and storyboard things. It’s nothing more stressful than trying to figure something out on the fly that has help me with my life with being a little bit more organized in general having a notepad of some sort and jotting down my goals and where I want to get to is more helpful with life now and that’s the same thing when it comes to storyboarding knowing what the direction that I want the story to go in and the music video or the documentary and being able to shoot it in that way ,all in all. I think that patience with your creativity is the biggest lesson. I’ve learned and not fast tracking you’re creatively today is the biggest less than I have to and had to unlearn.

Contact Info:

• Website: Hxrclothing.com
• Instagram: @hxrclothing @kjshotitpro
• Facebook: Helmsdale x rugby clo

Image Credits
@kjshotit_pro