MAN CRUSH MONDAY – LOCAL LAUNDRY APPAREL
YYC boss babes – we get it. We have pride in our city and we have pride in our home. Connor & Dustin have created just that. A way to rep your city and community pride with Local Laundry Apparel. Welcome the two very handsome men to our Man Crush Monday!
Dustin Paisley & Connor Curran (Pictured below)
WHAT DO YOU MAKE/SELL? TELL US ABOUT YO’ SELF.
We make apparel that helps build community? “Yo Connor and Dust! How can Apparel build community???” Great question. When you create clothes that represent where people are proud to come from, say their city (YYC) or even right down to a hyper local level of their community (Hello Sunnyside!) you tap into this fierce passion people have for what is important to them and what values make up their characteristics. Combine this with using locals to help build these clothes by having graphic designers create designs of their local neighbourhoods, photographers shooting small businesses in our gear, models repping it for shoots, marketers using their network and skills to branch the clothes out, fans, family and friends to post pictures from near and far in these threads (Nǐ hǎo China!) all while giving back to local charities that mean the most to these people, all of a sudden you take a step back a look at how the power of one t-shirt, one crewneck, one snapback hat or one tank top has brought all these people together and make them feel a part of a greater community than themselves. That’s how you can make apparel that builds community, and we owe it to everyone in the community and communities that have made it possible to do so.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD YOUR BUSINESS?
The company was born online on April 17th, 2015 and became a big boy business in February 2016 when we got incorporated.
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?
I (Connor) was living abroad in Sweden and wanted some clothing to represent Calgary and its awesome communities. I was always jealous of East Coasters that they could rep East Coast Lifestlye gear and feel connected with other maritimers. I wanted that! When I went to find it, it couldn’t be found. So I decided to start my own. Turns out there were other people who were equally as excited to rep YYC as I was. Dustin came aboard and helped turn this passion project of mine into a company! The rest has been one whirlwind of fun.
WHO OR WHAT INSPIRES YOUR WORK?
The people of this city are what inspired us. To see the diversity of people that make up this city, from the various small businesses like ourselves, to people who want to collaborate, to our amazing fans and all the wonderful people we’ve met through this adventure. Its so cool to see other Calgarians that are so into their community and want to rep where they come from! How can that not be inspirational!
WHAT DO YOU DREAM FOR YOUR BUSINESS IN THE FUTURE?
Our dreams for the future is to expand the business outside of Calgary and include all communities big and small. How cool would it be that no matter what community you are in whether its Lethbridge or Richmond, Halifax you can have a piece of clothing to represent it?
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM AND WHY?
Instagram. Instagram. Instagram. Everything good that has happened to us has been because of Instagram. Its where we can tell our story, share the stories of others and communicate with new people. As a small business its our lifeline to the outside world of fans, customers, collaborators and interesting people.
HOW DO YOU PICK YOURSELF UP WHEN THINGS GO WRONG?
When things go wrong (and they always do!) we like to take a minute, sit back, have a think, spit ball some ideas, and just try one thing after another until we get it right. We don’t stop until we get it right and when we do it’s the greatest feeling in the world, the worse it went wrong in the first place the better it feels when it goes right.
WHAT’S ONE THING NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT YOU? GIVE US AN INTERESTING FACT!
People always seem to think that Dustin and I were best friends for years and that we developed this idea over time when in reality Dustin and I were complete strangers up until 6 months ago. I had this small online t-shirt store, a mutual friend introduced us, and we discovered that we had the exact same brain and thinking when it came to small business and wanting to grow it to be a part of the community. We were just on the same wavelength and have been since. We were two strangers who became business soulmates!
IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY SUPER POWER WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Ummm…the power of flight obviously. Not only could we travel anywhere in the world whenever we wanted to but we could save a tonne on shipping too haha.
WHAT ARE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES?
Instagram – @locallaundry
Twitter – @locallaundryapparel
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Local-Laundry-Apparel-710359745754066/
WHERE CAN WE FIND YOUR STUFF?
Our hats are in Luke’s Drug Mart in Bridgeland (112 4 St NE), and our clothing and hats are available at Meraki Supply Co. in Kensington (103-, 305 10 St NW) and Stuff4Him downtown (102, 709 11 Ave SW).