The Reason Marvel and the NFL Partner With This Brand

0:00Stay creative, stay in tune, but the way to do that for me is to just live the brand every single day. Hello, welcome to Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. I'm your host, Shuang Esther Shan. Who is your hometown hero? For Pittsburgh native Christian Johnson, it's Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller, some of the greatest rappers to ever come out of his city. Christian was motivated to become an inspiration on his own through entrepreneurship. and the GLD Shop was launched, a jewelry and lifestyle brand designed to connect anyone to their heroes through accessories. How did he do it?

0:41First, by collaborating with hometown heroes, and now he's collaborating with large brands like Marvel Comics and major sports leagues like the NBA and NFL. Christian is here now to dive deeper into some of the marketing strategies that has put the GLD shop on the map. Christian, welcome to the show. Thank you. I appreciate the time. Appreciate being here. You know, it's an honor, so thank you. Well, thank you for being here. Let's get into it. The GLD shop actually started in your basement. Where were you wanting to create back then? You know, I think it's funny. Like, since day one, we always wanted to create more than just a jewelry brand.

1:21we really had the idea of creating a lifestyle through our jewelry accessories apparel. So we wanted to tie in the lifestyle with the jewelry. And I think that's something that really resonates with the customers, the aspirational, whatever it is you do, if you're an artist, an athlete, be the best you can be at it and, you know, inspire others while doing it. So that's something that we've always wanted to do since day one. And, you know, I think it resonated with a lot of different people from all different walks of life. And there's plenty of jewelry brands, accessory brands, lifestyle brands out there.

1:54We mentioned that Wiz Khalifa is one of your hometown heroes. You actually got a piece very early on to be worn by him. How did that happen? Funny story. So we were actually at a show in New Jersey and we had some jewelry for a few of the guys from Taylor Gang, which is his crew. And I had a hat on and it was just a sample at the time and it said, hold on to your friends. And he kind of came by me and basically said, I like that hat. And I said, oh, it's GLD. Like, it's our hat. And he said, oh, like, can I have it? I was like, of course. Took it off my head, gave it to him. We were all excited.

2:29He liked the hat. And then when he went out to perform, he came out in the hat. So that was like a huge, huge moment for us. And even though like jewelry was always our primary thing, we've always done like small drops of hats, shirts, things like that, just to keep everything fresh. And, you know, it's something that our core customers really like. So that hat wasn't even for sale yet, but it still meant a lot just for him to rock that for the show. And it ended up leading to custom pieces and a lot of different jewelry for him down the line. But that was kind of what got us in the door. Such a cool story.

3:03And I think when things like that happen, there's a small period of time where there is momentum built up. How do you actually build on top of that and utilize some of the exposure for the brand? For sure. So in this case, it was kind of crazy because since we didn't have the hat on the site, I think the biggest momentum was really internally. It just really got us believing like, okay, wow, we could do this. And it was kind of just like, wow, we did it. We got whizzed. It's a big moment for us. Let's build off that. It was motivating to show that we really could do it. And then, like I said, it did lead to him rocking some jewelry and then eventually posting that jewelry.

3:42So it all kind of just layered on top of each event. and what I could say is when you do get someone like that that level posting for you I think it's really important to you know stay on brand and just really don't change because their audience will flow to you so it's kind of just a way to expand your audience but I would say the biggest advice is just don't get out of you know what you already do because they like you for a reason and just like anyone else you know these artists are they're consumers at the end of the day so if they like you, generally a good portion of their fans and community is going to like you as well.

4:21So ultimately just keep doing what you're doing. If you got them in the first place and you probably did something right. And that exposure, it's not the end point, it's actually the starting point, because though there is some exposure, you still have to continue to work hard with logistics and fulfilling those orders to make sure everything works smoothly. For sure. And that was a learning experience for us too like you know that was really early in our days as a brand so when that happened it was kind of you know when it first happened like that day we were on cloud nine like wow we did it we got whiz we won and kind of expected everything to like take care of itself and then we woke up the next day reality set in and it was kind of like okay wait like you know everything's the same nothing really changed so it was then up to us to get back to the grind and then kind of just build off of what we, you know, what we accomplished, it was a good accomplishment, but it was just kind of right back to the grind.

5:14And I would say one other thing too, is just like when you do have someone like that, you get the new audience, it's a whole new, you know, a bunch of new eyes on the brand. So then it's kind of your job to intro them to the brand, show them what the brand's all about. Because many of them, they don't really buy right away. So, you know, you get some sales right away, but a lot of times they might follow you on social media, they might visit the site, come back later. So it's really just an introduction to the brand, where then later they might come back to buy someone a gift or buy something for themselves when they get their next paycheck, whatever it is.

5:48So I think it's just really important to, you know, you're always getting new customers. So just you have to stay in tune with the brand, even though you've been around maybe a little longer, you got to kind of keep portraying the core of the brand. So coming off of a huge exposure event like that, you have to also go back to the grind and focus on your work ethic, which I feel like is influenced from where you're from, Pittsburgh. How did the blue collar work ethic influence the way that you build and scale the business? I mean, honestly, I'm thankful for being from Pittsburgh. You know, it's a blue collar, hardworking city.

6:26So it basically instilled that in me from an early age. And I think the combination of that hardworking environment, coupled with the fact that a lot of people don't like to step out of the norm in Pittsburgh, it's kind of a lot of people follow, you know, high school, get a job or high school, college, get a job and kind of don't step outside of the norm. So I think the combination of, you know, dreaming big and wanting to break out of that coupled with that hard work and kind of knowing what it does take to make something like that happen was the perfect combination for me and, you know, and for the brand of GLD too.

7:03When you actually started GLD back in 2015, when you were still a student, I feel like there's a lot of listeners who are probably going through the same thing. What advice do you have for people who want to maybe start a side hustle while they're working or studying? I would just urge you to do it. There's so many ideas out there. And I would say don't hold yourself back. Don't sell yourself short, especially if you are in school. And if you're younger in school, you know, now's the time. Dream big. And even if whatever the idea you have now doesn't work out, oftentimes that idea will lead to another idea.

7:40Might be three ideas down the road, but that first idea, just getting the ball rolling is all it takes. Like, so I would just say, don't wait, dive in, you learn on the job. Don't, you know, sell yourself short and say, a lot of times I hear people say, I don't know if I know enough to do that, or I'm no expert, like I need to learn first. The best way to learn is just dive right in and learn on the job. That's, that's what I would say. So get to it. because I think ideas iterate and they change tell us about some of the early day ideas or maybe the false starts that you had that eventually evolved and turned into GLD for sure I mean in the early days we had tons of different ideas we were always a lifestyle brand that had the jewelry the clothing and everything like that we definitely jumped the gun sometimes trying to expand categories too quickly and I think you know jewelry being our core and I think sometimes you know category expansion might have been something that we were really excited about, but we tried maybe too soon.

8:39I'm talking like in the really early days. And then we kind of scaled things back and it turned into a good idea because it's a core pillar of the brand and it's something that to this day we're still always going to do. So it ended up working out. I think we probably just jumped the gun a little bit. So that's, I guess, an example of maybe we were a little too fast with that we came out of the gate too hard, but ultimately it led us to where we want to be, which is, you know, the full lifestyle brand, jewelry, accessories, and apparel. I think what's interesting here is you want to be creative and offer unique designs, but you also have to balance some of the classic styles that people really like, or they're kind of used to.

9:22How do you inject your own creativity when you're working at these designs that pushes the envelope in terms of creativity, but still kind of designing with customers' ideas in mind. For sure. And I think with jewelry, especially, that's really important, but it goes with anything. I mean, all of our pieces are designed basically from scratch. We make a sketch, then we make the CAD, then we go into production. So I think that allows us to add all the little details onto the pieces, whether it's a completely unique piece that GLD made and patented and it's unique to us. Or if it's like a take on a classic, like you mentioned, people are always going to want the classic Cubans and rope chains and things like that.

10:02But we find little ways to add details to them just to show the customer, you know, they might not even notice it when they buy it, but they get it and they see all these little details on the clasp and on the side and on the back. And they realize, you know, the backside is just as finished as the front side and things like that. So adding all those little details, I think go a long way in just showing how much we care about like all parts of the process and all parts of the products. I think every piece has a different level maybe of creativity injected into it, but that's something that is important to maintain even as we grow, never to kind of lose that creativity that makes our pieces unique from the, you know, just kind of what's already out there.

10:40Listening to you describe the different styles, the clasps, I can tell you're so comfortable and passionate about jewelry. I imagine you didn't actually know a whole lot about all of the technicality behind jewelry. Were you ever intimidated by that in the beginning? And how did you build up your knowledge and learn from the production managers to really scale up your own knowledge? I come from a very nontraditional background compared to most people in the jewelry industry. Like a lot of people are very surprised to hear that no one in my family was in jewelry. I'm not like I don't come from a family of jewelers or anything like that.

11:16I didn't even really have much jewelry growing up. And that was one of the inspirations to create GLD in the first place. So it definitely can be intimidating. But I think the biggest thing is just don't let those fears stop you and just pretty much go out and learn. And that's what I did. I learned on the job. I was fortunate to meet different people, both within the business, but also just outside of the business that were nice enough to educate me on it. So I got kind of got pieces from, you know, bulk production and also from making custom pieces for Wiz Khalifa or ASAP Rocky or whoever it is.

11:52All the learnings I have from all those different parts of production allowed me to, I think, build like a nice, well-rounded bit of knowledge. You just can't let yourself get intimidated. You have to just go out and do it. There's always going to be a chance to stop and doubt yourself, but all you could do is learn. And, you know, any bit you learn today is going to put you in a better place for tomorrow. So I would just say, go out and do it. A lot of times people might talk the talk and you think they're so far ahead of you and everything like that. But at the end of the day, just teach yourself or lean on other people to teach you.

12:26And you'll put yourself in a good spot by doing that. Love it. In the early days, there's, like I mentioned, many jewelry brands and accessory brands. Why do you think fans were turning to GLD? And do you feel like that answer has changed over time? I mean, honestly, I think it's the exact same as day one, which I actually appreciate a lot. I think they come to us for two reasons. One, great quality jewelry for a fair price. And I think that's something we set out to do from day one was to create that great quality at all the different price points, even at the entry level, which is something that was unique to us in the early days, especially creating really high quality jewelry at a fair price.

13:09And then the second thing is joining the community, which I think is very unique to GLD. We have a bunch of people who I kind of mentioned earlier, whatever it is that they do, that they aspire to be great at it. And I think that's something that with our built from the ground up tagline, it's, you know, it kind of flows through to the customers. If you're an athlete, artist, entrepreneur, whatever it is, you want to be great at it. And GLD is kind of that story that shows you can grow with the brand. You could start off with maybe a little piece, a little pendant, maybe as you get promoted or you graduate, you go up to the next level of jewelry and you can kind of keep growing with the brand.

13:48And, you know, we have people who've been with us since day one and they always tell us they're so excited. Hey, I got my new piece. I started off with, you know, a micro angel pendant. I just got my new big Cuban. I'm so excited. So, you know, I got my, maybe I got promoted or whatever it is. So kind of watching people grow with the brand just shows that, you know, they do listen to the story. So I think it's a combination of you have to have a good product, have to have good quality. So there's value. And then the second side of it is make people, they have to buy into the brand and the story.

14:19I think that's so smart in so many ways, but also just ties really closely to the values that you hold because you're creating this tradition where people can start very easy and they can start investing in jewelry where it's very accessible. And then to your point, they can grow and have those milestone celebrations with GLD. Exactly. And I mean, a perfect example of this is someone like Cardi B. Everyone knows who Cardi B is now. She could get jewelry from anywhere and afford, obviously, any type of jewelry she wants. But she followed GLD before she was who people now know as Cardi B. She was just an average person and she was already following GLD.

15:04She was a customer of GLD when she was just the average person. And she kind of went through that process. She's like the prototypical GLD customer in a way, because she kind of went from that average person. Now she's a celebrity and she kind of started off with, you know, maybe an entry level piece. And then one Father's Day, she was kind of in a little bit of a bind and it was a Sunday and she was struggling to find her dad a gift and she just put up a post and uh said like who could help me and we shot her dm and said like you know hey let's we could take care of you and she ended up getting her dad a gift and then that led to like matching anklets for her and her daughter and you know it grew from there but it was cool to learn even after that at that point I wasn't even I didn't even know that but to learn after the fact that she was already following GLD on Instagram from before she was a celebrity was really cool to see.

15:54And I think it just like reinforces that story that, you know, there's probably a bunch of other stories like that out there. And it's really cool to know that. And it's cool to hear the starting point and the growth. Digging in a little bit about the starting point, I would love to know, you know, students similar to yourself back in the day, they probably have a couple hundred dollars in their personal savings and they want to start a business, what do you advise them to invest their initial small investment in to get something started? For sure. I mean, we started GLD with$1 ,000 cash. So like it's doable.

16:29And I would say the biggest thing that I would recommend is find a way to create sales is the first thing. Like before you do anything, before you get organized, you don't even need a business plan necessarily. The biggest thing is if you can generate cash, if you have cash flow and you of sales coming in, everything else will solve itself. So the biggest thing I would recommend is before you spend on systems or business plans or consultants or anything really, just go for, and I actually learned this term, minimum viable product. I learned it after the fact, but we kind of did it just intuitively.

17:06We started off very small. It was just little chunks. Sell a few pieces, invest into growing the business. Sell a few more pieces and invest and kind of slowly built, you know, built that way. So I would just say the biggest thing is just generate sales. And that'll be a proof point in showing that your product is a winner. And from there, everything else will solve itself. You don't have to really worry quite so much about being, you know, a polished business. Maybe things are disorganized. Maybe, you know, you're shipping product out yourself and you're doing customer service and you're doing all those different things.

17:37But don't worry about that. Just worry about generating the sales. Makes total sense. You got to make something that people want to buy first. 100%. We talked a lot about the start of GLD and we definitely need to get to all these crazy cool collaborations with major brands. I'm chatting with Christian Johnson, the president of the GLD shop. We're chatting all about building a brand through collaborations. Let us know what you think about the show by leaving us a review. And if you haven't already, please follow or subscribe to Shopify Masters wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thanks. So you started this business in your basement and then you collaborated with some really cool artists.

18:20And now you're working with really cool organizations. When did you know you were ready to approach organizations like Marvel and the NFL for a licensing agreement? The first really big entity that we worked with was the NBA. And that was just an eye-opening experience. I knew on a product side and brand side, we could provide them with value in the sense of we're agile, we're a smaller business, we can do things culturally relevant that, you know, oftentimes bigger entities have a harder time doing just because they're bigger, it's harder to move quickly. And that's something that we're really good at and like with social media and everything.

18:59So I knew we could provide value and they saw that value early, which is what interested them. I think on the other side of it is kind of the back end. That's like kind of part two. And I would say there, the key was being hands-on in production from day one was very helpful because, you know, they put you through a ton of audits from all these different companies and visits to watch how you make things and just all those types of things. So being hands on there from day one was very helpful. And then on the other side of it, I think there's the financial side, which is very important. They always want to know that you could report your financials accurately and timely.

19:35So at the end of the day, that's going to be necessary for them to partner with you. So there's kind of the production side, the financial side, and then you have to have some type of value that you could provide for them. Financial hygiene is super important. What were some of the data points that were vital when you were preparing for a pitch and preparing for that showcase to show like, hey, GLD, we're not just a cool brand. We're also a financially sound business as well. For sure. They want to see a forecast. And then when you show them the forecast, they want you to back the forecast with how are you going to get there?

20:10They want to see marketing spend. They want to see a forecast of, you know, what SKUs are you going to make and how much is each SKU going to produce and over what period of time? And then, you know, like release schedules and things like that. So it's just kind of tying everything together that as businesses grow, you'll get there no matter what, like because you kind of by necessity. But when you partner with someone like the NBA or the NFL or Marvel, they kind of just force you to get there a little faster. So, I mean, with the financial stuff, that's where they definitely, you know, hammer down a lot.

20:43They want to know forecasting. They want numbers and they want you to back it with, you know, accurate details. And then on the production side, they just want to see basically everything, every step of the way. Those exercises sound really stressful, but I'm sure they helped you and prepped you for more collaborations and reaching out to other brands. How do you actually maintain so many brand partnerships at the same time over the years? Honestly, it's pretty rare. I've come to realize I see a lot of, you know, partnerships and collaborations come and go over the years and not necessarily with us, just in the world.

21:19So the fact that we've been able to maintain these relationships, I think it's a testament to just, we do good business. And I think that goes further than people think. Just being a good person is step one, you know, do right by your partners. Like I said earlier, you have to provide them value. They're a bigger entity, they could go to a hundred different thousands of different brands that probably do something somewhat similar to what you do or reach a similar customer as you. So you have to provide them some type of value and you have to be on top of your reporting. So if you could be on top of your reporting, provide them value, and then just do good business, do right by all your partners, that's the recipe for long relationships and long collaborations.

22:01So these collaborations also keeps it new and interesting for those who are shopping as well. In addition to partnerships with artists and organizations, you also are collaborating with events. So you first launched a ice cream truck with Rolling Loud, and it's really cool. Our sound engineer has loved your collaboration. So you got to tell us about that event that you had. Rolling Loud is a very unique partnership in many ways. So they were kind of coming up at a similar time as us. And I met Tarek and Matt, the owners of Rolling Loud. And it was, you know, at that time, they were really kind of early in their stage.

22:44We were early in our stage as a business. And we just came together to think of how can we do this differently than, you know, any other collaboration that's been done before. That's where we had our ice cream truck that we had just brought to Miami from New York. so it's an ice cream truck that we turned into a jewelry shop on wheels with like a sound system and it was really cool it was an old mr softy truck so we basically collaborated with them to make these massive chains and at that time you know we were kind of the first people to do that and the artists the reception was crazy so in that sense it's kind of a partnership between not only us and rolling loud but in order for it to be successful the artists are very important so it was super key for them to also think it was cool you know if the artist didn't like it then it wouldn't be what it is today so you know we loved it rolling loud loved it and when we kind of unveiled it for the first show the artists went crazy and that is what really was like the i think the final ingredient to making it so successful and i think it's a testament of how cool the idea has translated over time to rolling loud has grown it's entered different cities and you were also able to grow with the festival as well.

23:57Definitely. Yeah. And that's, you know, I see the advantage of having great partners and rolling loud. I would say it's just a great partner. We've, like I said, we've grown, they've grown watching their growth over time has been amazing. And just seeing, you know, from the early days, how things have grown and got more organized and watching their growth kind of alongside ours has been awesome. So, you know, pick your partners wisely. And if you pick good partners, you could grow with them and, you know, They've benefited from us and we've certainly benefited from them. And it's just a win-win situation.

24:27So that's the advantage of having good partners and also being a good partner yourself. Along with that growth, I feel like everything is moving at a faster hyper speed, especially with marketing and communicating with your community. How are you gathering feedback, speaking to the community through the different channels that you have today? I may be unique with this, but I stay on Instagram every single day. Like I'm still on our TikTok. I'm still on our Instagram. I read the DMs that come in. I read the comments that come in. And to me, that's the best way to just get like a very raw taste of what the consumers are saying, what the followers are saying, what's the world saying.

25:09So I'm on there every day. We have a team that answers them, but I'm still digging through them, kind of looking at what people are saying. and I stay really in close touch with that. Every business is different. Some places might not be quite so into social media. So there's other ways to do it too. There's like surveys. You could kind of reach out to your customer base. We've done like customer surveys and things like that, which have been extremely insightful. But my personal favorite just remains like, I'm on the social media, I'm on the Instagram. I'm reading all the raw messages that come in.

25:42And the thing I'm thankful for is our customers are very honest and they'll tell it how it is. So it's great to see that and it's helpful for sure. And looking forward, how are you determining new collaborations, new partnerships, and still injecting some of your own creativity while you're exploring for future pieces and future collaborations? A lot of it is just kind of a momentum of the brand and just kind of living it every single day and being in the social media and kind of living GLD. Like I call GLD a lifestyle for the customers, but it's a lifestyle for me too. I live it every single day.