Eight&Nine Designs: Conceptualizing The Street Wear Industry

Eight & Nine Designs is one of the first clothing companies to pioneer street wear, a style that is a cross between hip hop and skateboard fashion. Since there was no defined market at its conception in 2000, they played an influential role in the birth of the street wear market and trend. Although other mainstream companies such as Karma Loop focus on pure design, 8&9 provides a more comprehensive approach to clothing with emphasis on quality materials and attention to detail and can be thought of as the "Polo" of street wear.

Ray Guilbault founded and self-financed Eight & Nine Designs while attending University of Miami. He began outsourcing to Pakistan and hit the ground running with 20,000 presold items that were sold to high end clothing stores in SoHo in NYC. He later opened up sneaker stores in South Beach and Miami,  while also offering products in 65 internationally. Ray has recognized the importance of partnerships and for the past couple of years has focused on building a strong brand by working with DJs, artists, and skateboarding companies among others to leverage marketing efforts. Now he is ready to grow sales and will be loading stores back up with merchandise for the spring and summer. Some stores have already sold out of his products and have been calling him for the last 18 months!

I commend Ray for being a first mover in the street wear industry helping to forge new designs in the industry. I just spoke with him for over an hour and have to say he is a true entrepreneur, not only for recognizing a new trend early on, but for his belief that you must help people first before expecting them to help you. After perusing his site, it is obvious that he has talent to accomplish his goal of growing Eight & Nine Designs into a universal brand. Although the clothing industry is competitive and difficult to tap, the niche is still new, with expectations of continued growth. Ray's two sneaker stores will help him grow organically while his partnerships will catalyze traffic growth to his e-commerce site.

He has also worked with Random Media, the parent of RealVibez who we have covered and has found their help valuable. I agree with him that working with other entrepreneurs is vital not only for learning but bouncing ideas, collaborating on initiatives, and providing support for one another, especially when times are rough. I look forward to his other project IDontWearSuits.com, which will represent an ideology that will symbolize a choice to conform or not conform. He aims to bring a new model to clothing design that I won't go in to now, but can tell you it will be a tight project. They are currently hosting a contest too.

Even if you've never heard of street wear, I strongly recommend taking a trip to his site to discover this unique style. Props for an innovative company.
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