"You miss 100% of the shots you never take"

-Wayne Gretzky

These are my companies, brands, and projects that I am currently working on or invested in. They are subject to change as we evolve. 

LATURE HAIR

I will be partnering with my friend, celebrity hair stylist Dionne Alexander, on her line of haircare products, Lature Hair. I am serving as the Vice-President of LaTure Hair as Dionne is the Founder and President of the company. Our focus will be on the development of shampoos, conditioners, as well as tools for professionals and consumers such as flat irons, scissors, rollers, etc. We will be in development over the year and are looking to release new products in near future. Dionne has been a professional Hair Stylist with over 20 years experience. Her work has been published in major music, print, and television media. Her partial clientele list has included the likes of Iman, Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige, Lauren Hill, Lil' Kim, CoCo, Faith Evans, Rosie Perez, Americas Next Top Model, MAC Cosmetics, and more. We are ready to bring the fire to upscale beauty and hair. As I mentioned in my "What I Did" section, Dionne and I use to co-manage my twin cousin's singing group with when they were going to sign with Mary J. Blige years ago. http://www.laturehair.com

*Read article featuring Dionne in InStyle Magazine. Click on title below*

“Revisiting Some of the Most Memorable Hair Styles of the '90s”

*Read article featuring Dionne and myself in COMPLEX Magazine. Click on title below*

“Meet Dionne Alexander, the Hair Stylist Behind Lil' Kim's Designer Logo Wigs and Mary J. Blige's '90s Updos”

*Read article featuring Dionne in BILLBOARD Magazine. Click on title below*

“Architects of 01’ Hip-Hop Fashion Discuss the Era’s Most Iconic Looks”

APPARL

I am currently the Founder & CEO at the DC-based tech startup, Apparl. Apparl is the business network and sourcing marketplace for the five trillion dollar global clothing, textile, and fashion industry. Apparl connects industry professionals to buyers, sellers, resources, and a community within the clothing industry. Our iOS and Android app is slated to launch in first quarter of 2024. I came up with the idea for Apparl based on my personal clothing industry business needs as well as having being asked the same questions by clients that needed help starting their clothing brands. It gave me the desire to bring together a very large, very segmented, very necessary, industry that needed its own digital home. Joining me on this journey to disrupt the global clothing industry with my other two Founders, Danny Pimienta (CTO), Shaun Whalen (CDO). Apparl has 21 main categories with many sub-categories that should cover the entire industry: Manufacturers, Fashion, Haircare, Eyewear, Directories, Education, Warehousing, Wholesalers, Modeling, Jewelry, Business Services, Design, Associations, Transportation, Retailers, Cosmetics/Grooming, Interior Design, News, Events, Technology, and Miscellaneous. Your business is OUR business! http://www.apparl.com 

CORSA

Click On Images To Cycle Right

I am the President and Owner of The Corsa Group, LLC., creators of Corsa Brand, affectionately known as Corsa Leathers. Corsa is a unique, energetic brand of high performance, race inspired, motorcycle apparel. Corsa began business in 2000. We are currently working on revamping and relaunching the brand for 2024. It's been a long time coming. Our new designs are being developed in Los Angeles but manufactured elsewhere. I'm going to take motorcycle jackets and high-end fashion leather jackets to the next level. I also have a few more items I'd like to bring to the table. It’s been a long time coming. http://www.corsabrand.com

BULLYSTYLE

Bullystyle Racing (BSR), better known as “Bullystyle” or “Bully”, is an upscale motorcycle apparel and accessories brand previously owned by my friends in NYC, Reg Punla and York Capitstrano, who've moved on to do other creative projects. Bullystyle started its life as an artistic design team with expertise in graphic design, editing, motion graphics, photography, and many other things for the entertainment industry, particularly music, television, and film. They’ve done work for many major networks and many different brands. They also had a love for motorcycles. Bullystyle worked media exclusively for Michael Jordan and Team Jordan Motorsports/Jumpman23 for the first two seasons of Team Jordan. I originally met Reg and York in New York at the Jacob Javitz Center during the International Motorcycle Show when I was filming a pilot for my TV Show, “The Clutch”, which had interest from Discovery Channel and Spike TV at the time.

Through a mutual friend, Ken Abbott, from Clear Channel and who was General Manager of Team Jordan Motorsports at the time, I was invited to join Michael Jordan and Team Jordan Motorsports for Daytona Bike Week. The pleasant surprise was that my team and I (The Clutch) reconnected with Reg, York, the rest of Bullystyle, AND all of Team Jordan Motorsports including MJ for the time we were in Daytona. We also linked again a month later in Myrtle Beach for Bike Week. People were able to see the Bullystyle logo and branding on all of the MJ Motorsport race team motorcycles during the first two years of the team. My plan is to revive the brand and make it a household name. The focus will not be limited superbikes (motorcycles) but to also include supercars, hypercars, and eventually action sports like snowboarding, skateboarding, freestyle motocross, etc. I’d like to see the horns EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING in 2024. After all, we were MJ approved!

Below is a showreel with “some” of the work that Bullystyle has done in the past. It’s an old reel but maybe you recognize some of their work.

Click On Images To Cycle Right

THE PLUSARY

I am currently one of two Founders at the DC-based tech startup, The Plusary, an upscale fashion-based community marketplace for men's and women's Plus-Size & Big/Tall clothing. Our website is slated to launch in summer of 2024. I came up for the idea of The Plusary after a phone conversation with my cousin, Brandy Alexandria Shellman (Founder), about the Plus-Size clothing industry. Our family has a background in clothing, one way or another. Brandy's always been an advocate for Plus-Size women and men, and the lack of upscale clothing thereof. We decided to do some that would bring the community together by creating a 2-sided marketplace where like-minded individuals can buy and sell top clothing and accessories to one another. Why not clear out your closet, make room for more clothing, and make money doing it? http://www.theplusary.com. 

Fun Fact: Did you know that there are roughly 326,000,000 people in the US in 2017? About 166,497,665 are female. 67% of women in the US, around 110,550,000, are Plus-Size. (sizes 14+).

SIVILISATION

SIVILISATION (pronounced “civilization”) is the overall brainchild of Shaun Whalen, one of my Co-Founders and business partners at Apparl. We were having a conversation one night and he mentioned that he’d wanted to do a clothing line. Now, Shaun is a “techwear” kind of guy mixed with a few influences from the ninja. He’s a frequent buyer of brands like Yeezy, Acronym, Yohji Yamamoto’s Y-3, Fear of God, Supreme, etc. so I already knew what direction the brand it would go. It took a couple of days to come up with a name but when it hits me, it hits me. I thought sivilisation would fit the overall vision and vibe of the brand. From there he and I hit the ground running, bouncing ideas back and forth from the logo to the tag line. SIVILISATION is an upscaled, post apocalyptic, modern reconstruction influenced outerwear and techwear brand for men and women. I believe that this line has the potential to do great numbers because Shaun is a very deep thinker and dope ass Creative Director. I will be working along side him to bring this idea to life. Look for SIVILISATION to hit the market in 2024. Until then…Be Sivilised! http://www.sivilisation.com

"Honorable Mentions"

These other projects of mine are always getting pushed to the back of the line. Not sure if its in the cards for next year either. BUT, hey, we can always hope, right? Baby steps...

Azz Monkey

Azz Monkey is a project that Khris and I talked about since 2012. Or maybe it was 2009? (thinking to himself). At any rate, we were talking about expanding the Corsa brand into action sports. The problem with that idea? Corsa is an Italian word for "race". I've seen people race motorcycles, but nobody's widely racing skateboards or snowboards professionally so I had to come up with a new brand name. After weeks without conjuring up a name for the brand, I found myself on the phone with my female bestie, Angie Brooks. I was trying to explain something to her while she was driving. She wasn’t really paying attention. Her mind was elsewhere, probably from trying to split her focus between our conversation and navigating. That was evident by me having to constantly repeat my thoughts to her. I repeated myself one too many times and asked, “Why don’t you pay attention to what I am saying, you ass monkey!” We both laughed, paused for a moment, then said, “That’s it!!!”. I changed the spelling from Ass to Azz so it would be a little be more palatable for the public. The rest is history…Azz Monkey Clothing Carnivale is a PREMIUM snow & skate lifestyle brand. We make expensive toys and happy shit! http://www.azzmonkey.com