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

Trent, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

This is a great question, and it makes me think of my beginnings with my company.

I started my streetwear brand Akepele Apparel (pronounced: acapella) in 2014 and my inexperience in this arena hindered my confidence leading to some bad decisions from jump, For the first few years, I never put myself out there as the face of my brand. All promotional content was framed as something I was just associated with and “you should check out this cool new brand.” I think this decision was just me not believing in myself enough “own it” and accept any criticism about the brand. In my mind, if people didn’t like the brand, it would be easier to distance myself from Akepele if nobody knew this was all my conception and creation. This was all wrong and stalled any growth and momentum. What I learned is though I’m a known DJ and the brands foundation is inspired by the hip hop culture that raised me; the brand had no identity. Without a brand identity, people don’t know who or what they are supporting when they buy a t-shirt. Because of this lack of confidence, It took me much longer and more capital to establish Akepele Apparel as an authentic streetwear brand than it would have if I’d just stood behind my brand from the beginning. It was a hard lesson to learn because people were excited for me and eager to support me once they learned Akepele Apparel was all me.

The lesson learned is that you have to believe in your product to the fullest and stand behind your brand 100%. Even if you’re inexperienced in your industry, when people see you’re fully vested in your dream they will be on your team while you figure it out.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Trent Barry aka DJ Renz and was born and raised in Portland, OR. I enjoyed many years as a professional choreographer, dancer, BBoy (breakdancer), and performer. I’ve been part of dance collectives for NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, WNBA’s Portland Fire, as well as on stage for numerous Hip Hop and R&B tours that stopped through Portland. During this this time I also held down a position as an on-air radio personality before pursuing my DJ career and moving to Los Angeles for several years. Upon returning to Portland, I turned a simple t-shirt idea into a full-on apparel brand, Akepele Apparel.

There are two things I’m most proud of, one is graduating from college with a bachelor’s degree Summa Cum Laude after going back later in life and the other is Akepele Apparel. This brand is becoming everything I set out for it to be.

I have a philosophy that if you are going to do something, don’t do it halfway, go full out. I live by this, and it often means doing just a bit more than the standard, especially with Akepele Apparel but I’m cool with it. For example, when I started this brand, quality was on the top of my list, so I purchased blanks from multiple brands to test wash and dry in a dryer a few times to find the garments that kept their integrity. Because of these high expectations, I’ll vet new garments before I commit to making a run. Some peers say my attention to detail is unneeded extra work that customers don’t notice but I’ve learned that this is what separates Akepele from other streetwear brands. In fact, my attention to detail is highly recognized by customers from the custom sizing labels on the inside, to the hand sewn hem tags on every garment with unique placements. I recently wrapped up a very successful two-month holiday pop-up shop in Downtown Portland and the two main remarks from everyone entering the store was “I love your designs” and “your clothes are quality.” This is a huge compliment and tells me I’m doing it the right way. Unlike many of the independent streetwear brands that hit the market and leave just as fast, this isn’t just a cash grab for me. I’m in this for longevity and I want people to know they are buying high quality apparel with a story and a pulse, as it’s an extension of myself.

I truly believe Akepele Apparel is different, I know we all say that about our brands, but Akepele is a fun unique brand with heart. My brand slogan is “Streetwear with Rhythm,” and all my designs express this perfectly. Each design is related to music and the hip-hop culture because I believe “Music Brings People Together” as stated on one of my most popular designs. Akepele’s mission is connecting people through Music, Culture, & Community. People feel a connection with these designs that’s why they support them. So, when you’re wearing Akepele, others see it and feel a connection with you, It’s like you both have something in common with one another.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This is a great question. Here is a story about my pivot and finding a way to figure it all out.

Within one year, I launched Akepele Apparel, I was laid off from my job, and then I went back to school to earn my bachelor’s degree in marketing. Here is what happened:

While living in Los Angeles in 2012, I began working for an outdoor print media company in Beverly Hills as a project manager and did so remotely when I moved back to Portland, OR in 2013. It was a very small business that dissolved not long after I moved back home. Seeing the writing on the wall, I quickly set into play the idea I had for Akepele Apparel and the hustle began.

Originally, I had a simple idea to create a few tees, under the brand name Akepele Apparel, that I wanted to sell to my DJ peers and other music lovers. At the time, I was self-taught with Adobe Photoshop and created up a few designs to have screen printed. Knowing that screen printers mark up the blank tees a couple buck each, I wanted to source my own directly from a wholesaler to cut cost then give them to the screen printer.

This is where the hustle kicks in:

This quickly turned into a bigger project than I really wanted to commit to, but I kept it moving. To apply for a wholesale account, you need to be a registered business and need to be an apparel decorator (heat press, screen printing, embroidery, etc.), both of which I was not. So, I created an umbrella business name, then registered it with the state of Oregon and City of Portland with Akepele as a DBA. I applied for multiple wholesaler accounts using the umbrella name as a decorator business and just like that I was a legal business owner. I’ll say that I GOT LUCKY though, because they created my accounts without vetting my full business profile to confirm I was a decorator. Back then it was more difficult to gen in than it is now.

In the beginning, I was using a cracked version of Photoshop Elements that was extremely limited, sorry Adobe. I quickly learned that screen printers need vectored art (Illustrator) vs. high resolution pixel art (Photoshop) which was all I knew how to produce. I found a mom-n-pop screen printer to make my tees and they offered to vectorize my art for free, which I learned was just recreating it in Illustrator. The designs were pretty basic. I supplied them with 5 or so designs and nearly 200 blank shirts and the entire run came out trash, nothing was usable. The details of this debacle are a whole other story for another time, I will say we were both to blame for the outcome. They owned their error though and refunded my printing cost but remember that I provided them the blanks, so that investment was a total loss. Insert dumb look here. Sigh! This needed to happen though, because it forced a series of events pivotal towards my success both personally and with Akepele Apparel.

Still with me? Ok cool, cause here is where it gets good.

Now, I’m down half of my initial investment, I have no shirts to sell, and my artwork needs to be recreated in Adobe Illustrator before I can send it to a new screen printer. A good friend that’s been pushing me to learn Adobe Illustrator mentioned that with a student email address, you can get a deep discount on the Adobe Creative Cloud suite monthly subscription. So, I enrolled online at Portland Community College and got the student email address, but something told me to keep going and I applied for financial aid too. For years, I’ve known I needed to return to college but wasn’t motivated start the process, so I kept putting it off. It’s funny how things work, right? Because, literally in one afternoon I was enrolled in college, had a date for my placement test, and was granted financial aid all because I was looking to hustle a discount on a design subscription. Who would have thought! I did get the discounted subscription for Creative Cloud and over the next weekend I learned the program enough to recreate all my designs, I found a new screen printer for my project, and off I went. Then in 2020, I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Portland State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. I did this while simultaneously building the Akepele Apparel brand.

I shared the above story to create a picture of my work ethic and my hustle. Since the launch of the brand in 2014, I’ve gotten pretty good at Adobe Illustrator and do 90% of the designs for the brand. I create and design all the promotional and marketing content for print and digital. These days I also make most of my garments and bypass a screen printer unless it’s a huge run. In the beginning, the 36-piece minimums that screen printers required left me with too much unsold inventory and limitations on variety. So, I invested in a heat press and vinyl cutter which allowed me full control on output with more application options. I’m pretty much a one man show now.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I like this question because it reminds me of some feedback I received from a customer recently.

Since I handle every aspect of Akepele Apparel from design and manufacturing to fulfillment and shipping, I see all my orders and keep track of my customers and their purchase history. In every shipment I write a note to the customer thanking them for their purchase and support of the brand. If they are a repeat customer, I’ll acknowledge this in my note. This week, I had a customer email me to essentially “thank me” for “thanking them,” which is kind of funny. They appreciated the note and the nod to the frequency of their support. I was told this was a level of customer service that is missing it the retail market as of late and that I reminded them that something so simple has such an impact. They went on to say the note I left in their package was shared in a sales meeting to inspire their team and is now framed as a reminder. How cool is that?

There are a few takeaways from this:
1. Being authentic and appreciative has such a huge impact on how people feel towards you and your brand.
2. Genuine customer service isn’t lost on people; I think is extremely missed across multiple industries.
3. Sometimes in not just how your products make people feel, it’s an interaction during the purchase, even in ecommerce.

Brand loyalty on different levels. This is another instance that tells me I’m doing something right.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.akepele.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/akepeleapparel
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/akepeleapparel
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/trentrenzbarry/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/akepeleapparel
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@akepeleapparel

Image Credits
Elle James – IG @Elle.hygge DJ Renz – IG @akarenzo