We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mike Morelli. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mike below.
Mike, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
Without a doubt this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Such a huge leap of faith, so much risk involved, the scariness of the unknown, and dealing with the critics, it can all be very overwhelming. But I love every single step of this journey I had to take because it got me to where I am today and I truly understand that now. As creators, it’s absolutely priceless for us to be able to do what we are so passionate about for a living. I could not imagine waking up doing anything else than what I do now. I had to completely put my entire life out there for this opportunity. With all the highs and lows, the unexpected hurdles thrown in to overcome, the harsh lessons that had to be learned; the happiness that has come from being able to do what I love everyday wouldn’t have it any other way.
Mike, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Is this thing on? *Laughs*
Hey Guys. I’m Mike, creator of Burn Our Bridges, an alternative/skatewear clothing brand based out of Phoenix, Arizona. I grew up in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, a small town outside of Pittsburgh. Pretty much all farm land, woods, and everyone knows everybody type of place. Completely opposite of where I live now lol major culture shock seeing new stuff out of your hometown but very exciting. I ventured out during Covid lockdown and traveled to a bunch of different states for some adventure and it completely changed my outlook on life getting away from my comfort zone. I have always been very free spirited, never conforming. I realized I wanted more than to just work my life away for someone else and stay in the same spot. You only live once right? I ended up moving to Arizona in 2021, where I started this brand in my living room. I have always been creative. I took up tattooing at a very young age under the apprenticeship of my step father in his shop, I eventually lost interest years later due to it just not being for me but always kept the creative expression. I used that original spark to build what’s here today. I wanted to started a brand that said exactly what people are afraid to say. We all got issues, vices, past traumas. Why keep it in? I essentially wanted to give a voice to people that didn’t have one. The term “don’t burn your bridges” is always used as a negative. I believe it’s also a positive because you’re terminating the direct path to whatever has disturbed your peace and protects you from anymore unnecessary pain. And that’s how Burn Our Bridges was created. I started out with one design and posted it on social media and began selling it to my friends. It started to really do well and I knew I was onto something. So then I bit off more than I could chew and released two more designs, in the process of this I didn’t understand how cost of goods and production worked and lost a bunch of money due to simple mistakes but overall a great lesson learned. I began designing new products and off I went. As we began to really build traction locally I got my first big break. My hometown store Rockstar Lifestyle Co in Westmoreland Mall put my brand in their store. This was honestly one of the biggest accomplishments of my life, completely full circle moment for me, I used to practically live in this store since I was in middle school (Sorry Mike lol) To see my brand inside this store, selling next to major competitors, people I know sending me pictures of it daily was such a joyous moment and so surreal. I have such an amazing relationship with them, the owners are like family we talk everyday, employees are amazing, I’m truly grateful for them because they were the foundation of my wholesale business and they validated me by putting the brand in a mall. Shortly after that we had a major break through. Inked Magazine, the largest tattoo publication in the world, put our products in their store. In a month we had the #1 selling hat on the website, I’ll never forget sitting on the beach in San Diego for my birthday watching the orders come in on my phone, was just crazy to think I created something like this in such a short time. Unfortunately not too long after this I had some pretty awful stuff happen to me in my personal life. If you missed my Facebook post about it then sorry lol. I took a step back and completely lost focus on all of this and pretty much quit and boxed everything up. In the process of going through all the emotions I was dealing with, all the sadness, rage, hurt, you name it; I quit being a mess. I channeled my emotions back into this and started designing. It was like a main character moment I swear lol I never wanted something so bad in my life. I lived on my iPad and laptop anytime I felt anything. Burn Our Bridges came back this February and dropped five new designs. We blew through all them right out the gate. I then started rebuilding my wholesale accounts. Within 4 months I had 14 stores, the biggest we had ever been. I knew officially then that I had something, this was meant to be and was far from over; I had just scratched the surface. The biggest moment of my career was when KMOMO contacted me. They are a corporate chain store located in multiple states on the west coast. I had a meeting with them in downtown Phoenix at their headquarters in one of those fancy rooms with the long table lol. I’ll never forget sitting there as they told me they loved everything and started talking numbers. It was literally an out of body experience for me, I was in the room but my mind was completely gone, I could see everyone talking but couldn’t hear it was like buzzing. I just sat there and looked and didn’t speak lol. I obviously then gathered myself, we set terms and a date for shipment, I shook their hands and left. I remember sitting in my car for like 30 min in the parking lot realizing what I had just done. Everything that I had just went through, the losses I took, all the mistakes I had made along the way, all the troubles I had faced, the hair pulling moments, everytime I had wanted to quit, I was now sitting on the other side of the scary unknown, the “what if this is a waste of time” and I now had all the closure I needed to let go of everything because I now knew it had to happen to get me to that moment in the parking lot. I’m so thankful for everything in my life good or bad because I now know there is a reason for it all and it got me to where I absolutely love now. We are now closing in on our 40th mall location. In 5 months this was accomplished, I’m ecstatic for the future to see what more can be done in the same amount of time. I have hundreds of design ideas and color ways to release for years to come. If you don’t know us already ready you will be very soon!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
SHOP LOCAL! Mom and Pop stores are a national treasure in this big box retail world we live in today. Not only for consumers but for creatives and artists. These local stores, venues, coffee shops give many aspiring entrepreneurs like myself our first chance for validation. When nobody else is willing to give us a shot, they are. Keeping them alive is essential to artists. We need to support them like they support us, complete the cycle.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
If used correctly, YouTube is an amazing learning resource. You can literally learn almost anything on there. I have done almost every single position in my company and I got all the training from there lol. There are so many brilliant minds on that platform that share free information and it’s right in your fingertips to take advantage of.
Contact Info:
- Website: burnourbridges.com
- Instagram: burnourbridgesco
Image Credits
Harlan Cone