We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephan Komora. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephan below.

Stephan , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I began my musical journey in a place that I never thought I would be which was prison along with some legal issues I encountered , and this is all while I attended college (BGSU) I knew that I had to put my energy into something or the path I was heading down was going to be the cause of myself destruction, I met my friend Fred “Drop D” Williams and he kept insisting that I record a song, I wasn’t really into the music at the time because I knew how hard it was to embark on a career in this field, I took the risk recorded a track at his studio that he had in his apartment bedroom, I fell in love and never looked back.

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?

My brand is homegrown “SKONE LLC”, it’s started just with music at the forefront and became something that I could have  never imagined , the brand provides clothing, shoes, brand development for up and coming artist, and also mental health wellness consulting. The SK1’s are  the first independent shoes to come outta the area, along with Merdic Gibbons (“Aquarius Vision”) owner I was able to not only create a fresh and innovative ideas but also was able to bring awareness to the area and other artist I surround myself with, I feel I set myself apart from other brands because not only do we provide services but at the same time empower other artist to be themselves and take the independent market by storm.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I always felt that you should take advantage of every opportunity that is in front of you , I can remember my 1st event like it was yesterday, I rented out the location, booked the peforming acts including the dj’s and also invested all the money into the promo so the event could be a success, The night finally came I just wanted everything thing to go as planned, the bar layout had an upstairs and downstairs, so we had to provide to Dj’s so the whole crowd could be entertained throughout the whole night. The 1st Dj’s equipment that we rented out went completely out, we could barely hear the music coming out of any speaker, and also this where the performance was being held so we needed the equipment to work, the 2nd Dj that was downstairs was not somebody I was too familiar with, but he was a known dj from the area, so I swallowed my pride and booked him because we needed him at the location. Me not having a relationship with him came to bite me in the ass when our upstairs equipment went out, because now he was our primary Dj for the performances and entertainment for the event. I simply asked him if we could transfer everything downstairs and he looked me direct in my face and said “NO”, now mind you I have paid everything I was asked to pay and fulfilled everything I was asked to fulfil, he still was very adamant about me not performing downstairs on his equipment. At this point I’m livid because I have Artist, promoters, clothing designers at the event for the musical performances and the branding experience. then me and my very best friend in the world Jonte Stroud went up to the Dj with the rest of the money I had to convince him that this needed to happen NOW, he still was  looking at me in my face and saying NO , now this Dj did not come alone he had a crew of people  he worked with, not only were they feeling the energy in the air but also started to get defensive about my attitude and tone towards the Dj. I simply threw all the money I had at him with a look of desperation and anger in my eyes and asked him “what do I have to do to perform down here this my party”. His crew stood up and while me and Jonte were prepared to take on a crowd of at least 8 people. Before things got out of hand he looked and said okay I got you, I see you are  passionate and you did pay me, I’m going to let you perform. The only circumstances was that he had to turn the music completely off for 20 minutes to download all the sets on his computer because of the program he was using. He got on the mic and said “ I have to turn off the music because the person who throwing the party wants to perform and he going to cancel it if he can’t perform, The crowd was livid, yelling at me n Jonte and other performers, saying they didn’t want to hear no local rap, saying that didn’t want to hear anything I was coming with. Long story short he finally uploaded the set, the music began and we won the crowd over to begin the journey of SKONE LLC.

Have you ever had to pivot?

From the time I linked in with Fred Williams I always wanted to be a recording artist, at times I obsessed about making it out of my situation and changing my life through music. Sometimes when you have a dream it’s certain way it has to be done for you to gain success. Being from the Warren/Youngstown area I felt that I really never had examples of a successful artist that I came across, so at times I felt lost. It took me 10 years to drop my 1st project “No Regrets EP”. I always wondered how I would not only gain awareness but also make a profit off of my brand without a big fan base. With SKONE clothing it help lead me to see that no matter how popular I am, as long as I have a product ready to distribute to the people that I will not only make a profit off of my career but also gain fans by building my brand from the ground up right in front of their faces.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.aliveshoes.com/komora-sk1
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/komorastephan
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100051590720562&mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@stephankomora8741