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The best brands in the world are revered for dictating trends and influencing the diverse lifestyles that reflect a generation.
For years, this position was held by mainstream media powers, consumer product giants and thriving lifestyle brands. Set atop the economic hierarchy of pop culture, these companies proudly poured massive budgets into elaborate ad campaigns and catchy slogans to not only solidify relevance, but to more so drive conversions that add dollars to their bottom-line. As a result of this framework, the relationship between culture and commerce mirrored a top-down pipeline rather than a collaborative or co-dependent ecosystem.
However, the emergence of social media paired with the rise of e-commerce and mobile platforms drastically disrupted this traditional model. This paradigm shift transferred power across industries, turning consumers into the creators, marketers and tastemakers defining how billion-dollar corporations tell stories, design products and engage communities. This role reversal also paved the way for a new category of social commerce fueled by viral moments, user-generated trends and memorable cultural experiences.
Noticing the untapped opportunity within this changing landscape, along with the rise of streetwear and social content respectively becoming multi-billion dollar industries, two entrepreneurs teamed up to design a blueprint for seamlessly turning real-time cultural trends into content, merchandise and dynamic social experiences.
Founded in 2017 by Dan Altmann, WeBuyGold is a social-video network that specializes in crafting short-form episodic content for Instagram. Launching partnerships with a growing roster of artists and athletes such as 21 Savage, 2 Chainz and Von Miller, WeBuyGold has quickly become the leader in creating, developing and distributing animated social programming.
Stepping into the market in 2016, spearheaded by streetwear veteran and former ICNY chief Mike Cherman, Chinatown Market is an apparel brand that produces fast streetwear inspired by trending topics and viral moments spreading across social media. Since selling out of their first release at ComplexCon, the streetwear anomaly now stands as a celebrated brand worn by stars like LeBron James, Big Sean and Justin Beiber.
In June, WeBuyGold and Chinatown Market joined forces to drop a first-of-its-kind collaboration with 23-year-old rapper Chief Keef. The concept stemmed from the young rapper famously making headlines after being pulled over speeding, in which he notoriously told officers “It’s a fast car, that’s why I bought it.” The capsule collection, entitled Turbo and amply reminiscent of Speed Racer, included a line of custom merchandise and an animated content series that reenacted the incident with Chief Keef narrating the event through his lens. Seeing the notable success of their first release and attracting heightened attention from prominent brands, artists and media platforms -- Altmann and Cherman are poised to redefined the rules of social commerce in the digital age.
I spoke with Dan Altmann and Mike Cherman about the vision behind their partnership, the benefit of being reactionary and their plans to rewrite the rules of social commerce.
Describe the initial inspiration behind Chinatown Market and what was the turning point at which you realized this idea would have such success?
Mike Cherman: Chinatown Market playfully started out as an idea between me and a friend of mine. We wanted to make clothes that paid tribute to the spirit of Canal Street. We started imagining what it would be like to flip different images, symbols and nuances we noticed a put them on t-shirts. We created our first line of shirts and took boxes to ComplexCon. That's where it all really started. We went to ComplexCon, dropped a product, it all sold out and we literally had empty boxes when we left. I had recently moved to Los Angeles in $20,000 worth of debt. I had just lost my last brand, ICNY, and I needed something new because I really had nothing. Fast forward a year and a half, Chinatown Market has grown from zero followers to where we are today.
Your brand is very reactionary and largely driven by real-time cultural moments -- How would you describe this business model and approach to streetwear?
Mike Cherman: It’s what I like to call 'fast streetwear'. We play to the pulse of what’s happening, we're very reactionary and very on top of what’s happening daily within the industry. For example, we made a custom set of shoes for LeBron James during the NBA Finals and he wore them. It was funny because when the finals ended, we went to release a shirt in celebration of the Warriors beating the Cavs. People were calling us out, saying how could you be so disloyal by making shirts for the Warriors after giving LeBron a shoe? The answer is simple: Because that’s who we are. We’re not a brand that looks to fit within the standard rules of what a brand is suppose to be. Chinatown Market is here to change the trajectory of what streetwear and fashion are doing on daily basis. We see every day how much we are influencing the biggest brands in the world, from high-fashion all the way down to the normal streetwear brands.
Explain the concept behind your Turbo collaboration and what made Chinatown Market the perfect partner for to collaborate with?
Dan Altmann: The shows we create are very much a reaction to things that happen virally. A lot of the work that we do is reactionary to culture. Even if it’s not immediate or in real-time, it’s still in this zeitgeist of what’s happening in culture. To put it simply: We observe what’s happening culturally and we animate it. Our model is built around culture and cartoon coming together. We love animation on TV, but we’ve never seen it modernized in the way that most media is modernized. When we learned about Mike’s brand and really took the time to study, understand and engage with it — Chinatown Market was just as clever and funny as many of the top meme accounts on Instagram. For a streetwear brand, this was really amazing, because it’s really hard for most media companies to do. We knew that would be a main focus for us, making sure we created something with them that represented the way we collectively looked at memes, GIFs and all of these social content types that make up modern media right now. They turned these things into clothing the same way we turned them into animations. For us, Chinatown Market was a very close comparison, because Mike’s team is so good at being fast, forward and adaptive to ultimately create things that are longstanding but also reactionary. Those two things don’t need to be mutually exclusive, because we don’t want someone to say here today and gone tomorrow. As we evolve as a company to develop shows that are going to be able to live on other networks and platforms, you can always be inspired by cultural moments happening in real-time. It’s the same as being inspired by a book 20 years ago. Now, things are inspired by a meme, a podcast or a livestream.
You've partnered to create an ecosystem of content, conversations and products -- How does this collaboration reflect the new model of convergence and social commerce?
Mike Cherman: That ecosystem of conversations, content and commerce summarizes exactly what we do. But, it's funny how many people don’t get it. When they discover Chinatown Market, they think we’re a meme page that sells t-shirts, but it’s so much more than that. The average person doesn’t understand the science behind what we do. We’re carving out a new lane and business model that’s designed for the future of social media and social commerce. Our brand and movement has really taken a life of its own and we’re ushering in the next evolution of streetwear and consumer trends. We did all of the launch merchandise for Puma Basketball. They had us make it, design it and produce it all within seven days.
Dan Altmann: When you look at the partnership between Puma and Jay-Z — For whatever you think about him being the President of Basketball Operations — It reflects a fluid reactionary cycle within culture. Culture reacts to sports, then sports reacts to clothing, and clothing reacts to culture and all of these things come together to build a brand. That’s why you see a brand like Puma spending a lot of money to partner with someone so embraced and influential culturally in that way, because it represents the convergence we’re speaking about — The way culture reacts and how brands spend around that reaction.
How does adding the element of fast streetwear fit into the vision you see for WeBuyGold as a media company going forward?
Dan Altmann: To be a media brand in 2018, you almost have to be thinking about creating products and representing a lifestyle just as much as you need to think about pitching to advertisers. For us, it’s a step in the direction of being a truly wholistic brand. The same way Mike has developed the Chinatown Instagram to make people think about lifestyle and content as extensions of the brand, we need to make people think about merchandise and products as part of our brand. I think the brands that will win as this industry keeps changing won’t be media or content brands content brands. Instead, it will be a hybrid brand that covers each of these lifestyle areas — being able to watch, consume, laugh, engage and purchase. If you look at a lot of the brands that are successful right now, they do content really well. So for us, we started with content, but as we move along we must focus on how we become a wholistically successful brand. Otherwise, you’re just depending on one stream or one area and you’re too limited. Consumers expect and want to engage with something tangible as well as digital. Teaming up with Chinatown Market represents an important step toward expanding and redefining what it means to be a media company.
What does this new business model say about influence and who really dictates trends in todays world?
Mike Cherman: I think it lends itself to the whole idea of how we got the shoes on LeBron. Nike pays him millions of dollars a year to wear Nike shoes, but somehow we got a pair of bootleg converse Nikes on him. Nowadays, small people can make big waves because anyone can reach anyone through these online platforms. There’s no separation and there’s no code or rulebook for how we do these things. Someone can find and follow Nikes Instagram the same way they can find and follow ours. Nowadays, you’re able to interact more in real-time, do things quicker and be more reactionary. Not only based in clothing, but it’s also based in media, jokes, memes and all of these things that drive culture and conversations daily. As Chinatown Market, we’ve already become our own little media company. Our brand is just becoming so much more than what people have understood a brand to be. In this era, clothing brands have to evolve and be more. At the end of the day, we’re all selling clothes and selling a look. That’s something you can interact with and be entertained by, but storytelling, engaging and tapping into what’s happening in the world of our audience makes their connection to the brand that much stronger and meaningful.
Dan Altmann: When you think about who is creating and building culture right now, before I look at how many followers someone has — I look at who’s following who. That’s what makes Mike’s brand stand up next to other major global brands based on who follows, engages, talks about it, shares it and wears it. Culture is in the eye of the beholder. As we continue to develop original content with different partners, and people start to take it more seriously, it’s important to realize who respects who. It’s not just about having millions of followers, because if you pick the right one who is widely respected culturally by others with massive reach and diverse audiences, that could be all you need to help solidify your brand in a way that people take it seriously.
How do you see the space evolving in the next 3-5 years and how do you see this partnership impacting the shift?
Mike Cherman: Through this collaboration, WeBuyGold now has a verified apparel offering. You’re not only going to look at WeBuyGold as a company that makes animations, but they also have original products. Overall, we see ourselves as a cultural company, because we want to offer more than just t-shirts, hats and sneakers. That’s something we try to explore everyday. I think WeBuyGold is trying to do that by studying the culture, partnering with different creative artists and rappers to develop show ideas, and do more than just sell simple animated series. They’re able to bridge the gap between artists, content and the culture.
