Early life: John grew up in the Queens neighborhood of Hollis. An only child, John was raised by his mother and grandfather. He attended Bayside High School. In high school, he participated in a program that allowed him to work a full-time job and attend school on an alternating weekly basis, which he credits with instilling an entrepreneurial spirit.[ After graduating high school, he started a commuter van service
How they started in business: FUBU
Wool hats with their tops off and tied with fishing line were popular, and John noticed them being sold for $20, which he considered overpriced. He went home and sewed around 90 hats with his next-door neighbor. They sold their homemade hats for $10 each in front of the New York
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He took the sewing skills that he learned from his mother and the entrepreneurial spirit that he learned from a co-op program in high school and he began making the hats for himself and his peers.
John quickly realized that this could be very lucrative and he made a large order of the tie-top hats and he went around Queens selling them and made over $800 in a few short hours
John took this early success and recruited some of his peers from the neighbourhood and FUBU was born.
Daymond and his team created a distinctive logo and began sewing it onto all different types of apparel, from hockey jerseys, to sweatshirts to T-Shirts
John’s creative vision and marketplace knowledge allowed him to push on and create one of the most iconic fashion brands of modern times. FUBU, standing for “For Us By Us” was a representation of a lifestyle that wasn’t in the fashion market at that time.
FUBU gained nationwide exposure when John and his partners went to the industry trade show, Magic, in Las Vegas. They couldn’t afford a booth at the event but they showed potential buyer’s their unique, colourful clothes in a hotel