Before he was the founder of For Us By Us entrepreneurship, Daymond John was waiting tables at Red Lobster to make ends meet.
Life Before FUBU
The ‘Shark Tank’ star and business mogul recently shared an inspirational message on X, urging young aspirants not to overlook the value of having a job as they work toward their bigger goals.
“I worked at Red Lobster for years while building FUBU,” John said on X. “Not because I didn’t believe in my dreams. Because it was smart.”
He would in the post breakdown all the benefits of working at Red Lobster saying, “That job: Taught me sales and inventory, Paid my bills, Bought fabric and materials for my business.”
He added, “People don’t realize it, but sometimes the day job is your first investor. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t have the means to quit your job right away. Use it as fuel for your dreams and goals. Build slow if you have to.”
This is not the first time John has spoken about Red Lobster as a steppingstone to building FUBU.
In a 2018 hour-long interview with NPR’s “How I Built This,” John told host Guy Raz how he and his friends in Hollis, Queens, launched the brand alongside the rise of hip-hop and its growing influence in the borough.
John said he couldn’t rap and wasn’t much of a dancer, but he still dreamed of working in the hip-hop industry.
While many of his friends went to college, he took a different path, working as a night waiter at Red Lobster.
He learned practical business lessons, including reviewing the company’s quarterly earnings books and profit-and-loss statements, experience he later applied to growing FUBU.
The FUBU brand started because John thought fashion brands at the time didn’t embrace hip-hop despite performers and fans wearing their clothes. Seeing this contradiction inspired John to sort out his own clothing brand.
His first venture into selling FUBU came from selling about 80 homemade hats outside the Coliseum Mall. He bought $40 worth of fabric. Each hat cost between $2 and $4 to make, but he sold them for as much as $20. If a customer didn’t have exact change, he would lower the price.
While selling FUBU and working at Red Lobster between 1989 and 1992, John initially lost about $800 and shut the business down three times.
Each time, he regrouped, reinvested, and refined his shirts and hats.
Gradually, the clothing began gaining momentum among New Yorkers who appreciated the small, grassroots operation John was running. The rest made history.
FUBU was exceptionally successful, growing to a premier global streetwear brand with over $350 million in annual sales at its 1998 peak.
