Taste Can't Be Faked with Adrian DZA

0:06Jeremy Kirkland: Hey folks, it's Jeremy Kirkland. You're listening to Blamo. How are we doing? Happy Monday. Congrats on your World Cup victory, Spain. Wow. Pretty crazy. Definitely was biting my fingernails off. I mean, it was like, come on, somebody score. It was just intense. But if you were rooting for Spain, congrats. If you were rooting for Argentina, I'm so sorry. Look, for me, I'm just bummed Cape Verde, man. That's who I wanted. I wanted them to take it all. But, uh, dang. It's alright. Football, soccer, whatever you want to call it, it brings everyone together. It really does. It was cool. It was just cool to see all these people whom you kind of never thought cared about anything, and all of a sudden we're talking about strikers.

0:59Jeremy Kirkland: anyway very very excited to be here with you all today big episode um look i uh i've always been a huge fan of very special specifically adrian dizza but uh he joined the pod this week and he's he's kind of this uh i don't know renaissance man is not really the word i would use because that almost feels trite but he's had about five careers and somehow all of them make perfect sense he's a DJ, a party promoter, a skate shop owner, creative, and he's the co-founder of Very Special, which is a vintage watch dealer that's become one of the most influential names in the space. Adrian and I talk about growing up between Paris and Miami, building Peach Fuzz, which if you know, you know, it's one of the country's best parties and why he never wanted to be just another watch dealer.

1:46Jeremy Kirkland: And I'll say this, and you'll hear me talk about it on the pod. There are watch dealers whom their brand is themselves, right? Like their brand is X name. But these guys built Very Special into an incredible watch brand that's also a very good watch dealer. So we talk about how Very Special became a brand instead of simply a business. We talk about taste, collecting, building stuff people care about. We also get into Stone Island, vintage watches, Miami cars, records, and why the best businesses are really just communities built around shared obsessions. Glad you're here. Let's get to it.

2:22Adrian DZA: Yeah, man. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

2:25Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah. So how are things been going over there?

2:28Adrian DZA: Good. It's really hot in Miami right now. Yeah. But Miami is not a bad place to be, you know, overall. It's pretty good. VS is doing well and all the other stuff I got going on too. So I can't complain, man.

2:43Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah. And are you like full-time dadding right now too i'm full-time full-time dad mode she's uh eight months old and it and it feels it feels finally good yeah you know like i'm out of the the the confusion

3:01Adrian DZA: of like you you know young parenting or like first time parenting or whatever it would be because those first two months you know you're just like oh my god what what is happening like i don't i don't understand i don't speak baby baby's crying it's shitting everywhere

3:15Jeremy Kirkland: you're just like fuck it's i feel like especially for dads the first yeah few months you're like my kid doesn't know about me my kid doesn't give a shit about me they're not like you know they don't even know who i am that like do they you know you like you have all this love you're trying to give and you feel like it's not reciprocated and you're just like it's i mean i had that with with my first two kids obviously but the cool part is i think once you hit you know a year or nine months or so on and they like recognize you and you see them like make eye contact with you and smile and you're like oh okay there it is yeah yeah yeah it's cool that's definitely the phase i'm in right now it's like um definitely like oh this this baby's like looking at me and

4:01Adrian DZA: following me with her eyes and like laughing at the dumb shit that i do so like all right

4:05Jeremy Kirkland: we're locked in now this is my baby for real you know before we get into it i gotta know

4:10Adrian DZA: did you uh did you get her a little watch not yet okay i i don't want to like i do want to get her a watch that when she's 18 she can sort of wear but i i want to like figure out her personality a little more i don't want to like impose whatever i like you know i want to see what she got what she has like going on so maybe when she's more like five or six or seven i'll like lock in and

4:36Jeremy Kirkland: get her something you know yeah i mean like for my kids i got them a watch but like they're not touching it until they're yeah yeah yeah where'd you get them so uh my daughter has a batman gmt my son has a pepsi gmt sick and i mean i'll be honest it's like they're not wearing them they're not doing again you know they'll get them when they're older but like i got that for them and then i got a little engraving on the back that basically just says from dad that's very cute i think yeah because i was i was freaking out over i was like oh what do i engrave like do i do i put their initials do i put this and i was like oh man shit like from dad is like you're good like there's you know friend mine was like do do less on an engraving he's like don't try to put some like some fucking like bible verse or some just he's like just put like from dad that's it i love

5:27Adrian DZA: i love buying a watch or bringing in a watch that has an engraving because and especially like a simple cute one there's there's not too much to think about not too much to decipher like oh this these people just like liked each other and there you go you know that's not like 50 years of service of whatever bullshit it's like love from babe and you're like sick right yeah yeah it's true

5:48Jeremy Kirkland: um well i mean before we get into some of the watch stuff i want to get into like i mean you kind of have like five different careers yeah you know i really do yeah yeah because you're you're

5:58Adrian DZA: from france you're from paris right right i was born in france i was born in paris um my dad is Lebanese and my mom is Cuban. And my parents both just ended up in Paris somehow. And I was born and then my parents got divorced. So I moved back and forth. And my mom, I said, she's Cuban. Like every Cuban moves to Miami at some point in their life. So like every Cuban, I ended up in Miami and I did a lot of back and forth between Miami and France. And finally, when I was 18, I stayed, I came back to Miami and I stayed here pretty much for my whole life you know yeah and when i first moved here i i knew i was into djing i knew i liked music a lot but you know like you didn't really like think of it as like a real possibility to like make money or anything like that you know what i mean and yeah and then once you started once i started like djing clubs and kind of getting the hang of it i had to sort of make a decision of like, do I want to go to school, go to work and DJ?

7:03Adrian DZA: And I was broke at the time. So I couldn't really like, I had to pay rent. So I dropped out of school. And then as I started DJing more, I just stopped working and I went for it. That was like the beginning of my DJ career, you know?

7:19Jeremy Kirkland: Damn. And so wait, how old are you when you were like, I have a career as a DJ

7:23Adrian DZA: now i think when i okay so i started djing clubs in miami when i was like 18 i played this spot called pretty lounge which is like a legendary yeah i know club and like a party yeah it sounds like you know really like one of the best places you know i used to dj the sunday nights there which was like a skate party thrown by um a pro skater actually a legend joel mineholes and they kind of just like let me do whatever i want and then yeah and then and then when i was like i think at the same time i was really good friends and i'm still really good friends with my friend brawl sanchez and he um he he along with with um this art gallery that is now called moran moran but used to be called oh wow they were bringing down max fish to miami um in around 2008

8:13Jeremy Kirkland: and max fish which is the like the legendary les you know yeah lower east side bar and i it actually

8:21Adrian DZA: was the pop-up during one basel i want to say like during 2008 or 2009 and then they were going to make it permanent permanent but something i don't know it fell fell apart and and raul and the oh wow crew just opened up their own bar and so me and raul he would have me dj all these parties there and we were kind of like attached at the hip and he was kind of the guy who really got me um djing real clubs because while he was into like all the sort of subcultural and cool shit like he would go to like hardcore shows and like he would go to you know he would collect records and do all that stuff but he would also be like at the actual top 40 clubs you know like just hanging out his homies were the djs or whatever so he he put me on with a couple of like big hip-hop djs that just would have me open for them and so i would say but by the time i was like 19 by the time i was like 20 really i was like oh like i can make like 30 000 a year doing this and in my mind you know that's good man that is good in 2008 yeah yeah i was like bro this is my life you know like i'm locked in and then you know over the years i was like oh wait i can make a lot more just like doing this you know and i started djing clubs in miami clubs in new york clubs in la clubs in vegas like clubs kind of everywhere and that kind of really you know that

9:44Jeremy Kirkland: paid all of the bills for a really long time yeah i mean when did you start peach fuzz

9:51Adrian DZA: i started that when i was 21 and he was was like a sort of like well it's funny we started peach fuzz with raul my friends raul and my and my other friend press we started peach fuzz because bar closed and nobody like everybody that would go to bar didn't have a place to go and our friends had a club in Miami called Grand Central which was like a big live music venue they they had everyone from like Crystal Castles to Major Lazer to like yeah you know Drake and J. Cole like it was like a thousand cap venue and it was like the perfect medium-sized type of venue and then on the second floor of that venue there was like a loft like someone actually lived in a loft and they just like never used it and I was like yo let us throw a party in here it would be sick and we threw it and they quickly converted that loft into like a little like secondary venue and that's that's kind of how it started and it was like a 300 cap room and I would say like the peak of its existence in that club there would be like probably 350 people inside and like 600 people outside and it was like one of those things where everyone was trying to get into the party and it was a crazy crazy party and it was it was pretty sick because by the time i was 22 it was like one of the best parties not just in miami but like kind of in the country we were getting asked to do it in new york and la like everywhere and for me it was dope because that was really the first time i started making like real money and and playing like to real crowds that i that i that i can like fully control that like want to hear what I'm playing, you know?

11:35Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, cause like, did you feel like you had good taste at that time? I mean, cause I think a lot of DJs, you know, cause I remember like a girl talk. Oh yeah. The mashup DJ. Yeah. Yeah. Who would just like mash all, you know, cause I feel like you also popped off at the time where I feel like DJs started to get taken seriously as artists and not as like a dude who pressed buttons you know because i'm right around you know 2008 and onwards i mean that was yeah like you had people like girl talk and you had like people really respected djs at that time and like and now ever since but you know what's what's interesting is

12:19Adrian DZA: like yeah i think in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s there was so many respected legendary DJs you know and then I think the 2000s sort of muddied the waters a little bit with the and like with the entry of technology and things like Serato yeah iPod DJs and whatever yeah yeah but I think ultimately people want to party you know and so and the only way to really like know if a dj is is good or not is just like throw him in the throw him or her or them in the party and yeah like see what they do you know and i think there's always been like an underlying respect for like the local quote-unquote blue collar dj and that was very much like what i was and that i think for me was like i never even thought to be an artist and i never even cared to be one.

13:19Adrian DZA: I just love DJing, you know what I mean? Like, I love playing records and playing songs and stuff. So, I feel like I never really cared if people respected me. I was just like, I just need to go like make money and DJ and play songs, you know? And I think what I played, which is not like anything crazy. I mean, I came up as a hip-hop and R &B DJ that would also play like different genres but the truth is that when you dj clubs in places specifically like miami and even more so new york and you're like a consistent dj that gets booked you have to know how to play all the genres you know you have to know how to play 80s 90s 2000s r &b you have to know how to play disco you have to know how to play paradise garage stuff you know you have to know how to play classic house you have to know how to play deep house you have to know how to play like reggaeton dance hall like you have to know how to hit all of those pockets like uh there's a legendary dj in new york elie escobar he can play any single genre does he want to or have to no but he but if you put him if you like you know put the fire under his feet or whatever he could pull out any set out of his ass and i think to me that that was like what i always aspired to be and do that type of dj and and that's what i was like pushing you know that's what i was doing to make

14:40Jeremy Kirkland: my money yeah and when does very special come along because i feel like that was pretty recent i mean yeah did you feel yourself basically like get bored with one thing and try to go all in and something else or you just viewed this as like i can also do this i think so in between like djing and very special i i i started a a brand and skate shop called andrew out of miami

15:09Adrian DZA: and and um i did that actually with one of my partners press from peach fuzz and my other partner nick cats and i think um i think what happened is that i quickly realized that night life and and clubbing was not something that i necessarily wanted to do for my whole life um i don't drink i don't do drugs like i i've had a girlfriend my my baby mom's for a really long time so I I'm not really like you know and I love partying and I love the club and I love DJing but I'm not a nightlife like person you know so when I started Andrew that's when I realized like okay I can do stuff beyond DJing and I always knew I could and and at the same time a little before I started Andrews when I started making real money DJing and that's when I started buying watches and so my first watch I think I bought in 2013 and 2012 2013 type era so I was like 22 23 and that's kind of when I started getting into the just like owning of watches I wouldn't even say that I'm like a collector of any I just like to have cool shit and I always thought that watches were cool and somewhere in like 2017 2018 is when I met my partner at very special Juan and he was kind of the first watch dealer that really taught me about why I should or shouldn't buy a watch from a like validity of the watch standpoint not even like value or whatever it's like this dial is wrong.

16:52Adrian DZA: Be careful with that bracelet's incorrect. Be careful with these hands, they're redone or they're incorrect. You know, like all these types of things that I'm not considering when I'm buying vintage because I bought vintage A, because I liked, or you know, vintage, neo-vintage, that's a big point of debate for a lot of people. But I would buy vintage for two reasons. I would buy vintage because I like the look a little more. and the other reason honestly is it was more affordable so i was buying those types of watches and after like two or three purchases i realized like you you can't just be buying these watches because you can really quickly buy something incorrect or or kind of get lost in the sauce of like what you're supposed to be buying versus not supposed to be buying and it doesn't come down to just like the look and appeal the watch so juan was like really the first person who kind of put me onto that you know yeah and juan and i got closer and and all my friends that were into watches i would link them with juan and then somewhere like along the line you know we realized hey like maybe there's something here you know and maybe we should do something and that's kind of how vs started and and the main person i connected juan to was our other partner mike tran and he's a head of um design and collabs at supreme or he's had a design i don't know i don't

18:15Jeremy Kirkland: want to know exactly yeah we won't we won't quote you on his exact title but he's up there

18:19Adrian DZA: there but he's he's been at supreme for a long time and he's he's like a legend you know i love mike and him and our other friends sage l sester is a pro skater rapper all sorts of shit we were in this group chat just going back and forth and ripping off watches like riffing off watches and just like talking shit and buying stuff from Juan and buying stuff from other people. And that's kind of like the core of our company and how it came about. And eventually, like, we're like, fuck it, let's do this. And we started with zero, literally zero dollars just sourcing watches from people. And we grew it into kind of what it is now, which is we own a lot of inventory and we still source and we buy and sell and we do what we do, you know?

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20:41Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah, but I feel like with VS, so for listeners, there's a lot of different vintage watch sellers and watch dealers out there. But I feel like most of them, their brand is their identity. So like all love to Mike Nouveau, but Mike Nouveau is Mike Nouveau. Like you're buying from him. He's the brand. And I feel like you guys were at least the first place that I knew of that was new that started out as a brand over a person, you know, and like you can connect that brand to that person, but you guys launched, I mean, you guys sell fucking incense, you know, You sell merch, you sell so much good stuff.

21:31Jeremy Kirkland: And I don't know whose idea that was, but I mean, that for me is like the genius idea that really puts VS way out there because it's a brand that you're working with and that you're connecting to.

21:47Adrian DZA: Yeah, I think for us, we always wanted to just develop a brand more than just sell watches. And that was really important to us because I think maybe there's not a need for just another watch dealer, you know, and maybe we are not the people to be just another watch dealer. I think our approach was to maybe be a little bit different than what sort of the game has to offer. And I think our viewpoint is a little different and it's not better. I want to make sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not throwing shots at anyone here. I don't think it's better, but it's just different. And in a way, like that comes with selling incense and making gear and doing collabs with Jean Rousseau or whoever else and doing sort of like product launches that maybe people are not really doing in the space.

22:40Adrian DZA: And I think that was always our ethos. Like when we started the company, we always were looking to build a brand beyond just being watch dealers. And honestly, even with the name of the company, like right now we sell watches, but we could really sell anything, you know, like we could sell a car. We could sell, you know, a bag. We could sell a piece of furniture. Like I think we want it to be a reflection of our taste and sort of lifestyle. And I think watches is like very much a part of that. and but we don't want to limit ourselves so that just that because we are like curious people it's just it's just really one of those things where it's like we want to have everything available to us because that's how we approach everything you know like i am a dj who also started skate brand skate company and who now is like a vintage watch dealer like whatever you know it's it's it's just i like to do things as things come to me and i think everyone that's involved in our in our crew is like that as well so that's how that that i would say is how we we differentiate ourselves

23:53Jeremy Kirkland: from the rest yeah i mean because i feel like for a lot of people before they were even buying like a vs watch from you guys you you guys made this hat which was every logo superimposed upon itself and i know it's that great hat yeah it's a fucking banging hat and the hat's not available anymore we got in trouble all good man all good but we we we look i mean personally i love that

24:25Adrian DZA: hat that was one of the coolest hats but sometimes you know in streetwear or in skatewear you get a cease and desist sometimes you're just like fuck you i'm still gonna do it yeah but in this space we decided to be a little more careful we got a cease and desist from an unnamed brand i won't mention no no worries we just decided you know what this is not worth juice is not worth squeeze so but i will say that that's the type of thing that that i think we want to keep doing yeah we want to keep um selling items that that that kind of push a little bit the edge of what this world is used to being and doing.

25:13Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah, because I feel like still for me, that's where I look at it as like, you guys are essentially marketing geniuses. And I'm like, do you think you'd be able to be at the position you're at now if it wasn't this sort of fucking Algonquin roundtable of dudes from different paths who have very distinguished tastes whom all lean on each other to make something special. I mean, look, there are DJs I know who started to get into watch sales and they're selling franken crap. Like, I know some of those people. It's not Mike Nouveau for listening to No. No, Mike is a legend.

25:53Adrian DZA: Mike is an OG.

25:54Jeremy Kirkland: We love that dude. He's doing his thing. He's doing his thing. But like, there's a couple of people I know who are like, oh, I'm getting into this. And they just crashed and burned. You know, and I feel like you guys also recognized that your taste too is really what sets you guys apart bro you know it's it's really not easy to no it is not that's yeah and that's why i'm like this is crazy i think our previous experience of

26:21Adrian DZA: being involved in companies and working with companies and just like kind of you understand that like there are ebbs and flows in your company i mean you know when we first first started vs we were sourcing watches then that i'm not going to say nobody but people weren't really like paying attention to them we first started sourcing for example the bamboo you know the ap bamboo was was was one that i mean i want to say in the first seven months of vs we probably sold like 15 or 20 you know and we were really like pushing that watch you know and and and putting people onto that watch and one of the things that happened is like we actually participated in the like increasing of the value and the price of that watch and we we honestly priced ourselves out on that watch like we we like i said we started with zero dollars so by the time that we were maybe making enough money through sourcing and this and that we were like oh shit that watch is too expensive for us now like what is the you know what how do we pivot and it's not we weren't just like a one watch company but no watch watches like that you know when we first started vs bamboos patek ellipses ap ellipses like those types of watches integrated bracelet watches they were all melt value you know like five six seven grand watches and they're just not like that anymore so our i feel like through and i don't want to sound pompous about it but through our taste or maybe like our just inclination on on what's going on in the streets i think is super important too like what people are wearing how people are dressing where is trends headed to we're able to like pivot and adapt and offer different stuff you know the other kind of cool thing about us is like we have juan who's been a watch dealer for 13 14 15 years however long and he's like a real horology head you know like he really loves watches in a way and his perspective for watches is so different from mike and i's is actually closer to sages but he that is really important in this moment because for example right now independents are super hot and very very like heady techie nerdy watches are like having a moment and it's like juan this is your time you know this is your time to sign and he's he's been doing like an amazing job finding alternative brands or or or you know maybe long longest sons who are like not on our radar or you know something that is a patek that really a color travel that we weren't paying attention to like all these types of things is kind of where juan's like excelling right now and that's important because we priced ourselves out of some of these watches that we really like and now we're able to eat in another way and and i'm sure the pendulum will swing and maybe you know stainless steel is going to be hot in in this coming year so maybe we you know we adapt or we do this or you know it's just everything is is evolving and changing but like i feel like because of our crew and our taste and our ability to like see beyond just like a watch trend we're

29:42Jeremy Kirkland: able to maybe be early on some stuff yeah i mean you said price yourselves out like is there a certain threshold that you feel like makes a vs watch it's not so much about like what we actually

29:55Adrian DZA: have in our account to buy like we we can kind of buy anything but it's more so like do I feel comfortable selling a friend or a customer a watch at this price point right okay understood and I think I think that is that is sort of where I see I look I look at value I think and Juan does a really good job looking at value I think a bamboo at just a regular AP bamboo right like not even the moon phase a regular size not the small one or whatever yeah gold at eight to 15 ,000 is great. I think at 25, 30 ,000, I have to then, you know, it's, I feel like it's my job to be like, Hey, you know, you're buying this at your own risk.

30:40Adrian DZA: You know, like, I don't know if this is a 30 ,000 launch, maybe the market makes it that way. And maybe it is, you know, and that's the new floor. I mean, but I feel like a lot of our customers are our friends and family or people that we know, or people that we know, I don't want them to come back to me in two years and be like, hey, I want to buy this watch. And the market has tanked on this watch. And it's like, you know, I lost the customer. I lost the relationship.

31:05Jeremy Kirkland: Well, I mean, just for the record, as of recording it this time in the middle of July, an AP Bamboo Day-Date is going for$200 ,000. The moon phase one, right? The moon phase. Yeah.

31:19Adrian DZA: So just, I mean, personally, I will say this. I will say that that is an exceedingly rare watch. It is. People didn't realize just how rare that watch is.

31:31Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah.

31:32Adrian DZA: We were definitely selling that watch for a lot cheaper, but I do think that the Moonphase Bamboo is a very, very, very rare watch that some people, I mean, some dealers way more knowledgeable than me say it's very, very, very limited. I don't want to attach a number to it, but very limited. so I don't want to like disrespect that market because that is I think the bamboo that is worth spending the money now am I personally gonna spend 200 grand on that watch no but then again there's not really that many watches I personally would spend 200 grand on because that's my brain doesn't function that way you know what I mean but that watch I will say is really, really rare.

32:21Adrian DZA: And it's pretty cool that we were able to sell four different ones.

32:24Jeremy Kirkland: I mean, I think that's the big thing too, where it's like, for me as a person who's been in the watch world and adjacent to the watch world, you want to work with dealers who have like a real good dealer has a set margin and that's it. They're not trying to do some sort of obscene flip on something. Like a real good dealer is like, look, this is what I need to make. I found it. You can trust me. You move on. If the watch grows in value, which most of the time it does, then you know to keep going back from that dealer because that dealer is not going to wash you. And I think you guys set that self up for yourselves by being that type of person versus taking stuff, squatting it, looking for like, oh, I can make a hundred grand off this thing.

33:12Jeremy Kirkland: And it's like, sure, maybe, but you guys are, you set your own margin and you go.

33:18Adrian DZA: Yeah. Juan has a big line that he always loves to remind me is like, we can't be a museum. We're watch dealers. We have to sell watches. You don't really want watches sitting around. So, you need to price watches fairly and you need to be within the range of the market and you need to be honest you know and i think i think we always try to offer watches at like an honest price point like for example right now a watch that we're really big on is um the ap uh dual time royal oak which is 36 millimeters comes in like a white dial black dial blue dial i think that watch is like tremendous value for what it has to offer yeah and and i like to say that now if the watch was 55 000 60 000 would i say the same thing i don't know right now at that price point for what the watch has to because of like 30 ish around i think yeah like honestly anywhere between 27 to 35 is the range yeah like a fair range for that watch you know i mean some might be rarer so they might be worth a little more but oh i guess the point is like at the end of the day we try to like price things fairly and offer like a product we we want to we're down to buy watches you know so we if we sell you a watch we want to buy it back probably at some point you know yeah so yeah that's kind of like our logic i mean that's it's

34:51Jeremy Kirkland: a good move yeah i have spent many a times buying a watch from someone only to own it for a bit and then try to trade up or something down the road and yeah yeah like it's it's uh it's good i mean

35:05Adrian DZA: it's there's definitely you know there's definitely people can deny it and pretend that they don't want to but there is speculative thought and value to buying a watch for sure and most of the times you try to buy a watch because you like it and you think it's cool but sometimes you can't help but think of like, I think this is rare. This will be worth more. This will be that this will be, it's just like a human nature for everybody, unless they're, you know, multi-billionaire types. But even, even those people are buying watches, you know, that are so rare that they know is going to increase in value also.

35:45Adrian DZA: So it's just, it's just a matter of like, it's like digging records or it's like it's really watch watch collecting is literally just or watch buying is just like buying any type of quote-unquote rare good at just a different price point you know i i used to buy a lot of records obviously as a dj like this room right now has you know a couple thousand records and there's a lot more in storage and and one thing that happens in the record world is there's there's condition ratings there's all types of like you know first print uh re-release all these types of things that kind of apply to the watch world yeah and sometimes there's people i i tend to be one of those people who's just like i just want that record like i don't really care yeah too much about what it's got going on i just that's just a record i want in my collection and then there's other people who are like i'm not going to touch this unless it's like this unless it's in this condition unless it's this original uh release with this guitarist labeled on the back and blah blah blah blah and it's just like everyone has their own way of buying these watches but no matter what's always pricing and speculation on pricing is somewhat of a you know somewhat of a of a of a logic yeah i mean i get it i mean how

37:09Jeremy Kirkland: does how is this come with other stuff like are you like this way on cars i'm actually the worst car buyer of all time like what's up welcome to the show yeah i i listen i my my brain it does

37:25Adrian DZA: not function you know five years down the line i like if i want a car i sort of will just go and buy it and deal with it and that's horrible because i'm you know i end up spending so much money on maintenance and this and that but you know i really want the the the green g with brown interior that's what i got and it came with issues and now i'm dealing with it but that's all right you know what what do you got you got you got some some headaches too no i mean i i don't have

37:58Jeremy Kirkland: anything cool i mean my thing is i any extra money i've ever gotten i always throw into watches because at least for me it's easier to understand i know enough people to get shit fixed and also i mean i got kids where it's like i we got a you know a pretty small garage we got two cars and they're just regular cars i mean i got a fucking kia telluride it's great it's fine great car by the way it's a great car but it is not you know i don't know for also weirdly i don't mind wearing a watch that signals a bunch of stuff, but just coming from a kid who was on like food stamps and stuff at different times in my head, I'm like, well, I live in this neighborhood.

38:39Jeremy Kirkland: I can't have the hottest car on this street. I get that. I get that. But I mean, I also am lucky to live in a city where, I mean, at least for me, nobody cares about the car I have, you know, and I haven't tasted what it's like to have a car that nice yet. a friend of mine told me he's like man he's like if you ever buy a porsche he's like you're he's like you're locked into porsche forever he's like you're just not there's no point in owning any other car once you get a porsche and i was like damn well yeah yeah that's until you drive like

39:11Adrian DZA: a ferrari i'm sure yeah right sure yeah you know i think i'm lucky that i'm in miami and like my car would probably be considered like an old piece of shit a g-wagon in miami yeah i have like a 2015 15. So like, you know, people in Miami are just cars in Miami are ridiculous, you know? Yeah. I think during the pandemic, like every awful person with a lot of money moved here. So the amount of like neon green convertibles and, you know, whatever. Yeah. So I think I'm somehow discreet with my car. That makes sense. But, you know, I think, I think I can I can relate to that too like I think maybe early in my in my watch buying process just as a person who was just buying shit you know I was always like I need to buy like some crazy shit because I never had any of that you know like I'm not I didn't grow up poor but I didn't grow up with money so yeah it's you know single mom whatever type life like just don't you know, paying our bills, doing what we can.

40:21Adrian DZA: And I think when you have your first taste of something nice, you're like, all right, like I want to treat myself. And then you, you kind of, you kind of like, you tone it down a little bit over time. But, but I will say that, you know, it's hard not to buy nice things when you have, when you finally have the money to buy nice things, you know, it's really hard.

40:44Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah. And like, even for me too, my thing wasn't like, And, you know, I always like will admit this like for me, I got into watches for almost like the wrong reason because I was like, oh shit, like I'm in this city. People, you know, there's no connection to my family here. There's nothing. And if I'm wearing this watch, all of a sudden I'm getting treated differently. And I was like, well, I'm going to find a way to get that. And then like in that process, I really started to fall in love with it. But for me, I've always been like, okay, well, what does it cost? okay fine that might that might take me three four years or whatever amount of time but i'll start with hit with this i'll move up i'll sell that i'll move like and so for me the the barrier to entry is more just like how much time do i gotta spend doing it and i like we'll try to tell that to other people too like i i recognize there's people with different socioeconomic situations but it's like if you can find some way to just you know you don't have to start with a fucking Daytona.

41:44Jeremy Kirkland: You know, you can, you can start, like I started with the freaking Air King and I owned it for a couple of years, sold that, invested another like thousand bucks and so on and so forth, you know?

41:54Adrian DZA: But bro, that's honest. You know, I think, I think that's how most people get into things. Like no one is born with the insane knowledge. Yeah, true. Unless, unless you come from a family, you know, or from a, from a social economic status that allows you to be that way so like the honest way that most people go about buying anything is i bought my mercedes c class yeah and that was like my really nice thing and that's a really dope car and there's no shade to that car and then eventually if you do continue to have interest in the space you go and you buy something else and it's the same thing with watches the same thing with clothes it's the same thing with with anything you know like i own a bunch of stone island shit vintage stone island stuff now but like any other person the first stone island piece i bought was probably like a you know a hoodie yeah because i wanted the badge or something you know like it's just everybody everybody that's honesty you know and then you just grow into whatever it is that you want to buy and by the way there's nothing wrong with air kings and day

42:58Jeremy Kirkland: justs i'm just putting it out oh for sure i'm watches i still tell people to start with like and air king or 1601 Datejust I think is one of the best Datejust you can get yeah I mean it's it's it's not gonna knock you out but it is still a freaking highly highly respectable sick watch super comfortable super comfortable but on the stone stuff I mean you're yeah you were getting

43:23Adrian DZA: old stone island and now you're in a campaign yeah it's crazy how'd that actually I dude I mean I have to say that that was like the craziest experience of my life because I, you know, I owned, I own a brand and I was so involved. I'm a little less involved now because I have VS going on, but so much of my life was behind the camera. Yeah. Not as a photographer, but just like, you know, on the production side, on the creative side, on the whatever side, that to be flown out somewhere to like be a model for basically my favorite brand was like a little surreal and it was dope because my my daughter was just born so we took her out there to england with us and my family is in all my family's in france on my dad's side so we got on the train and went to france and it was just an incredible trip honestly and but you know i got shot by david Sims that's fucking legendary you know and and I don't know I'm assuming I don't want to make assumptions but I think I'm getting a billboard like in my city it's just a crazy experience you know to to sort of like see and it like I'm I'm I'm a six foot three like big dude like I'm not like you know I'm not like a model per se what they've been doing for their campaigns for the three years and involving like their community of of not just like customers but people that they actually tap into for for creative stuff in each city that they pop into is is pretty genius and and i feel like because that brand is so respected it never comes off to me as like forced

45:07Jeremy Kirkland: or try hard you know yeah i i don't i mean and this is like real talk i don't know how they've done such a good job with that because i feel like stone island is one of the few brands who can really one they show the people that actually wear the brands that like other people want to look like i mean to be honest like i don't want to look like some sort of freaking six-pack model dude i want to you want someone who like represents the culture who represents where all that stuff that a brand like stone island leverages comes from versus like you know some fancy model or whatever i mean you want like the real heads you want the heads and and also like fuck it's stone island like yeah it's super yeah the campaign like two campaigns ago they had

45:54Adrian DZA: fucking paolo maldini like that is insane to me you know like and it's not it's not even like like it doesn't take a genius to figure that out but it takes a genius to like just actually do it because it's it's it's like sometimes people overthink their brand and their brand heritage so much and everything that they have going on and it's like i don't want to lean into this because you know this might be a little too on the nose or i don't want to do that it's like yeah i feel like the last three four years stone island kind of just like threw that out the window and was like fuck it let's let's lean into our community like let's let's get you know people who may have been taboo or a little bit uncomfortable for like the 70 year old italian that was buying my shit in the 90s like let's lean into that stuff and make our brand also resonate with the youth and the subculture and the people who are wearing our brand beyond the like

46:54Jeremy Kirkland: you know upper middle class europeans yeah i mean did you talk to sage at all because he's he's done some stone stuff oh yeah i mean sage and i sage and i we talk like almost every i mean

47:04Adrian DZA: that's my that's my guy yeah sage sage and i we actually like connected beyond watches we connected on stone island because we both collect a lot of stone island and we both like soccer a lot even though he's he's an arsenal fans but you know i'm from paris so i'm not an arsenal fan but he he's in the campaign one of my other really good friends um lean mcray was in the camp was in a campaign as well and and them and avi avi as well so them like when it definitely was like all right i'm i'm down to do it like this is my crew of humans you know and it's just i mean sage is is hot and good looking so he's an actual model so it makes sense for him you know he should be in every campaign everything looks good on stage you know but like i feel you know it's it's funny

47:54Jeremy Kirkland: because you mentioned like collecting vintage stone island like i've been slowly getting more into that where you know i was i was in paris not too long ago and i went to that store metallic curtain yeah yeah tough store great store and they have just tons of like any sort of archival austie stuff or um i mean in this case for me it was like i was looking through a bunch of stone island and like i you know i got this coat from like the late 90s and it's oh my god it's perfect it's so good and i'm like it's 105 degrees but i'm still buying a coat

48:28Adrian DZA: yo i mean dude i live in miami like i wear my stone island it's ridiculous that i wear my stone it's like a thousand degrees outside every day but like how else am i gonna when else am i gonna wear this jacket like i have to wear it you know you hit the road and you go to someplace cold you know okay at 90 90 degrees i'm still gonna wear it so i feel you i think the cool thing about you know for me like to be completely honest i'd rather find like brand allegiance yeah and just pick one brand than to like explore beyond those brands because then it's just too complicated for me like i don't you know if i like if i like you know sort of outerwear and heritage brands i don't want to go down the rabbit hole of like wearing 90 different brands and like i don't have that much time in my brain, you know?

49:18Adrian DZA: And I'm also like, the truth is I like certain looks, but at the end of the day, like I'm wearing sweatpants and air forces and like a white t-shirt 90 % of the time because I'm in Miami. Like it's just, you know, and I'm like half Cuban, half Lebanese, dude. Like I like gold and I like, you know, flashy things. So like there's just a certain look to that I have that I have like to me and a certain like energy that I've got going on that

49:47Jeremy Kirkland: might not be compatible with like wearing certain things yeah sure sure but I I love that with

49:54Adrian DZA: Stone Island even though it was not intended to be worn that way is a brand that I can just throw on and it complements the rest of what I got going on because I just size up and you know wear things a little baggier.

50:07Jeremy Kirkland: It's true. Like, I feel like I'm hitting that age now where I like new brands and I like checking out new brands, but what I actually buy is not always new brands. Like, I'm like, okay, there's these four or five brands. I like engineer garments. I like stone. I like old Levi's. Like, I'm kind of good. Like, I mean, there's other stuff out there. Look, I love a press, but even then you're like, shit, the sizing is all over the map. sometimes i'm not always sure i don't want to deal with this do i got to proxy this i'm not you know and you're just like this already works like we're good i think i think what's happened to me is is

50:41Adrian DZA: also um things got really expensive and and and i will say like before i was like wow i can buy this brand and it's somewhat similar quality to these gucci loafers or these or these prada you know leather whatever right whatever it may be and i'd be like cool that was 200 and that would have been like 1500 at prada but now things are like 900 and you're just like wait i can just spend a little more and like it's not like i'm a brand whore or anything but no no there is like just get the source yeah there's just yeah exactly there's a there's a obvious difference in quality even you know between unfortunately like the goat brands and then the the sort of like lesser brands so yeah i i like what i like um my friend chris sorry brand called hanover i'm pretty sure i like what he's doing but i'm i still haven't found something that i could wear because i'm a big dude so like i don't really know like you know but i'm i'm i'm always looking around but i'm just like yeah at the end of the day like i love that stone makes it easy for me to buy what i want to buy you know i don't really have to think too hard and you know like i said i'm i'm a lebanese cuban dude from france that lives in miami like i don't mind wearing the badge you know get the badge yeah i don't like i don't mind showing off the brand a little you know so

52:15Jeremy Kirkland: So, in almost every photo of you from the past year or two, you have your signature Florida Marlins hat.

52:23Adrian DZA: Yeah, yeah. It's on right now.

52:24Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah, I know. Yeah. Talk to me about that.

52:27Adrian DZA: I mean, to be honest, I love sports.

52:30Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah.

52:31Adrian DZA: But I also love a new era fitted. And I feel like it's the only Miami sort of logo that I could wear that doesn't feel like I'm wearing a fucking cartoon or something. and I, nobody wants to see me without a hat, you know? So it's like, at the end of the day, I just, I've always worn, I've worn a hat probably like my, like, since I was like 14 or 15, you know?

52:57Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah.

52:58Adrian DZA: It's going to sound great. Like, I, I, I don't know. I've always, I just always had a hat on my head. So I love the Marlins. Marlins are actually really hot right now. They are. But we're doing pretty well, which is like a rare thing, but I love a fitted hat. I love a fitted hat. Actually, there's a team and there's a basketball team in Paris called Paris Basketball. Boring name, but that's their name. And they made a really dope fitted with their logo with Pablo's t-shirt factory. I think he just helped them, whatever. But anyway, that was a dope hat, but someone stole it from me while I was playing soccer.

53:35Adrian DZA: So, now I'm just back to my Marlins fitted.

53:39Jeremy Kirkland: yeah i mean it's i remember when the marlins came out because it was like in the 90s right

53:45Adrian DZA: yeah yeah yeah i think inaugural season was like 93 or something like that yeah and it was the

53:50Jeremy Kirkland: coolest you know and it's still it's a great stadium it's a great team yeah yeah you know i

53:55Adrian DZA: love i love the marlins i love repping miami you know i think i think the marlins even though they were the florida marlins at the time and i wear the florida marlins hat not the miami marlins hat I think they're synonymous with Miami and South Florida and, and, and Miami people and South Florida people are like very prideful about where we're from.

54:16Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah.

54:17Adrian DZA: And I think this is like our version of like the Yankee fitted hat or the LA Dodger hat. Like we, the Florida Marlins are the hat representative of the city, unfortunately for the heat or the dolphins or whoever, you know, whoever else it's, it's really the Marlins hat, you know,

54:34Jeremy Kirkland: do you, uh, As you guys continue to cement yourself further in to Miami, are there any people that were sort of pinch me moments that you started working with? I mean, Spolster come in or any of the stuff like that?

54:50Adrian DZA: With Andrew, it was really dope because we were not that far. Our store now is in the design district, but our original store was downtown, right next to the jewelry district, actually. but jimmy butler would come in and and we ended up becoming pretty close with jimmy and jimmy like actually funny enough when we moved andrew to the design district he came by and he's like i want to put my coffee shop here and boom he just he did it and his coffee shop is right next door and it's booming still even though he he left miami that's still my guy he was just here not too long ago so jimmy like us becoming closer jimmy was really dope and and he's a really sweet guy and he really loves Miami.

55:31Adrian DZA: So that was, that was cool. But, you know, I think I had more like pinch me moments while I was DJing than really just like from Andrew, because when you're in the store, it's just a little bit different from like, you know, I think, I think with VS, sometimes the transactions, even if we have like an, an idea of who this watch is going to, they can be so secretive.

55:56Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah. Sure.

55:56Adrian DZA: Never really get a good gauge of, of where watch might be going or who it might be going to um we sold a really really really sick um it wasn't even a watch actually we sold this so in the 60s rolex had made a couple prototype i've only seen one so i i they made a prototype um door-to-door salesman box oh yeah i saw that

56:21Jeremy Kirkland: yeah you guys still have it on the site but it's sold out yeah yeah it's sold and we so we got it

56:26Adrian DZA: we bought it from another dealer and we um we were at first we were like we should just not we should just have this in the office and not really sell it or anything but we realized like this is really rare and um a friend of drake's came and was like came to me and was like hey it's gonna be his birthday like i want to buy something really sick for him and it's like he has like every watch that one would ever want so maybe something a little different would be cool and i'm like yo we have this box that is like rolex official it's a prototype it has serial numbers and everything i'm pretty sure it's unique i mean i i we've we've looked really hard to see if anybody else has had one we haven't seen another one but it's possible that maybe there's another one i don't know yeah but we were like you should buy this this is sick and he was like you know what that's a great great gift and then he bought it and and drake like posted about it and it was cool because for us it was like right it was the peak moment of like the bamboo craze and all this stuff yeah it's just more positive momentum um headed our way you know as far as andrew goes we never actually officially like collab with virgil but he was a very big supporter of ours from the gen he was like a good a good friend of mine through djing and just the years of just dealing with him and that was it was always cool to like the cool thing about andrew's people were really stoked on us and still are because there's just not that much going on in Miami that does this and and and we were always like pretty true to what we do and our skate team and everybody was just cool you know we're just like fun cool guys come party in Miami come skate with us anywhere yeah whatever so it was always dope how many like skatewear streetwear and fashion like OGs or people of note were always just like being incredibly supportive you know and like happy for us to be doing our thing etc etc so that was really dope honestly I think I think the cool thing about starting companies is and when you when you when you remove yourself from like of the day-to-day is just seeing how many people actually support you you know and and sometimes you think there's a lack of support sometimes you're in your head like wow like people don't fuck with me or this person's not fucking with this and it's actually when you remove yourself from the equation you're like dude it's actually sick how many people fuck with what we're doing you know yeah we're not just like a 800 follower thing on instagram or like whatever we have like real live customers we have real live people coming to our stuff we have people supporting us and and network of humans that are always like willing to help and whatever i think that's like really the coolest thing about about about building any type of brand really i mean obviously everybody wants to get super rich off every brand they do right like that's a business but what even even even if your business does or doesn't make money the process of like learning about developing and building a like and i know this is like the waggast word but a community of like just humans that are there is sick you know so i think i think more than like a pantry moment it's always just like dope when you like remove yourself a little bit and you're like yo we really build vs from zero dollars to here where we're like building a sustainable company that is like able to like support our life and our lifestyles and like the things that we like and we haven't really like wavered in any way you know and we haven't like scammed anybody or done anything great you know what i mean like yeah just done our thing like and that's cool you know yeah i feel like you know

1:00:07Jeremy Kirkland: friend of mine he runs a brand that's gotten pretty successful over the years and he was like I realized that things were going well when I didn't know everyone that was shopping with us. He's like, early on, it was like, I'm just kind of begging people to come by. I'm trying to support. He's like, and then when you're going in and I'm like, who are all these people? He's like, I'm looking at our, you know, our sales for the day. I'm like, I don't know that guy. I don't know this person. And he's like, okay. He's like, maybe, maybe something's working, you know,

1:00:32Adrian DZA: a thousand percent. I get like, when a random person DMs us on Instagram, like, Hey, price. Okay. Purchase. boom boom i'm like yo this is way cooler to me than than like you know somebody important that i know coming and buying i mean not that that's not cool either but it's just it's just crazy to me and i think on the watch side man it's even fucking crazier because like imagine just like making a 50 000 transaction through a dm like oh i know right and i'm just like dude this is this i mean once you get used to this space you realize that it's way more common obviously yeah but it's still crazy to me you know and and somebody is like sending us an article and being like cool i read this so i trust you guys here you go and i'm like oh i wouldn't do that but sometimes i'm

1:01:19Jeremy Kirkland: just like yeah like i'm i get scared of that stuff but some people they're also like no dude i paid on an amex i did this i did this we figured it out we're done you're just like okay all right yeah

1:01:29Adrian DZA: yeah i take all forms of payment you know crypto whatever but i i think i think also once you get used to buying things like a watch, you realize that these transactions are not that. There is a lot of trust involved in the process because ultimately watch dealers do get blacklisted. They do get removed from places. They do get sued into oblivion when they're doing things incorrectly or unethically. And most likely the person that has the ability to be spending that type of money on a watch has the ability to be pursuing, you know? So you want to make sure that you do everything correctly.

1:02:09Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah. You know? We're starting to wrap up soon, but what's like, what's the next watch for you or the grail watch that you are always on the hunt for for yourself?

1:02:19Adrian DZA: You know, I used to think, I used to think about this differently when I first started collecting. And even when I first started collecting PS, I was like, yo, oh, I need to go get the craziest, rarest watch. So it would be like, I need to get this Nautilus with the Conjar stamp. And I need to get this Day-Date Coral dial or something really crazy rare. I need to build myself up to that. But what I really realized down the line is that those are impossible to wear watches. You're right. and and for a person like me first for others they're definitely not possible to wear for a person like me who's not a billionaire or or or you know i'm i'm looking for watches that i that i'm that i could see a picture of myself 20 years from now and be like that was a that's a dope watch that i wore then and it's still a dope watch now yeah and two years ago i bought myself a yellow gold Submariner nipple dial from the 80s.

1:03:27Adrian DZA: And I remember wearing that watch and being like, damn, this is the perfect watch. It was actually from 1990, I'm sorry. I was like, this is the perfect watch. And what happens when you're a watch dealer is eventually people look at your watch and they're like, is that for sale? And you're kind of like, no. Wait, did you sell it off your wrist? So I sold it off my wrist to a good friend of mine, to a really good friend of mine and and i'm happy that he has it yeah um but i think about that watch a lot i think about that watch a lot and i have right now on my wrist i have a really nice platinum day date with factory diamond stuff going on a vintage one from 1989 this this one actually is the same watch that um jay-z wore on the cover of in my lifetime so it's like a cool little like hip-hop factoid i like this watch and there's a lot of watches i like but i keep going back to that watch and no matter how many Royal Oaks I try on or I love an Aquanaut like a vintage Aquanaut I love yeah I love a lot of you know Calatravas I love a lot of um even like Perpetual Calendar APs on straps I like a lot of watches but the only watch that I'm always constantly thinking about is a nibble dial sub and it's not like I can't go out and get it today but it's just I one day it'll come back to me and then I'll be like super happy with that watch, you know?

1:04:48Jeremy Kirkland: Yeah. I mean, I've, for a long time, I've wanted like a solid gold watch and I would go back and forth. I finally got a Day-Date, but when I looked at getting yellow gold Day-Date, cause I was like, I want yellow gold. I want yellow. And my buddy was like, dude, you're not a yellow gold guy. And I was like, damn, that's, that's a secret. I was like, what do you mean? And he's like, no, he's like, you want something a little more sleek. He's like, you don't, he's like, you just don't got, you're not a yellow gold dude. And I was like, all right. So I got a white gold and it's, you know, it's been great.

1:05:22Jeremy Kirkland: But yeah, we talked to him about this. I'm still figuring out how to wear it in the correct size. Because it's just so fucking tight on my wrist.

1:05:30Adrian DZA: You got to just link up, man. And let it droop a little, you know? I feel like when I watch, when I look at photos of people wearing Day-Dates in the 60s 70s and 80s it's a lot of like older men playing golf or doing whatever and and they're just that that shit is sagging yeah it's true their wrist it's just hanging out there and so i feel like if you're already buying it vintage or neo-vintage yeah condition is like a thing that matters but ultimately like the comfort of the watch is what matters the most and i do think that the president bracelet is the best bracelet ever made for a watch it is so just you know get the extra link man let it let it hang but a part of me is you know a friend of mine was like dude

1:06:19Jeremy Kirkland: don't stop fucking caring and he's like you he's like nobody is gonna he's like nobody's agonizing or nobody's gonna look at you and be like that guy's got his watch on too tight or too loose

1:06:28Adrian DZA: he's like you're the only person that cares i agree you know i mean when it's too tight it can be uncomfortable. But I do think that sometimes we overthink too much. And I'm just like, let me just throw this shit on. You know? Yeah.

1:06:45Jeremy Kirkland: All right. Well, Adrian, thank you so much for being on. Thank you, man. Huge pleasure talking to you.

1:06:50Adrian DZA: Yeah, man. This was really dope. Thank you for having me. This is sick. All right. Cheers, man. Bye. Yeah, man. No doubt.

1:07:04Thank you.