In this episode, John LaRoy, CEO of Apparel Redefined, sits down with Brazilian entrepreneur Nano Nóbrega from Collective Devise to discuss his dynamic journey through the world of action sports, branding, and entrepreneurship.
Hailing from Sao Paulo, Nano’s passion for action sports paved the way for his career in branding. His expertise grew during his tenure at Globe, where he successfully managed multiple brands and refined his marketing strategies. This experience ultimately inspired him to launch his own lifestyle brand, demonstrating his entrepreneurial spirit and deep understanding of consumer engagement.
A key theme of the conversation was the power of collaboration and guerrilla marketing. Nano emphasized how grassroots strategies and authentic partnerships can create lasting brand impressions, especially in an era where traditional advertising methods often fall short. He also shared how his discovery of print-on-demand technology, introduced by John LaRoy, revolutionized his approach to production. By eliminating excess inventory and reducing upfront costs, print-on-demand has allowed entrepreneurs like Nano to scale their businesses more efficiently.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, Nano’s advice is both practical and inspiring. He encourages young business owners to stay calm and confident, trust the process, and pursue their passions with unwavering dedication. In an ever-evolving digital landscape, he also expressed excitement about the potential of artificial intelligence to reshape industries, from marketing to product development.
This insightful discussion between John LaRoy and Nano Nóbrega offers valuable takeaways for anyone interested in branding, business innovation, and the future of apparel. Tune in to the full episode to learn more about Nano’s inspiring journey and his forward-thinking approach to entrepreneurship.
Key Highlights from this Interview with Nano Nóbrega from Collective Devise
• Nano’s Background and Early Life 0:00
• Transition to Entrepreneurship 16:47
• Collective Devise and Collaborative Approach 21:03
• Relationship with Apparel Redefined 26:14
• Future Outlook and Business Advice 37:57
Presentation Transcription
NANO NÓBREGA 00:00
There going,
Curt Anderson 00:02
alright, Hey, John, hey, looks like you have a little different background today. What’s going on, man? Yo, yeah,
John LaRoy 00:06
I’m outside of the studio. I’m in beautiful Marco Island family vacation. So it’s, I apologize the squints. We got some sun,
Curt Anderson 00:16
right? Haven’t seen the sun like, four months. So it’s like the first time. So yeah, you should had the sunglasses out, right? Do you want to show everybody the view? Or, what do you what do you think there? Do you want to or,
John LaRoy 00:25
no, I will. I don’t want to drop my laptop off. Yeah, good point.
Curt Anderson 00:29
All right. Well, so beautiful. Maybe at the end,
NANO NÓBREGA 00:35
at the end, then his wife is going to pull him back to his vacation time. That’s
Curt Anderson 00:39
right. That’s right. She’s going to, like, she’s going to throw it off the balcony for you anyway. So before we wrap up, but hey, we’ve got a wonderful, incredible, amazing guest today. So now, how are you, man, happy?
NANO NÓBREGA 00:50
Curt, how are you Well, first of all, thank you guys for having me. And you know, it’s been, it’s been a incredible journey with with John. We met during the trade show, and then from there, like we clicked right away. And just, just, just one thing after another, start, start. You know, work helping happening with us as far as business development and whatnot. And it’s been, it’s been fun. It’s we’re hitting different venues and different directions. And, yeah, we’re having some fun. Well, we’ve
Curt Anderson 01:26
got a ton to cover. We’re going to dive in. So again, so you’re in, you’re very gracious, because I’m going to say this, right? Nano Nóbrega, and I know. So Nano say it in Portuguese for us. How do you pronounce your name in Portuguese? Nano Nóbrega. But again, not perfect. I’m going to work on that all
NANO NÓBREGA 01:41
weekend. Tony Montana,
01:42
that’s right.
Curt Anderson 01:45
Tony man, you’re I, you guys are too young to know that one. So, all right, that was a, that was a great line, right there. So we’re going to dive into your company, collective device. But before we go there, I’m going to go back in time a little bit. So to my understanding, you are from Brazil. If I have that, you have that correct. So, from Brazil now, looked like you took a little detour. You ended up in LA but just share your early stages how. Just walk us through that journey. Sounds very fascinating. Let’s hear, well,
NANO NÓBREGA 02:16
Sao Paulo, it’s such a massive metropolis, right? We’ve got, like, what, 24 million people, I would say it’s the third largest metropolitan the world. But a big difference is that it sits, I mean, the entire population in Brazil sits right on the coast. And the difference of, you know, if I were to compare San Paulo to New York, is that you do have that kind of fast pace, you know, lots of information, type of life, you know, like everybody, very career driven, type thing, definitely not a laid back place to live, but within two hours of a drive, you’re literally in Hawaii, because they’re in the jungle, right? And it’s just extremely tropical. And so, living in a big city, you know, I grew up and I got very much into action sports at a very early age of my life. I would probably, I probably got my first skateboard when I was probably four, three or four. So I skateboarding my whole life. Then lots of BMX and mountain biking, urban mountain biking, right? And, but then I, then I got very hooked into surfing, roughly when I was around 1415, and because, you know, we’re two hours away, so it’s very doable to be, you know, you’re going to school during the week or working and whatnot, doing your thing, and then during the weekend, we will just, you know, take off, put the surfboards on their car, travel for a couple hours, spend Saturday and Sunday surfing the whole all time, as much as we could, and then come back. But then I remember there was, there was something as far as how this relates to my career or whatnot. But while we can talk about this later, let me just walk this you through the whole process. So from there, like I took, I went to university for marketing, most of my friends were really going after all the advertisement agencies and stuff like that. And I, because I got very obsessed with surfing and skateboarding, I was obsessed about the brands around it. And my goal was never to work with advertising. I wanted to do branding, just build brands and start, you know, developing products and whatnot, right? And I was always obsessed with all the little details of the surfboards, or even if it was the construction or the logos, it was very, you know, something that put my attention. From there, I took a sabbatical year, six months sabbatical, six months to come to California, literally just to have fun, you know, skate, learn some English, come back home, and then kind of just, you know, recharge, and then start. Of I finished, I finished college. I was like, okay, as soon as I’m done with that, then I’ll get into the work sort of mode Mojo, right? But that turn, that’s the twist right there. Because when I came here for six months, when I was about to go back, I remember my roommates that were doing the same thing that was doing. They’re from Brazil as well. They were planning a trip to Indonesia for three months to live in Indonesia. And I’m just like, oh my gosh, this sounds like a dream, like, you know, I gotta do that. Long story short, I went with them, so I extended my visa for another six months. Was approved. I remember calling my dad, like, Hey Dad, I’m not coming back. I’m going to Indonesia for three months. He’s like, What are you doing? You’re supposed to go back to school and yada yada. I’m just like, what’s going to be alright? Anyways, go back to Indonesia. On the process of going to Indonesia those six months before, those three months before I went, I met somebody which became my, my ex wife right now, but anyways, I came back, applied for a scholarship because I was going to go do multimedia in Brazil. I applied for a scholarship, got a scholarship for two years in San Diego. And that’s me calling my dad again like that. I just got a scholarship for two years. Man, I guess I’m staying. You know, it’s like, what are you doing? Anyways, one thing led to another. I got married, finished school, and then went to work for Academy snowboards that was out in Oceanside in San Diego, and then from there, moved to LA to work for globe. And then for globe, I worked with them for like, eight years. And, you know, manage all sorts of different brands. Started just, you know, doing design assistancy and whatnot. But I was always so my mind was always, just always searching for the new challenge, you know. So I kept picking whatever the brands that people did not want to work I was like, I’ll take it. And so I eventually had, like, four different brands that I was managing. And then within that, I started a new lifestyle brand, which was its escape, was a skateboard, more of a lifestyle skateboard brand, where I’ll mix surf and surf and skate, which has always been my both of my passions, and that was much more integrate of a product to develop. So I started to go to many factories because I needed to follow the process of manufacturing, because there was a lot of cosmetics that I was applying to the skateboards, and nobody was really doing at the time, Wooding lays on all sorts of like, different inks, you know, glitters, glow in the dark, UV, you name it. There’s all sorts of stuff that we’re creating, right? But anyways, that you know that put me traveling to China every, you know, like four times a year, really understanding the whole process of manufacturing, logistics, of importing the goods, warehousing, fulfillment. And when he came to, I think it was 2015 I got laid off, opened my own business, and then from there, you know, that’s when collective devices started. It was probably the best thing that happened to my life, you know,
Curt Anderson 08:21
all right, John, what do you have?
John LaRoy 08:26
I mean, I’m just thinking of that call to your dad, yeah, like, like, like, hey, I’ll be back in six months. And then it’s not like, it’s been what, you know, like, 20 years, 20 years and 20 years. I just look at my bullet right now at three and four, and it’s like, Man, I don’t want to go on a sabbatical and never come home.
NANO NÓBREGA 08:51
Is that? It’s incredible, man. And then the funny thing is that most people that will do sabbatical, they will do like in between, they will stop college for a second and do it and come back. I ended up doing late, later in life. And then, I guess, because when I got here, I was like, already 25 so my mind was a little more independent, in a way that I’m like, Do I really have to come back? Not really. I’m like, 25 or eight. I can. I can kind of start making choices, you know, like, right? But of course, in respect to my dad, that he always gave me all the support that I needed, I will call him and be like that. This is what’s happening. Just like, what are you doing? You know, like, but it was, it was, it was always a very organic process, man, like I, I am terrible about planning things too far ahead in my future. I learned very early in my life that life is very unpredictable. I lost my mom for cancer when I was 15. I also recently lost my dad four years ago for cancer, and it’s like, you learn the hard way that it’s just like, okay, so what? With all the planning like this, things literally came in, hit my mom and my dad and took him away in a year, you know? And it can do anything about it. So,
John LaRoy 10:09
yeah, that’s, that sucks, man. I’m sorry to hear that.
NANO NÓBREGA 10:12
Hey, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s life storm. It’s this experience we’re supposed to go through. We’re all going to go through. Some people go, some people go later. It could have happened to me. So I’m I’m good,
John LaRoy 10:27
go ahead. I didn’t say what was a cooler party for you, because that was your first six months in the States. I’ve never the closest thing that Indonesia sounds like to me is Indiana. So was a cooler party America or or Indonesia. Um, I’m sure completely
NANO NÓBREGA 10:47
they’re very different, right? I mean, Indonesia, it’s a very used to be not anymore good it, you know, it really evolved from, from when I went. But it, it’s a very humble place. And when I went out there, like I did, a lot of of traveling through the islands to surf, so I will be in places that, literally, there will be chicken and pigs on the streets and all dirt roads, right? And I there was, well, this is interesting. Like, I remember when we got to a spot where we were trying to see if there were waves breaking, because it was sort of like a one hour walk to get to the place inside the jungle and but there’s a there’s a point where, if you could see waves breaking there, we knew that that spot we wanted to go will be working. So I got my camera, and I started using the zoom, like one of those old school camera where you open up that, you know, like, I started using the zoom to try to see if the spot was working. And all of a sudden, as I look back, I literally, there’s literally 15 kids around me, and they’re like, looking at that thing like it was out of the future, man. So then I, then I, then I realized what was happening. Because they, they speak Indonesia, you know. So it was all mimicking with them, right? And I got one of the kids to kind of like, Hey, get out there. Like, so, two or three of them get out there, go far, go far, go far. Then I, I will gather all the other ones behind me. So then they, they’re, they were already mesmerized that you could see things in that screen. But, man, when I zoomed in on the kids and then they could, they could see their faces on the screen, they were just like, I bet they were just losing, wow, that’s cool. Yeah, it was incredible. It was incredible. Others, there’s, we could have a whole podcast. On my trip to Indonesia, man, I, I ran into a cow riding a like a motorcycle, flipped in the air three times. Donated cow could have, I could have completely ended up in a hospital. There was just tons of thing that the following year we kept going to this bar where, the following year they completely exploded those bars, I think, was called seric club, and killed a bunch of, you know, foreigners, because that was the foreigners like, kind of hub to party. Uh, anyways, there’s just tons of, tons of very fun stories in in there. I love the culture, you know, like, It’s, people are so friendly. It’s completely different, you know, it’s, it’s like, going to another, you know,
NANO NÓBREGA 13:28
cool, awesome. Alright, so let’s when
Curt Anderson 13:32
you start, when you’re in, LA, was that a good was it an easy assimilation for for you, were you, were you missing home? Or just feel like, Man,
NANO NÓBREGA 13:40
this is, well, so I told you that growing up in Sao Paulo, you know, I will be skateboarding, mountain biking during the week was kind of like what I was doing for fun, not, you know, but and then on the weekends, I’ll go surfing. So I grew up, I’ve always loved big cities. I mean, I grew up learning how to like a big city, like, sort of like New York. But then, of course, I loved going to the beach, to the jungle, and when I, when I came here to California for those six months, for me, this was like, Oh my gosh, dude, I just find the best of both worlds. Like, especially in LA, not so much San Diego, but in LA, it’s like, I have the big city. I have all these art shows and all these really cool concerts to go, really cool things to do, really cool pubs, and all that amazing places to go, skateboarding and whatnot. And then the surface just right here, I don’t have to drive two hours. I just, I just walk a couple blocks, and I can surf, you know. So for me, it was just like, just love at first sight, man. I was like, Oh my gosh, this place. But again, my very I never, never at within that very first year where I was like, Okay. Would be here for six months to not go in Indonesia. And I was like, What am I going to do to move here? It was just, I don’t know, man, just life start making calls like, hey, no, no, you, you know you want to go in Indonesia. Well, I had to make some money, because I blew up all my money in six months. So the next six months, I had to find an under the table job, because I only had a tourist visa, I wasn’t able. And then in that place that I searched for work, the guy literally just got back from the beach that I surfed in Brazil, like all the time. So he’s like, where’s your accent from? Like, from Brazil. He’s like, Oh my God, where is he as man? And he started talking all this Portuguese thing. I’m like, How do you know that? He’s like, I was just there for two months and all this because I was freaking out that this guy was going to be, we’re going to be like, I don’t think you’re allowed to work here, buddy. But he was just like, you’re rad, man, start tomorrow. And then at that place, I met my wife, because she was one of the My ex wife, because she’s was one of the manager, and that turned into a relationship. She started helping me with like, Hey, look at all these schools we can apply for for this, and you can get scholarship, and that. That’s how my life started to be. Like, hey, listen, there’s something here for you. You can choose to stay and follow whatever your heart that I’ve always just follow my heart. Man, what I was feeling that was right for me. It sounds very individualist, but in the way, we’re all individuals, right? We got to make our own choices, man, so,
Curt Anderson 16:25
well, it’s funny when, like, you know, just like, every when you take life, like one day at a time, like, today is, you know, whatever time somebody’s watching this, but today’s Thursday, you know, it’s just a Thursday. And you’re like, I’m just kind of going through the motions making my decisions. You’re like, well, I’m going to decide to go to the United States, you know. And then, like, you know, hey, I’m going to go to Indonesia, like, I’m going to come back to the States. And, like, you know, also, like, you know, 20 years flies by. So I want to, I want to dive into 2015 so we, we’re just longing to hear about your entrepreneurial journey. And what’s fascinating, what I’m hearing is that you were downsized. So I’m, you’re the accidental entrepreneur, is that correct? So when you when you were downsized, you like walk us through, because it sounds like you had different options. What made you decide to get into business?
NANO NÓBREGA 17:11
I always had an entrepreneurial mindset. So even though, when I would say when I was working at globe, and I was put to be a designer assistant. I was never good with that. I didn’t want to be an assistant. I wanted to create things. I want to so if they could put me to design catalogs, I’d be like, No, well, let me help you with the boards, man, and I can help you with the T shirts, and I can help it with this. I wasn’t, it’s not that I was asking for a thing. It was just showing that, hey, I’m willing to do more, right? Because I want to learn more, and I want to understand how the whole thing works. And then I also recall that well, as a matter of fact, when I started at globe, that’s it was five years after I got married, let’s say a year past when I started a globe. That’s when my divorce, the whole thing started happening. So I kind of moved in with these guys from New York at the time, and I started a brand with one event was called Don Dante. It was all about doing collaboration with different artists. We did two different collections, one with Miami Inc from MTV, and the other one with cope two, which is a very famous graffiti artist from the Bronx, New York, anyways, so I was already like, so I will work the entire day, and when we get a night, and I’ll put another Three hours, you know, at night in my house, just really pushing the brand and whatnot. And we got in really cool places with that brand, by the way, but so I’ve always had an entrepreneur in mind, but, you know, it’s always like, I feel like, and I feel like this is the challenge for a lot of people that are entrepreneurial, but they’re somewhat afraid of like, Hey, let me just drop what I’m doing working for people, and I’m just going to start my own thing. But when you are, when you do have the entrepreneurial kind of mindset, you applying that on your daily board. So it’s like, for instance, when I was a designer assistant, I will look at all the art department. People were only interested in getting their work done and go home and whatnot, and I will, and I was always going into the different departments. And I was curious about sales. I was curious about the numbers. I was curious about how do they, you know, how do they budget the marketing side of things, and how do they budget the development of everything that we were creating? So I think my having a very curious mindset, it kind of puts you, it’s you become unstoppable, you know. And when you’re unstoppable, you don’t want to, you want to build your own things. You don’t settle for things, you know. So I always had that kind of mindset, and because of that. Started. I co founded two brands inside of globe, you know. I started brands from scratch, you know. And that for me was just like, This is what I want to do. I need to start doing this on my own. And I was doing that whole brand didn’t work down that. I’d say we had to stop. And then, yeah, I guess then the accident came, and I just took advantage of it. I was just like, this is the time, you know, for me to make the switch. So
Curt Anderson 20:28
I’d say this is absolutely awesome, John. And just one thing I love nano is that insatiable curiosity, you know, yeah. And what I love about that is, you know, coming into entrepreneurship with the humility to be curious. Because, you know, with entrepreneurship, you know, being the surfer you are, I always equate entrepreneurship to surfing, you know, you kind of figure, you know, like, Hey, I’ve got this whole surfing thing figured out, until the next wave comes along and just knocks it, you know, puts you back into a place of humility, right? So, I think, like with you being adventurer, you know, traveler, you know, so it sounds like this curiosity. It just really teed you up, you know, to kick off your your entrepreneurial journey. Now what I want to do is, I want to, I want to dive into your website. I’m going to pull it up here on the screen, collective devise. So share a little bit like, who is collective devise? How do you guys make the world a better place? Let’s, let’s go there. And I’m going to pull up your website right now. So
NANO NÓBREGA 21:22
the website started as, I’ve always been, like a sole interpreter type guy, you know, I don’t, I never got to a point where, or I never had the desire of having, like, oh, I want to have my agency. And I have, I want to get, I want to rent a place, I want to get a bunch of employees, and I want to run the company that was just not, it’s just not me. I can’t it’s just not the way I run things like I and that’s why the name came in, like collective device, is because one of the things that I learned a lot during my time at dusters, which was their lifestyle surfscape brand, that I created inside of globe, was that I was doing all sorts of different collaborations, not only on the development side of collabs, like I did with Jimi Hendrix, I did with Playboy I did with, you know, cope and, you know, all this other Farrah Fawcett, but also because, you know, within skateboarding and surfing, budgets can be very tight, I always had to learn how to do guerrilla marketing and gorilla marketing. It’s all about collective, you know, it’s all about collaborating with other people, like you, get a photographer here, a videographer there, a skater that is willing to skate for you for free, or you can exchange your product. So I will put these photo shoots, video shoots, together with very minimal budget, and that that taught me how to build things collaborating with people. So everything that I has, that I have done in my business all these years, has always been working with people outside of my you know, my company. My company is myself. You know, I don’t have employees, but I collaborate with hundreds and hundreds of people all over the world. I have artists in Spain. I have artists in Indonesia. I have people in Brazil that I work with. And, you know, and I think that that’s the beauty, you know, I have, there’s I have a little saying that I used. I heard that from from Obama on one of his speeches that he says he talks about, he says, I use it in my my signature for my email. It says, The cosmic race. We are big enough to embrace the notion that we are all part of a greater community. We rise and fall as one people, right? And that, for me is that has always been my mojo, like, you know, I collaborate, I joined forces. It’s what like what I’m doing with John. You know, we’re joining forces. We’re building things together, but we don’t necessarily work in the same umbrella under the same roof, right? And I think that’s sort of based on when I talk to friends of mine that are running, you know, advertising agencies and whatnot. They’re like, that’s kind of the model nowadays. Everything is just getting tighter, shorter, you know, not, not as big companies with so many people like, the model of of hiring an agent with so many people in charging you so much money is just because nowadays it’s just much easier to get a digital camera and shoot photos, much easier to get a digital you know, you’re you don’t have to develop films. Now, you do everything on your phone. You can edit videos on your phone. And in a way, this kind of technology, you can think of it as a way that is, it’s, it’s, it’s a. Uh, you know, it’s taking places of people in the industry, but it’s not. It’s just a different tool, like, if you’re smart, you will use that to your benefit. And if you’re, you’re already, like an incredible photographer, videographer, you’re going to use that to increase your productivity. But anyways, to your question, um, that’s how collective device runs. We are, we’re, we’re all big family is just, you know, it’s, it’s all my network of people that share the same sort of lifestyle one way or another. You know, either if, either if it’s a passion about fashion, about product development, either is a passion about graffiti, art, punk rock, skateboarding, surfing, you name it. So that’s, that’s usually the people that I joined forces with and that, and then would, would build beautiful things, you know,
NANO NÓBREGA 25:52
yeah, well, I love
Curt Anderson 25:53
it, and John, I want to get you in here. But before we do that, I’m a younger guy, if you didn’t, you know, a little little spoiler alert, I’m not a younger guy. So when I saw this, yeah, like, nano dude, like you I saw, as a matter of fact, I came back. Where did I see him? I’m on your website, and I recognize Robbie, like, right away. Like, I’m like, Hey, I think that’s Robbie Krieger. So, yes, it is,
NANO NÓBREGA 26:15
you know, phenomenal.
Curt Anderson 26:16
So I was, I grew up a DOORS fanatic. So I’m going to dive deeper into your relationship with apparel redefine. But before we go there, just as a raving fan, what’s your relationship with Robbie Krieger from the doors? Well,
NANO NÓBREGA 26:30
so dusters. When I created dusters, and it was more of a lifestyle brand, again, as opposed to, like a core skateboard brand, and one of the things that I thought would be very powerful to, uh, build brand awareness, was to collaborate with, you know, because the whole idea of dusters was like, hey, I want to, you know, I want to build a brand that that unites surf and skateboarding. And to do that, I felt like we had to go back in the 70s, 60s and 70s, where, where the both sports were very intertwined, you know, they, you know, it started from surf and skateboard. It came from so surfers were skate. Skaters who surf nowadays is not that anymore. They’re complete. They’re somewhat, completely different tribes. You know, it’s different. In Brazil, most, most skaters will surf. Surfers will skate at but in us, it it’s very defined. These tribes are very defined, at least the way I learn by working with both of them. And so with dusters, I wanted to bring that back. So going back to the 70s, you know, there’s a lot of rock and roll, man, there’s a lot of music. There’s all kinds of you know. So I did a collaboration with Farrah Fawcett, which was really fun because we raised funds for her breast cancer foundation, right? Take care of patients and whatnot. And that’s, that’s another really good thing to mention that I would say to highlight of my career, or my my my work style, like, I love, I love making things that has a purpose. Like, how do we if we’re building a collection, how do we join forces with people with a community where we can give back to them? Right? So so far, faucet was one of them. I did, also different ones that we can talk about. But going back to doors, I did Farrah Fawcett. Then I believe I did something with Jimi Hendrix, but then it was just dealing with the state, you know, so it’s kind of like a cold approach. Wasn’t very intimate, like with doors. I had a friend of mine because Robbie lives in Venice Beach, man. And I’ve always in Venice Beach, so one of my friends knew him, and I was just like, oh my gosh, man, it would be so ratted into something with these guys. And he was all about it, because it’s like, yeah, man. I, I skated my I had a skate ramp in my house. And he was, he was telling us all about it, and, yes, it was kind of like a, in a way, a very organic, you know, collaboration. And I was amazed that he was willing to, you know, go to the office and talk to us and share some of his experiences and whatnot. He’s super nice guy, super humble. It was amazing. It was an incredible experience. Gosh. What a what
Curt Anderson 29:26
a gift. And you talk about, like, just an icon, you know, for the LA scene, yes, so you know, when you mentioned fear of Fauci so, like, dude, like you’re going back to my, my younger, my younger days. But you know, let’s dive into your, your I want to hear more about, like your relationship with apparel redefined. You know, we always love to say, as an entrepreneur, as you well, know, it takes a village to raise a child. They say it takes a village to raise a business, and really for you to be successful. For any of us out there in entrepreneurship, we really need a line with just like wonderful people, people we feel like. We have that have our back. Just talk a little bit about how critical it’s been for your success to line with, you know, just valuable, par trusted partners and like our friends here at apparel, redefine What’s that look like for you? Um,
NANO NÓBREGA 30:13
it’s, it’s, it’s been an an incredible experience, to the point where I remember when I met John, we were at this at Rock. I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing it right, rock. And now, man, I I’m, in a way, I’m old school, as far as it’s as far as, you know, manufacturing apparel, you know, it’s all about soup screen and and then I started to learn about print on demand. That’s when I met John, and I was amazed at how, you know, I always thought print on demand was something that they will paint print, something that will look like plastic on your shirts. You know, I’m just like, well, this is just some cheesy printer in your house and whatnot. But through John, I started to learn that this is a massive industry. These are million dollar machines, like they’re very there’s just a lot of technology that goes into it, and it’s just getting better and better, you know. And we’ve been working together, and I’ve been seeing the results of it, and I’m just amazed on of how close things are looking to silk screen, and you know, this whole print on demand, of way of doing things. It’s just really, I wish when I was starting my brand, if this was there, man, it was, I the the brand will probably be still happening, because we had to buy a bunch of stock of a brand that we never we didn’t know if it was going to work. And they literally was, when that whole the real estate market collapsed, and our investors, you know, for the brand, was part of that. So he lost a lot of money. He’s just like, Hey guys, I’m done, you know. And that was the reason why we stopped. Had we had something like this where we could just kind of slowly start, you know, printing and going as you know, taking orders as we go. It’s a game changer. It’s a game changer, you know. And then you know, a side of the whole print, of the men industry, and how fast this is growing and how, how much that has been helping brands or interpreters like, you know, a me or so many out there, people much, much, much younger than me, to start their own business, you know, especially for, you know, creators on Instagram, Tiktok and name it like You can start a brand nowadays, like that, right? But then, aside of that, I started to learn, you know, how John operates his business, how he built his business. He started very young, so he’s an inspiration, man. You know, I was amazed at dinner that I had not too long ago that we were at the straight show. He was telling me all about the way he started his business and how he, you know, bought his partners, part of it, and it’s been, you know, leading the whole thing on, not only his own, like he’s got a team, but how big it has gotten. Man, that’s, that’s very inspirational. So it’s, it’s been a pleasure to work with them. We we also share similar ideas, and we have similar work ethics. And when I talk about, when we talk about the collaborative, you know, power of joining forces with people like that, that’s, that’s when beautiful things are born, you know, like, so it’s been, it’s been great to be magical. Well, I love the words
Curt Anderson 33:40
that you’re closing out, you know, like magical, beautiful, and it just, it’s all about those relationships. You know, when you align with people that have same values. Trust John, what are your What are your thoughts here? What Nanos describing?
John LaRoy 33:53
No, I mean, the one thing that he said that really sticks out amongst all the other things that really stick out is, like, the insatiable appetite for curiosity, right? And I feel that is a really common trait amongst many entrepreneurs. And the other thing that I just heard, not from you guys, but Steve Jobs, said, you know, what is? What is the biggest thing that you see, or biggest trait that you see among really successful people. And like, you know, you’re thinking, like the normal, like, discipline, hard work, that type of stuff. But he said, the thing that I see is that people that are really successful, they always want to work with people that are better than them. And, like, it really freaking hit home, because, like, working with Nano, you talk about how it’s like the cell phone has changed a lot of industries, and people can either fear it or embrace it. It’s really hard to be really good at a lot of things, right? There’s not many people. There’s nobody that is great at everything, right? But like looking at these, like segmented niches, all of businesses were like, hey, up in. What we met a year ago. Like, I was really interested. I would see how products are, like, the end probably, but I’m like, how is that made? And I know I could probably do it better, especially when it comes to, like, custom garment creation for casinos and stuff like that, like all these crazy patterns. But I had no idea how to do it. I knew it was like being done overseas. And then you say, like life just starts happening. We meet, we work on this account. Didn’t totally close it. We have about 40% of it, but it’s coming. And just how instrumental he was with all these connections from, you know, the storyboard, to creating the tech packs, to getting it and then executing, and then this bag from DHL shows up, like, three weeks later with exactly with what we had envisioned, like, in mind. And it’s just amazing. It’s like, it opens up a whole new avenue of business. And I’m like, I’ve been working with one of my best friends, Curt. We’ve talked about him with Matt lancor, rugby guy you know, had life altering event with some about with cancer, as a really young guy and really got into yoga. And he’s a former d1 football player that has knee problems. So he’s like, he’s asking me, like, how do I make a yoga mat? I’m like, I can print on it. I don’t know how to make a yoga mat. I know a guy that can. So they’ve been working together for almost a year, and they’re getting, yeah, close to getting their product launched, and then, coincidentally, like, his wife’s got an amazing yoga brand as well. So it’s just where I came from in a very competitive mindset of traditional sports, where it’s like, don’t talk about what you’re doing, just work harder than everybody else and shut your mouth. Like, I still buy into that, and I still do it. But there’s also a component of like, don’t be afraid to collaborate, right, where there’s other people that will be better than you, and that’s embrace it, rather than try and fight it. And I think like just talking to people like Nano, like he’s the epitome of that, because his business is that, like, they just have all these different people that specialize in certain things, in the guerrilla marketing, that’s what we’re trying to do with me and Curt right now, of like, hey, we have no budget, and how do we market a company that’s been around for a while, but we’ve never really done marketing, and just hearing and having these conversations, we had a great dinner. It is possible where, like you look at it’s like, this is impossible. Like, my competitors are spending, you know, four imprints done in, you know, probably a million dollars a week on advertising. Yeah, we don’t have that, but we could do things better. So, yeah, it’s just been, it’s been a joy. I’m so grateful that we met at the Rock booth, because I got your car and we were kind of like, going different directions. And, yeah, you know, it’s just, it’s amazing that all the stuff that we’ve done, like you think about a year, seems like a long time, but like, we were on the phone during the summer getting all these samples, and yeah, it was, you talk about executing at a very high level, this guy could do it, and we were blowing that. Those
NANO NÓBREGA 37:57
are you in my man, so do you?
John LaRoy 38:01
But it’s amazing. He’s a one man band that with all the stuff he’s able to do.
Curt Anderson 38:06
Thank you. So Nano, as we start winding down, just share, what are you super excited about at your business, your company, your future? What are you looking forward ahead of the year? What’s What’s that look like on the horizon here?
NANO NÓBREGA 38:18
Um,
NANO NÓBREGA 38:21
well,
NANO NÓBREGA 38:24
I honestly try to, like I said, I learned that future is very unpredictable, so I love living in the present. As cliche as that sounds, right, that said, Though I do see there’s a lot of things happening. And I think technology is really something that is growing at a speed right now. When you look at how technology, if you were to draw a map, you know, it starts very slow, and as it starts to pick up, it’s just, it’s just going to shoot up, right? So I feel like we’re in that, you know, that part where it’s about to shoot up, man, and this AI thing, I went through a two and a half hours meeting yesterday with a product that blew my mind, using AI that can help schools and teachers how to plan the entire year of classes. And the thing does it in like, 10 minutes. It’s unbelievable, mind bogging, right? And then they have, anyways, you know, this whole way I think it’s, it’s, it’s coming in strong. I’m not going to say I’m afraid of it or, I mean, I’m certainly curious about it, because, you know, like, that’s this curiosity is my thing, right? Like, I’m always like, Okay, what’s next that I can use to to my benefit, to increase my productivity and make things much faster, right? But at what? Level, this is going to start to obstruct some of the industry. I don’t know, you know so, but I’m excited about it. I’m excited about it because it’s just, it’s something new that we have no clue where it’s going to take us, but I think is going to happen pretty fast. I will say, in the next two, three to five years, things will change drastically. So I’m excited about that. I’m excited about what John is doing. You know, the whole train on demand business is very exciting, because I feel like now is getting to a point where the level of customizations and the level the quality of what you can build as an apparel line. It’s, it’s unbelievable how fast you can, you can make that happen, and how, in a way, you know, safe it is, you know, as far as as an interpreter, you know, the least amount of money that you have to come in with it, you know, but those are two things that I’m very excited about,
John LaRoy 40:59
and making, making like specifically, with that print on demand, using your expertise, because, like you solve, I feel for one of the hardest thing is the equipment, the equipment that we have, in terms of what it’s able to do, the quality versus competition, fine, but the one thing that has not, it’s almost regressed, is the quality of the apparel. You know, where you have you hit you’re putting, you know, a Rolls Royce engine inside of a Kia. Need to match that level of quality of print with apparel. And now, you know, something we’re working on that we need to accelerate is designing apparel that’s optimized for this machine. Yes, it’s super high quality that you you know a lot of these distributors don’t have anything like that, but if you’re you want to sell a premium product for a premium brand. You don’t want that merch to be here and the brands here. You want continuity of feel and durability that that brand is is positioned with. And now that’s the next thing that we’re going to be working on together, is really trying to match the actual garment quality with the print quality. So excited about the X there’s a lot of opportunity there, just, you know, because then we could build a brand around the brand.
NANO NÓBREGA 42:11
I’m excited about that too. 100% Yeah, awesome. All right. Now,
Curt Anderson 42:16
I know, I know you’re busy, man. We appreciate your time. As we close out, I’m going to sneak one last question in there. So you’re stuck with me for another minute. Business advice that you have ever received, best business advice that you’ve ever received that you’d like to pass along, maybe to your younger self. Maybe there’s a young, not even or not necessarily, young, a new entrepreneur out there. What do you feel is the best business advice that it’s helped you be successful for the past 10 years. Um,
NANO NÓBREGA 42:45
there’s a, there’s a little quote that, honestly, I don’t know where I got this from, but it stuck to my head, and I think it represents the way I’ve always dealt with my life like that’s, that’s, that’s my lifestyle, and it says calm and calm. Uh, calm and confident, calm and confident. What does that mean? Um, it’s, it’s about trusting the process. Um, I think doing something that you’re passionate about, that you love, is it plays a big part of it, because when you do that, I feel like things just happen organically. When I first started working for surf magazine fluid in Brazil, and I saw the lifestyle, and I saw that oh my gosh, like people can actually make money, have a living, but just talking about surfing the whole freaking day, just like I want to do that, right? Um, and as I took on that pathway, well, by looking at that, one of the things that I could that I could see that it was very different from all my other friends doing things that they were like, Yeah, I got this job and I make money, but I freaking hate it, and they just wanted to go home. And when I was working at the magazine and working then, just by working with surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding my whole life, people are stoked. Man, they’re it’s not it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like you’re doing something that you love, and because you because you do that, that puts you in that mind state of like, calm and confident. Do what you love, do it well. Stay calm, very confident, and the universe will lay out everything to you like you don’t. You don’t have to wake up at five. You can if you want. You don’t have to work 24 hours. You can if you want, if your heart says, Hey, you gotta wake up tomorrow at five. Do it? But you don’t have to. I think the most important thing is to believe what you’re doing, to fall into that. State of calm and confident. You gotta be calm to go through the ups and downs, but you gotta believe that it’s just the pathway is just beautiful right in front of you, and the universe wants the best for you. Always the universe wants the best for everybody. So when you accept that and you let life happen, I mean, of course, you you’re taking your actions on a daily basis, do your best. Like I said, life will deliver. Life will deliver, you know, so that’s, that’s the best advice, that I will go back and well, my anxiety days of like, Oh my gosh. Am I going to get this work or that I will be like, bro, relax and believe, calm and confident it will happen for you
Curt Anderson 45:42
drop the mic. Dude, absolutely brilliant. Man. Did I need that? Dude? Like, where were you 20 years ago? You know, maybe I’d have some ears off, but so calm and confident. Couldn’t love that more. John, your thoughts, your takeaways, as we close out,
John LaRoy 46:01
do a starter brand.
Curt Anderson 46:05
Like, I was like, like, dude, John, get the T shirts. Get them running right now, right
NANO NÓBREGA 46:08
hey.
John LaRoy 46:10
I mean, I’m always in a state of controlled chaos, and just by saying that, I feel like just a wave of calm. I mean, I am looking at a beautiful setting here, but man, yeah, it doesn’t
NANO NÓBREGA 46:23
look very chaotic right now for you, yeah,
Curt Anderson 46:28
let’s, I know you’re not going to drop your computer. Let’s, let’s see the view real quick. Let’s see the view real quick. Calm and confident. John Leroy, yeah, you right.
NANO NÓBREGA 46:38
How can you not be calm and confident looking at that. Come on. That’s yeah, yeah. No, I am. That’s the magical
John LaRoy 46:46
pill. Yeah. I’m just waiting for my wife to get the hell out here. So no, no,
Curt Anderson 46:49
that’s right. So John, we’ll let you guys run. So not all. Thank you. We’re going to have your website LinkedIn. We’re going to have the in the show notes here. We appreciate you. We applaud you. We just wish you just monster continued success, and, and, and from bottom, my heart, thank you, man. You John, I gotta say, like, he’s, like, really cool. He’s like, one of the most hip guys I’ve ever met. And pussy knows Robbie Krieger from the doors, truly a gift. This was a blessing. And nano, we just, we wish you the very best, my friend.
NANO NÓBREGA 47:20
Thank you so much, guys you know, all back to you. It’s been an honor. It’s been fun to be part of this. And I, I admire what you guys are putting together. You know, this is really key content for for people out there, especially the people that follow, you know, apparel redefine and what they’re doing. I think this not just me, but if all the other I’m sure everybody that it will bring in will bring a little bit of piece of information that could turn into a seed to just bloom for people in the industry. No. So congratulations. Thank you for doing that. You know, I know you guys are not getting paid to do that. So this is, this is a that’s you giving back. Man, that’s your giving back. So I applaud you.
Curt Anderson 48:06
Awesome. Alright guys, hey, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We wish everybody, man, anything that you missed. Man, hit that replay button because this was just such a phenomenal conversation. So now I don’t looking forward to future conversations. Keep crushing it, John, get to your family, hug the kids, hug the wife, and just forget about work for for the next few days, and we’ll see you guys next time. Cheers.