This week I'm making a trip south on Ih 35 to San Antonio. Im going to speak with a young entrepreneur, Algernon Lee, whom owns Takeover, the streetwear brand that is catching fire in his city and surrounding areas.
It is another beautiful sunny day to be doing what I love. I first met the young mogul in the making at an event in Houston, Tx that I attended to to give interviews to performing artist. I gave a him a short interview that night because I could tell he was a young black man about his business. He had merchandise laid out on his table and performing artist draped in his logos. When I found out he was from Converse, Tx, a metropolitan area of San Antonio, I knew I would be meeting up with him again.
We met up at Elders Family Restaurant an establishment his mother happens to own and he helps manage. I didn't get a chance to eat there because they were closed that day, but the menu looks amazing and I will be returning for sure.
Pulling up to his family restaurant you can already start to see where he gets his entrepreneurial spirit. He later tells me that his mom is one of his biggest inspirations. "My mom and dad got divorced when I was young and my mom worked non stop", says Al. He continues. "I would barely see my mom when I was a kid. I saw [her] work ethic and it drove me".
He attributes his work ethic today to seeing his mom, grandma, aunt and uncle work hard when he was kid. The work ethic he saw them have when he was a young child definitely rubbed off on him with all he does today. Not only is Takeover brand a clothing line, but they put out a magazine, and he has dropped 3 compilation tapes filled with local artist.
When I asked him how he got into fashion he tells me that he back into by accident. The original Idea for Takeover was to create an app that serviced his needs. However, after seeing how much apps were costing to create at the time he had to find another way to get his ideas to the world. So he made some t-shirts that sold well and the rest is history.
If you've been around Al you know he is known for wearing the double and triple stripped socks with his fits. It is a unique style to have in 2022 to say the least. I wanted to know where he gets his inspiration for his own style and the designs for his brand.
When it comes to his signature socks those come from his favorite basket ball player of all time, Hall of Fame shooting guard, Pete "Pistol Pete" Maravich. This may be shocking to many in the age of Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Micheal Jordan, Allen Iverson, and Steph Curry but I totally get it. Pistol Pete was a trendsetter in his own right. He was shooting Steph Curry threes before there was a three point line. He still holds the record for highest points averaged in the NCAA. He was a dog.
As far as his designs he looks at current popular fashion brands, like Balenciaga and Off-White for inspiration. He says he use to go crazy with the designs until he saw how the major brands made things simple. He still does his thing with the colorways, but tapered down the designs. Plus, being that he makes his own clothes, simplicity is king. He explains to me that with complicated designs one mess up can set him back big time on the account that he would have to start all over.
As far as the music side of his brand he talks about how studying Master P made him want to get into it. He realized No Limit was a brand that just happened to do music. To date Takeover has dropped three projects, as mentioned above: Get Back Season 1, Get Back Season 2, and the latest Takeover vs The World. These are all projects that were motivated by No limits compilation Down South Hustlers.
"I want artist to use my platform as a way to meet other artist". Says Algernon. "Im pulling artist from everywhere to make this happen".
Sense he is already in the music space I wanted to know if he planned on signing artist to his brand or starting a label. He shot it down stating the nature of the industry versus his morals wouldn't allow him to do that. He says he knows how it feels to put your all into something and not get a return off of it. He follows that with saying the only way he would sign artist is if he's already made so much money that he could just give all the artist Master P type deals where they would get 80 percent of the profits to his 20.
I wish more people in the music industry had that kind of belief, but the game just isn't set up that way. Mr. Lee is a different kind of human though. He tells me being the greatest of all time just isn't something that is on his mind. He believes no one can be the greatest of all time anyway because someone always came before you and there will always be someone coming to add onto what you did when you're gone.
That still doesn't mean he doesn't want to be great and rival all the top brands that I mentioned before. He has a drive to put his people and his city on map with the confidence to do it.
To conclude or session I just had one more question for him: What is the end game? His reply.
"Take over the world".
For more information on what Takeover has coming next visit Algernon's IG here.
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