We recently connected with Malik Hicks and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Malik, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so one thing we think people don’t talk about nearly enough is investments – either time or money. What’s one of the best or worst investments you’ve made and what did you learned from the experience?

In my experience as a business owner; I would have to say that Myself as an investment has been equally my best and worst at times!(LOL) People are fickle enough as it is, and it becomes multiplied when you add in resources and the natural stress that comes with maintaining them or the lack thereof. As a young entrepreneur you’re going to have an abundance of two main resources: time or money, those two are always exchanging or investing naturally for one another. So that’s my big lesson: is to learn to invest both my time AND money responsibly and purposefully to achieve my desired result which right now is in business and more importantly my brand!

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?

I’ve thought about a backstory for the majority of my life. Now I’m asked to give one and I’m almost lost. So I will keep it simple as to my namesake. My name is Malik Hicks; I am 27 years old I hold many titles: business owner is the one that has me here at this stage. However the title I’m most comfortable with is Visionary. As to what I do, I own a streetwear clothing brand: AIMLESS which i see as somewhat of a gallery to showcase urban art. To what I call urban art would be cultural moments and the culture at large. Colloquially termed “pop culture” As a child born in the late 90’s and having my formative years take place in the 2000s, it’s safe to say that the Culture left a big impact on me. I am from a small city in Georgia called Macon. Some people know it some people don’t, if I say “about 2hrs south of Atlanta” though it seems to click. I won’t speak a lot on the brand itself because 1) I want everyone to see it for themselves! 2) because at the end of the day my brand isn’t here to be spectacular
What sets me and my brand apart from most is Passion! The passion I carry behind my ideas from inception to execution is what I truly feel like you have to feel and acknowledge. I see myself as an artist and my clothes or products as one would call them as my artworks. So true to that standard the interpretation is yours to conclude. Finally the thing I am most proud of is how many people I am able to inspire along the way. In the midst of a long journey you may meet one or two kindred spirits to share the same path but pass a thousand more along the way! ( don’t let that go over your head) And that never gets old !

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to learn and unlearn was that good business begets good business. Without going into too much detail; in 2019 I returned to vendor at a small music festival that I had done the previous year. The year prior the fees for setup were pretty fair and they allowed us to sell tickets to the event as an added bonus to alleviate some of the fee. This year the same thing was presented and I accepted. Only this time the event was a smaller turnout. It was a smaller venue so there wasn’t as much attendance; it didn’t affect me much though because my table still had a decent turnout. But that also meant less tickets got sold. So long story short at the end when I go to settle up the fee with the organizer; my projected amount has gone up! As you can imagine I wasn’t too happy but at that point i was kinda stuck. So I reluctantly ended up handing more than a chunk of my profits from that evening!

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Right now the best thing I do and would advise anyone to do: is to keep things going! Just because someone doesn’t see you now doesn’t mean they ever will. Keep it going! In the past I’ve been willing to fall off my favorite brand when things get hard personally. But as long as my favorite brand didn’t fall off in the meantime; I’d be back! Sometimes they’d have new stuff so I’d spend double the time in there ! So once again, keep it going! Don’t ever let a fresh idea go to waste. Even if you think nobody will see it

Contact Info:

• Website: hoodsupreme.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/@_lesssismore

Image Credits
Photographs sourced from: @MariJayMedia @CashCaughtit @RayvizionMedia