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Meet Johnny Cedor of Black is a Vibe in West End

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Johnny Cedor.

Johnny, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Being of Haitian descent, I’m always representing my heritage and culture unapologetically. It’s what made me who I am. One day while in the gym, I had the vision to create a lifestyle brand to celebrate culture and blackness. When I shared the idea with my brother, Jeff, he jumped on board immediately and thus, Blood of a Nation was Born.

Initially, our focus was Caribbean and African countries. As time rolled on, we realized that our brand didn’t include a lot of the people we grew up with. So, at the top of 2018 with Black History Month quickly approaching, I wanted to come up with a word or phrase to celebrate ALL of us. In my humble opinion, Africans and the descendants of Africans are the most creative, versatile and resilient people on the planet. We may not share a defined culture but what we do share is something that can’t be taught or created, it’s an essence… a feeling. Black is a Vibe. When the words rolled off my tongue, I knew people who felt the same way would understand and connect. A year later with over 1,000 shirts sold, it looks like we were right.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Na lol. I know zero people who started something new and had it be smooth sailing. I started from scratch. I own a healthcare business but I knew nothing about making and selling clothes. It was a whole new world for me. I had to really immerse myself in it. I had to learn about all the different types of shirts, where to get them, what not to use, screen printing, vinyl, DTG, etc. I reached out to a lot of people for advice. I ran through a lot of different shirts and printing companies. No one put me on game more than pOpATL, a black-owned printing, and marketing lifestyle brand in South West Atlanta. They do everything from printing apparel to video and photography. Partnering with them and other companies was great, but it got to a point where I couldn’t get my stuff out as quickly as I wanted. Orders were coming in, and I couldn’t expect those businesses to prioritize me over their other customers. It was clear I needed to start producing my own stuff.

In June 2018, I met Chris Classic at an event. My Haitian sista Tcharyne hit me that day and said I need to meet this guy. He has a very dope unisex fragrance line called #MySavoirFaire, so we exchanged products after chopping it up. A few weeks later, Chris posted a pic wearing the Black is a Vibe shirt on Instagram. Within the hour I had an influx of orders and after three days I was able to purchase all the equipment I needed, so when I shout out and salute Chris Classic every now and then, it’s nothing major, he just changed my life.

Product production was just one beast though. Shipping, presentation, and pricing was an entirely different one. It took me a while to get all these things figured out. Everyday was work and I wasn’t even paying myself. I had to become more disciplined with my time. I realized I had to stretch my days so I had to start waking up at least two hours earlier than usual. I really invested a lot of time to Blood of a Nation. My advantage was my practical application in entrepreneurship. I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was 17. I understood the idea of sweat equity and investing time and resources into something without seeing an immediate return. All of my tactics and strategies I used to keep pushing all these years was needed for this new venture because I had no idea what I was doing lol. I just knew people would like it. I just had to get it together and get it out the right way. So I’m glad those strategies still work.

Black is a Vibe – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Blood of a Nation is a lifestyle brand. We believe culture is the building blocks of who we are. Culture is our Blood and where we’re from is our Nation. So our job is to push the culture forward. We specialize in apparel as of right now and will soon be hosting events to push our culture forward. We also make sure we do our due diligence in our community and help young Kings and Queens step into their greatness; however, we can.

I’m most proud of creating camaraderie amongst my people. THE MOST STORIES I receive are from those who wear our stuff out and about and get stopped by friends, family, and mostly strangers showing their appreciation for the message. This is what also sets us apart. We’re in our own lane. You can go anywhere in the world and have common ground with someone who looks like you because the world treats us all the same. Growing up with strong traditions and culture taught us this. Most of us are raised the same way, so there are principles and phrases we all grew up hearing at one time or another. We also have certain practices that parents pass down. So channeling a lot of our values, morals, and upbringing into this brand feels like we’re contributing to that culture. I truly feel we’re making our community better.

Another thing I love is that people are supporting because they truly like it. Thats authenticity. It’s not because people know me or they know Jeff, or they’re friends with people we know. That type of support is cool. Don’t get me wrong. It just means a little more when people genuinely like a product that you put out and believe in it. That means the world to me. All in all, I think the single dopest thing about Black is a Vibe is I NEVER have to explain it.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I think my proudest moment was sending packages overseas to people I don’t know. That let me know that this is real and people are watching and supporting. This forced me to step my game up in every aspect.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
If I had a top 10, I would put my wife Courtney first because if she didn’t steer me in a different direction from my original Black History Month idea, it would have never forced me to be a little more creative. I would never have thought it through a little more. Every time I hit a wall, she was there to help navigate me through it and I already knew what to do after. There would be no Black is a Vibe without Courtney. She helped me with figuring out a vision for Black is a Vibe. She’s also a photographer, so she’s created so much content for me that I’ve used time and time again. She’s a vibe lol.

Jeff SeeDough- Jeff is my right hand. We started this thing together with a similar vision. He’s made some really dope connections in different cities across the country that’s helped our brand tremendously. He helps me go harder too.

Olivia F.- Olivia is a very talented creative. She designed the logo and gave me ideas with marketing. When you see the logo on shirts and hoodies etc., that’s what she herself created. I’m always reminded of that and very thankful.

pOpATL – Flex and Yante always show love and do good work in all areas. I still work with them today. They helped save me a lot of money and allowed me to grow my merchandise selection.

Chris Classic – Chris helped me create my side job with one post lol.

Allyn “HustleBunny” – She was the first who told me I need to sell this the first time she saw the logo

1infulential – one of the funniest and underrated comedians in Cali. He was the first true influencer I feel who really believed in it. Jeff was able to reach out to him and explain the vision. It didn’t take much. He understood and supported it ever since. He reps it hard in Cali. Forever grateful.

Dormtainment – Bunch of hilarious and multitalented group of guys who supported me in every way. Chaz, Mike, Rome, Cam, and Amanuel. They helped my shirt go viral the first time with Choko in the funny cowboy video last summer lol. It hit a million views in 3 days. They also helped link me with influencers based in California.

Kevonstage – Kev showed love all the way from Cali and really increased our following. Kev saw Chaz with the shirt on in that hilarious Choko and Frozone video. Kev and I are pretty good friends now and I have yet to meet him in person. Gotta love the internet lol.

Karina with Purple Royalty – Karina is a machine like me and she doesn’t stop. Purple Royalty her company that’s a one-stop shop for bookings, promotions, and marketing, etc. She currently works with Slutty Vegan full-time and helped them with some really amazing and life-changing bookings. She helped link me with Tiffany Haddish, WatchJazzy, and her team, and plenty and plenty of locals and tourists who support Slutty Vegan as she wears Black is a Vibe literally every day to work. With a line going down the block to order food, she’s always visible, so there’s a handful of people who ask her about her shirt/hoodie every single day lol.

My 21 ATL fam and frat bros – my dudes, always supported and kept pushing me. Mike and KC rep and put on for Black is a Vibe like it’s for them and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Mr. Anthony – My Hittsquad brother for life Ant called me one Saturday morning in November 2017 and told me. “Bro, you bulls****.” Not a text. An actual phone call lol. I had so many ideas and he told me I was wasting time and I need to really put in the work to get my ideas in motion. That message lit a fire in me to get things going, so that’s what I did.

Pricing:

  • Black is a Vibe Tee $20.00 (Men and Women)
  • Black is a Vibe Dad Hat $25.00
  • Blood of a Nation Classic Tee $15.00
  • Black is a Vibe Crop Top Hoodie $30.00
  • Black is a Vibe Hoodie $35.00

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Courtney Monet, Brandon Wiggins Photography, Freddy O

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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