Blake Van Putten 5:38
I really just like seeing people envision themselves as part of a lifestyle, right. So we originally started as a product development company, we’re creating items for other companies from start to finish, whether it’s logos, websites design, full build out. And with the murder of George Floyd, I’m just thinking that this is not necessarily the business that we want to kind of do. There’s still an important side for clothing and apparel, but there is a different way to actually give back to the community. So with everything going on in the world, and it was just a really dark place, I decided to create clothing, and then from clothing, have a charitable, charitable, just approach to things of what we were trying to do. So with that, I donated to an organization called anti racism fund, I was hand making all the clothes and myself and it was really the community aspect of seeing one of my friends who started that that foundation and organization just build that out, and then seeing how many people had our clothing. And it really just inspired me that. So many people have different types of lifestyles, and if you can create that with whatever you’re selling, and whatever you create, that is my ultimate purpose. So with that being said, we started to create timeless pieces, we came out with our collection for protect black people with that it was strong to give back to the black community, while also having a piece that’s bold, but still stands out, while also just focused on letting people know that when you purchase these items, you’re giving back to the community. We’re also like working on expanding the business highlighting and celebrating other companies around us, right. So every single person who is part of my team, it started with just me screen printing, and he pressing and doing everything myself to the countless burns to my mom stepping in and helping out to her friends stepping out. And then my friends saying, Hey, do you think you need a social media manager? Or hey, do you need this, that it starts to just inadvertently build a community, and every new skill that we’ve had has multiplied the people that are around us. So you kind of build this curation of a family, where it everybody who’s an acquaintance, everybody who’s a friend, everybody’s family, they’re all in the same community. And if you give that to a consumer standpoint, and you make people feel as if they’re part of that, that’s what I get excited for. Right? Like when your friends make clothes, you’re not just like, let me buy it to support it, like you actually enjoy wearing it. And you actually were being part of it. That’s super cool to me. So seeing that is just the reason I keep giving back the reason I keep going for what we’re doing and just learning new things. So continue to be inspired out,
Joshua Chin 8:35
how often have you walked on the street and spotted someone wearing one of your apparel or carrying one of your bags?
Blake Van Putten 8:44
We we started in the height of the pandemic. So with that being ecommerce and people were purchasing items, you wouldn’t see too many people out. But there was one day I realized that the company was getting really, really large was when I was in just a random medicine store like a CVS. And I just saw somebody walked by with an item. And then now I started to see as the pandemic started to in and as people started going out more it was incorporated into people’s every day, apparel and everyday lifestyle. So when I saw it in the height of the pandemic, and I saw people wearing items, and it wouldn’t just be like one or two. I’m like, This is awesome. It’s I just get excited. I’m like that that’s my that’s my design is my creation. And they’re just so it’s like telling them and just staying in contact with all those people and just saying like, hey, like what do you want to do to improve this? What organizations can we give back to? That’s what’s really just been awesome and seeing all that happen.
Joshua Chin 9:53
Blake, would you consider yourself a creative or an analytical person? Or do you think there’s no such a distinction? How do you think about that?
Blake Van Putten 10:09
I definitely think there is distinction on that I’m, I’m a creative person, I’m very strategic. So the creativity I have is that I have a really, really wild idea. But I can bring it to fruition by identifying all the steps that come behind it through strategy. There are people that can make a strategy based off of creative ideas, but they don’t come up with creative ideas. And that’s fine. And those are people that would be like a consultant, or somebody that would really advise you to do it. And there are just creative people, you have tons of just designers that they just stick to one type of art, they aren’t necessarily focused on trying to do strategy behind what they’re what their talent is. So I would see myself as just like creative with strategy, analytical is I analytical is just numbers focus, I’m really more so focused on the ideation and creation component of it. So actually saying, like, what can make sense from my big ideas? That’s where I see myself is that it’s not come out with hat and then sell out of the hat it would be, I want to make a hat. And I really want it to be in the city. How can we get that to happen? And then it’s one hat. I’m cool. Like, I’m cool, because I just did the hat. Instead of having focus on what what are the numbers? Because the numbers is always come, right? Like, if you are it and you can strategically make it make sense, then you’ll be fine.
Joshua Chin 11:44
I like that. Now, talking about crazy ideas. Let’s unpack the mobile storefront and tell tell us about what it is. And describe it as best as you can. I mean, people listening if, if you’ve seen photos of this, this thing, it’s it’s insane. It’s It’s crazy. It’s like it’s nothing I’ve ever seen before for DTC brands to make something like that happen at this early in, in the brand’s existence, what was the thought process behind it, and what what exactly
Blake Van Putten 12:25
it it’s a combination of a couple things, I have a background with supply chain management. So with supply chain management, I’ve really, really been into shipping and logistics and procurement. So with the business starting, I was looking into shipping containers, I really love the idea of tiny homes, I love them, but I would never live in one. And when we were looking to create an office space to work out of every company, and every commercial real estate agent was trying to get us to sign a three to five year lease, and our business be like eight months old. So making a commitment that’s almost four or five times longer than you’ve ever been in business is a really big commitment. So I wanted to ultimately create something that can work that would be omni channel and have a focus beyond what we do. So with that, I went from trying to get a shipping container to finding out shipping containers weigh 1000s and 1000s of pounds that you can’t tow them to maybe like light gauge steel framing. But then we ultimately settled on building out a trailer and from the trailer built out converting it to a mobile storefront. And that’s like having canopies installed into it, having barn doors on it. And it ultimately is framed in a sense where you’re able to tow hitch it to anything that you want, where you can take it anywhere, and you can create an opportunity for a business on it, have open shelves on it. So we’ve been able to have a pop up shop, full creative mobile storefront where scan a QR code, be able to come in for a full experience, you get a discount on the items and they be shipped to you directly. But all the shelving is open space. So that way, if another company wants to rent it out, we’d be able to lease it to other people. And we’d be able to wrap it and have activations while also being able to take it wherever we want. So that fleet component was something that was really, really important. And being able to just pick it up instead of having to be stuck in one spot. And that’s been awesome because we’ve also been able to highlight and incorporate other brands that go behind it. But that design process is obese. I had such a dream of it’s gonna be like 10 feet, and it’s going to attach to the back of Sudan and anyone can take it anywhere. And it’s like triple that size. So now that comes to life. And, you know, if I were to do it again, try to figure out how we can make something smaller and make it mobile and just super everyday accessible. But I just remember just containers being stuck at the ports and everything being so just wild on it, that if we created this, we would have an opportunity that would help other businesses out. And we were able to create it, we came up, I came up with that design idea in may build the designs out with an architect by June, shipped it It arrived in September, like the first or second week and we had an event the like next day. So I’m learning how to tow it. I’m learning how to do what kind of cars can tow it, what businesses what works, and is wrapped. So now like trying to understand that and all the legality behind it. It’s been a lot, but it’s been cool, because I’m just like, I just wanted to do it. I think it would just be really cool.
Joshua Chin 16:03
And it is crazy. Okay, so first of all, what else? What else we’re in? was unexpected. It anything turned out to be? Oh, cool. That’s, that’s really interesting. Or, Oh, crap. I never thought about that. That.
Blake Van Putten 16:29
Yeah, with with that, I would say that a lot of the renderings. Were very hyper realistic of what I was receiving. So instead of building something out, if you work with a graphic designer, saying, like, Give me something cool, and it might not turn out exactly how you want it. Or it might turn out just different. The three, the 3d and AR and VR renderings of that actual mobile storefront allowed me to take it to different car dealerships and say I need like this to be towed, do you think it has the proper towing capacity, able to find out the capacity on it, the amount of electricity that’s like, outage on it, what permits that you have all without even needing to see it. It was actually delivered while I was on an airplane. So I was flying back from I believe DC at the time. And as soon as I landed, a trailer towed it to the location that I met. And then that was the moment I had to learn how to like tow it. So I’m on the plane trying to learn how to do all that stuff. But the ability to put everything digitally, instead of going out and trying it myself, I’ve been able to like see that come to life. And that overall augmented reality virtual reality component of it really helped us out a lot. It also helped us learn. It also helped us learn that there were some things that weren’t included in it. We wanted to get a full model for New York Fashion Week. And with that the model wasn’t even assembled. And I didn’t know that that’s what happens when you 3d print items that sometimes you have to take the pieces and put them all together. But when those files to print were like, Yeah, we’re missing a canopy, we’re missing this part on it. And it ended up costing us 1000s of dollars to add those. But if we didn’t add those, we would have had to build it out again, or worked with somebody else to cut into it. Which would have been just crazy. So printing that was just like super helpful. But we spent so much money on just like that 3d printed model. And then that 3d printed model
Joshua Chin 18:40
was and that’s just for New York Fashion Week, or did you use it for anything else?
Blake Van Putten 18:46
It was supposed to be it was supposed to be like the center of everything. But I found out I had to glue it together and paint it and do stuff. I didn’t know that. So no, it didn’t even didn’t even make it to New York Fashion Week. And it wasn’t operable. I didn’t know that wheels were a whole thing with 3d printing. I didn’t even know that. I didn’t know how the inside would lay in the layout of it to then showcase what other people would see. Which would be the inside with the shelving units. Can you see that from the model on the outside? And it’s like, no, there’s a right, there’s a wall or partition of it. So we have to cut that open. And then when you’re doing 3d modeling, you’re saying that dang, we need to fix that. So it was kind of like just getting its own prototype instead of just having it delivered and saying we can’t
Joshua Chin 19:36
possibly do that. Do you have to? Did you pick up the software yourself? Do you learn how to auto AutoCAD? Is that? Is that what you did? Or do you hire someone for it?
Blake Van Putten 19:47
I went I went on YouTube to figure out what the terminology actually was. Then what software it’s built off of and then finding out what platform rep you more people would be able to create this design. So I was using websites like Upwork, I was using YouTube, I was even using tick tock as ways of just like researching and finding out strategies. So that’s like the cat component, then there’s like the blender component, and there’s the animation component of it, putting in environments, then you have to send it to a 3d printer. So similar to an interior designer versus an actual architect, not an actual archetype. But you know what I’m saying like, then the interior, the architect might, the architect versus engineer, the architect is the one that’s going to design it, the engineers that are going to build it out. So they might like these really great ideas that might not necessarily be functional. So being able to print it out, gave us that idea of what worked and what didn’t. So we then found a 3d printing company, which I also didn’t know that was a business model as well, that people are just using big 3d printers and files and putting stuff together and mailing it to individuals. So finding that out, and then finding out what material I had to print it in to actually use it was just a beast, but just YouTube University. That’s what it is. And then once I found all these people assemble the mini team. And I started working on it, I was drawing designs out on my iPad, and then I worked with an architect and he cleaned them up and he’s like, No, you got to do this to uh, you know, do this to it. Because we were going to do complete tiling. But the tiling didn’t didn’t really happen. Because if you’re towing tiling tiling is so heavy that it makes the full trailer harder to tow. And when you hit a certain gauge of weight, more dangerous and plus with tiling, tiling fades, compared to nickel would finish on the floor wrapped in vinyl. So the floor is actually wrapped to look like it’s tiling like it’s tiled. But it’s not actually the pattern on it. So you’re wrapping the floor and your rap walls, you’re wrapping everything that just makes it look really cool and neat. But I’ve never thought that I’ve had to pay enough detail to something like the floor where you know, you just see it. Absolutely not. Because my I just want it to look like a luxury store, you see, like a Chanel, Louis Vuitton, all of them have like these crazy floors, and they import all the products and like yeah, it’s gonna take you four times more of the cost. And it’s gonna take you four times the amount of time and you need a vehicle that could tell that and our vehicles about like eight to 10,000 pounds. So having a towing capacity where you get over 12,000 pounds or and you get into that realm you need bigger than a pickup treasure. And now it’s not just an everyday towing it I’m like, okay, Tesla just connected, and I’m out. But then you’re learning about just engineering just life that Oh, it doesn’t hit that towing capacity, or it says it’s the towing capacity. But it also doesn’t include the stuff that’s inside of it. And it doesn’t include the vehicle and itself as part of the way. So all of these things are things I’m learning and but it’s based on just research. And combining different methods into one helped us create that final product. But the ability of not limiting it to say that there’s a mobile storefront for concerts. It’s just like this was a mobile storefront. And that mobile storefront is open ended, so anybody can access it, and anybody can use it. And if we don’t allow marijuana, we can just either sell it to another company donated or wherever.
Joshua Chin 23:46
Talk to me about what’s next. And we briefly spoke about this. And you touched on AR and VR as well than that next generation of commerce. And and you could speak to your experience with Shopify as well. And for people listening, I just want to say, Blake, your journey of Shopify has taken such an incredible route from you, personally shipping products to their fulfillment centers to now having five fulfillment centers with Shopify across the country. And growing from basically a startup that nobody knew about to what it is today and in just two years, like by any measure, that’s that’s incredible. But what do you see as the next big thing in commerce and with Shopify?
Blake Van Putten 24:44
I think commerce was commerce is a very traditional style of purchasing right? I don’t know if that sentence makes sense. afford it but commerce? It’s like an outdated thing that works. And it’s you just it’s an exchange of goods. So are you giving money for a good or a service? And when you have websites like Big Cartel, Shopify, Wix any place that accepts payment, it’s pretty straightforward. And people are building websites. And now you’re making a website based on how fast can you create something with no coding experience? What kind of platform are you trying to host it on. So they’re really not really too many different websites that people go against, right. And Shopify is really great because of the plugin feature on it. So everybody really an ecommerce. I don’t want to say everybody, but a lot of people in ecommerce will start off with a Shopify website, whether it’s very, very simple, it’s, it’s the it’s the company that it’s like our Kleenex, right? Just, instead of getting something to wipe your nose, you get a Kleenex, it’s that brand that you know, standard of it. And having those resources and like the plugins, and we just did things to automate it and make it easier. I was a small team, I was doing it by myself, and then my mom, we were using these small tools that helped us get to where we are. So I went to the root of that. And because I really believe in the product, I saw that they have what’s called a fulfillment network. And that fulfillment network, if you hit a certain amount of sales per month, you could qualify to be in it, and then they’ll fulfill it for you. So I emailed them, like, Hey, give me a chance. Just wait to see what happens. And we’ll go from there. And they’re like, yeah, like, we’ll try it out. So I drove my Kia up to the actual warehouse, I drove it an hour out with just like 20 products, they just like where’s the rest of it. And like this is all I got to the fact where they were so mad because I was late. Everything was bad was in Home Depot boxes, the boxes weren’t labeled. But they had a standard of how they did things that when we started to come up with new collections, they were such a big help, they pushed out everything and like a day, getting the holiday season. I know you’ve seen it when it comes to like marketing and sales that lets businesses back even if you’re selling out of your stuff, and it’s really fantastic. But now you got to process orders and everybody’s website shuts down, just like we’re no longer working for two weeks. Shopify just alleviated that, then it started to expand, they moved over to the East Coast. And they started putting together different types of warehouses and used AI to determine where a majority of our clientele is. And from that they’ve stored it in different warehouses across the country. So having that will say that, if you want Sturla statement bag, and our top markets are New York, DC, Texas or Chicago, there can be a warehouse on the East Coast and then in the south, and just or even just like up north, that we’ll have those items curated to find out how can we reduce the amount of shipping for a customer to pay? How can we reduce the pick and pack? How can it come to somebody faster. Now even dropping down to expedited shipping on all our orders, we now have like an order from the time you’ve placed the order to being processed within two hours, to then delivering to your door in one to two days. That’s like the new future of what everything is. And it’s because it’s strategically done, where AI just does that. So having new ways and experiences that are really they’re just different, right? It’s not some people ask for a you want a package and you want it but when you get is when you get it, there’s only so much somebody can do. So ecommerce is now in a space where people are getting creative with it. You’re having loyalty programs, you have just like bonus points that you look forward to. Starbucks will have like you’ll get a free drink. If you buy like for every $600 you spend, you get one free drink, I can’t wait to get my free drink instead of just buying the drink for that. So people are really excited for it. And Shopify has a down pack. So being able to be in those spaces. And seeing those new products like stacked on top of it has been incredible, like their team has just been nothing but super supportive of me and just I think that commerce is now taking on an omni channel approach where you can now say that I not only know the perfect customer, but I know what my community is Who am I serving? What do they want? What are they searching for? What am I missing? That is just a whole bunch of data and from there, ecommerce is what you make it they just released about 100 new products and I don’t know what half of them do. Yeah. Yeah, Shopify really is like your new products. Whether it’s influencer marketing, we work with another company, but they acquired a company from it. 3d bottlings and renderings so people can have experiences of trying it on without even being part of that. And that’s just an ecommerce platform, allowing you to stack that on top of it. So it’s gonna give a whole new version of it. And even the priests, the preorder model, right, people are going to be able to now create an experience to say that this is what I’m about to sell. And instead of having to buy a sample, or ship the sample, take pictures of it, and then listed online, you can just make a 3d mock up of it, and then like actually have it rendered, put it online, and then tell people how long it takes. And then on the back end, people are saying like, this is like what that preorder model is, so they’re reinventing the way that commerce is being traditionally done, while also providing if you have point of sale. So the brick and mortar storefront being able to lower the amount of processing for credit cards. And after pays, right, paying in increments of different sales is also incredible. So it gives higher ticket items, and makes higher ticket items and accessible and reachable point for the everyday consumer. And that’s why people now businesses don’t have to necessarily offer a lower ticket items to try to hit a demographic. You can now tenue doing an operating the way you want to as a business. And more people are incentivized and able to receive that.
Joshua Chin 31:20
It is awesome. And so Shopify released, just made this announcement just a couple of days back. And we were talking before we hit record here. And one of the things that really stood out to me was the idea of a token gated commerce with NFTs. And I’ll just read read it out right here. What it says in shopify.com. Token gated commerce unlock exclusive products experiences for your community with NFTs and Antonio, token gated commerce. With token gated commerce, your fans can connect to your crypto wallets, to your store and unlock personalized benefit with their NF T’s like exclusive merchandise, early access to drops, cool collabs with other brands, and even in real life experiences. This is so cool. I think the downside here is it’s funny, my mind goes straight to downside. It’s still not widely accepted. And in crypto world right now. It is a it is a massive, it’s deep. It’s in deep winter right now, as of this recording, it’s going to be funny like two years in a row, we’re going to look back at this recording and say, that’s crazy. That was like when things are so cheap like that. But it seems like with Shopify buyers are only allowed to checkout true shop pay so that there may be some limitations that are beginning with this. But I’m excited to see how things are moving with the metaverse and what is happening with NF T’s. I know you have some opinions on this. And you have some thoughts. What’s your take? And what do you see CISE fitting in? In the future with metal versus an LTS?
Blake Van Putten 33:17
Yeah, I, I have very, very strong opinions on NFTs and crypto just in general. Being somebody that’s been like, pretty invested in it from a few years back and, and having a tank on me a few years ago, too. I you know, aside from trading and having the emotion side of it, I think that the use case of blockchain is amazing. I think that blockchain just validation components of it where you can provide a community of people and you don’t necessarily need to be a high profile individual to hold way and being able to stay anonymous and just have your preferences. I think that everybody has like their own person to themselves. And because of societal standard that can change, like based on what your friends like, you might just show that you like that, or based on that environment. So I really think that that’s an authentic way to do things. My strong opinion comes to the people that are pushing education in a to an open source. People are pushing open source information to others by charging them right. I don’t think it makes sense. It’s like you’re charging for the resource to educate others. So I just wasn’t ever a fan of that. I think that there are people that have great intent with it. And there are ways to do it, whether it’s like an educational side or offering that but you know, I think that it’s very jaded on the information that comes out to people and you really have to show people a use case to get people to be on board with things right. So I think that the onboard part of NF T’s are people making money, right? Like artists making a whole bunch of money and people just cashing out and just having skyrocketed amount of profits. That was the validation for the success of it. And then everybody else is like, pay to learn how to do this as well. I don’t like that. So actually seeing and Building Community Through tokens, that is going to be amazing if you can just leverage it in a way that saying that crypto could sit in the same house of loyalty points for customers, where you now can provide an opportunity to build a community through those points. And then now you have validations and saying that I sit in this and I can provide access to it. That is a positive way that you’ve done it. I just bought a t shirt from another company about a week ago. And every purchase of the clothing comes with a free token that you can now use in the metaverse, so sit in it, after you purchase it. I think that that I don’t know the technology behind it. I can do it after the call. But I think after you purchase it, it releases it based on the the scan code, so the SKU on the product, and then it opens it up to then bring it to like that area of saying that I can now wear that T shirt in the metaverse I think that’s so cool. Like being able to have that. And showing that and giving people the ability to customize it, right. Like there’s, um, there’s a game, I’m boo, we have a lot of people or even Sims, for that matter, people will make just digital renderings of our products. And I think that that’s super cool. Like, that’s cool. Instead of trying to be like, let’s tear them down or anything like that. It’s just cool seeing people use that creative aspect on it. And that component of it, whether in real life, we also have individuals who will paint on top of our bags, that sick. I think that that’s super cool. And people have made business models off of that, where they’ll say I can customize it. I think that that’s incredible. And that’s a community that I want to see, like thrive. You now in the metaverse where we can create these products and give people like previous customers these items and then stack on top of it where now you have exclusive collections with artists, you have these stack designs, and you’re building a world where people have these and you really exist and as a real use case, not. Let’s auction it off and see how much money we can take. And then now because I just made a roadmap of a whole bunch of promises to accompany it. That’s wild. I just don’t know why people. I just don’t see it I so I think businesses just in general with the tokenization. And with that collaboration that Shopify is starting to add on to it, it gives more, it doesn’t give it an anonymous approach to it, because it’s obviously public when you’re coming to companies and stuff. But it does give a brand validation, and you have a company that’s overseeing the authenticity of the transaction. And that is going to be like a change that is going to be different. And I think that that provides more buy in, especially from a payment processing side, you’ve seen the Met verse, which meta or you’ll see, you’ll see the Oculus, you’ll see any of these other VR headsets, Sony’s VR headsets, Android, all of those were their technology companies that showcase the products, but an ecommerce side of actual money and community that’s going to be a game changer, it’s going to plug in the validation of it, which is saying that this is really legitimate, you have other companies like Nike, and you have Under Armour, that are now buying companies that have the technology, so they are able to create the product with the technology. So I’d say all the stuff underneath it now gives an open market for creators that are like my size, and somebody that’s there on that, yeah, where there’s a point of entry. That’s what I’m super excited for. And it also helps us out where I was talking about manufacturing and production. Hanifa just did a fashion show. And it just changed the way people marketed things. It’s just full virtual reality and doing things online and live shopping and drops and everything has been just fantastic to see and super cool because you now have a standard that you’re trying to hit. And then now you have like different ways of integrating it and you can showcase that new style. So I’m really, really excited to see what that comes with it where I see CISE sitting in it. Obviously the use case of what we’re already doing. We’ve also done like Snapchat filters, Instagram filters and stuff now but the community is really what’s going to help us find out what that’s going. It’s really
Joshua Chin 39:44
interesting and it’s really interesting that you say that I think that the community aspect of, of ecommerce is going to be it’s going to be key. It started with the I’m kind of forced change of how we think about privacy in the first place. And then we have how acquisition costs are so insane right now and it’s only going to continue to rise. It only makes sense for us to look into the most important segment of our audience, or community and our buyers and our customers. And I’m going to take it one step further. I think that the future of the fashion space in particular, especially in ecommerce, is going to be collaborations. I think collaborations are going to drive a lot of growth moving forward, because collaborations are essentially bringing one community to the other and kind of mixing those two communities together and making something even greater out of that process. Adidas I think made a made a couple of products with with Gucci very recently. They did a collab. And I know that Adidas is really open to collapse very recently in conjunction with your with your with your entry into the metaverse as well. And I think that NF T’s in the metaverse really levels the playing field for brands that may not have the the bargaining power in the pool, as some of these larger brands may have an open up the doors for conversations in collaborations. You know, I’m excited to see what what you you might be able to do if with collabs with with CISE, I wouldn’t see a Keith Haring piece on a CISE bag or a CISE. Peace One Day.
Blake Van Putten 41:51
Yeah, it’s awesome. We just we just did this event, it was called made marketplace it was partnership with made and PayPal. And in it being in open warehouse where people could come in and shop with these different businesses. That is how I imagined that this would sit right where now instead of us saying buy this item, don’t buy their item. It’s now like you can buy this, you can get a bag to match shirt at our stand, where we also have a shirt over here and collaborate pieces on it. It’s stuff that stacks on top, and it’s just more interactive. And you see that like with a lot of community, especially black owned businesses. It’s really cool seeing a lot of that where it’s was like, What’s your thought on this company? And like I love it, like I love I love seeing the way that companies are just really pushing the edge. And it’s not even more so like let’s compete with them. It’s really more of that’s really cool. Like how can they do that? And what did they learn from it. And people have been just awesome. So seeing that and like the collaborations is going to be sick Christian Dior did the does custom straps, so with the straps on top of handbags, and they sell the straps for just like an exclusive price. So different kinds on it leave a ton. Also with a pushchair bag, they have the different colorways and different models on it. So those are things that are accessories that may not have necessarily been prevalent or important back in the day would be something that highlight and change the product that you have. But it gives new opportunities to customize those pieces, buttons, pins, packaging, graphic designs, visuals, there’s new ways to stack collaboration on top of it. And you’re saying that Gucci and Adidas super sick seeing coach, coaches, coaches always relevant but Coach has, this is coaches moment right now where they’ve been able to redesign and reinvent because of their products, their new innovation and that’s the same thing that you’ll start to see just these other companies like just push out because you would when I think of Adidas, I don’t I don’t think of a Gucci. And now in a world like this cross functionality, you’ve got Balenciaga fortnight you see these companies that anything’s possible. It’s just like I would have thought that Gucci and Adidas would be partners but now it’s really that’s really cool. Like I’m surprised that they didn’t release this type of product on top. That is now the way that people are thinking so I’ll see that on the street and be like, That’s tight like that is a collaboration with it’s like
Joshua Chin 44:38
a little Adidas Originals logo and it says Gucci instead of Adidas about it. So cool.
Blake Van Putten 44:45
I’ve seen it I’ve seen that they went crazy and they did a lot of retro retro colorways and different patterns and stuff. It’s it’s a really really is sick it brings back the fun in designs. I know that At Gucci has their standard print. And it was just just the GS or it was just all over Gucci. But they started incorporated lions and bumblebees and a whole bunch of items on top of it that more fun. And other companies, you have artisans just painting on top of your products go yard has that as well, people that are looking at their pieces. So to allow a business to still be an elevated company that have a fun component to it is awesome. And it pushes that limit where now that’s part of culture, right where you have even the era of hip hop, where hip hop is the way artists present themselves and carry themselves not carry themselves. But the way that it’s presented. It is still a very pivotal moment of how it shapes the direction of music, it shapes the direction of everything like that. So you can now see a hip hop performance in a very elevated place. Whereas even though it can be seen as like, okay, it’s just its own lane, it now inspires it’s, it’s it’s not just segmented breaking barriers. Now, it’s creating all kinds. I’m excited.
Joshua Chin 46:16
I think that’s a big theme. Yeah. Blake, we talked about building relationships, and sustain them, especially as you’re growing and scaling your business and things, things change, right responsibilities also scale, what’s your what’s your take on relationships
Blake Van Putten 46:43
your relationships are going to drive your success. Because if you are going to be the company that is just selling, selling, selling fantastic, you’ll probably still be in business by just definition. But if you are building a true community, you talked about LTV in the beginning of it. Everything is long term, where it’s not just let’s see how many we can sell it’s let’s see how many people we can impact and having meaningful partnerships, meaningful ways to do things is shapes us person, I’m super excited about a lot of the companies we work with a lot of the people we serve, a lot of that is based on just things that I’ve learned from others, right, I have best friends who like I’m passionate about this, everybody on my team is passionate about something. And tapping into that builds an educational component, that you just really, you’re starting to see more of it. And it’s really nice I want to be I’m going to be the person that has not only a successful brand, but a successful relationship with the people around me. And that’s like the community where if I said that, we’re a fashion house, and we create clothing and apparel. But we also have candles a candle company we work with those are like Terminal B, that’s super cool to be part of them. And then also having other people we mentor other brands, we mentor other nonprofits that we partner with and other companies that are inspired by what we’re doing, that we now build that relationship of the Adidas and Gucci is not a one time collab, it is now a benchmark for other people. And then personally is having people that are your crutch, right? Where I was talking to my friend, he just left his job to do entrepreneurship full time. And he was talking to me about just sustaining relationships with people. And I’m like, you have to think of what type of person you are. Are you the person that has a lot of friends? Are you the person that’s really good at business? Are you the person that likes to go out, and you can’t do it all? So just finding out what that contribution is. And I’m trying to focus more on just being intentful with the people around me. The business is there. The business is just going to continue to have support but I’ve made I’ve met so many cool people and I made so many friends out of it. Then I’m just like meaningfully seeing them. I pad we had the marketplace that we just went to. I saw Pierre Pierre is just a creator who’s doing everything, amazingly. And she’s been to like four of our events in New York, which has been crazy. Like she’s I just expect her to be there. I sent her the invite. She’s there. And I know that she supports me, I support her. I look into her content in it. My mom is like anytime I’m like, This is my adventures like where’s my environment? This is it. So yeah, being able to sustain have that. Going to my friend’s birthday parties, having dinners traveling to see people that’s what’s really there. And taking a step back from saying that, you know, the business has to hit this is really just what do I have to do? And I I think that that’s the way that I’ve been operating is building meaningful relationships because it provides, it does provide opportunity, right? If you’ve been able to focus on a friend that, like our friendship, right, we have developed a relationship from like, obviously, business is the start of it. But we’ve been able to build a strong relationship in learning about our lives, our personal lives, and everything that comes with it that when presented with an opportunity to be on a show or podcast, it’s second nature. And those were driven based on relationships. And it’s just something that comes in, it’s like, oh, yeah, like, I’ll jump on this, or I’ll be part of it, and you make something that’s fantastic. And you get to be exposed to opportunities that you never would have thought of before. So I’m super excited. I’m trying to make sure I’m a good friend. And then also that to myself, just making sure that it’s like, okay, am I getting enough sleep? am I drinking enough water? How am I sustaining that, and then checking up on people, there’s some of my friends, I’m like, I haven’t hit up in a minute. And, like I’m tripping, I need to make sure I do that. So having that reality check of just aside from being a business being your friend,
Joshua Chin 51:14
I’ll tell you that you are your your good friend. And it’s, you know, it’s a good reminder for me as well. This show is called the eCommerce Profits Podcast. But what I’ve kind of learned is that of all the conversations I’ve had on the show, most of the people that I admire, respect, that I speak to, and have the privilege of interviewing, have all spoken about relationships in some shape, or four. And it just comes down to that. Because when you take the money out of the equation, it’s all about the quality of the relationships that you have in life. And it I was recently at a an at an e o event, an entrepreneur’s organization event out here in Singapore. And we spoke about the kind of end of life assessment process, I forgot what it’s called. But the process goes like this, you take 1212 pieces of paper, on each piece of paper, you write down the most important thing in in your life, from the perspective of things that you own the material, things that you own. So for those four relationships that you most value, for those, and then four titles that you most value, founder and CO president of this organization, she volunteer at this organization and all that stuff. So you have 12 pieces of paper. Now. So as the process goes like this, you’re at a stage of life, where you just cannot juggle 12 things anymore, right. So you have the material stuff, your car, your house, or whatever this your relationships and your titles and your responsibilities, right. And you have to let go of for which do you pick. And then you got to get rid of for right now you’re left with with with hate. Now some time passes by, and you get a little bit weaker, a little bit sicker, a little bit older, right, as time goes by the takeaway for your left before. And for most people, we end up with mostly just the relationships that we have. And now that’s that’s where the hard part comes. Now you’re really sick, and you only have the time, energy, and space for religious to relationships, which to do get rid of, and then you come to just the single most important really should be alive. And that really kind of it’s a whole emotional process of realizing what’s most important in your life. And, I mean, the facilitator has to be really amazing to, to, to to make it meaningful. But it’s really interesting to think about all the things that we apply so much time, effort and importance on at the end of the day didn’t really matter all that much. Which is pretty cool to think. And I read on I think was a post on Facebook, I think by by a guy by the name of Steven black. I think Steve if you’re watching this, I’m sorry, I might have butchered the name, but he wrote in in your lifetime, you are statistically only able to connect and meet with 80,000 people to vote about it, give or take 1000 people a year for, for an average person, which kind of kind of makes sense, like truly connected meat. And that represents 0.01% of the world’s population. There’s like 99.9% of people in a world that you will never ever meet. So the lesson from that is, at least from from my interpretation, it’s stop wasting time with people that just don’t value you. And that you do not value and start appreciating the relationships that you have in your life, and start appreciating every interaction that you get with another human being because there just aren’t that many. And it’s like, holy crap. That’s very true. So now, I’m a bit more mindful of how I spend my time.
Blake Van Putten 56:14
It’s crazy, isn’t it? It’s almost as if you feel personally attacked, that you have to prioritize one over the other. And that’s how you know how emotionally attached you are to things that go beyond that go beyond logic. And then when you’re able to determine that how can I emotionally commit to something or someone it over the other is is a tough thought it’s created, it is a very, very tough. I know we were talking about, I remember when we got dinner, we were talking about management, on how many people you can effectively manage before you have burnout six or seven, I think then it was like six or seven. It’s just like a point where you just have a madhouse of just individuals because you can’t invest in them properly when you have too many people. And I see that with relationships with people as well. Like the, the my team. That’s part of everything, I’m able to connect with every person one on one and say this person does this, this person does that. How can I help you out? And then my mom, like my mom is my best friend. So being able to say and sit down and say like, Man, am I just good to them? Like they are good to me? Am I putting in the extra effort? What is a good friend? Yeah. Good. You know, like, what is that? And I have people that one of my best friends he is he’s great, just a great person. And then I just always think of Dang, how do you think of things in general? And how can I value those relationships as well? Because you can, you can have accomplishments and you can have good purchase is stuff that’s meaningful to you. Right? Like I have like a necklace that I wear that’s really meaningful to me. But if it’s gone, obviously, that’s definitely going to hurt. But at the same time, like, what is that emotion that’s captured? Without it, like the absence of it? And that that is the same thing of if you flip it, can you emulate that as the value of the relationship where you have somebody in your life and you’re very close with them, and they pass? You know how sad it’ll make you. But how happy do they make you while they’re still here? That is like the the part that’s just hard to it’s, it’s almost like an impossible feeling just to really just capture us with somebody or you’re around people. That is the feeling that I want to have in everyday life. It’s just like it no matter what I just feel that pure happiness, that pure bliss. And that’s why I really want to like invest in communities and invest in people around me to give them that not even expecting like, oh, that doesn’t serve as me, but just that type of
Joshua Chin 59:33
thing, as well. It has absolutely nothing to do with profits with money. Sure, profits facilitate doing that that’s important. It comes as a prerequisite. But when you really think about what truly matters the most and it’s fascinating to think about. So Blake wrapping up here What’s next for, for CISE with built, you’ve built something incredible here, and in two short years 72,000 email subscribers a full product suite, many products to cross sell, and 10s and 10s of 1000s of customers, including Lizzo. Big fan. What’s next?
Blake Van Putten 1:00:38
The people in the right there, but no, the the people really, we have spent a tremendous amount of effort just trying to physically be present. Whether it’s a mobile storefront, whether it’s hosting events, and being part of it, actually saying that like we are here, and this is what it is, this is our intention, that storytelling component of CISE is what is going to drive everything we want everybody to know. Not only we donated this to this organization, but this is an organization y’all gotta check out. And I was like, I’m checking this out now. So the people really, really people driven, really giving people an experience and saying that, that that feeling you have with Adidas and Gucci is just like, the collaboration of CISE. And that person, I want somebody to say like this is tight like this is this is cool. I’m so happy I’m here. And I really think that there are other avenues to inspire people and be part of it. And we focus on just kind of generally helping out the community around that we want to tap in all these different industries, whether it’s technology, want to tap into creating an even bigger product suite and having other items and customizations services. That’s what we’re focused on. It’s going to be people driven, storytelling driven, just really focused on that narrative of like, this is what we really did, like not only selling in a marketplace, but how did I get there? What did I go through? What’s the result? That’s what we want to focus on. So we have a lot of ideas of just like projects and initiatives that we’re going to do and campaigns. Fantastic, but the people, that’s what we want to do before.
Joshua Chin 1:02:34
Perfect way to end this interview. Blake, thank you so much. I know your time is valuable. And we’ve spent a good amount of time here. It’s always great fun talking to you. I personally enjoy it. That’s why these things and for people listening, interested connect with you learn more about what you do at sites and your personal projects. Where can you go to,
Blake Van Putten 1:02:59
you can check us out at cise.store, cise.store. You can check us out on Instagram, same thing cise.store my personal information is connected on top of that page. So you’ll see that just check us out.
Joshua Chin 1:03:19
Fantastic it goes. Even in our text messaging list.
Blake Van Putten 1:03:24
Thank you. Oh yeah.
Outro 1:03:30
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