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No, Rory and now.

All right, Rory, today we are joined by a very, very special guest.

New York City legend, a legend in the fashion game, legend in the shoe game.

We are honored and privileged to have me here today. His new line is dropping. He has a new book out. And we get to talk to him. I get to ask some of my sneaker head. Yes. This is a sneaker head. This episode is for all the sneaker heads around the world. Very special guest doing some amazing things. We are joined by Salehi Bimri. Welcome. What's up, fam? How you doing? I'm doing good. This is a pleasure to meet me. Yes, yes. First of all, you're busy. You're running around. Congrats on the new drop, on the new sponge, the sponge collection.

I don't know, even know where to start with. I mean, we wear his sneakers so fucking much. Yeah, pretty much all I'm wearing at this point. Yeah, yeah. Today I even had like, it was maybe a self-conscious thought. And then I felt even weirder after because I was like, I don't want to wear his sneakers when he's on, like, is that weird? But then it's fucked I was like,

but I support this guy

so much.

Why would,

why should I find that weird?

Today I'm not working. because I was like, I don't want to wear his sneakers when he's on, like, is that weird? But then it's fucked.

I was like, but I support this guy so much.

Why would, why should I find that weird?

To not wear them. Today I'm not because he's coming to the field today. I'm not wearing them. I threw them shit in the back of the closet. I was like, I'm not wearing my salaries today. But how you feeling, man? I feel great. I am in a very significant part of my career in a chapter turning moment. I'm releasing a book. I'm releasing a, I've released a footwear company, which is different from, I guess, what my audience has been familiar with, which has mostly been collaborations. But we saw this, we saw this happen in a event. I mean, listen, like, I didn't even see the, the collaboration thing in the, in the stars for me. You know, the, my dream was to ultimately work for a brand. And I never really saw myself as someone that was going to put his name on people across people's chest or on their shoes. so these opportunities have kind of been brought to me and me being a New Yorker, you know, I'm still going to capitalize on them. And this is where I find myself. So, yeah. When did you have that moment that it switched where, hey, I don't want to just design or be a head designer for somebody else? I think I just got to look at the amount of success that I brought other brands and across

a landscape, you know, not only just simply like one kind of sneaker, I've been able to tell

many different stories and within telling those different stories speak to different audiences.

And through that, I have a lot of success with sales of shoes.

And then that made me realize that I myself am a business.

I'm not necessarily like just this artist that gets brought in to like throw some colors on, you know, the black and white, whatever.

I am actually like a business myself.

And then I also became, you know, I don't want to make this about money, but I, you know, was very aware of the amount of money that I was making these brands. And I was very- I was about said, have you ever seen the real numbers? Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's a part of it. But and then the percentage of what I was able to get from that, very grateful, but it'd be nice to have the entire pie. You know, it'd be nice to. Yeah. Yeah.

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