Today we’d like to introduce you to Aleksander Shine.
Hi Aleksander, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is truly how I got started, Aleksander Shine, it means defender of the land and shine is just something that is always bright, so when you’re growing up around a bunch of shines you feel like yeah I can definitely make it anywhere in life and before I was born my father always told my mother, “He’s going to special and something amazing for the world”. Those moments before I even thought of creating a brand always guided me to the purpose of wanting to live my dreams which leads up to how Yume Collections came about. During 2019 I was in a transitional period of life looking for things that would provide me life and a true sense of creative happiness, while watching anime way heavier than before I began to dream more and want a feeling of expressing myself the same way they do on anime but also tell my own story. Yume Collections was then born as I looked up what Dream meant in Japanese and then I began to add my dreams to paper and would sketch things out and once I found a final sketch, I went to Fiverr and had someone create a design for me, it was definitely a different experience for me trying to understand the world and myself while also trying to add myself to the world I wanted to be in. Fast Forward a few months and we are in pandemic and I’m just now getting an understanding on how to build the brand I want and how I want things to go yet I can’t get to the people the way I want or I’m not able to have a large following in a public scene. With that happening, I began to want to give up but instead, I took a different approach and reworked my entire brand into Yume, I started to game and I started to become more motivating and speak with a purpose to the people I wanted them to know someone was dreaming and wanted to make it in this world just like them. At first, it was scary trying to break free from the normal after being the same for so long but over time, it has brought me here to a clearer mind and more determination to gather more dreams and give them to the world.
Alright, 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?
It has been a struggle the entire time mostly because it’s a one man band, and with me doing things on my own it creates more of a problem when it comes to finances, the creative process, and the determination to keep going. I remember days when I would sit and wonder why nobody would buy my brand or why nobody would tune in to the twitch stream or why people just wouldn’t interact. Eventually, I had to learn I’m not creating a brand to earn money and to just be super-rich. I want to be wealthy in life and in knowledge, but I also knew I had to earn the trust of the world for them to accept me for being me. The hardest struggle wasn’t financially or even physically it was all mental, I could go anywhere make money and add it to the brand but the mental and emotional toll it took on me was something I never expected since all my life I was told you’re the greatest person alive and nothing can stop you. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure if I could succeed just by being me anymore or what I have perceived as myself. With that happening, i took time away from everyone and everything and pushed everyone away and built up myself and heard what everyone was saying about me and I took it all in and learned to be more of a guide and leader rather than a leader with no guidance and then I found my struggles slowly come to an end but not 100%
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
So what is Yume Collections and why are you sitting here reading about my brand? It’s all a dream that I turned into a reality and a lifestyle. Life is a dream and we all want to live out our dreams no matter how big or small they may seem. Yume has started as a company based on anime-styled characters that would just go on clothing due to my love of anime, But over time I realized why not create an anime based on the love of the characters as well as its own comic/manga. Then I said to myself, I love video gaming as well so why not incorporate gaming into my brand and call it Yumecast so instead of a twitch broadcast I have a Dreamcast (Yumecast) so then I can have my own way of doing the gaming. Well, I also want to create music as well (at the moment I need to find someone to just sit in a studio with) and with the music, I figure why not create YTV1 (YumeTapes Vol 1), and then you add the music to the anime while the anime has designs from the collections that then tie back to the stream for people to get merch or be apart of the community the Yumeverse. Each phase of the brand each part has its own weight but each part is just as important to the other. Yume Collections is the clothing part of the entire brand giving you clothes and a collection each time, Yumecast is where I broadcast whether it’s twitch YouTube, Tv anything because eventually the Anime I create based off the characters in the clothing will go into a show or book, YumeTapes will be where the music from the feelings involved with the other two shine brightest along with personal life and then you have a triangle of brands that all come back to one thing, A human who just wanted to create a dream and make it reality just like every other human on earth…
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most beautiful thing is you just have to understand life isn’t meant to be controlled nor is it meant to be owned it’s all created for us to sit back and enjoy each moment as if it’s our last. Of course, we can’t fault bad times happening when we are put into a situation, but the reaction we show and give us what defines us and the moments we are put in, the more calm and ok you are with just being you’ll learn life was never hard and the same things you strive for have always been there it’s just you were blinded by the fake happiness created in a world of fairness. Now, as a business person I have taken all love and hate and put it in the brand and whatever is loved or hated, I appreciate it because you have to take time to do either thing and time is money in this world we live in now.
Pricing:
- Sweatshirts vary – 35-50$
- Tshirts vary 20-25
- Hats 25-30
- Shorts 30-40
Contact Info:
- Email: Yumecollections@outlook.com
- Website: Yumecollections.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/yumecollections?utm_medium=copy_link
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/zufferman
- Other: https://m.twitch.tv/yumecast
