Storytelling and creating our own unique world is what we strive to do best, so for documentation purposes, I want to take it back to the very beginning of how we started, Rair Threads.
Growing up, I always looked to the future with excitement as I knew the possibilities were endless, despite always struggling in finding my purpose. I had this feeling that I wanted to create something of my own, which makes me think back and remember drawing characters for my own imaginary world. However, I didn't know what that realistically looked like, whether that was starting a brand or business, or whatever adults do for their careers.
Rair Threads Graduating from College at UTSA
This story starts at UTSA where I'm being exposed to entrepreneurial ideas and people, but most important of all, the freedom to explore. I'm diving into all types of new hyped things such as Bitcoin, and I purchase my 1st drone in 2017, the GoPro Karma. That thing is like 10 times bigger than the DJI drone that I've got now but man it was a dope piece of technology at the time, and I knew that this was the future, which has always been my fascination. Through this seemingly random purchase, I started to learn video editing, eventually becoming familiar with the entire Adobe Creative Cloud on a cracked license that I torrented for free on my MacBook Air.
Rair Threads Class Project for Entrepreneurship Class at UTSA
Fast forward to early 2018, I'm officially declared as a marketing major, but I've also got this entrepreneurial bug so I sign up for this class about starting a business. Our professor tasks us with building a business plan for the entire semester, so I decided to base mine around a clothing brand.
The First Rair Threads Logo and Prototype Ever Made
From there I'm eventually messing around in Photoshop, and I come up with this "Rair" design for fun that I thought looked cool, but I had no idea that this logo would be used for my business plan and brand, or be the start of an entrepreneurial journey that's going on 5+ years now.
Our Very Humble Beginnings at the First Rair Threads Pop-Up Shop
My junior year finishes with no internship lined up unfortunately, so I take my summer before senior year and turn my 27-page Rair Threads business plan from class project to reality. From there I made several prototypes and launched my 1st Kickstarter Campaign, Shopify, and products, within the 1st month of school starting back up in September of 2018.
Levicantsing from FRITOGANG Modeling Rair Thread's SZN_1 Moon Hoodie
I'm balancing building a brand with my job as an RA, and internship at the Aztec Theatre, while trying to finish my college career strong, but ultimately it was one of the most impactful chapters of my life, and 100% worth it. It was dope rocking my brand on campus and seeing other people wearing it too, I even had all the other RA's representing and putting their residents onto the brand too.
Our 1st Newspaper Print Article
Rair Threads had a great run, shoutout to True North SA for hosting our 1st launch, UTSA CEO for believing in my vision, The Wavez Movement for our 1st interview, Damn Good Media for our last interview, and lastly The Paisano for the brand's 1st newspaper print article, even that unreleased follow-up video interview that never came out due to the suddenly abrupt pandemic.
Rair Threads Merchandise
But ultimately after learning so much in a short span of time, I realized I had so many passions outside of simply building a streetwear brand. What started with a drone, a UTSA business class, a lightning bolt tee I've been drawing as a kid, and a final effort to go all out my senior year of college at UTSA, has now turned into a full-fledged multimedia universe that we now call Project Rare.
Official Project Rare Logo
If you made it to the end of our first blog, I'm thankful for your support and hope this story was interesting. Let's chase our dreams and start some movements.
- Joey Asteroid
