#12 Jeff Staple from Staple Pigeon and Reed Art Department

Jeff's career in streetwear and youth culture spans over more than
two decades. As he describes it: "If I can outwork people, I stay
ahead." And he outworked a lot of people in this "niche field."
Jeff is a designer by trade; he started different businesses. He is
taking us on a journey along with his career, from the mid-nineties
till today. Jeff rarely took the front entrance. Most of the time,
he needed to get through the back door to achieve what he wanted to
do, "I am not that book smart. I don't love rules." Looking back on
his career, it feels it was well planned. But nothing could be
further from the truth. Jeff took opportunities when they were
there. Jeff has been working since he was 13. When he wanted to
spend money, he needed to earn it. One of his many side jobs led
him into a design agency where he needed to add data into their
systems – by using graphic design software like Illustrator,
Photoshop, and QuarkXpress. "This was the first time where I
wondered if there was a career in this." That led him to drop out
of NY University, where he studied journalism and join Parsons, one
of the best design schools in the world. His application was almost
rejected: "When I applied at Parsons, I used my sketches from when
I was 8 - 13 years old". But Jeff found a way to get accepted.
"This is a precursor to my whole career. Someone said you can't
come in here. Stop, you can't come in. But I figured out another
way in." His love for design led him to start printing his own
T-Shirts. At night, at Parsons, as he was not allowed to silkscreen
on anything else than paper. "I wanted to start printing silkscreen
on T-Shirts. But I was not allowed to do that. So another friend
and I broke into the silkscreen lab." "Instead of putting art on a
piece of paper, I thought to put it on a T-Shirt. Probably 10.000
people look at your T-Shirt, and that is a better billboard than a
piece of artwork that is hanging on a wall." March 7th, 1997
influenced his way forward. It is not just Jeff's birthday. The day
that his wife got a new haircut and he strolled around Soho while
waiting for her. At the Triple Five Soul store, the manager asked
Jeff where he got his T-Shirt from: "This is my design" was his
answer. "I had no entrepreneurial spirit, no dreams of owning a
company. I was silkscreening T-Shirts and wanted to give them to my
friends." The store manager ordered 12 right away. Jeff printed in
secrecy and at night. The next order was already double the size,
and Union started to sell his T-Shirts as well. Sometime later,
someone from Japan called Jeff. He got his hands on one of his
T-Shirts when he was in NYC and wanted to order some for his store
in Japan. "How many," Jeff asked. "1000" was the answer. At this
moment, Jeff realized: "OK, Jeff, there is a business here if you
want it. If you don't, you can hang up the phone and say thank you
and go back and be a full-time student." "And I decided to pursue
this brand thing." He decided to call his brand "Staple." "I wanted
to call it Staple. The raw thing that you can't live without." "My
name is not Staple. It was actually the store manager who called me
Staple, Jeff Staple." A name that stuck from that day. In the
aftermath of 9/11, Jeff needed to find a new location for his
office. He stumbled over the site of what became an epicenter of
streetwear in the 2000s: Reed Space. Of course, a lot happened
after 2005, which Jeff talks about in this podcast and how he
thinks Covid will change the industry. Jump right into this episode
and learn more about how Jeff stayed relevant in an industry that
has seen many people and bran