We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tierra Steede a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tierra, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Figuring out the name for my business was pretty easy. My nickname has always been Tee growing up. At one point in time no one but my teachers called me by my full name. When I hear “Tee” I think of myself and who I’ve grown to be. I wanted every part of my business to represent me in some way. “Styles” represents the designs and art I”m able to produce. My vision for Tees Styles is to reach as many people as I can through my work. My business name represents me but my business logo represents me and my family. Without them I would not have had the thought to create Tees Styles.

Tierra, 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 Tierra Steede. I was born in Deland, FL but raised in Marietta, GA. I played division I collegiate basketball for Charleston Southern University and graduated from there with my Bachelor’s of Science. I chose to major in Psychology with a vision to go into Sports Psychology. However, through my four years in college God placed me where I needed to be to display my gift to create and design. I went through a lot in college but with every obstacle came enlightenment. I was able to find my true passion being art and design.

In 2018 I decided to test my limits with different types of canvases. At this time I was already drawing portraits, landscapes and also using different drawing materials but everything was on paper or a canvas. With my dad and sister being sneaker fanatics I thought to see if customizing sneakers was a thing. Long and behold on YouTube I was able to get all the basic knowledge on where to start and the materials needed to begin this new venture. 2018 was the start of something that has now become everything to me.

Tees Styles started as just an idea but in 2020 Tees Styles became my business. I learned in those two years that this was something I wanted to continue forever. I create shoe customs enabling my customers thoughts, feelings, or emotions to come to life on something they can show off to the world. I started with simple and easy designs but now I’ve learned what I can do on shoes is endless. I love being able to create on things people can wear and wear proudly.

Customizing sneakers is the heart of my business but I also draw portraits, create logos, do photography, and recently started tattooing. All of this is driven on leaving a mark. I lost my brother in 2017 and I was able to see and hear everything he left behind. I want to do the same through my gift of creating. Everyone I’m able to do shoes for or provide one of my services too is going to be able to look back and know Tees Styles did this for me. I’m able to reach more people by helping them create the vision or idea they have. I like knowing I’m leaving behind great things.

I love what I do and I hope to place my footprint in every state in the US potentially even global. I want to touch as many people as I can with my art whether that be with shoes or a canvas piece. Creating is when I am at piece and the outcome of my work is never a dull moment.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building my audience on social media definitely took time and patience. I did not think it would take long to be noticed since I always see so many accounts with huge followings. Tees Styles has been an active account for almost 5 years but it took 2 years for my following to start consistently growing. I learned that I had to be consistent with my posting and engage with the followers. I started posting more videos and pictures. Then eventually started posting polls, questions, doing giveaways and raffles. All things that kept the audience I did have stay engaged with my business but also share it. The best advice I can give to someone trying to build their platform is to be consistent. It’s okay to repost your own work from your page. Sometimes people miss it when you initially post and they may catch it in your story when you repost it. I had to learn that creating content was not always about showing something new but instead showing your passion through all perspectives. I went from only posting my final products to posting about the business meaning/purpose, day to day schedule, ect. The 15 likes and 5 shares turned into hundreds once I got better with engaging.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

As I stated earlier, I played Division I basketball. One of the many benefits attending and playing for the university was being able to essentially get paid to attend and play basketball for the school. This also helped with financial stability while being a student athlete. After my second year I realized the amount of money I was receiving and rather than continuing to go shopping and use it for entertainment I invested in myself and my passion. I used the money I was getting from school to fund the start up of everything. After practicing and showing what I can do I felt comfortable and confident enough to start charging for my art work. Eventually I made enough income to invest profit back into the business so I no longer needed to take from the money I received from school. The business began to fund itself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/tees.styles?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tees.styles
• Twitter: @teesstyles
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/WCOzfPUWVHc

Image Credits
Tees Styles