Today we’d like to introduce you to Ty Mopkins.
Hi Ty, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started my fashion journey at the iconic Strictly Sportswear in Detroit on West 7 mile by it being a traditional mom and Pop retail store it taught me how to do everything how to run a business how to maintain it how to care for it inside and out you can kind of say I was thrown to the wolves early, so that helped me to get to where I’m at today when I’m creating a new collection or when I’m consulting other businesses because I was so hands-on at Strictly Sportswear from day one
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been smooth at all (lol) just like in life you’re gonna come to some obstacles that you will learn from I will prepare you for the next obstacle sometimes what you think is gonna be a hit really becomes a miss and sometimes what you think is a mess probably becomes your greatest creation sometimes my struggles are mentally because I suffer from anxiety and depression so I’m always worrying about a couple of things do I still have a clientele that wants to support what I’m doing? Is this my last creation and when is my run finally over?
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have been truly blessed to tell a story through merchandise whether it’s my Starter Jackets working with footwear companies or even consulting with companies to help grow their customer base I’m proud of everything I’ve done but Wood really pulls at the Heart strings is actually winning an Emmy award with working with the Detroit DetroitPistons in their Detroit basketball campaign in 2023. What sets me apart from others is I try to give you a real organic story and everything that I do I’m not gonna give you something corny. I’m gonna give you something that bring back memories or create new ones. I love pulling on the Heart strings and what makes me different is before I was a creator. I was and still am to this day a consumer so I’d like to create the things that I wished exist so I make them exist.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Well, my favorite childhood memory also became a nightmare which in fact became a full circle moment, you see growing up as a kid always wanted a starter jacket and I finally got one. It was actually a Philadelphia 76ers one that I saw Dr. J in a Starter magazine at and I beg my parents for begged and begged and begged them for one and I finally got it and I may have had it two weeks before I got robbed for it yeah back in those days people were robbing people for Starter Jackets so that was the nightmare not a full circle moment ironically came almost 30 years to the date while I was robbed for mine. I created the same jacket again with Starter while I was the brand ambassador for the Mr. Alans franchise in Michigan so I told the president of Starter also a Michigan native former NFL great Carl Banks this story and he said we should put this out again and we did and we sold out of it instantly
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @tymopkins
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@themopkinsnetwork?si=eNJ_y1ZKDjXJ1RMu
