Today we’d like to introduce you to Ty Brown.
Ty, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up inspired by my family, apart of gifted, magnet, and AP programs. At the age of eight, I started playing football which I did every year through my sophomore year of college. When I initially started, I played linebacker and was given the nickname “mean man” because I always had a mean face. As I grew and transitioned to a new position, running back, my mother coined a new nickname for me, “Breeze”.
Attended Georgia State University where I was a member of the inaugural football team and achieved my bachelor’s degree in business marketing. In my sophomore year of college, I made the heavy decision to discontinue my football career to focus on education at which point I received an internship with Chick-Fil-A’s corporate marketing team. Through relationships forged during the internship, I was introduced to my current Account Manager role with a marketing/licensing agency, Learfield | IMG College – CLC.
In 2018, the 3rd year of my time with CLC, I created a clothing line called Breezinout which felt necessary as an escape during what felt like a period of languish. Attempting to reason with my personal struggles, I looked to the struggles of my mother who had gone through two bouts of kidney failure but still managed to remain positive as a sense of hope for the family. Her positive spirit, faith, and ability to remain uplifted in such distress kept coming to me. My reasoning to the source of her energy was her breathing and faith which always seemed to be calm. This calmness always reassured our family. Thinking she had breathing down to a science, I repeated to myself, breathe in breathe out, which sounded a lot like BreezinBreezout (based on the nickname my mother gave me), as if pronounced by a person with a lisp. I shortened BreezinBreezout to Breezinout and here we are today.
The brand is dedicated to the individual that seeks to uplift self, with the goal of lifting others also. The name functions as a pun to, “breathe in, breathe out”, as it denotes control over one’s energy through breathing – reaffirmed through a higher faith. This control will be recognized socially as the vibes resonated create the sensation of a comforting breeze on a balmy summer day. A breeze strong enough to fly a kite. This calming presence should be felt upon the wearer’s entrance and exit as if to breeze in and breeze out.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road has been challenging, but it’s nothing I wouldn’t expect any more.
Challenges I have and am still facing have taught me what it means to persevere, but still remain calm while doing so.
– My initial struggle was discontinuing football which was my bread and butter for 18 years.
– A consequence of ending football was the struggle of figuring out what value I wanted to contribute in life.
– My third struggle was overcoming personal challenges of uncertainty and anger at not having lived up to previous set expectations from football, etc.
Breezinout – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We each take about 20,000 breaths per day but do it subconsciously to where it becomes passive behavior. BreezinBreezout (Breezinout) aims to remind us all to breathe on purpose for good, rather than take life for granted. This all starts with the clothes we wear which impact our personal confidence and the perception of others. We take pride in not only offering better quality clothing, but also in providing a better sense of being by motivating intentional breathing.
Through focus on this purpose, Breezinout has been able to contribute to the community. In 2019, it conducted its first sponsorship of an event built on uplifting high school young ladies by teaching about bullying, body image, social media, and future aspirations.
In March 2020, the brand podcast, “The Doubter’s Series” launched. Each show features a modern day thought leader from a unique focus (creatives, fashion owners, scholars, techies, athletes, etc.) and how they overcome adversity or doubt on their respective journey. The first show featured Rob Owens, a Georgia native who excels as an entrepreneur while balancing fatherhood. The second episode featured Alex Nowlin, a college apparel brand owner who found a way to incorporate family for bridging the chasm of being a small start-up to becoming a widely recognized brand across campus/local bookstores across the nation.
In April 2020, Breezinout conducted a giveback to the Atlanta Community Food Bank to support food provisions necessary with the onset of COVID. Shortly after in June 2020, Breezinout released an exclusive drop hoodie in collaboration with the apparel brand Uscape, which 100% of proceeds went to Campaign Zero and NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Retroactively I have been able to bring in my fiancé, Daiysha, as a Creative and Design Director which she has done amazingly in. She has a great eye often able to spot details I would not catch and a strong ability for event/product development. Primarily she is a Doctor in Residency, so she doesn’t have a ton of time but it has been highly beneficial with building a bond around our personal passion projects.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
The gift to wake up and live is one we all have with this life, but success is defined by how we use the time we are given to breathe purposefully into a gift we all share.
To define what success looks like in more detail, I would have to say it is determined by what you are doing to influence good in the world. At the start of creating the brand, I developed a list called “The 7 Habits of Breezinout” to keep me on track during my journey toward solace. This can be viewed in more detail on our website – www.breezinout.com in the “Breathe In The Know” section.
1. Pray/Meditate – Maintaining a healthy mental condition by taking personal time to reflect on the challenges and wins of the day.
2. Exercise and Eat Well – Keeping a strong and healthy physical state to ensure that your body remains resilient through the rigors of life.
3. Goal Dig – Seek to develop at least one aspect of a specified and worthwhile goal each day.
4. Inspire – Seek to intentionally offer words of guidance, confidence, or compliment to at least one person each day.
5. Be Inspired – Spend time with people that build you up to be a better version of yourself.
6. Be Happy – Be honest and deliberate with justifiably rewarding yourself for the impact you have each day.
7. Be You – To be yourself, whether in private or public, should be the most liberating feeling ever.
Pricing:
- T-Shirts: range from $21-$42
- Fleece: range from $40-$50
- Hats: range from $25-$32
- Jerseys – $75-$100
Contact Info:
- Website: www.breezinout.com
- Phone: 678-481-9640
- Email: customerservice@breezinout.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breezinout_apparel
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Breezinout
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/breezinout
Image Credit:
– Aniket Malhotra
Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
