We were lucky to catch up with Wilfried Aubin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Wilfried, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think authenticity is what it takes to be successful. When I first started designing clothes and pieces, I would try to appease to certain audiences or groups of people, thinking this would lead to more visibility and sales for my brand but it actually did the opposite. When I shifted my focus to creating pieces that truly resonated with me and my interests, it completely changed the direction of my brand. I realized that our authenticity is truly the greatest thing we can offer to the world and if something resonates with us, chances are, it will resonate with thousands of others as well. Truly falling in love with every single aspect of what we are creating and surrendering the outcome or destination that we’re chasing will always lead to success!

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 name is Wilfried Aubin and I was born in Cameroon, West Africa. I moved to Minnesota when I was 4 years old and lived there for about 9 years. When I was 13, I moved from Minnesota to California and really struggled to find my way. During this time, I created the concept of FATWAM but kept it to myself and never told anyone the meaning. I would hashtag it on all of my social media posts, write it on my shoes and binders, and even shout it whenever I would score a basket on the basketball court but no one knew what it meant. As I reflected, I realized that FATWAM was bigger than just me, it was for everybody. In 2021, I decided to follow my passion for fashion and established FATWAM as a global streetwear brand.

FATWAM is an acronym that stands for: For All Those Who Appreciate Me and it’s rooted in the values of appreciating others, spreading love, and always remembering that no matter how hard life gets, there’s always someone out there that loves & appreciates us. Through my brand, I aim to promote positivity, love and kindness, and each piece of clothing serves as a reminder of those values.

At FATWAM, we provide a wide range of clothing designed to inspire a sense of community and connection and boost our customers’ confidence, making them stand out from the crowd. FATWAM is more than just fashion—it’s a movement that allows me to solve the problem of emotional disconnection by offering people a way to express love and gratitude through what they wear.

What sets me apart is the personal story behind my brand. Having lived through challenging internal & external experiences, I understand firsthand how powerful love and appreciation can be in someone’s life. I’m most proud of the fact that my brand represents a message of love and appreciation.

I want potential customers and supporters to know that they’re loved and appreciated and FATWAM is a safe space for them. I truly hope every piece they wear reminds them of this and inspires them to spread love and kindness in their own lives.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my social media presence by running giveaways and running ads on my posts. I would design a collection of clothes and give away a couple pieces for free to people who followed the giveaway rules. To enter into the giveaway, people would have to follow my brand, repost the clothes on their story and tag a friend. This brought my brand a lot of visibility and attention, allowing me to grow the brand at a very fast rate. Running ads allowed me to reach people all across the globe, giving my brand a very diverse audience.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I have a couple different vendors that manufacture my products depending on the particular type of clothing/garments I’m looking for. I have 2 manufactures from Pakistan and 1 manufacturer from China. My 2 Pakistani manufacturers were recommended to me by 2 brand owners that I respected and trusted and then I found my Chinese manufacturer on Alibaba. Alibaba made it really easy to filter through different manufactures and choose the ones that would be best for my brand. The biggest lessons I’ve learned about manufacturing a product are to understand different fabrics, printing styles, and measurements because this makes communicating with your manufacturer 10 times easier. It’s crucial to be on the same page with your manufacturer because it reduces errors and having to order multiple samples. The most important lesson I learned was to never pay manufacturers all at once, it’s always best to pay in 4 different installments. The first payment is for them to get started on your pieces, the second payment is for when they send you a video showing them working on your pieces, the third payment is for when they send you a picture of all of your pieces packed up and ready to ship, and the last payment is for when they send you a tracking number, showing that they shipped your pieces. It’s very easy to get scammed by manufacturers so it’s always best to protect yourself by not paying for everything all at once!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fatwamglobal.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatwam777/