We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Markerius “MJ” Jackson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Markerius “MJ”, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

If I were starting over today doing all of this from scratch I would put more energy into my ideas as soon as I formulated them. I started brand building and playing around with different business models in this industry back as early as 2013, but could never find the right avenue that just felt right to put all my energy into. I’ve always spread myself across multiple projects instead of focusing on one idea at a time, and I feel that’s where I could have capitalized more on. A lot of “waves” that are popular today, I’ve had tucked away for a long time, but just never took enough time to really see them through. Even still, It’s cool seeing other people take initiative on similar ideas where I lacked at myself. Today it’s much easier to make waves in your own lane with all the different niches around.

If I were to start over I’d go full digital from jump, and do EVERYTHING
in-house. It’s cool to out source for some things, but to get real cost effective it’s best to do a lot yourself. You want to take the time to to learn basic design, find out how to make your own products, hone your computer skills, and most importantly you want to get a real basic understanding of what it takes to run a business. It’s more than just running a social media page, or online site. There are real tricks to the trade. There are so many ways to make a business self funded, and you can raise capital in a lot of ways as well. I would take full advantage from beginning if I knew what I know now, but I’ll settle for growing Threaded World from where it is now.

Markerius “MJ”, 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 MJ, and I’m the main brain behind the Threaded World brand. Back in 2016 it started off as a digital magazine called Threaded, but quickly shaped into a few different ventures. Now in 2022, Threaded World is housed under a parent company in World End Supply co., and acts as my creative direction arm in the umbrella. With Threaded I help put together and work various events, consult on other businesses projects, and I also take in commissions to make other people’s products. I’m sort of a 1 stop shop that’s still in progressing.

I’ve helped write online articles for urban magazines, put together store placements, events, designed logos, and many other services for other businesses.

With Threaded World today, my main business is producing my own clothing , and learning more about the design space in general. I want to branch back into the digital magazine avenue as well, and build on where I left off. I had a partner at first, but now I’m solo in this game and it feels all too right. Within the next year I’ll be ready to open up shop on my own workshop/event space. Me and a friend tried to put together plans for one back in 2013/2014 when I was in college, but life happens. I plan to build back on that idea and everything I’ve already established and soar to new heights in the urban space and beyond.

Today I can say I’m most proud of being able to say since going solo I’ve been able to push the Threaded World brand into a lot of new connections, and really see the potential I have in growing in the design, and urban streetwear world. The brand is thriving at full today and I plan to unveil a new web site, and magazine spot in September. There’s a lot to be done going forward, but this next push will be historic… More events, more gear, more everything.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @nike_check_mj @threaded.world
• Twitter: @nike_check_mj @threadedww
• Other: I’m redoing all of my handles and website.

Image Credits
@fredrip_sluglass (Instagram) (Fred) @_dendrix (Josh) @itstatiannaa (Tatiana) @barely_cleaning_kicks (Tooley) @alltypesofvibesllc (NuNu)