July 13, 2020 • 47 mins
FYI!!! Carla Marie is no longer the host of a morning show in Seattle but she is still supporting small businesses in every way possible. She’s even started her own small business with her radio cohost and best friend, Anthony. All of the links below will help you stay up to date!
Follow Carla Marie on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thecarlamarie/
Watch Carla Marie and Anthony’s Show on Twitch
twitch.tv/carlamarieandanthony
Sign up for The Carla Marie and Anthony Show newsletter to stay up to date:
https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5f516ae62c60490027b9ec20
Email Carla Marie
SideHustlersPodcast@gmail.com
Text Carla Marie and Anthony:
201-305-0894
Follow Carla Marie and Anthony on Instagram
http://instagram.com/carlamarieandanthony
Subscribe to Carla Marie and Anthony on YouTube:
YouTube.com/CarlaMarieAnthony
Follow Carla Marie and Anthony on Facebook
http://facebook.com/carlamarieandanthony
Email Carla Marie and Anthony
CarlaMarieandAnthony@gmail.com
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the side Hustlers podcast. I am your host
from my heart Radio Carla Maurie. Each week I talked
to someone new following a passion outside of their day job,
and I am over one episodes deep. So there are
a lot of cool people on this podcast. But it's
essentially become my own side hustle because my day job
is hosting the Carla Maurie and Anthony show on What
I Was six point one Kiss FM in Seattle. The
(00:23):
link is below in the description of this podcast if
you want to check it out now. Each week, the
people I talked to are incredible. They've always got a
different story than the last person and how they got
to where they are. It's wild, and this week's guests
are no different. Miles Gaskin and a Race Sporter are
two best friends who launched a clothing line, but their
day job is different than most of ours. They are
(00:45):
football players. Race Sporter is currently a University of Washington
football player and Myles Gaskin was University of Washington football player,
but he now plays for the Miami Dolphins and the
two of them have known each other since middle school.
The the line that the two of them launched is
Hams Seattle. Hams stands for Heart on My Sleeve hom
Seattle dot com to check it out. But it's all
(01:07):
about mental health and how Race discovered the idea of
this clothing line is incredible, so I'm excited for you
to hear their story. Oh inside note, we recorded this
podcast on a Friday and I was having a terrible day.
I was in the worst mood and the last thing
I want to do on a Friday was sit down
and talk to two people about their story because I
(01:30):
didn't think I was going to do it justice because
my brain was all over the place. So I talked
to them and it flipped a switch. It was incredible
just hearing from them and how inspiring they are. And
then after our podcast, I realized that I didn't actually
record the podcast, so that crappy day just hit me
all over again. But Miles and Race were so incredible
(01:51):
that they said, let's do it again, and we did
it again. So the podcast you're hearing is actually the
second version of it, but it's even better than what
we recorded the time. There are two amazing guys who
spent more than two hours of their Friday talking to me,
and I'm really excited for you to hear this episode
Upside Hustlers with Miles and Race It's all about ham
(02:11):
Seattle for a lot of people. You know, why are
you wait? Do you know what you want to do?
And this is something you want to do. You're talking
about do it. I'm a hustles side side hustle. Do it.
I'm a hustle hut do it. I'm a hustle side
side us. Come on ask about me, yo yo. It's
the side Hustless podcast we call the Rat. Well, this
(02:35):
is gonna be interesting because we've done this already. So
I've got mild Gaskin and Race Porter here. And when
I say we've done this already, I quote unquote recorded
a forty five minute episode that I didn't actually record.
So guys, thanks for doing this again. But fun fact, I,
since I know the story and I heard all of it,
it will be one of the most incredible podcasts for
(02:56):
people to hear. So we're gonna do it again for everyone.
So Race Port your day job. You are a student athlete.
You play football at the University of Washington, Miles gascon.
You are in the NFL. You play for the Miami Dolphins.
But you guys played together at you Dub and you've
known each other since you were kids, and you have
a streetwear brand called HOMS. So tell me about HOMS
(03:18):
and what Halms is. Yeah. So basically, Holms is a
clothing brand that we started started off with just two
white shirts. We put two different iron on patches onto them.
The goal of HOMS is to give people um something
that they can use as a form of expression for
mental illness, mental health, whatever they're feeling day today. It's
(03:38):
just basically clothing products that make it easier to have
discussions with people and start conversations. So HAMS stands for
Heart on my Sleeve and the and that's literally what
it is. That your main article of clothing is a
T shirt that has hearts on it, but it's different hearts.
There's a full heart, a half broken heart, and a
full broken heart. What does that and for? And what
(04:00):
does that mean? The hearts and the different kinds of hearts.
We called it the Phases designed because it's designed to
represent the different phases that your heart goes through, whether
it be throughout your whole life, day to day, minute
by minute, whatever it is you're constantly going through. All
these different emotions and feelings, and the goal of the design,
the phases design that we use on all our products
(04:23):
is that it's okay to feel whichever one you're feeling.
It's okay to be going in between wherever you're at.
The goal is to have other people wearing it and
feel like no matter where you're at, you're always supported
by those people wearing the clothing products and just everyone
that's in the community of homes. And the goal, like
you said, is to get people talking about mental illness.
(04:44):
And we hear that often all the time, normalized mental illness.
We need to normalize it. I mean when we were kids,
it wasn't something you talked about at all. But now,
I mean, you guys are twenty two and twenty three
years old and you are bringing this to light and
using your platform. So why is it so important for
you specifically to get mental illness out there for everyone?
(05:05):
I think right now, the reason that we've been so
urgent and spreading, spreading the brand and spreading the message
is because being a males who are usually not seen
as figures that are open about mental health, mental illness,
and be male football players, which they're just stacking it
on top of kind of the premonitions people have. It's
really like showing people if we can do it, you know,
(05:27):
these people that are supposed to be gritty and tough
and you know, never show emotion, then you can do it.
And so that's the goal with right now, us being
football players and men spreading this message. Well, it's true
and at men at twenty two years old, it takes time.
I feel like I'm in my thirties now and it's
like I'm just having those conversations with adult men. So
(05:48):
when I was twenty two, that was not a thing.
Like guys my age at that time, We're not talking
about mental health at all. And yeah, it's easy to generalize.
I would like football players talking about mental health. What
are you talking about? Like, that's not what I picture
happening in the locker room at all. But I mean,
you guys are making that happen with homs. So when
(06:09):
did you guys first have a conversation the two of
you about mental health? Back when we're living in the
old apartment his freshman year of my sophomore year of college,
just kind of being we live right next door to
each other's small apartment. So everything's going on in college,
and I've always been one of race his best friends
and best friends always, and I'm going out and join everything,
(06:29):
and I'm seeing him kind of hanging back, not really
want to go out so much, and just kind of
raised the flag of me. And I've always had an
older brother and he always was able to step in
and kind of called me to the curve and not
in a mean way, but hey, like, you're not acting
like you. I think it was my turn to do
the same thing for Race, and that just spark conversation
and he was able to just kind of just give
(06:50):
me everything. It wasn't even like I was trying to
force anything out of him. It was like, hey man,
what's going on? And it was like yep, let's talk.
And it was like, no idea, you're getting yourself into. Yeah,
I had no idea, and now you got a holding
friend of like, look at that. I'm glad I did.
In the way it worked out, it was organic, really
just two best friends doing exactly what two best friends
(07:11):
are supposed to do. You're supposed to be there for
one and when the other one's going through something, you're
always supposed to go to your friends. Those are the
people that are in your corner to have your back,
that want to see you succeed as much as possible.
So so Race, where you when Miles came to you
and said that, were you looking for someone to be
able to talk to you about that was? What was
that moment like for you? It was just kind of
a surprise because I think a lot of my mental
(07:34):
illness and I think I can speak for a lot
of other people that deal with a specifically depression and anxiety.
It's it's stuff that we just shelf and keep inside
because a we may not feel like anyone wants to
talk about it, or be even worse, they might look
at us differently if we do talk about it. Oh,
these feelings and what I was going through, I felt
like I had to hide from the world. And so
(07:56):
when Miles came to me, it wasn't hey, I know
you're depressed, what's going on? It was hey, man, you
seem a little off. It was just so organic, and
it just felt like I had this weight off my
shoulders when I could finally tell someone about it. No,
you know, I'm okay. I've just been having a rough
couple of days. And then you know it might not
be an in depth conversation, it's just we talked for
a little bit and then he's like, all right, you
(08:17):
want to watch a movie out in the living room.
And so just something like little like that I think
is so valuable when it comes to kind of mental
illness and just little bits and pieces that can get
you back to the normal way of life. And that's
what Myles did for me during that period. So is
that what you were trying to do with Hams. Absolutely?
When you look at the mental health conversation and mental illness,
(08:39):
there's a lot of stigma kind of surrounding it, and
a lot of things that kind of force negative connotations
about those conversations. And so I think my favorite thing
with Halms and what I love to say is our
goal is not to normalize mental health or or start
I mean start conversations obviously, but it's to make mental
health cool and make people feel like talking about out
(09:00):
those kind of things is something that is exciting, you know,
and you want to learn about people, You want to
know what they go through, and and then on the
other side of that, you want to be someone who
can be there for someone who's going through it, and
so kind of like if you wanted to equate the
clothing with what Miles did for me. It's just a
little boost, you know, to get someone in the right direction.
(09:20):
So if if you wake up and have a rough day,
by no means do you have to go to a
therapist and tell them about your whole life, just throw
on the hoodie. You've got people that are wearing it
that day. Hopefully feel like they're your community and they're
the people that are there to support you. It's kind
of like you guys are homes is everyone's older brother,
quite literally, Like you guys are doing this to look
(09:43):
out for other people and maybe even people obviously people
that are older than you too, but you as a
company are kind of being that big brother, which a
lot of people do need. And you are starting conversations
with these shirts. But the originals, I want you to
talk about those, because you've kind of not that you've
strayed from that, but that does. Mine is a little
different now, Grace, tell everyone how you created the original shirts.
(10:06):
So it started out with my idea for heart on
my sleeve. I've kind of I looked up the definition
of that that phrase and kind of got an understanding
as okay, someone that wears their heart on their sleeve,
as someone who is confident with the person that they
are their true self and is never bashful with their
emotions and so always growing up, I loved fashion. I
(10:27):
love clothing. I fell in love with shoes probably ninth
grade was was when my dad calls it a problem
when I started to develop that. So I really wanted
to find a way to put heart on my sleeve
into a tangible form. And that's when I came up
with the idea for the shirts. And I had to
plain white T shirts from Costco laying around that were
(10:48):
usually just thrown on in her sweatshirts, and so I
didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I
knew I wanted to put something on them, and the
idea of heart on my sleeve and that all just
came together and I was like, Okay, where can I
go do this? And luckily enough, Michael's Superstore. Michael's Superstore.
(11:08):
It's Michael's. Is it crafts or arts? And what is it?
Arts and cars? Crafts and supplies? Or yeah? Well which
I love that I So I passed this Michael's every
day on my way to work. It is between our
studio and my house. And when I was reading an
article about you guys and it said that you went
to the Michael's and Inner Bay, I was like, no, way,
that's right here, Like that's where your company was started.
So to me, that's super cool. But I don't really
(11:30):
think of football players frequenting Michael's craft store often, so
was that like a thing you normally did. No, that
was the first time I've ever been in the store,
and I guess you could kind of say I was
lost the second everyone, you know what I ale to
look down kind of just explored. And if you are
finding yourself with some time on your hands and you
(11:50):
don't know what to do, check it out. You know
they've got everything in there. They're not paying you for this, right, No,
not at all. I'm just amazed all this stuff they
have in there. I wouldn't even have thought. I fumbled
around in the store for a while and I came
across the iron on heart patches, and I think I
grabbed one pack of two of them, and I just thought,
(12:11):
you know, how hard could it be? You just need
an iron and we can iron it on. And I
went home, grabbed my mom's iron and put the full
heart on and wore that shirt for about a week NonStop,
and then ay, I needed to wash it be I
wanted to do a different design, and so I cut
the other one right down the middle with some scissors
into a broken heart. And those were the first two shirts.
So Miles is laughing when you said you were for
(12:33):
a week. Yeah, because my best friend Zone'm always around him,
so so was he smelly that week? A little bit, Miles,
when you first saw Race wearing this white T shirt
with a heart on his sleeve, you guys are obviously
best friends. You probably know all of her shirts. Where
you like, what is that shirt? Where did you get it? Absolutely?
(12:54):
Because I like simple things. I like kind of just
like little subtle things, just kind of how I just
go about just a little hard. He didn't he didn't
really give me the full background behind it, but he
gave me a little bit a piece of it. So
I already liked the shirt, and I already liked the idea.
I was like, man, you need to make me one
and obviously transporting into halms. But it was to really
(13:15):
think of the start of it. I remember when I
saw him, like I remember when I saw it was
in the facility at you before a meeting, and like
it's just like crazy from that little short conversation or
from what he did the days before leading up. But
like for my introducing to Ham's, it was right there.
Now it is where it is, it's wild, it's now
it's a full blown company. So then, Race, what triggered
(13:37):
you to go to Michael's, Like, what was it in
that moment in time last May when you were like,
I'm going to the craft store and I'm going to
put this heart on my sleeve. That it was actually
the night before I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was at dinner with my dad, our favorite of
time restaurant, which is what by the way, which is
Brunello's on Roosevelt. This is not a sponsor or anything
(14:00):
like Michael's, Tasco and Brunello's. You were saying, just at
the list, we were having a discussion and I was
going through a pretty dark time in my life during
that period with depression, anxiety. You know. That was that
was right around the time when I first started opening
up two Miles and having those conversations with Miles and
that was. He was the only person, and so I
hadn't even really told my family about it. They had known,
(14:22):
but they hadn't really known what it was like firsthand,
because I had always kind of hidden those emotions with them.
And so it was the first time where I sat
down and I just said, hey, Dad, you know what,
I'm pretty sure I'm depressed right now, and it's one
of the worst ones I've been through. And I started
kind of breaking down in front of all these people,
and I just remember how supportive he was, and he
(14:43):
just said, Hey, we're gonna get through this. You know,
I'll be whatever you need me to be throughout this
whole thing, but we're going to get through it. And
I just remembered this weight was lifted off my shoulders
because I felt like the people in my corner were
growing and I felt like I could expressed this, and
and so later that night, the more I thought about it,
(15:04):
the more I realized I think it was maybe a
point in my life where I was mature enough to
start dealing with my mental illness. But I said, Okay,
I'm gonna do something about it now. I'm not just
gonna let it take the reins and do whatever it wants,
I'm gonna get a handle on my depression. And that
next morning, I woke up and I put an outfit on,
and for some reason that morning, whatever outfit I put on,
(15:25):
it reminded me the impact that clothing can have on
your day to day emotions. You know, you get a
new jacket, a new pair of shoes, you can't wait
to put them on, and then that morning you throw
them on and you're like, I'm gonna have a great day.
And so I was like, how can I encapsulate that
into a clothing product, And while I was at Michael's
(15:46):
later that day and the rest is history. But when
you created the shirt, it was two different shirts. It
was the full Heart and the broken Heart, so you
would flip which one you were wearing based on your feelings. Yeah,
so by the end of the week I needed a
new shirt obviously, and that's when I made the other one.
It just made sense to me right after I ironed
on the broken one. Okay, now, depending on how I feel,
(16:08):
I will wear the whole or the broken And then
that's what's led to the conversations that I had with
other people. So people will just say, hey, nice shirt,
if I'm wearing the normal one, I'd like to say
full not normal. If I chose to wear the broken
I would have four or five people. This is when
we're at the facility come up to me right away
and just say, hey, you good man. I just noticed
you were shirt. And it was just like, even if
(16:29):
I wasn't having the worst day of my life, I
was just a little off. It was just like, oh wow, yeah,
I've got all these people in my corner. Definitely, you know,
like thanks, guys, appreciate it. Yeah, I'm all good. And
just those little tiny interactions a few words made all
the difference in the world to me and really got
me out of that that placed. And like you say,
you're making mental health cool. Like you wouldn't walk into
(16:49):
the facility before practice and be like, hey, everybody, I'm
having a crappy day. Like that doesn't make sense. But
being able to wear that shirt it does make it
easy to have those normal retations and even braced the
conversation with your dad like that was how many years
in the making and so many people that first moment
to be able to have that conversation, and the same thing.
If Miles didn't ask you how you were feeling. You
(17:12):
may not have had that conversation. So by putting that
on your shirt, by someone wearing that and someone bringing
it up to them, you could completely change their life
by doing that. And it's crazy to think when you
really go back to it was you going into a
craft star and ironing on a heart on a T shirt.
But it's it's so much more than that. Miles. You
(17:33):
the NFL a little bit different than the camaraderie I'm
sure you guys have in the locker room or at
you dub So what was it like wearing the T
shirt or any of the Hams gear in an NFL
locker room? I had this green hearts everywherehood, so like
it pops, it reflects. Even so it's like most like
standout HOODI you can have. And I'm in Miami. It's
(17:54):
hot every day every morning, just like pretty much how
he wore his T shirt like probably these things whatever,
but it was just like, d just throw on hood.
You just get to the facility and do what I
gotta do. First day, people noticed it, like, man, where'd
you get that? Ord? And my locker buddy Patrick Laird,
we started talking about mental health and just It wasn't
(18:14):
so much gravitated towards him or me, just the fact
that we were just talking about it, how how it's growing.
And I think that first conversation I called raised probably
at the end of the day, told him about it,
and then it kind of just kept going like that
in the lunch room, like hey man, I've seen this
hoodie like enough, so like what's going on? Are you?
Are you okay? It's just like just to be able
(18:36):
to talk about it, and just to have that cycling
through the locker room coming from you dub and moving
all the way across the country to Florida, and just
having to have a conversation with people that I had
back home where I think at home and as far
as places Florida, I think it just kind of put
a smile on my face and put a smile on
other people's face just to just to talk about how
(18:58):
they feel or just to talk about what they've been through.
So you guys are really making an impact because I
can guarantee that when the NFL players we looked up
to when we were kids, we're not really having these
conversations in the locker room. The college football players were
most like not having these conversations in the locker room,
and you guys are a part of that change. And
everyone always says like gen Z are are you guys
(19:20):
technically gen Z? Yeah? Sure maybe around her, Like everyone
keeps saying that generation is going to be the generation
to really flip things on their head and be like
no feelings, Like we are raised to talk about feelings,
and we're gonna keep doing it and you're gonna change things.
And you guys are actually doing it justice and really
doing it and it's cool to see that. And you
(19:44):
guys were talking about how it's a conversation started miles
with you with the guys in Miami and obviously in
the facility at you deb So that's how I got
introduced to you guys the same way. So my co
host and best friend Anthony was wearing the It's the
Black on Black hoodie and I was like, what will
you have hearts on your since when do you wear
hearts on your spector was like it's these football players
(20:05):
from you doub It's cool and I'm like what And
He's told me he found it on Instagram and I'm like, well,
like why what you know? Tell me about it, and
he was he did. He told me the story about
what the hearts meant, and we started having conversation about
mental health and it's right there. It served its purpose,
and it then led me to you guys, to be
able to get you on the podcast technically now twice,
(20:26):
but it's true. The conversation is so so important, and
we've been saying that a lot lately in the world,
and I've been doing it on this podcast bringing back
former guests. I've had a bunch of my former black
female business owners come on the podcast and talk about
what it's like being a black female business owner, how
it's specifically difficult for them. So the two of you
(20:47):
race your white miles you're black, do you guys have
that difficult conversation as well? Yeah? Absolutely, I think we've
had some of the best conversations we've ever had have
been kind of on those topics, especially recently with George
Floyd's extremely unfortunate passing. We sat down and had a
conversation after that because during the same time, Hams was
(21:08):
kind of gaining some steam and people were listening to
what we had to say on the Instagram page, and
so I said, alright, Miles. We've got this platform, I'm
in charge of it and I'm kind of run the
Instagram account. But I want your input more than ever,
and I want this to be coming from you just
as much as it's coming from me. What can we do?
What can we say? How can we speak up that?
(21:29):
That's what's so fun for me having Miles as my
business partner, slash best friend, whatever you want to call it,
but just getting to sit down and just have a
FaceTime and be like, Okay, let's design a hoodie that
brings awareness to what's going on right now. That's all
that It really is, just hop on the phone, all right,
I've got a few ideas I want to run and
buy you. I want to know what you think, where
this needs to be coming from. All that, and so
(21:51):
conversations like that led to our hoodie that is called
the I Stand Hoodie, which says I Stand against racism.
It's very simple, fairy to the point, and it's just
fun because that came from a conversation I had with
my black friend. And that's what people kind of miss,
I guess, but that's what I would love people to know. Yeah, Miles,
(22:12):
what was that like for you? That conversation to kind
of bring this hoodie to life and this thought and
this movement into your own brand. It first started out,
I mean obviously it started around Holmes, but talking with
race is just kind of with like hom's just having
somebody to talk to that's going on as a black mail,
you need to vent to somebody. I've went to my
parents and you went to your other friends, but like
(22:34):
nothing's like bend into your best friend and like hey,
like this is how I really feel and him just
giving me an ear and just letting him just kind
of just listen. And I think it kind of opened
my eyes just like this is why we are here
and we can work together in the whole racial all
these type of things. And and then we took a
step with Holmes and I sank its racism the black
(22:54):
fist on the T shirt and then we had the
fist uh in between the phases that we sold out
of right a way, and just all those things just
kind of like open my eyes again. Wants to just
like people want to change and all those things. It's
just it's there. It's just just got to keep on,
don't don't give up on it. It is changing things
are gonna change. You just gotta believe in it. So, yeah,
(23:15):
you guys obviously have two completely different stories, although you've
known each other forever, and you can pour that into
this business and really make a difference and start these conversations,
whether it's about mental health and mental illness or about racism,
and it's it's crazy what you've done in a year
at this point, and what else is gonna come? Who knows,
but Miles, you said that one article of clothing sold out.
(23:37):
You guys do limited edition stocks stuff pretty often, So
why that and what does that whole thing like? Coming
from my background with my passion for fashion and clothing design,
at the end of the day, that's one of my
driving forces as well, is pushing out really cool products
and stuff that people definitely want to be wearing, because
I think that goes hand in hand with the mental
(23:59):
health being cool. Like you mentioned earlier, that that being
kind of our our goal and our focal point. We
don't want to normalize it, we don't, you know, we
want to start conversations, but we want to make it
cool to talk about this kind of stuff. And so
just on the other side of that is giving people
cool products and feeling like when they throw it on,
they've you know, they're special or they've got an upper hand,
(24:22):
you know. And so part of that limited edition is
keeping this dog limited obviously putting out a design no
one's ever seen before, or whatever it may be. So
if the conversation isn't about the hearts or the mental
health side of it, it's just, hey, that's an awesome hoodie.
You know. I love that hoodie and that could be
all it takes to lose someone's day in the right direction.
So I love the limited editions. I feel so bad
(24:44):
when people are on the Instagram page asking for it
to release and it's gonna be something anyone because at
the end of the day they know that it's going
to be coming from our end. So that but yeah,
(25:04):
it's it's it's always really a fun conversation and just yeah,
well we'll restock it eventually. We will be redropping a
lot of our limited editions, but they go fast. So
if you're listening and want one, no to log and
so yeah the luggin it's hom Seattle dot com. So
the name of your company is hom Seattle, So why
did you keep if you're you know, you're gonna be
able to sell to everyone everywhere. Miles is you know,
(25:27):
showing it off in Miami. Why Seattle? In the name
both being kids born and raised in Seattle, we both
went to high school in the heart of downtown. We
went to you dub our our Cities College that you know,
the majority of people we grew up with always dreamed
of going to kind of all that, and then what
the city has given us, and what the city has
(25:48):
done for us and supported us with the football and
and all that stuff, it felt like we really it
was our time to give back, you know, more than
just what we can do on the football field. But
here's two kids born and raised and in the city.
We want to put on for our city now and
we want to give them all a resource and something
to be proud about. So that's where that's where that
comes from. When you also have this platform because not
(26:11):
because of the city. Obviously, it's your talent, your skill
that has gotten you to where you both are, but
that platform is kind of built up by the city
of Seattle, which is cool for you guys to give
back and use your platform for good. I mean, you're
you're twenty two and twenty three year old males and
I keep we brought this up like three times already.
But it's crazy. You know, when you think of people
your age what they're doing with their platform, either they
(26:34):
don't have one, or they're just using it to just
tweet stupid crap. Who knows. But you guys are doing
good stuff with it, and it's cool to see that,
and it's refreshing and inspiring to see that from you guys.
What made you go from Heart on My Sleeve to
HAMPS When we were looking into all the legal stuff,
and which is a huge part of running a business,
(26:55):
I'm sure you learned that, Like what the hell? Yeah?
I mean, I was just, hey, I don't want to
make a few T shirts. And my dad from from
day one made it very clear, well, you've got to
have the business side tight. So before we started selling anything,
we made sure that the name was solid and all
that stuff, and Heart on My Sleeve was taken in
a few different orientations from other companies, and so it
(27:17):
was actually a conversation I had with my big sister
who shout out to her suggested we just abbreviate it
and do the H O M S for Heart on
my sleeve and call it HOMS. And so it started
out as a logo which was the H and the
heart and M and S and one of my notebooks,
and I didn't even call it Hams up until that point.
(27:37):
It was just okay, yeah, I like that logo, We'll
stick with it. And then we got all the rights
to it, and now it's hom Seattle, which we we
threw the Seattle on because Hams dot com was taken
and so we just added that right there and had
no idea how much it would just all make sense,
and it does. I mean, saying heart on my sleeve
is great and all, but Hams really is unique and different,
(27:59):
and ham Seattle is even more unique and different. So
it's also kudos to your sister for that. And I
know I said this earlier, like women abbreviate everything. So
I'm glad it paid off for something awesome because we
always have the most ridiculous Like we created l O L.
I'm convinced a guy did not create that, definitely, So
we've got l O L and HOMS. That's awesome. Kudos
for that. So Race, you are physically printing all of
(28:23):
these yourself. How is that working? Cause I know that's
how it started. And Miles, you're not doing any of
the printing, right, No, I'm but I'll hang in there.
Um yeah. So Hamm's corporate warehouse is all in one place.
Is my my childhood bedroom, Like I love it. That's
(28:43):
what's been so fun is to kind of get people
in because you know, you don't think about where your
clothes come from. You just kind of think about wearing them,
and so it's been fun to be a part of that.
For myself. I handle all the day to day operations.
You know, I make every hoodie one at a time
with my hands, which I think is an awesome touch.
Being able to kind of say that about your businesses
(29:04):
is super fun. But as we've grown, I've definitely had
to look into new ways of kind of manufacturing and
printing and all that stuff. But for right now, it's
a one man operation and it's been a blast. And
I love the fact that everyone I see wearing the
hoodies I made that with my with my own hands.
It's it's it's it's been fun. Have you run into
(29:24):
someone that, like I was wearing it and you had
no idea. I swear every single person I know has
told me they've seen it in public or randomly, and
I have not seen it one time, so I don't
know that moment waiting. I honestly, I would say at
least a hundred people have told me that they've seen
someone else wearing it, or will send me a picture
(29:45):
of someone wearing it. I have yet to see in person.
So I'm amatiently waiting. When you do, you have to
say something to that person, you have already know exactly
what I'm gonna say. I'm just gonna say, hey, that's
an awesome hoodie. And if they know me, oh, you
have to come. So I they've been on the podcast before,
but two of my best friends created the Roosevelt's clothing,
(30:07):
and when I'm with my friend Steve, who's behind it,
we'll like, I'll see someone wearing a shirt and I'm
like and he's like, don't say anything. I'm like, please,
please please, He's like no, but he will pull that
Hey that's cool shart bro. And I'm like, you're such
a dick, Like just tell him it's yours. And he's
like no, because then it's gonna be this whole conversation.
And I'm like, okay, fine, that's fine, but it's really
it's a cool moment. When it happens, it's like, there's
(30:29):
nothing like it. So I'm excited for it to happen.
You better post about it somewhere. You better tell the
world when it happens. Absolutely, I can't wait. Miles. Have
you bumped into anyone wearing it? Oh? Yeah? One time
at the airport. It was like right after my birthday.
So I was having fun before. I was sitting in
the airport, like have sleep, and I've seen somebody with
(30:50):
just like just the basic phases. And I had one
of the hearts on everywhere, my other one, and I
was staring at them and they were just staring at me.
I was like, nice, Eddie, Like are you like, yeah,
you probably made it. I was like no, I'm just
the do you model? You model on Instagram whatever whatever
(31:13):
he needs me to be there. You both model, and
you have some of your friends, Like who are the
models that I see in all these pictures on the
website and Instagram? Whoever is excited to wear it or
whoever wants to That's the thing that we love about you, don't.
We don't think about it as like a photo shooter.
We just go hang out at a cool spot around
Seattle and we'll take some pictures with some friends. And
I just signed myself up in anytime. But yeah, no,
(31:34):
it's been fun and supporting local photographers. We've got an
awesome photographer right now with us. That's just amazing. So
your Instagram, you're running that as well, Like, first of all,
tell me about that, and then we're gonna get into
how you're a student and athlete and you have a
company and Instagram alone is its own business. So Instagram,
how does that work for you? I think one of
(31:55):
the one of the best parts about running a business
and a clothing brand on Instagram is just the personal
interactions that you have with people on a day to
day basis and on the account. I always say we
we at harms or you know, and it's it's funny
because my friends will give me crap every here and
then because they'll respond to something, I'll be like, yeah,
we can make that happen and they're like, I know,
it's you. We don't have to do that. Yeah, And
(32:18):
so it's really fun to have those personal interactions with
people through direct messaging and over comments and stuff like that.
And the other really cool aspect of it is I
think it gives people kind of the feeling that they're
a part of it and they're a part of the
design process and which colorways we decide to choose on
through pulls on stories. Um. The beauty of running it
(32:38):
on Instagram is that really feels like it's everyone's brand,
you know. I hate to say it's my brand or
our brand. It's our brand as a city, as a community.
And as much as people can feel that that is
true and that when they throw it on it's more
than just a sweatshirt, I think a lot of that
comes from just the day to day operations through Instagram,
(32:59):
which is awesome. And when we um we're talking earlier,
you had said to me that there is something weird
about running a company that is all about making mental
health cool on a platform like Instagram that causes mental
health issues, and we got into a whole conversation about
I mean, Instagram has been and I've talked about this
on Instagram before. It has caused issues for me personally
(33:23):
that I've now overcome and I've grown, But there are
so many young people on there who can't do that,
and your brand is important to be on that platform
where it is festering. It it is bad because you
are a breath of fresh air. So when you dive
into Instagram as a company, in knowing what the climate
is on Instagram, how do you tackle that differently or
(33:43):
do you tackle it differently? It's it's very tough, and
I think one of one of my biggest realizations in
dealing with my own mental illness and specifically my anxiety,
it's been pushing myself away from Instagram and my personal
account because you are so constantly seeing everyone post about
what they want other people to see, you know, and
I feel like that's so counterintuitive to having you know,
(34:05):
positive mental health and and being aware of those things.
And so I think one of the biggest benefactors of
running the Harms Instagram is pushing out stuff that completely
goes in the other direction. So we're posting raw emotions,
were posting pictures of us just hanging out, you know,
stuff like that, and then on top of that, just
(34:25):
little pieces of information for people, you know, suicide prevention
lines or just a little quote to you know, give
someone the boost of the day. It's just trying to
do everything counter to the negative impacts that that social
media can have, and I probably go through it on
a daily basis, you know, needing to just put my
phone down. But all it takes is one story that
(34:48):
someone says, Hey, this kind of gave me the boost
I needed today. And so it's really nice to be
able to get feedback on stuff like that. Miles, as
someone who you go from playing it you dubbed to
being on you know, a nap and out that you
isn't a national scale, but in the NFL, what has
social media changed for you? Do you see different engagement
from people a little bit. I'm I'm full blown. I
(35:10):
like to put my phone down often, like I like,
I'm telling you guys, yeah, like my parents hated because
like I'll see like a whole bunch of stuff and
then like I'll put my phone down and just totally
forget about it. But obviously it has changed just on
the different platform being a professional athlete. But I try
not to let that dictate how life goes on. I
like to just kind of post whatever I need to
(35:31):
post or whatever the way. And obviously you both are
using the platform to spread homs, which is great, which
is awesome, and race you talked a little bit about
hearing from people saying how Hams has changed their day.
What tell me about those stories that people you've only
been around for a year, Like, are people actually reaching
out and being like I had a conversation with someone
because of my sweatcher and it changed my day? Like
(35:53):
what are the specific stories from day one? It was
super fun because the people reaching out to me about it,
We're like, hey, you know, I want to be a
part of this and and so that's been awesome. And
then feeling like, you know, everyone's grown up with the
brand and so when they do have those interactions are
kind of inner encounter. People that ask about it, they
always reach back out to me, and and it's so
fun to hear people talking about you know, oh, someone
(36:15):
asked me they love the design, like blah blah bla
all that's all. That's great. And on on a on
a deeper level, a lot of people have reached out
for you know, specific advice on mental health or shared
their story with me. And I'm always very grateful for
those those people being vulnerable and transparent because it takes
a lot to you know, open up about that stuff
to a stranger really and actually yesterday, someone told me
(36:39):
that if it weren't for Harms and kind of what
we've been, what we've been doing, that they might not
be here. And so that was a big moment for
me because you know, just all the sweat, blood and
tears that have gone into it was made worth it
with that one interaction. So it's incredible what you've been
able to do with literally starting with an iron on
pact like it's for me, it's like a girl Scout patch,
(37:01):
Like that's how it started. Like girl Scouts, we would
iron on our patches like you did that same thing
I would do as an eight year old on a
T shirt. And that's not saying that's not saying at
all that it's not amazing, Like it was cool what
you did, but look what it's grown into. And it's
these small little moments planting these little seeds that you
don't realize where it's gonna go or who it's going
to touch and whose life you can save. I mean,
(37:24):
and you've you've said before that Ham's also may have
even saved your own life, and having that conversation with
Miles may have even saved your own life. And you're
you've built an entire company off of conversation and having conversation.
As someone who's in my industry, I know the importance
of conversation and how I mean, if it wasn't conversation,
I wouldn't have a job. I wouldn't be in radio
(37:44):
and podcasting and all of that. So I know the
importance behind it. And you're launching conversations every day by
just your articles of clothing, and you're doing something You're
not just creating a random T shirt and putting out there.
It has a meaning. So on those moments and except
when people tell you the stories, it's going to be hard,
but it's amazing what you're doing. I appreciate you for
(38:06):
for sharing that. I know it's it's definitely not easy.
Do you still have the original shirts that the patches. Yeah,
we've got them hanging up in in our office. They
will be with us wherever Holmes ends up going, wherever
we call home. But yeah, I'll keep those with me
forever because that's that's the inspiration behind it all. So
how do you find the time, Like, obviously right now
things are different, you know what social distancing and being
(38:29):
in quarantine. Everyone's got time at the moment, but before that,
how are you being a student, an athlete and running
a company. Yeah. There, I mean, there have been some
some sleepless nights and some very early mornings and all
that stuff this year, and I'm so grateful for everything
that that has happened. And and it's funny because I'll
(38:49):
kind of be hanging out with my dad and I'll
just be like, I've got to make a hundred and
ten hoodies by the end of the weekend. Um, And
that's a pretty good that's a pretty good problem to have.
And it's true, it's it's pairing those kind of those
emotions together. But yeah, I mean it's been it's been
amazing for my compartmentalization, you know, being able to The
(39:09):
beautiful thing about football is we're almost always done by
eleven in the morning, so we get our our day started,
we've worked out, we've pushed our body to the limit,
and so then you're ready to kind of attack the day.
And so that's when I would go to sleep. I
push my body to the limit and then attack the day. No,
I put the bud the limit. I go to bed.
But yeah, so when you're when you're lifting waves around
(39:29):
all day and running as fast as you can going
home and making a handful of hoodies doesn't sound like
the worst thing in the world. So definitely not, and
like you said, it is it is a good problem
to have. But then are you packaging it and bring
them to the post office yourself? I'm doing everything. It's
been fun. So one of the big steps for Holms
was I was handwriting all the addresses at first on
(39:50):
the labels, and then we would take them to the
post or I would take them to the post office
and they would be weighed one at a time. I
have to stand on the line. And so we set
up an account with the Post Service and we got
a little shipping machine, bits out labels at a speed
you've never seen before. Make the hoodies, I'll make them all,
package them all, print out the labels, and then we'll
(40:11):
take I mean, I've taken I think sixty packages to
the post office and one in one drive. You should
have seen the car. So yeah, it's fun to see
it all from point A to point B. It's very
interesting with you guys because the people have been on
this podcast. They've got a day job in corporate America,
and then they're spending their night you know, doing their
side hustle and their weekends and like same thing you're saying,
sleepless nights bringing things to the post office. But I
(40:32):
remember being a student and it's so different because for you,
it's almost like if three jobs, being an athlete and
a student. It's like all these different people expect something
from you, and it's a lot. And for most people
that would be that would send them into a TIZI
and an aspiral, but for you, it's actually helped you
and have a have a purpose and and understand things
(40:53):
and like you said, compartmentalized and that's an amazing aspect
that I don't think a lot of people would expect
to have been out of this. Absolutely, and I think
it's it's crazy to me day in and day out
how much everything overlaps, you know. And so whether it
be talking one of my teachers into letting me write
an essay on clothing and how it impacts mental health
and they're like, WHOA, I've never even thought of that,
(41:15):
So yeah, do it. And so conversations I've had with
my football coaches about it, you know, and and how
I would love to maybe work for you, dub as
you know, their mental health guy for the football team,
whatever it may be. It all co exists, which is
super fun and yeah, three jobs, but I look at
it as three passions. And Hams also gives back. It's
(41:37):
not just a clothing brand where you're like, this is
my business and I'm calling it a day. You guys
work with the different charity, So which one I know
there were two? Yeah, So a portion of all our
proceeds is donated to namy UM Seattle, which namy is
an unbelievable organization. I think they're the first mental illness
organization founded in America. So there's Seattle branch is who
(41:58):
we're in kind of communication with, and then we are
super super excited. Being from Seattle, this means a lot
to us to have set up a partnership with the
Seattle Children's Hospital and specifically their new branch which is
called the Mental Health Crisis Care Clinic. So we're really
excited about that. And it's like you said, giving back
(42:18):
is is our goal at the end of the day. Yeah,
and especially getting to work with kids at such a
young age. I mean, how old were you when you
first had the conversation with Miles about mental health and
how you felt. It was sophomore year in college, and
I think if we could have had the conversation earlier,
it would have been so great for me and so
as many younger kids as I can kind of reach
out to and we can connect with. That's our goal
(42:40):
for sure. Oh absolutely. And I know you have said
before and before before, I mean, like earlier when we
were talking, you have the idea of a book. So
when can we expect that? What? What is that all about?
So I would love for the book to be published before.
I've got a lot going on. Obviously being an author
would be the fourth job. But then exactly, But yeah, So,
(43:06):
I mean a lot of the conversations I've had and
a lot of this stuff that's out for the public
is kind of just a five minute version of my
story and kind of just the runaround of everything I've
been through. And so I want to give people some
more concrete examples and some more in depth experiences that
I've been through that will hopefully allow people to connect
on a deeper level two as well. And then the
(43:27):
other reason that I really want to write a book,
at least right now, is because I feel like my
voice is very important as a twenty two year old,
like you said earlier, a football player, you know, being
this person that usually isn't found in these conversations. I
want to be able to kind of hone that in
and then put it in a capsule for other people,
for who knows generations. But I'm I'm kind of right
(43:51):
in this place where I can connect with parents because
I understand where they're coming from, and I've had those
conversations with my own parents and then kids on the
other end the spectrum. Being able to kind of bridge
that gap for people, I think is super critical. And
as long as I can do that right now, I
want to. I want to get that to get that
stuff out. And are you you revealed the title in
(44:12):
the episode of that didn't record. Are you comfortable revealing
the future title of your book? Absolutely? The plan right
now is to call it mental health, but make it cool,
and hopefully it will have a forward by Miles Gaskin.
I will have to get that figured out in the meantime.
Miles said he would do the forward, but he said
he wouldn't read the book, so yeah, we'll see. It'll
(44:36):
be cool when Miles is like reading it around other
players and they're like, what's that about, and it'll start
all over again. So absolutely, the conversations are what is important,
and you guys are creating them. And when we were
talking earlier, I had said to you, guys, I was
having a super crappy day and I was like, how
am I going to go into this podcast and talk
to these guys and do my job? And then I
talked to you, and you brightened my day. And then
(44:58):
what happened. I didn't record the five so I would
on my day. I was telling you it was a
crappy day, and obviously you guys got to witness how
it was. But you guys are amazing. You were not
obviously not that you were going to be rude, but
you weren't rude. You were like, let's just do it again.
And you've spent two hours almost of your time with
me doing this. So I can't thank you guys enough.
(45:19):
You're incredible humans. And I'm excited for what's going to
come of homes. I know amazing things are gonna come
with homes, and you've got all these ideas of your
sleeves and literally and I can't wait to see it
and be a part of it. As well, and thank
you for sharing your story and you have a home
on this podcast whenever you want to come on here
and share all the things you guys are doing. Thank you,
Thank you for sharing everything we've done. Thank you so
(45:41):
much for listening to side Hustler's week after week. I
appreciate you being here and I appreciate you supporting these businesses.
It's at homes Seattle on Instagram, h O m s
Seattle All again. All the links are below and the description.
You can check them out there ham Seattle dot com.
To Race and Miles, thank you for doing this episode
with me twice. I love you guys. I've been rocking
(46:02):
my hom Seattle gear. I've been getting compliments on it.
It's super comfortable. I'm a fan of it, and every
time I put it on, I am reminded of the
importance of mental health and being honest and open. So
the two of you, thank you so much for letting
me be a part of the homs Seattle family. Now
go support these guys. They are doing amazing, amazing things.
(46:23):
And a little note something different that I don't normally
get to talk about, but I was a guest on
a podcast. It's called the Glow Through It Podcast by
Little Words Project. Now Little Words Project is one of
the very first episodes of Side Hustlers. Little Words Project
was started in Adriana's basement and sorry, her parents basement,
(46:43):
and now it's grown to be this huge global brand
and it's wild. And of course they started a podcast
because they're amazing and they've got amazing stories to share,
an amazing connection. So I was a guest on their
Glow Through It podcast, which is weird for me being
on the other side of the microphone, so please to
listen to it. The description is below. We had a
really great conversation, so check that out. Thank you so
(47:05):
much again for listening to Side Hustlers. This podcast has
been produced by Houston Tilly. You can follow me on
Instagram at the Carla Murray and until next week, keep
hustling and be a good human
This is the side Hustlers podcast. I am your host
from my heart Radio Carla Maurie. Each week I talked
to someone new following a passion outside of their day job,
and I am over one episodes deep. So there are
a lot of cool people on this podcast. But it's
essentially become my own side hustle because my day job
is hosting the Carla Maurie and Anthony show on What
I Was six point one Kiss FM in Seattle. The
(00:23):
link is below in the description of this podcast if
you want to check it out now. Each week, the
people I talked to are incredible. They've always got a
different story than the last person and how they got
to where they are. It's wild, and this week's guests
are no different. Miles Gaskin and a Race Sporter are
two best friends who launched a clothing line, but their
day job is different than most of ours. They are
(00:45):
football players. Race Sporter is currently a University of Washington
football player and Myles Gaskin was University of Washington football player,
but he now plays for the Miami Dolphins and the
two of them have known each other since middle school.
The the line that the two of them launched is
Hams Seattle. Hams stands for Heart on My Sleeve hom
Seattle dot com to check it out. But it's all
(01:07):
about mental health and how Race discovered the idea of
this clothing line is incredible, so I'm excited for you
to hear their story. Oh inside note, we recorded this
podcast on a Friday and I was having a terrible day.
I was in the worst mood and the last thing
I want to do on a Friday was sit down
and talk to two people about their story because I
(01:30):
didn't think I was going to do it justice because
my brain was all over the place. So I talked
to them and it flipped a switch. It was incredible
just hearing from them and how inspiring they are. And
then after our podcast, I realized that I didn't actually
record the podcast, so that crappy day just hit me
all over again. But Miles and Race were so incredible
(01:51):
that they said, let's do it again, and we did
it again. So the podcast you're hearing is actually the
second version of it, but it's even better than what
we recorded the time. There are two amazing guys who
spent more than two hours of their Friday talking to me,
and I'm really excited for you to hear this episode
Upside Hustlers with Miles and Race It's all about ham
(02:11):
Seattle for a lot of people. You know, why are
you wait? Do you know what you want to do?
And this is something you want to do. You're talking
about do it. I'm a hustles side side hustle. Do it.
I'm a hustle hut do it. I'm a hustle side
side us. Come on ask about me, yo yo. It's
the side Hustless podcast we call the Rat. Well, this
(02:35):
is gonna be interesting because we've done this already. So
I've got mild Gaskin and Race Porter here. And when
I say we've done this already, I quote unquote recorded
a forty five minute episode that I didn't actually record.
So guys, thanks for doing this again. But fun fact, I,
since I know the story and I heard all of it,
it will be one of the most incredible podcasts for
(02:56):
people to hear. So we're gonna do it again for everyone.
So Race Port your day job. You are a student athlete.
You play football at the University of Washington, Miles gascon.
You are in the NFL. You play for the Miami Dolphins.
But you guys played together at you Dub and you've
known each other since you were kids, and you have
a streetwear brand called HOMS. So tell me about HOMS
(03:18):
and what Halms is. Yeah. So basically, Holms is a
clothing brand that we started started off with just two
white shirts. We put two different iron on patches onto them.
The goal of HOMS is to give people um something
that they can use as a form of expression for
mental illness, mental health, whatever they're feeling day today. It's
(03:38):
just basically clothing products that make it easier to have
discussions with people and start conversations. So HAMS stands for
Heart on my Sleeve and the and that's literally what
it is. That your main article of clothing is a
T shirt that has hearts on it, but it's different hearts.
There's a full heart, a half broken heart, and a
full broken heart. What does that and for? And what
(04:00):
does that mean? The hearts and the different kinds of hearts.
We called it the Phases designed because it's designed to
represent the different phases that your heart goes through, whether
it be throughout your whole life, day to day, minute
by minute, whatever it is you're constantly going through. All
these different emotions and feelings, and the goal of the design,
the phases design that we use on all our products
(04:23):
is that it's okay to feel whichever one you're feeling.
It's okay to be going in between wherever you're at.
The goal is to have other people wearing it and
feel like no matter where you're at, you're always supported
by those people wearing the clothing products and just everyone
that's in the community of homes. And the goal, like
you said, is to get people talking about mental illness.
(04:44):
And we hear that often all the time, normalized mental illness.
We need to normalize it. I mean when we were kids,
it wasn't something you talked about at all. But now,
I mean, you guys are twenty two and twenty three
years old and you are bringing this to light and
using your platform. So why is it so important for
you specifically to get mental illness out there for everyone?
(05:05):
I think right now, the reason that we've been so
urgent and spreading, spreading the brand and spreading the message
is because being a males who are usually not seen
as figures that are open about mental health, mental illness,
and be male football players, which they're just stacking it
on top of kind of the premonitions people have. It's
really like showing people if we can do it, you know,
(05:27):
these people that are supposed to be gritty and tough
and you know, never show emotion, then you can do it.
And so that's the goal with right now, us being
football players and men spreading this message. Well, it's true
and at men at twenty two years old, it takes time.
I feel like I'm in my thirties now and it's
like I'm just having those conversations with adult men. So
(05:48):
when I was twenty two, that was not a thing.
Like guys my age at that time, We're not talking
about mental health at all. And yeah, it's easy to generalize.
I would like football players talking about mental health. What
are you talking about? Like, that's not what I picture
happening in the locker room at all. But I mean,
you guys are making that happen with homs. So when
(06:09):
did you guys first have a conversation the two of
you about mental health? Back when we're living in the
old apartment his freshman year of my sophomore year of college,
just kind of being we live right next door to
each other's small apartment. So everything's going on in college,
and I've always been one of race his best friends
and best friends always, and I'm going out and join everything,
(06:29):
and I'm seeing him kind of hanging back, not really
want to go out so much, and just kind of
raised the flag of me. And I've always had an
older brother and he always was able to step in
and kind of called me to the curve and not
in a mean way, but hey, like, you're not acting
like you. I think it was my turn to do
the same thing for Race, and that just spark conversation
and he was able to just kind of just give
(06:50):
me everything. It wasn't even like I was trying to
force anything out of him. It was like, hey man,
what's going on? And it was like yep, let's talk.
And it was like, no idea, you're getting yourself into. Yeah,
I had no idea, and now you got a holding
friend of like, look at that. I'm glad I did.
In the way it worked out, it was organic, really
just two best friends doing exactly what two best friends
(07:11):
are supposed to do. You're supposed to be there for
one and when the other one's going through something, you're
always supposed to go to your friends. Those are the
people that are in your corner to have your back,
that want to see you succeed as much as possible.
So so Race, where you when Miles came to you
and said that, were you looking for someone to be
able to talk to you about that was? What was
that moment like for you? It was just kind of
a surprise because I think a lot of my mental
(07:34):
illness and I think I can speak for a lot
of other people that deal with a specifically depression and anxiety.
It's it's stuff that we just shelf and keep inside
because a we may not feel like anyone wants to
talk about it, or be even worse, they might look
at us differently if we do talk about it. Oh,
these feelings and what I was going through, I felt
like I had to hide from the world. And so
(07:56):
when Miles came to me, it wasn't hey, I know
you're depressed, what's going on? It was hey, man, you
seem a little off. It was just so organic, and
it just felt like I had this weight off my
shoulders when I could finally tell someone about it. No,
you know, I'm okay. I've just been having a rough
couple of days. And then you know it might not
be an in depth conversation, it's just we talked for
a little bit and then he's like, all right, you
(08:17):
want to watch a movie out in the living room.
And so just something like little like that I think
is so valuable when it comes to kind of mental
illness and just little bits and pieces that can get
you back to the normal way of life. And that's
what Myles did for me during that period. So is
that what you were trying to do with Hams. Absolutely?
When you look at the mental health conversation and mental illness,
(08:39):
there's a lot of stigma kind of surrounding it, and
a lot of things that kind of force negative connotations
about those conversations. And so I think my favorite thing
with Halms and what I love to say is our
goal is not to normalize mental health or or start
I mean start conversations obviously, but it's to make mental
health cool and make people feel like talking about out
(09:00):
those kind of things is something that is exciting, you know,
and you want to learn about people, You want to
know what they go through, and and then on the
other side of that, you want to be someone who
can be there for someone who's going through it, and
so kind of like if you wanted to equate the
clothing with what Miles did for me. It's just a
little boost, you know, to get someone in the right direction.
(09:20):
So if if you wake up and have a rough day,
by no means do you have to go to a
therapist and tell them about your whole life, just throw
on the hoodie. You've got people that are wearing it
that day. Hopefully feel like they're your community and they're
the people that are there to support you. It's kind
of like you guys are homes is everyone's older brother,
quite literally, Like you guys are doing this to look
(09:43):
out for other people and maybe even people obviously people
that are older than you too, but you as a
company are kind of being that big brother, which a
lot of people do need. And you are starting conversations
with these shirts. But the originals, I want you to
talk about those, because you've kind of not that you've
strayed from that, but that does. Mine is a little
different now, Grace, tell everyone how you created the original shirts.
(10:06):
So it started out with my idea for heart on
my sleeve. I've kind of I looked up the definition
of that that phrase and kind of got an understanding
as okay, someone that wears their heart on their sleeve,
as someone who is confident with the person that they
are their true self and is never bashful with their
emotions and so always growing up, I loved fashion. I
(10:27):
love clothing. I fell in love with shoes probably ninth
grade was was when my dad calls it a problem
when I started to develop that. So I really wanted
to find a way to put heart on my sleeve
into a tangible form. And that's when I came up
with the idea for the shirts. And I had to
plain white T shirts from Costco laying around that were
(10:48):
usually just thrown on in her sweatshirts, and so I
didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I
knew I wanted to put something on them, and the
idea of heart on my sleeve and that all just
came together and I was like, Okay, where can I
go do this? And luckily enough, Michael's Superstore. Michael's Superstore.
(11:08):
It's Michael's. Is it crafts or arts? And what is it?
Arts and cars? Crafts and supplies? Or yeah? Well which
I love that I So I passed this Michael's every
day on my way to work. It is between our
studio and my house. And when I was reading an
article about you guys and it said that you went
to the Michael's and Inner Bay, I was like, no, way,
that's right here, Like that's where your company was started.
So to me, that's super cool. But I don't really
(11:30):
think of football players frequenting Michael's craft store often, so
was that like a thing you normally did. No, that
was the first time I've ever been in the store,
and I guess you could kind of say I was
lost the second everyone, you know what I ale to
look down kind of just explored. And if you are
finding yourself with some time on your hands and you
(11:50):
don't know what to do, check it out. You know
they've got everything in there. They're not paying you for this, right, No,
not at all. I'm just amazed all this stuff they
have in there. I wouldn't even have thought. I fumbled
around in the store for a while and I came
across the iron on heart patches, and I think I
grabbed one pack of two of them, and I just thought,
(12:11):
you know, how hard could it be? You just need
an iron and we can iron it on. And I
went home, grabbed my mom's iron and put the full
heart on and wore that shirt for about a week NonStop,
and then ay, I needed to wash it be I
wanted to do a different design, and so I cut
the other one right down the middle with some scissors
into a broken heart. And those were the first two shirts.
So Miles is laughing when you said you were for
(12:33):
a week. Yeah, because my best friend Zone'm always around him,
so so was he smelly that week? A little bit, Miles,
when you first saw Race wearing this white T shirt
with a heart on his sleeve, you guys are obviously
best friends. You probably know all of her shirts. Where
you like, what is that shirt? Where did you get it? Absolutely?
(12:54):
Because I like simple things. I like kind of just
like little subtle things, just kind of how I just
go about just a little hard. He didn't he didn't
really give me the full background behind it, but he
gave me a little bit a piece of it. So
I already liked the shirt, and I already liked the idea.
I was like, man, you need to make me one
and obviously transporting into halms. But it was to really
(13:15):
think of the start of it. I remember when I
saw him, like I remember when I saw it was
in the facility at you before a meeting, and like
it's just like crazy from that little short conversation or
from what he did the days before leading up. But
like for my introducing to Ham's, it was right there.
Now it is where it is, it's wild, it's now
it's a full blown company. So then, Race, what triggered
(13:37):
you to go to Michael's, Like, what was it in
that moment in time last May when you were like,
I'm going to the craft store and I'm going to
put this heart on my sleeve. That it was actually
the night before I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was at dinner with my dad, our favorite of
time restaurant, which is what by the way, which is
Brunello's on Roosevelt. This is not a sponsor or anything
(14:00):
like Michael's, Tasco and Brunello's. You were saying, just at
the list, we were having a discussion and I was
going through a pretty dark time in my life during
that period with depression, anxiety. You know. That was that
was right around the time when I first started opening
up two Miles and having those conversations with Miles and
that was. He was the only person, and so I
hadn't even really told my family about it. They had known,
(14:22):
but they hadn't really known what it was like firsthand,
because I had always kind of hidden those emotions with them.
And so it was the first time where I sat
down and I just said, hey, Dad, you know what,
I'm pretty sure I'm depressed right now, and it's one
of the worst ones I've been through. And I started
kind of breaking down in front of all these people,
and I just remember how supportive he was, and he
(14:43):
just said, Hey, we're gonna get through this. You know,
I'll be whatever you need me to be throughout this
whole thing, but we're going to get through it. And
I just remembered this weight was lifted off my shoulders
because I felt like the people in my corner were
growing and I felt like I could expressed this, and
and so later that night, the more I thought about it,
(15:04):
the more I realized I think it was maybe a
point in my life where I was mature enough to
start dealing with my mental illness. But I said, Okay,
I'm gonna do something about it now. I'm not just
gonna let it take the reins and do whatever it wants,
I'm gonna get a handle on my depression. And that
next morning, I woke up and I put an outfit on,
and for some reason that morning, whatever outfit I put on,
(15:25):
it reminded me the impact that clothing can have on
your day to day emotions. You know, you get a
new jacket, a new pair of shoes, you can't wait
to put them on, and then that morning you throw
them on and you're like, I'm gonna have a great day.
And so I was like, how can I encapsulate that
into a clothing product, And while I was at Michael's
(15:46):
later that day and the rest is history. But when
you created the shirt, it was two different shirts. It
was the full Heart and the broken Heart, so you
would flip which one you were wearing based on your feelings. Yeah,
so by the end of the week I needed a
new shirt obviously, and that's when I made the other one.
It just made sense to me right after I ironed
on the broken one. Okay, now, depending on how I feel,
(16:08):
I will wear the whole or the broken And then
that's what's led to the conversations that I had with
other people. So people will just say, hey, nice shirt,
if I'm wearing the normal one, I'd like to say
full not normal. If I chose to wear the broken
I would have four or five people. This is when
we're at the facility come up to me right away
and just say, hey, you good man. I just noticed
you were shirt. And it was just like, even if
(16:29):
I wasn't having the worst day of my life, I
was just a little off. It was just like, oh wow, yeah,
I've got all these people in my corner. Definitely, you know,
like thanks, guys, appreciate it. Yeah, I'm all good. And
just those little tiny interactions a few words made all
the difference in the world to me and really got
me out of that that placed. And like you say,
you're making mental health cool. Like you wouldn't walk into
(16:49):
the facility before practice and be like, hey, everybody, I'm
having a crappy day. Like that doesn't make sense. But
being able to wear that shirt it does make it
easy to have those normal retations and even braced the
conversation with your dad like that was how many years
in the making and so many people that first moment
to be able to have that conversation, and the same thing.
If Miles didn't ask you how you were feeling. You
(17:12):
may not have had that conversation. So by putting that
on your shirt, by someone wearing that and someone bringing
it up to them, you could completely change their life
by doing that. And it's crazy to think when you
really go back to it was you going into a
craft star and ironing on a heart on a T shirt.
But it's it's so much more than that. Miles. You
(17:33):
the NFL a little bit different than the camaraderie I'm
sure you guys have in the locker room or at
you dub So what was it like wearing the T
shirt or any of the Hams gear in an NFL
locker room? I had this green hearts everywherehood, so like
it pops, it reflects. Even so it's like most like
standout HOODI you can have. And I'm in Miami. It's
(17:54):
hot every day every morning, just like pretty much how
he wore his T shirt like probably these things whatever,
but it was just like, d just throw on hood.
You just get to the facility and do what I
gotta do. First day, people noticed it, like, man, where'd
you get that? Ord? And my locker buddy Patrick Laird,
we started talking about mental health and just It wasn't
(18:14):
so much gravitated towards him or me, just the fact
that we were just talking about it, how how it's growing.
And I think that first conversation I called raised probably
at the end of the day, told him about it,
and then it kind of just kept going like that
in the lunch room, like hey man, I've seen this
hoodie like enough, so like what's going on? Are you?
Are you okay? It's just like just to be able
(18:36):
to talk about it, and just to have that cycling
through the locker room coming from you dub and moving
all the way across the country to Florida, and just
having to have a conversation with people that I had
back home where I think at home and as far
as places Florida, I think it just kind of put
a smile on my face and put a smile on
other people's face just to just to talk about how
(18:58):
they feel or just to talk about what they've been through.
So you guys are really making an impact because I
can guarantee that when the NFL players we looked up
to when we were kids, we're not really having these
conversations in the locker room. The college football players were
most like not having these conversations in the locker room,
and you guys are a part of that change. And
everyone always says like gen Z are are you guys
(19:20):
technically gen Z? Yeah? Sure maybe around her, Like everyone
keeps saying that generation is going to be the generation
to really flip things on their head and be like
no feelings, Like we are raised to talk about feelings,
and we're gonna keep doing it and you're gonna change things.
And you guys are actually doing it justice and really
doing it and it's cool to see that. And you
(19:44):
guys were talking about how it's a conversation started miles
with you with the guys in Miami and obviously in
the facility at you deb So that's how I got
introduced to you guys the same way. So my co
host and best friend Anthony was wearing the It's the
Black on Black hoodie and I was like, what will
you have hearts on your since when do you wear
hearts on your spector was like it's these football players
(20:05):
from you doub It's cool and I'm like what And
He's told me he found it on Instagram and I'm like, well,
like why what you know? Tell me about it, and
he was he did. He told me the story about
what the hearts meant, and we started having conversation about
mental health and it's right there. It served its purpose,
and it then led me to you guys, to be
able to get you on the podcast technically now twice,
(20:26):
but it's true. The conversation is so so important, and
we've been saying that a lot lately in the world,
and I've been doing it on this podcast bringing back
former guests. I've had a bunch of my former black
female business owners come on the podcast and talk about
what it's like being a black female business owner, how
it's specifically difficult for them. So the two of you
(20:47):
race your white miles you're black, do you guys have
that difficult conversation as well? Yeah? Absolutely, I think we've
had some of the best conversations we've ever had have
been kind of on those topics, especially recently with George
Floyd's extremely unfortunate passing. We sat down and had a
conversation after that because during the same time, Hams was
(21:08):
kind of gaining some steam and people were listening to
what we had to say on the Instagram page, and
so I said, alright, Miles. We've got this platform, I'm
in charge of it and I'm kind of run the
Instagram account. But I want your input more than ever,
and I want this to be coming from you just
as much as it's coming from me. What can we do?
What can we say? How can we speak up that?
(21:29):
That's what's so fun for me having Miles as my
business partner, slash best friend, whatever you want to call it,
but just getting to sit down and just have a
FaceTime and be like, Okay, let's design a hoodie that
brings awareness to what's going on right now. That's all
that It really is, just hop on the phone, all right,
I've got a few ideas I want to run and
buy you. I want to know what you think, where
this needs to be coming from. All that, and so
(21:51):
conversations like that led to our hoodie that is called
the I Stand Hoodie, which says I Stand against racism.
It's very simple, fairy to the point, and it's just
fun because that came from a conversation I had with
my black friend. And that's what people kind of miss,
I guess, but that's what I would love people to know. Yeah, Miles,
(22:12):
what was that like for you? That conversation to kind
of bring this hoodie to life and this thought and
this movement into your own brand. It first started out,
I mean obviously it started around Holmes, but talking with
race is just kind of with like hom's just having
somebody to talk to that's going on as a black mail,
you need to vent to somebody. I've went to my
parents and you went to your other friends, but like
(22:34):
nothing's like bend into your best friend and like hey,
like this is how I really feel and him just
giving me an ear and just letting him just kind
of just listen. And I think it kind of opened
my eyes just like this is why we are here
and we can work together in the whole racial all
these type of things. And and then we took a
step with Holmes and I sank its racism the black
(22:54):
fist on the T shirt and then we had the
fist uh in between the phases that we sold out
of right a way, and just all those things just
kind of like open my eyes again. Wants to just
like people want to change and all those things. It's
just it's there. It's just just got to keep on,
don't don't give up on it. It is changing things
are gonna change. You just gotta believe in it. So, yeah,
(23:15):
you guys obviously have two completely different stories, although you've
known each other forever, and you can pour that into
this business and really make a difference and start these conversations,
whether it's about mental health and mental illness or about racism,
and it's it's crazy what you've done in a year
at this point, and what else is gonna come? Who knows,
but Miles, you said that one article of clothing sold out.
(23:37):
You guys do limited edition stocks stuff pretty often, So
why that and what does that whole thing like? Coming
from my background with my passion for fashion and clothing design,
at the end of the day, that's one of my
driving forces as well, is pushing out really cool products
and stuff that people definitely want to be wearing, because
I think that goes hand in hand with the mental
(23:59):
health being cool. Like you mentioned earlier, that that being
kind of our our goal and our focal point. We
don't want to normalize it, we don't, you know, we
want to start conversations, but we want to make it
cool to talk about this kind of stuff. And so
just on the other side of that is giving people
cool products and feeling like when they throw it on,
they've you know, they're special or they've got an upper hand,
(24:22):
you know. And so part of that limited edition is
keeping this dog limited obviously putting out a design no
one's ever seen before, or whatever it may be. So
if the conversation isn't about the hearts or the mental
health side of it, it's just, hey, that's an awesome hoodie.
You know. I love that hoodie and that could be
all it takes to lose someone's day in the right direction.
So I love the limited editions. I feel so bad
(24:44):
when people are on the Instagram page asking for it
to release and it's gonna be something anyone because at
the end of the day they know that it's going
to be coming from our end. So that but yeah,
(25:04):
it's it's it's always really a fun conversation and just yeah,
well we'll restock it eventually. We will be redropping a
lot of our limited editions, but they go fast. So
if you're listening and want one, no to log and
so yeah the luggin it's hom Seattle dot com. So
the name of your company is hom Seattle, So why
did you keep if you're you know, you're gonna be
able to sell to everyone everywhere. Miles is you know,
(25:27):
showing it off in Miami. Why Seattle? In the name
both being kids born and raised in Seattle, we both
went to high school in the heart of downtown. We
went to you dub our our Cities College that you know,
the majority of people we grew up with always dreamed
of going to kind of all that, and then what
the city has given us, and what the city has
(25:48):
done for us and supported us with the football and
and all that stuff, it felt like we really it
was our time to give back, you know, more than
just what we can do on the football field. But
here's two kids born and raised and in the city.
We want to put on for our city now and
we want to give them all a resource and something
to be proud about. So that's where that's where that
comes from. When you also have this platform because not
(26:11):
because of the city. Obviously, it's your talent, your skill
that has gotten you to where you both are, but
that platform is kind of built up by the city
of Seattle, which is cool for you guys to give
back and use your platform for good. I mean, you're
you're twenty two and twenty three year old males and
I keep we brought this up like three times already.
But it's crazy. You know, when you think of people
your age what they're doing with their platform, either they
(26:34):
don't have one, or they're just using it to just
tweet stupid crap. Who knows. But you guys are doing
good stuff with it, and it's cool to see that,
and it's refreshing and inspiring to see that from you guys.
What made you go from Heart on My Sleeve to
HAMPS When we were looking into all the legal stuff,
and which is a huge part of running a business,
(26:55):
I'm sure you learned that, Like what the hell? Yeah?
I mean, I was just, hey, I don't want to
make a few T shirts. And my dad from from
day one made it very clear, well, you've got to
have the business side tight. So before we started selling anything,
we made sure that the name was solid and all
that stuff, and Heart on My Sleeve was taken in
a few different orientations from other companies, and so it
(27:17):
was actually a conversation I had with my big sister
who shout out to her suggested we just abbreviate it
and do the H O M S for Heart on
my sleeve and call it HOMS. And so it started
out as a logo which was the H and the
heart and M and S and one of my notebooks,
and I didn't even call it Hams up until that point.
(27:37):
It was just okay, yeah, I like that logo, We'll
stick with it. And then we got all the rights
to it, and now it's hom Seattle, which we we
threw the Seattle on because Hams dot com was taken
and so we just added that right there and had
no idea how much it would just all make sense,
and it does. I mean, saying heart on my sleeve
is great and all, but Hams really is unique and different,
(27:59):
and ham Seattle is even more unique and different. So
it's also kudos to your sister for that. And I
know I said this earlier, like women abbreviate everything. So
I'm glad it paid off for something awesome because we
always have the most ridiculous Like we created l O L.
I'm convinced a guy did not create that, definitely, So
we've got l O L and HOMS. That's awesome. Kudos
for that. So Race, you are physically printing all of
(28:23):
these yourself. How is that working? Cause I know that's
how it started. And Miles, you're not doing any of
the printing, right, No, I'm but I'll hang in there.
Um yeah. So Hamm's corporate warehouse is all in one place.
Is my my childhood bedroom, Like I love it. That's
(28:43):
what's been so fun is to kind of get people
in because you know, you don't think about where your
clothes come from. You just kind of think about wearing them,
and so it's been fun to be a part of that.
For myself. I handle all the day to day operations.
You know, I make every hoodie one at a time
with my hands, which I think is an awesome touch.
Being able to kind of say that about your businesses
(29:04):
is super fun. But as we've grown, I've definitely had
to look into new ways of kind of manufacturing and
printing and all that stuff. But for right now, it's
a one man operation and it's been a blast. And
I love the fact that everyone I see wearing the
hoodies I made that with my with my own hands.
It's it's it's it's been fun. Have you run into
(29:24):
someone that, like I was wearing it and you had
no idea. I swear every single person I know has
told me they've seen it in public or randomly, and
I have not seen it one time, so I don't
know that moment waiting. I honestly, I would say at
least a hundred people have told me that they've seen
someone else wearing it, or will send me a picture
(29:45):
of someone wearing it. I have yet to see in person.
So I'm amatiently waiting. When you do, you have to
say something to that person, you have already know exactly
what I'm gonna say. I'm just gonna say, hey, that's
an awesome hoodie. And if they know me, oh, you
have to come. So I they've been on the podcast before,
but two of my best friends created the Roosevelt's clothing,
(30:07):
and when I'm with my friend Steve, who's behind it,
we'll like, I'll see someone wearing a shirt and I'm
like and he's like, don't say anything. I'm like, please,
please please, He's like no, but he will pull that
Hey that's cool shart bro. And I'm like, you're such
a dick, Like just tell him it's yours. And he's
like no, because then it's gonna be this whole conversation.
And I'm like, okay, fine, that's fine, but it's really
it's a cool moment. When it happens, it's like, there's
(30:29):
nothing like it. So I'm excited for it to happen.
You better post about it somewhere. You better tell the
world when it happens. Absolutely, I can't wait. Miles. Have
you bumped into anyone wearing it? Oh? Yeah? One time
at the airport. It was like right after my birthday.
So I was having fun before. I was sitting in
the airport, like have sleep, and I've seen somebody with
(30:50):
just like just the basic phases. And I had one
of the hearts on everywhere, my other one, and I
was staring at them and they were just staring at me.
I was like, nice, Eddie, Like are you like, yeah,
you probably made it. I was like no, I'm just
the do you model? You model on Instagram whatever whatever
(31:13):
he needs me to be there. You both model, and
you have some of your friends, Like who are the
models that I see in all these pictures on the
website and Instagram? Whoever is excited to wear it or
whoever wants to That's the thing that we love about you, don't.
We don't think about it as like a photo shooter.
We just go hang out at a cool spot around
Seattle and we'll take some pictures with some friends. And
I just signed myself up in anytime. But yeah, no,
(31:34):
it's been fun and supporting local photographers. We've got an
awesome photographer right now with us. That's just amazing. So
your Instagram, you're running that as well, Like, first of all,
tell me about that, and then we're gonna get into
how you're a student and athlete and you have a
company and Instagram alone is its own business. So Instagram,
how does that work for you? I think one of
(31:55):
the one of the best parts about running a business
and a clothing brand on Instagram is just the personal
interactions that you have with people on a day to
day basis and on the account. I always say we
we at harms or you know, and it's it's funny
because my friends will give me crap every here and
then because they'll respond to something, I'll be like, yeah,
we can make that happen and they're like, I know,
it's you. We don't have to do that. Yeah, And
(32:18):
so it's really fun to have those personal interactions with
people through direct messaging and over comments and stuff like that.
And the other really cool aspect of it is I
think it gives people kind of the feeling that they're
a part of it and they're a part of the
design process and which colorways we decide to choose on
through pulls on stories. Um. The beauty of running it
(32:38):
on Instagram is that really feels like it's everyone's brand,
you know. I hate to say it's my brand or
our brand. It's our brand as a city, as a community.
And as much as people can feel that that is
true and that when they throw it on it's more
than just a sweatshirt, I think a lot of that
comes from just the day to day operations through Instagram,
(32:59):
which is awesome. And when we um we're talking earlier,
you had said to me that there is something weird
about running a company that is all about making mental
health cool on a platform like Instagram that causes mental
health issues, and we got into a whole conversation about
I mean, Instagram has been and I've talked about this
on Instagram before. It has caused issues for me personally
(33:23):
that I've now overcome and I've grown, But there are
so many young people on there who can't do that,
and your brand is important to be on that platform
where it is festering. It it is bad because you
are a breath of fresh air. So when you dive
into Instagram as a company, in knowing what the climate
is on Instagram, how do you tackle that differently or
(33:43):
do you tackle it differently? It's it's very tough, and
I think one of one of my biggest realizations in
dealing with my own mental illness and specifically my anxiety,
it's been pushing myself away from Instagram and my personal
account because you are so constantly seeing everyone post about
what they want other people to see, you know, and
I feel like that's so counterintuitive to having you know,
(34:05):
positive mental health and and being aware of those things.
And so I think one of the biggest benefactors of
running the Harms Instagram is pushing out stuff that completely
goes in the other direction. So we're posting raw emotions,
were posting pictures of us just hanging out, you know,
stuff like that, and then on top of that, just
(34:25):
little pieces of information for people, you know, suicide prevention
lines or just a little quote to you know, give
someone the boost of the day. It's just trying to
do everything counter to the negative impacts that that social
media can have, and I probably go through it on
a daily basis, you know, needing to just put my
phone down. But all it takes is one story that
(34:48):
someone says, Hey, this kind of gave me the boost
I needed today. And so it's really nice to be
able to get feedback on stuff like that. Miles, as
someone who you go from playing it you dubbed to
being on you know, a nap and out that you
isn't a national scale, but in the NFL, what has
social media changed for you? Do you see different engagement
from people a little bit. I'm I'm full blown. I
(35:10):
like to put my phone down often, like I like,
I'm telling you guys, yeah, like my parents hated because
like I'll see like a whole bunch of stuff and
then like I'll put my phone down and just totally
forget about it. But obviously it has changed just on
the different platform being a professional athlete. But I try
not to let that dictate how life goes on. I
like to just kind of post whatever I need to
(35:31):
post or whatever the way. And obviously you both are
using the platform to spread homs, which is great, which
is awesome, and race you talked a little bit about
hearing from people saying how Hams has changed their day.
What tell me about those stories that people you've only
been around for a year, Like, are people actually reaching
out and being like I had a conversation with someone
because of my sweatcher and it changed my day? Like
(35:53):
what are the specific stories from day one? It was
super fun because the people reaching out to me about it,
We're like, hey, you know, I want to be a
part of this and and so that's been awesome. And
then feeling like, you know, everyone's grown up with the
brand and so when they do have those interactions are
kind of inner encounter. People that ask about it, they
always reach back out to me, and and it's so
fun to hear people talking about you know, oh, someone
(36:15):
asked me they love the design, like blah blah bla
all that's all. That's great. And on on a on
a deeper level, a lot of people have reached out
for you know, specific advice on mental health or shared
their story with me. And I'm always very grateful for
those those people being vulnerable and transparent because it takes
a lot to you know, open up about that stuff
to a stranger really and actually yesterday, someone told me
(36:39):
that if it weren't for Harms and kind of what
we've been, what we've been doing, that they might not
be here. And so that was a big moment for
me because you know, just all the sweat, blood and
tears that have gone into it was made worth it
with that one interaction. So it's incredible what you've been
able to do with literally starting with an iron on
pact like it's for me, it's like a girl Scout patch,
(37:01):
Like that's how it started. Like girl Scouts, we would
iron on our patches like you did that same thing
I would do as an eight year old on a
T shirt. And that's not saying that's not saying at
all that it's not amazing, Like it was cool what
you did, but look what it's grown into. And it's
these small little moments planting these little seeds that you
don't realize where it's gonna go or who it's going
to touch and whose life you can save. I mean,
(37:24):
and you've you've said before that Ham's also may have
even saved your own life, and having that conversation with
Miles may have even saved your own life. And you're
you've built an entire company off of conversation and having conversation.
As someone who's in my industry, I know the importance
of conversation and how I mean, if it wasn't conversation,
I wouldn't have a job. I wouldn't be in radio
(37:44):
and podcasting and all of that. So I know the
importance behind it. And you're launching conversations every day by
just your articles of clothing, and you're doing something You're
not just creating a random T shirt and putting out there.
It has a meaning. So on those moments and except
when people tell you the stories, it's going to be hard,
but it's amazing what you're doing. I appreciate you for
(38:06):
for sharing that. I know it's it's definitely not easy.
Do you still have the original shirts that the patches. Yeah,
we've got them hanging up in in our office. They
will be with us wherever Holmes ends up going, wherever
we call home. But yeah, I'll keep those with me
forever because that's that's the inspiration behind it all. So
how do you find the time, Like, obviously right now
things are different, you know what social distancing and being
(38:29):
in quarantine. Everyone's got time at the moment, but before that,
how are you being a student, an athlete and running
a company. Yeah. There, I mean, there have been some
some sleepless nights and some very early mornings and all
that stuff this year, and I'm so grateful for everything
that that has happened. And and it's funny because I'll
(38:49):
kind of be hanging out with my dad and I'll
just be like, I've got to make a hundred and
ten hoodies by the end of the weekend. Um, And
that's a pretty good that's a pretty good problem to have.
And it's true, it's it's pairing those kind of those
emotions together. But yeah, I mean it's been it's been
amazing for my compartmentalization, you know, being able to The
(39:09):
beautiful thing about football is we're almost always done by
eleven in the morning, so we get our our day started,
we've worked out, we've pushed our body to the limit,
and so then you're ready to kind of attack the day.
And so that's when I would go to sleep. I
push my body to the limit and then attack the day. No,
I put the bud the limit. I go to bed.
But yeah, so when you're when you're lifting waves around
(39:29):
all day and running as fast as you can going
home and making a handful of hoodies doesn't sound like
the worst thing in the world. So definitely not, and
like you said, it is it is a good problem
to have. But then are you packaging it and bring
them to the post office yourself? I'm doing everything. It's
been fun. So one of the big steps for Holms
was I was handwriting all the addresses at first on
(39:50):
the labels, and then we would take them to the
post or I would take them to the post office
and they would be weighed one at a time. I
have to stand on the line. And so we set
up an account with the Post Service and we got
a little shipping machine, bits out labels at a speed
you've never seen before. Make the hoodies, I'll make them all,
package them all, print out the labels, and then we'll
(40:11):
take I mean, I've taken I think sixty packages to
the post office and one in one drive. You should
have seen the car. So yeah, it's fun to see
it all from point A to point B. It's very
interesting with you guys because the people have been on
this podcast. They've got a day job in corporate America,
and then they're spending their night you know, doing their
side hustle and their weekends and like same thing you're saying,
sleepless nights bringing things to the post office. But I
(40:32):
remember being a student and it's so different because for you,
it's almost like if three jobs, being an athlete and
a student. It's like all these different people expect something
from you, and it's a lot. And for most people
that would be that would send them into a TIZI
and an aspiral, but for you, it's actually helped you
and have a have a purpose and and understand things
(40:53):
and like you said, compartmentalized and that's an amazing aspect
that I don't think a lot of people would expect
to have been out of this. Absolutely, and I think
it's it's crazy to me day in and day out
how much everything overlaps, you know. And so whether it
be talking one of my teachers into letting me write
an essay on clothing and how it impacts mental health
and they're like, WHOA, I've never even thought of that,
(41:15):
So yeah, do it. And so conversations I've had with
my football coaches about it, you know, and and how
I would love to maybe work for you, dub as
you know, their mental health guy for the football team,
whatever it may be. It all co exists, which is
super fun and yeah, three jobs, but I look at
it as three passions. And Hams also gives back. It's
(41:37):
not just a clothing brand where you're like, this is
my business and I'm calling it a day. You guys
work with the different charity, So which one I know
there were two? Yeah, So a portion of all our
proceeds is donated to namy UM Seattle, which namy is
an unbelievable organization. I think they're the first mental illness
organization founded in America. So there's Seattle branch is who
(41:58):
we're in kind of communication with, and then we are
super super excited. Being from Seattle, this means a lot
to us to have set up a partnership with the
Seattle Children's Hospital and specifically their new branch which is
called the Mental Health Crisis Care Clinic. So we're really
excited about that. And it's like you said, giving back
(42:18):
is is our goal at the end of the day. Yeah,
and especially getting to work with kids at such a
young age. I mean, how old were you when you
first had the conversation with Miles about mental health and
how you felt. It was sophomore year in college, and
I think if we could have had the conversation earlier,
it would have been so great for me and so
as many younger kids as I can kind of reach
out to and we can connect with. That's our goal
(42:40):
for sure. Oh absolutely. And I know you have said
before and before before, I mean, like earlier when we
were talking, you have the idea of a book. So
when can we expect that? What? What is that all about?
So I would love for the book to be published before.
I've got a lot going on. Obviously being an author
would be the fourth job. But then exactly, But yeah, So,
(43:06):
I mean a lot of the conversations I've had and
a lot of this stuff that's out for the public
is kind of just a five minute version of my
story and kind of just the runaround of everything I've
been through. And so I want to give people some
more concrete examples and some more in depth experiences that
I've been through that will hopefully allow people to connect
on a deeper level two as well. And then the
(43:27):
other reason that I really want to write a book,
at least right now, is because I feel like my
voice is very important as a twenty two year old,
like you said earlier, a football player, you know, being
this person that usually isn't found in these conversations. I
want to be able to kind of hone that in
and then put it in a capsule for other people,
for who knows generations. But I'm I'm kind of right
(43:51):
in this place where I can connect with parents because
I understand where they're coming from, and I've had those
conversations with my own parents and then kids on the
other end the spectrum. Being able to kind of bridge
that gap for people, I think is super critical. And
as long as I can do that right now, I
want to. I want to get that to get that
stuff out. And are you you revealed the title in
(44:12):
the episode of that didn't record. Are you comfortable revealing
the future title of your book? Absolutely? The plan right
now is to call it mental health, but make it cool,
and hopefully it will have a forward by Miles Gaskin.
I will have to get that figured out in the meantime.
Miles said he would do the forward, but he said
he wouldn't read the book, so yeah, we'll see. It'll
(44:36):
be cool when Miles is like reading it around other
players and they're like, what's that about, and it'll start
all over again. So absolutely, the conversations are what is important,
and you guys are creating them. And when we were
talking earlier, I had said to you, guys, I was
having a super crappy day and I was like, how
am I going to go into this podcast and talk
to these guys and do my job? And then I
talked to you, and you brightened my day. And then
(44:58):
what happened. I didn't record the five so I would
on my day. I was telling you it was a
crappy day, and obviously you guys got to witness how
it was. But you guys are amazing. You were not
obviously not that you were going to be rude, but
you weren't rude. You were like, let's just do it again.
And you've spent two hours almost of your time with
me doing this. So I can't thank you guys enough.
(45:19):
You're incredible humans. And I'm excited for what's going to
come of homes. I know amazing things are gonna come
with homes, and you've got all these ideas of your
sleeves and literally and I can't wait to see it
and be a part of it. As well, and thank
you for sharing your story and you have a home
on this podcast whenever you want to come on here
and share all the things you guys are doing. Thank you,
Thank you for sharing everything we've done. Thank you so
(45:41):
much for listening to side Hustler's week after week. I
appreciate you being here and I appreciate you supporting these businesses.
It's at homes Seattle on Instagram, h O m s
Seattle All again. All the links are below and the description.
You can check them out there ham Seattle dot com.
To Race and Miles, thank you for doing this episode
with me twice. I love you guys. I've been rocking
(46:02):
my hom Seattle gear. I've been getting compliments on it.
It's super comfortable. I'm a fan of it, and every
time I put it on, I am reminded of the
importance of mental health and being honest and open. So
the two of you, thank you so much for letting
me be a part of the homs Seattle family. Now
go support these guys. They are doing amazing, amazing things.
(46:23):
And a little note something different that I don't normally
get to talk about, but I was a guest on
a podcast. It's called the Glow Through It Podcast by
Little Words Project. Now Little Words Project is one of
the very first episodes of Side Hustlers. Little Words Project
was started in Adriana's basement and sorry, her parents basement,
(46:43):
and now it's grown to be this huge global brand
and it's wild. And of course they started a podcast
because they're amazing and they've got amazing stories to share,
an amazing connection. So I was a guest on their
Glow Through It podcast, which is weird for me being
on the other side of the microphone, so please to
listen to it. The description is below. We had a
really great conversation, so check that out. Thank you so
(47:05):
much again for listening to Side Hustlers. This podcast has
been produced by Houston Tilly. You can follow me on
Instagram at the Carla Murray and until next week, keep
hustling and be a good human
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.