More Than Merch
Slums Apparel
More Than Merch
About Us
We are based out of South Los Angeles, California. We have always envisioned our brand to spread positivity within our community; the one we grew up in. We also hoped to spread love and hope for all inner-city communities and put them on the map. We would like to inspire the youth to keep reaching their goals and follow their dreams no matter what.
As Angelinos growing up in an inner-city, like South Central, we are exposed to so many diverse cultures and people, and many times, we fall into the trap of stereotyping. We often start believing all the traits that have been attributed to us and have been illustrated in our communities for years. Our goal is to change the narrative and educate the next up-and-coming generation of youth so we can break the cycle of negativity and conflict. We recognize that many people also growing up in similar communities have their own struggles, some worse than others. As a result, many people may not have the same support system that many people in higher SES classes may have, but that will not stop us from reaching our full potential and accomplishing our goals. We believe that there is so much hidden talent in our inner-city communities; people have the potential to become the next “big thing.” However, without a good support system in place, our people tend to wind up on the wrong path and fall in line with the stereotypes of what is expected of them because it’s been trying to draw us in for years. But we cannot fall to this self-fulfilling prophecy. We must stand up for change.
Slums Apparel
Since our goal is spreading hope and education within our community, we want our people to know that if they have a strong passion for something they love, they should pursue it and not let anything hold them back. We would love to use our platform to sponsor these hidden talents and use our platform to speak out and educate our inner-city brothers and sisters by giving them the right resources to better themselves and change the future. We believe our Slums community will change the narrative about the inner-city and get rid of the stigma surrounding it. Slums Apparel represents minorities, POC, diversity, and inclusivity. We stand up against injustice and inequality. We are “MORE THAN MERCH.”
After high school, my cousin and I got jobs and began saving money to invest in our brand, which has become Slums. We started in 2017 and initially only sold hats with the name “Slums” embroidered on the front. We did this to showcase our brand and we’ve been promoting this message since day one. Our hats sold out and the majority of our supporters liked the message behind our brand. This only motivated and pushed us into incorporating more clothing and expanding our fashion line. The more positive feedback we got on our products, the more we wanted to expand and explore other avenues, such as having a social media presence to help promote and spread our message to a wider variety of people. We wanted people to see us, not just as a regular streetwear brand, but as a serious clothing company. We wanted to be seen as a movement, for the community.
Slums Apparel
Slums Apparel That is the main reason we branched out and started a podcast. We want to use our platform to speak and educate but also to amplify the voices in our community and allowing them to speak up. We have a film production team that started with just some friends with a passion for film and photography. Using our platform, we wanted them to showcase their skills and talents. Eventually, that led us to create “District 40 Slums,” where we plan on doing short films, sketches, and skits rather than just marketing and promotional videos. We want our production team to have the opportunity to be big someday. Our goal is to expand our production team into a production studio big enough to be able to make motion pictures and other important films. We also hope to continue recording music and podcasts in our studio.
Slums Apparel We have always been open to expanding the reach of each branch of our brand to build a strong community. One day we would also like to branch out into the marijuana field and educate people on the benefits of marijuana use and destigmatize the recreational use of it. Many people from the inner-city are depicted as heavy marijuana users when in reality all people from various different backgrounds use marijuana. It has even been labeled an essential business here in California and many other states as well. Our goal is to diversify our platform into many different divisions of different fields so we can keep pushing our movement and spreading our message across various different mediums of entertainment. Our reach will hopefully connect with many future generations to come and will help educate everyone. We believe people from the slums have a unique perspective and we would like to encourage these people to share their perspective in whatever creative form they wish to express it in. We hope to inspire everyone to pursue their dreams. We hope to change the narrative of how people from inner cities are viewed. We hope to eliminate the media-driven stigma about the people who live in the inner city. We know all of this will take time, but we highly believe in our potential. We know this is the perfect start.
