 I've definitely thrown my jeans in the freezer before. No, you know what it does? It freezes the bacteria. And then when it thaws out, they smell again. Yo, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to Make It Happen, episode three. You guys already know what this series is about. So in this video, we're going to be meeting three people. One, we got Esther, who's a really dope female chef, who's busy with her third location. And then we got Andrew, who co-founded one of the most respected Japanese denim brands in the game. And then we got Victor, who is just starting to make his mark in the luxury shoe world with his Italian sneakers. And as you guys know, this series could not happen without Wix, who's helping businesses large and small get amazing websites super easy. Check this out. All right, so we have finally made our very, very helpful website through Wix. And the name of it is, I told you I was going to reveal it to you guys, theazncreatives.com. Now, I know that it's not only for Asians. But the reason why we made this site is because so many people ask us looking to connect or find other Asian influencers or creatives, whether that be Instagrammers, photographers, videographers, designers, whatever. So basically this is like a public database where you can submit your information, get seen, get spotted. It was just really, really easy to make. So this website was a really cool design and I didn't know I could do this so easily through Wix. It's a site where you can submit your social media or public portfolio work and it'll show up on the site for everybody else to see. And it's basically just a collective for people who wanna work in the industry or get noticed and get categorized as a creative so that they can be found and seen. So definitely check out Wix yourself by clicking on this link down below. Whether you're building site for yourself, a collaborative site like we did, a restaurant, you're a photographer, you're selling something, you're a comedian, whatever it is, Wix is super easy. Like if you think about how complex the website is that we made where it's like a database where people submit their information and then it shows up. I mean, you don't, how much coding I would have had to do but I didn't have to code at all. I just drag and drop and it looks great. Yo, Wix has been super useful and super easy to use. So definitely you guys gotta check it out. Just click on the link down below and try making your first website. All right, so I'm gonna finish up here at this cool cafe called Kota Wari in the Lower East Side but you guys check out the rest of this, make it happen. Yo, good to see you. This is your third location. I don't know if I'm like cool enough for miss you. You know what I mean? So you got, you made a spot that makes you a cooler. Yeah. All right, let's go try some food and let's talk. Esther, Korean American, you have three locations. Two locations a mock bar which is more of like a Korean ramen spot, ramen fusion. And then you have miss you, where are we at? What is this? Yeah, miss you is I would say more like a cocktail bar that serves really awesome food. Okay. More almost drinking geared but the food is just to compliment the drinks. Of course. And honestly speaking, when we first opened this we did try to push the food more and be more of a restaurant but it just like didn't really work out. People just wanted a drink. These are some of the dishes that actually survived on the menu. And I say this because- Why are you so cynical? No because I was so sad. I had all these amazing dishes when I first opened but it just, if you're selling one a week it just doesn't make sense to keep it on the menu. Yeah, don't. Right? And like chicken feet was one of my favorite things on the menu and it was like fried chicken wings but like better. But then people like really freaked out. Anyways, we're not eating chicken feet today. What do we got? These are all your popular dishes. They survive. Yeah. Like this one is based on mac and cheese. Now what is this? Is this the stew bulgogi? Yeah, but it's duck and cheese. I know that you feel very strongly about kind of revealing and showing Korean cuisine to people in a way they haven't. How has that been working out? I would say in New York City it's definitely possible and people are embracing the idea very much. Definitely is Korean food through my eyes. Do you like the sauce? I like this a lot. Because I'm a fan of mac and cheese. Much from, I think the rice rolls also these rice rolls are way smaller. So it feels like pasta or a noodle. It's like a mixture. It's like a gnocchi, right? A gnocchi? Gnocchi. Oh, I thought it was ganache. No? Gnocchi, no. You probably say it right, of course you're the chef. It's the G is silent. It's okay, yes. The G is silent, just like in lasagna. Ganache, wow. Wow. So wrong. What is it like one being a female chef? Is there benefits or negatives that come along with that? So this is a question that I actually get asked quite often. I think that it is different. It's a different experience. Here's my funny thing. It's sorry to interject. It's like, well, I don't get why there's a stereotype or women should be in the kitchen. And then all of a sudden when it comes to a professional kitchen, they can't cook or stay out the kitchen. That's the weirdest thing ever. It just doesn't make any sense. It's obviously a man's way of thinking. But it is a different journey, I think, for females that are in the kitchen, just because physically it is really demanding. Right, you are lifting stuff, hot stuff. You're not an extremely tall woman. I mean, look at me. I'm literally 5'1", and I'm 100 pounds. Dude, do even some people question your food because you're so small? You're like, oh, how can this girl really know good food because she clearly doesn't eat? First of all, do you know how many messages I get saying like, oh, you don't look like a chef. You are too little to be a chef. Well, you have to be a fat man to be a chef. Yeah, I'm like, well, I have to be disgusting to be a chef. I have to be nasty and sweaty and like, piggy. Honestly, think about the definition of a chef too. Like, what is a chef? Someone that orchestrates a kitchen. Doesn't mean that you're like on the line, let's say a conductor. Yeah. They're not sitting there like playing the actual instrument. They're the ones orchestrating the entire thing so it makes it work. And that's what chefs really do. So you're basically saying you a boss. I got a rep for the bow. You know, humility is like really important in what you do. And I think being a boss, it is more important to know where your level is at. Like for me, if I don't know something I'll freaking ask. I'll be like, I have no idea what you just said. Can you just explain it from A to B, B to C? Yes, if I can be control freak if I want. But how can I do that for all three restaurants all the time? Being a control freak is even worse and it stresses me out, stresses everyone out and it just ruins the whole atmosphere. At some point you have to dish off the task and give other people, trust other people. Yeah. And there are other talents and really it's about recognizing talent. Taking it back a second, what advice can you give maybe a young girl right now who's into food? What should she do? Everyone's gonna have a different path. That's like, that's for sure. But you do need to experience all the different things and whatever you do give your like 150%. If you decide to get a job and take it, commit to it and do it until you're the very best at it. And then you move on. You know, don't quit in the middle. Which a lot of youngsters love to quit. Thank you so much for sitting down with me. And you're lovely to have you. Dude, the food was great and if you're looking for a spot in the LES with a nice cocktail and good food, definitely check out Miss U. Thank you Esther, I appreciate it. And glad that I feel like this video went better than the first time we filmed together. We had better chemistry this time around. All right, yo, never a bad time at Miss U's. But that segment was for all the foodies out there and for all the fashion people out there, you're really gonna like the next segment too. Let's go talk jeans with Andrew Chen from 316. Yo, what's going on everybody? I am here with one of the founders of 316, Andrew. Nice to have another Andrew here. How would you describe 316 as a clothing brand? We've been doing this for 15 years as of this year. Our primary focus is jeans, men's jeans and we make what I would say our high quality basics, design them for longevity and maybe hand on to their kids one day. It is true, you buy the fast fashion brands, those are cool, but that stuff doesn't last. This pair of jeans here is three years old. While it might look like a lot of jeans that you can get in a store, they started out super dark. This thigh is starting to melt a little bit so we just sewed a patch behind it. We sewed it right there on that machine. Every time it starts to fall apart, we just repair it and keep going and that's kind of the beauty of the perfect pair of jeans. Once you find them, you can keep them going. Why do a lot of people say that denim or your pants are like the heart of your outfit? They're like, you get yourself a good pair of pants, you can throw on just a basic top and you're good to go. For me, they're the most important part of my outfit because I'm wearing them every single day. So shoes, I'm switching all the time. Tops, you know, you wear once and then you wash them. I'm in the same pair of jeans for six to nine months, maybe longer and then I'll start on a new pair. No one's mad that you wear the same jeans every day, actually. No, because I'm good hygiene and I wash them often. That's another thing that when it comes to raw denim, a lot of people have been told that you should wait as long as possible before washing them. Yeah, what's the deal with that? Because I've definitely worn a pair of jeans for way longer than I should have without washing. A lot of brands started telling customers the longer you wait to wash it, the better your fades are. And what we found is that the longer you wait, quicker the fabric is gonna start to break down. And so dirt, bacteria kind of get in there. They also smell, so. Yeah, they definitely, and I've heard that. Especially like today, when it's super hot out and you're just sweating into them and then going all summer long, it's not a good look. So our advice to customers has been like, you don't have to wash them every week, like socks or underwear or whatever, but wash them when they start to smell. If that's two to three weeks or if that's like a month or two months, wash them and they'll last a lot longer. I've definitely thrown my jeans in the freezer before. And it did not do what I thought it was. No, you know what it does, it freezes the bacteria and then when it thaws out, they smell again. Cause I don't think that the freezer is that cold where it's like, no, it'll just preserve them. They're just, they're hanging out. It's gonna ask you for a piece of advice for a younger guy or inexperienced person that wanted to get into the, particularly the cut in the sewn game. Try and meet people and put yourself out there. You're gonna learn a lot through the process and see if it's for you. It's okay to go through an internship and realize that this is not your passion, right? You just learn about yourself, meet other people, but just try. We made jeans that made sense to us and we let the market come to us. And so right now, if you're asking about our target demographic, it's male 25 to 35, but I will say that at Self-Edge, we have 15, 16 year old kids who come in like they've saved up for a long time and this is their first grade pair of jeans that they're buying. And then we've got 60, 70 year old guys that buy from us and they're telling us that these are the jeans that they had when they were growing up and they are so thankful that they're people that are still making jeans that way. So it really runs the gamut. So a lot of brands start by using a larger company, possibly a luxury brands, overstock material. Sometimes, sometimes, yeah. And the other thing that a lot of brands do is they'll start out using stock fabrics, which are, when you talk to a mill, there are certain fabrics that they're running year round. You have ready access to it. You don't have to hit any minimums and you can just buy like a hundred yards or something and you can ship it over and make a few jeans out of it. But when you get to the point where you want to customize the textile exactly to what you want it to accomplish, then you move on into custom fabrics and that's a really scary thing for a small brand to do because you have to commit to really high yardages. Yeah, and then we'll stop the loom to make a little bit, right? So they have to make a certain amount. Dude, I'm telling you, Andrew, you are breaking down the denim game. I was actually in IT consulting for seven years before starting 316. So you did? I did the traditional career route. The yappy route. Yeah, and I started 316 about three or four years into that day job. Oftentimes people burn out from the console. Absolutely, that's where I was at. When other people would go out and have meals together and whatever, I'd be like, I'm just... Hey, they're like, Andrew, happy hour. And then you're like, I'm gonna go look at Japanese fabrics. Did you get the tattoos before after you started 316? After. After I got, I started getting tattoos pretty late in life. Is it when you started the cool business? Yo, everybody, that was an amazing talk. Andrew, thank you so much for your insight, the history, even a lot of the terms you use, man. I'd never thought so much about denim and I actually learned a lot. And hopefully, you know, a lot of people out there took some good advice away. All right, everybody, we are on the border of Bed, Stein, Clinton Hill in Brooklyn right now. We are about to meet up with my friend Victor, who is the founder of Facto Shoes. Now, as you guys know, we like sneakers. We're in the shoe game, and he's in the shoe game heavy, but not even as a reseller and not really in the hype sneaker game like you think. He has a luxury shoe brand. Let's go check out his office and talk to him about what it means to be in the sneaker game, but on a different level. All right, we are here with Victor from Facto Shoes in his studio in Brooklyn. How are you? Thank you, man, good, man. Thank you for coming by. Give us the quick background. If you can describe to us Facto Shoes. One of the main, main things for me about doing this brand was doing something that I would consider to be timeless. I realized when I hit, I think it was 34. I have a passion for sneakers. I have a love of shoes, but I don't wanna look like a 34-year-old guy trying to look like I'm 20-something. But I wanted to create something for that guy who is trying to transition from younger to older, gracefully and stylishly without looking like some old guy. What do you think is the best brand in the world? Somebody can make a good product, but to actually be successful, it takes so much branding and marketing. I mean, that's fashion in general. There's a lot of good stuff out there, but no one sees it. That's the crux of the art form of brand building. The notion is that as long as you make something really good and you put it out there, people will buy. That's not true. It's not true. That's the blessing and the curse of social media. You have access to perfection. You have feedback and data right away. You know, this discovery process is much more successful now than it ever been before, but it can also create a very generic group thought sense of what's... That's a lot of the criticism right now is that as much products as there are out in the world due to social media and clout and likes, people are just kinda doing the same things. Taking beach photos, you're buying Yeezys, you're buying off-whites. That's the main thing I've learned about doing this business. Product is necessary to get you to the starting line. If you don't have good product, if your stuff is made poorly, you're not even starting the race. You're not even in the game. You're not even in the game yet. Without the right mind to brand it, market it, reach the tribe you're trying to speak to, define who you're trying to speak to, then your stuff will go nowhere. And that's the amazing thing and the challenge of what modern marketing and social media has done to the game. If you love this business, it's just another element of it you have to contend to it. More of a business question. How do you get your brand or your shoe into a store like Kith or Sacks where they have been? This business is extraordinarily people driven. With Kith, I had a relationship with Ronnie from when he was a buyer for a store called David's E. We met earlier on and I watched him do amazing things with his career and we kept in touch. When I launched Facto, he's one of the first customers I contacted. It was just a matter of having been in the industry for such a long time. A lot of it is just, okay, I want to sell that, let's say, Bergdorf Goodman. I have to find out who that buyer is and put together a good look book and send it over to him. Last question I want to ask you is how has being Asian mattered in what you've done? This is the interesting thing. You know, when I launched this brand, I was living in Japan. When I came back to the States to meet the customers, they appreciated that sort of Japanese background. When I launched the brand, I was just thinking I'm only going to sell this to Japanese customers. This is who my target is. These older guys I'm hanging out with that are super stylish, this is for them. Interestingly enough, the Japanese buyers were not as quick to get on this as the American buyers. Why? Here's an American born Chinese guy making Japanese inspired shoes and selling it in Japan. There's no exotics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no travel. It's not as special to them. It's you're coming to my culture being inspired by it to sell it back to me. Couple months after I moved back to New York, I get a call from best department stores in Japan and they want to do a pop-up shop now. Do you think it's the New York bump? Because Japan still looks up to New York. They have a fascination with American culture. Oh yeah, definitely. Well, I want to end it off with just a piece of advice to people out there and figure out I'm passionate about design or something creative. What should I do? The most important thing for me is to kill your ego. You know, everyone talks about using stories to sell your goods, your products. But you're not at the center of the story. You're consumers. It's not about you. You're there to be the guide, to take this guy or girl or whomever from one place to another. I think it's so typical that everybody thinks, well, I'm a brand, I should be expounding about how great my brand is. Then people will like it. Nobody really cares. People want to know what is this going to do for them? How is this going to change my life? How is this going to make me feel? Yes. What's it going to do for me as a person? So you think about the customer, think about how you're affecting them. How you can change their lives. And that's the greatest thing you can do. Trying to make stuff because you like yourself. It's a pointless exercise after a while. Yo, Victor, thank you so much, man. That was a good talk. I thought it was really insightful. And people would definitely, I mean, I understand shoes even a little bit better. And I hope you guys out there do too. This is the end of episode three of Make It Happen. This is Facto Shoes. Check them out. And until next time, we out. I feel like correct me if I'm wrong. I get kind of this like zen vibe from you. A little spiritual guy. I would say so. I feel like you can get real philosophical about your shoes. Ken, you don't want me to. I don't know if we have enough time for that, but I can tell I see it and I see it.