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Xavier Miller
Co-founder of Adidem Asterisks
About the Founder & Brand
Adidem is a Toronto-based label, with a multidisciplinary approach to design. tailored through interest in art, global urban culture, sports, music, science, and photography. through these mediums a perspective approach to rudimentary design has been carved. Transforming Adidem into a conscious creator of ready-to-wear, objects, and exhibitions.
The collections are rooted in menswear with an emphasis in sportswear, bold graphic design, collegiate civvies, and the various forms of work-wear.
The collections are tailored to both men and women and offer an array of easily assimilable staples to any wardrobe.
Questions
How did the brand get started? Any unique or special stories you could share? Anything that stands out from the early days.
What were the biggest challenges early on?
What pieces of general advice would you give yourself if you had to go back to those early days?
What about creative and business advice?
Adidem Asterisks clearly is founded on the intersection of music, events, and fashion. What have you learned about how these 3 things interact creatively?
What about how they interact from a business perspective?
How strategic vs intuitive has the process been so far? Was there a plan? Or was it feeling led?
What about now? How has your approach changed/evolved?
What have been the most recurring challenges for you? Has it been produced? Distribution? Marketing? HR? Etc. Why do you think this has been the most recurring problem?
How has your experience so far changed how you perceive fashion?
How would you define fashion when you started versus how you define it now?
Now more specifically, how did you define streetwear when you started versus how would you define it now?
Looking at everything you have achieved in hindsight, what do you attribute the success so far to?
What is next for the brand and the vision?
What would be the biggest piece of advice you would give other aspiring fashion designers or entrepreneurs? Essentially, what do you wish somebody else had told you, or you wish you had learned faster?
Our brand was started by three childhood friends (Nicko Nuamah & Jonathan Ishak) who shared a common interest in music and clothing. Right before the origin of Adidem, I made a few products, a long-sleeved shirt with embroidered script and a tote bag (Definitely one of those designs you laugh at now). My partners were traveling to Hong Kong for vacation in 2017, at the time Nicko was developing his eye for photography so naturally I thought it made sense for him to shoot these products during the time of their travel. Looking back at it now the products were the least important part of that impromptu lookbook.
The biggest challenge early on was learning how to create with little to no resources. When I created this brand the landscape of Toronto wasn’t what it is today. There weren’t many other brands at a grassroots level in our city attempting to break through, so a lot of our inception was rooted in learning things in real-time.
The only thing I would tell myself is to start right away, don’t wait.
Everyone’s journey in both is different. Being a good creative doesn’t translate to being sound in business and having good business acumen doesn’t exactly equate to making a good product. Some people enter this space with a strong identity in both, others gradually improve as they get experience in each area. I’d tell my younger self to understand the cycles of the industry I’m stepping into, the pandemic actually made me realize this.
The synergy between music and fashion for me has existed my entire life. Creatively I’ve always seen it from the perspective that they go hand in hand. The artists I admire weren’t only musicians to me but also they were the first fashion icons embedded in my memory. I always knew there was a way to merge these worlds together, once I developed the skill set of DJ’ing it became real.
Music in particular is the underlying heartbeat of our brand, it was important to not only drive sound through campaigns but also have an outlet where our audience can rely on a weekly show. Our consumers have the vantage of having an entry point to our brand without having to buy a product. This extends to the nightlife as we have 8 DJ’s under our Asterisks* Radio label.
Building this brand has been a strategic process, however, some of the best decisions have come from using intuition. In the early stages being strategic about design and even the event space may have hindered our understanding of the consumer.
The approach now is still very much strategic and it will always be. We’re scaling this business from the ground up it’s important for us to be intentional with every decision.
I don’t look at any of these factors as problems. Being an independent label coming from a place that isn’t known for being in the clothing ecosystem is probably the most recurring challenge. Ensuring the brand lives in the correct markets, building our wholesale accounts globally, making sure that we're amongst the namesakes we believe we deserve to be included in are quintessential tasks to growth.
Like any other art form, fashion is forever evolving. Based on the brands, products, and even artists that are in the forefront it's evident today we’re in a fast media consumption era. If I was in my adolescence stage I can see how easy it is to get immersed in what I now may perceive as “gimmicky”.
As much as I’m in the business of fashion my experience isn’t based on living in the world of fashion. Before starting this business I was a consumer that didn’t understand the value of things, literally. Once you progress and gain more knowledge you start learning what is true value. This ranges from a dollar to a relationship.
I think around the time in 2018 when I started this we were at the beginning of a streetwear renaissance, six years later that still seems like the case. Similar to music we can break down streetwear into different subgenres, there are so many brands that fall into streetwear by definition. The lines between streetwear and luxury are more disguisable than ever, in some cases, companies are charging luxury prices on “streetwear” offerings. Something I don’t subscribe to but business is business.
The resilience of my team.
Continuous global growth through wholesale and event activation worldwide.
Like I said in a previous question earlier, my only advice is to start now. If you want to learn fast you have to fail even faster.
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