A new situation can really shut me up sometimes. I remember sitting in a circle of 10 or so staff members as the newly selected Promotions Director of Syracuse University’s radio station WERW 1570 AM. Being one of two freshmen among upperclassmen experts, I thought, What the hell am I doing here? It was petrifying. Come to find out, joining this radio station was life altering in the best way. It was hard to leave it behind when I transferred to Boston College. Had I stayed, I would’ve subbed in for John Dwyer as Production Director while he studied abroad in China. I was so psyched to land that position, but that what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here feeling? Back in full strength.
John is two years older than me, and at the time, that was two years more experience in the radio biz. He was a deliberate guy — reserved in manner, in control, and smart with his actions. Not to mention, he was infinitely cooler than me with his impressive collection of kicks, his weekend getaways to Boston to hit up Bodega, and this cool little website he was running on the side.
Well, I never had to fill John’s shoes (thank the Lord, I think he has a lot), but a year later and this cool little website on the side has exploded into a buzz worthy enterprise. Though it has got some growing left, SwaggerDap is out of its diapers and playing with the big boys. I recently caught up with John, and here’s what he had to say.
Courtney Allessio: So, let’s cut right to the chase…what exactly is SwaggerDap?
John Dwyer: The general idea behind SwaggerDap is to be a resource for small independent fashion labels. A place for them to have a voice, connect with the consumer, show their products, and hopefully in the end of the day that turns into sales for them. The business side of it is a little more complex. Right now [we have a] blog [that] is just a networking tool, which is working really well for us, but through our planned site we would set up the brands with a profile page for free so they could network and market themselves. Then when they decide to sell through SwaggerDap we would charge them a small monthly fee plus a percentage of that sales each month.
CA: Got you, like a corporate Facebook with less cheese and more motive.
JD: Exactly. Basically what MySpace set out to do for small bands – give them a voice and a place to show what they got, until it sold out and turned into teenager hangout and spam. Lots of the brands we target use MySpace, but it’s just not meant for them. It looks awkward and unorganized.
CA: While the official site is in the works, like you said, the SwaggerDap blog is going great. Are you going to keep it up once you fully develop the website?
JD: Yeah, definitely. Initially we just had it up to gain some momentum and get recognized by Google. Then slowly once brands started reaching out to us, we found it was a great place to network also. Then in the past say, 6 months we’ve added a blogger in Japan and Cali, which has lead to us getting way more exposure and being sourced by sites like Hypebeast, which get millions of hits a day. So the people who we want to read are finally noticing us.
Actually just yesterday I got a call from this kid who owns a brand called Simply Complicated. It’s really small, he’s in high school, but their stuff is really good. I’ve spoken to him a few times, trying to help out with things and kind of consult. Well, he hit me up yesterday saying that Jay-Z’s stylist just called him and wanted a few shirts for Jay’s new video. The kid was like crazy excited, and asked how they even heard of his brand, since it’s so small. And the stylist was like, “Oh, I read this blog SwaggerDap.” That is just so perfectly what we set out to do. Get the little guys the push they need; guide ‘em.
[caption id=”attachment_2372” align=”alignleft” width=”245” caption=”John blogs from an airport en route to Austria”]
CA: How’d you contact your other bloggers and get them on board?
JD: The dude [Yom] in Japan I’d known through a fashion forum. He was always posting exclusive stuff from Japan so I just asked if he would be interested, and he was excited to help out. The girl [Joan] in Cali — we met through Twitter. She had her own blog, and we wanted a female and west coast person so it worked perfect.
[caption id=”attachment_2380” align=”alignright” width=”246” caption=”Joan, the female perspective from Cali”]
CA: Do you think that a smaller blogging staff is good for you guys? Will you get the more global as the business expands?
JD: Personally I love how small it is. I think it adds a lot of character and personality. I love information blogs, I mean it’s where I get some of our content, but in the end of the day my favorite blogs have personality. I hope by keeping it small we have some personality and consistency in there. The clear downside is that it’s just me posting like 90% of the time so if I have an off day or a busy day, the blog is stagnant. I think I’d like 1 or 2 more consistent bloggers.
CA: How do you stay up with new info? With the newly installed Pic of the Day, it’s that and then some.
JD: It takes time! Well I can say that it’s nice that we are now at the point where people will email us press releases and such, which is awesome and takes out some of the hunting. But besides that, I have a blog roll of like 50-plus sites, of which I probably check like 20 every day. I’m also addicted to Twitter now, so there’s lots of info on there. And there’s nothing like walking around. Walk around SoHo for an hour, and you’ll have at least one thing to talk about.
Oh and Pic of the Day started as a way to make sure I used my new camera all the time; motivation. But now people like love it so it worked both ways.
[caption id=”attachment_2375” align=”alignleft” width=”245” caption=”"The Roaming Gnome" was featured as July 24th's Pic of the Day”]
CA: So I know you travel a lot, studied in Hong Kong and what not, what’s your favorite city in the US and outside of the US?
JD: In the US nothing compares to NYC. Outside, Tokyo is definitely my favorite city in the world, but Hong Kong is a close second since I got to spend so much time there. I love it.
CA: There’s this stereotype that Asia, especially Eastern Asia is more fashion forward than the US, is it true?
JD: Yes, completely. You can call it good or bad, but in Japan everyone cares what they look like and what they’re wearing. And I think that’s what leads to them being more fashion forward and taking more risks. I think parts of Europe are very fashion conscious, too, but they take far less risks, [it’s] less fun.
I think everyone needs to experience Harajuku once in their lives. It’s another world.
CA: People look at me like I’m a hooker if i wear heels in Boston. It’s awful.
JD: Exactly. I’m over people looking at me for what I wear, but it just amazes me sometimes what they consider out of the ordinary. If you only knew - I’ve seen people walk around with tails and looking like a life size doll, and nobody thinks it’s all that weird.
CA: Anything else at school that helped you? Did you meet co-founder Jemar ‘Meezy’ Souza at this point or before?
JD: I randomly met Meezy freshman year ‘cause we both had this one rapper on our Facebook profile. The dude isn’t even popular but we still say we’re [going] have him perform at the 1st SwaggerDap party. We never really hung out, but then sophomore year he had this idea for a website, which was SwaggerDap at it’s infant stage, and he was looking for a team to help him work on it. That “team” turned out to just be me and we took it from there. We started actually working on it our junior year
[caption id=”attachment_2374” align=”alignright” width=”245” caption=”Meezy analyzes H&M ads”]
CA: Now that’s you’ve both just graduated, what’s in store for your guys’ lives and how does SwaggerDap fit in?
JD: Honestly, SwaggerDap is THE plan. We are currently shopping the idea to developers so we can get this thing built and making us money. Right now we’re both on and off with jobs and side ventures until that happens. It actually looks like we might have a little store in Brooklyn quite soon. I’m helping out this brand Yours Truly, and the owner and I just talked about using this storefront that she just uses for an office right now. She’s awesome and down for it as long as I manage it, which is cool with me of course!
CA: How’s your family feel about your lifestyle? Were they ever reluctant?
JD: They’re cool with it. My dad has his own company so he has been super supportive from the jump and my mom has been, too. [This] really helps because they want me to get a job and start my career, but at the same time they believe in this too.
CA: And I take it you’re loving it?
JD: I love where I’m headed. I feel like I’m meeting all the right people at the right time now. The hard part is the whole no income slash being broke thing. I just finished an internship 2 weeks ago so that last paycheck went right into the bank.
It’s easier that I know Meezy will go down fighting with this thing with me tho, rich or broke. I know he’s not gunna bail on me and hopefully he knows the same.
[caption id=”attachment_2377” align=”alignleft” width=”245” caption=”Work hard, play hard. Photo cred: Katie Garton”]
CA: As of late, what are the top five brands that are really grabbing your eye?
JD: Ahhh these questions are so hard for me. Based on recent stuff: Undercover, Neighborhood, Adidas Originals, Comme des Garcons, and I’ll throw in this new brand that launches in a few days, Gas’d.
This is when John and I go off on sneaker tangent. We decide the interview turned out well, so I hit him with the closer. Pay close attention, kids, it’s good stuff.
CA: What’s an important lesson you learned after all of this that you would tell other inspiring entrepreneurs?
JD: As important as it is to get advice from people who have been there and done it before, at the end of the day it’s more important to go with your gut and feel comfortable with what you’re doing. I’m sure not everybody believed in Bill Gates at first, but sometimes you have to do things that people don’t understand to really change how people see things.
Also, don’t be afraid to tell people your idea. Share it and build it. Keeping it to yourself isn’t helping do anything.