| This article is brought to you courtesy of Triangle Tribune. Clothing designer is ‘Mr. Make-it-happen’ |
| Published Wednesday, January 28, 2015 |
DURHAM – You can spot Rick Moore’s designs on the likes of Kevin Hart, Omari Hardwick, Michelle Williams and Kerry Washington…if you pay close attention.
Moore’s clothing line, Nyla Elise, named after his daughter, has steadily been on the come-up since its inception out of a one-bedroom apartment in 2009. Since then, Moore’s t-shirts and tanks with popular slogans like “film is my ammo” and “I grew up here, you flew here,” have been featured in Spin, The Washington Post, Nylon Magazine, Black Enterprise magazine and many more outlets.
“I used to go into Barnes and Noble and look at all the magazines and call the head editors, just cold-call them,” Moore said.
Moore was determined to connect with Derek Dingle, editor-in-chief of Black Enterprise, but could never get through. So he started sending Dingle’s staff free t-shirts to get them talking. One day he told one of Dingle’s assistants that he was a named-friend of Dingle’s. Dingle called right back. Moore answered and immediately pitched his product. That was the first seed planted. Dingle and Moore have since become close friends.
There’s more to the story, but if you want to know it, you can visit Moore at the American Underground on Main Street in Durham, where he’ll be mentoring students in the N.C. Central School of Business Entrepreneur Lab office and working on his own business goals.
“I’m going to use this space to take my business to the next level. Once they get to know me and they can see the value in the non-tech company, my company is going to be able to grow because of the (potential) funding,” he said.
Dedric Polite, Moore’s informal adviser and a sales executive at Cloud Factory (a company at American Underground), first met Moore last summer in downtown Raleigh where he was selling his shirts.
“I like(d) the slogans; they were kind of fashion forward. He had a lot of celebrities wearing them. We started talking about e-commerce and how to get his products sold online,” Polite said. “When I met him, I thought he was very ambitious, very driven and that’s what made me take an interest in what he was doing. He knows how to sell. He’s not afraid of rejection; he’ll pitch to anyone.”
Little did Polite know that Moore was desperately trying to convince American Underground, both at Main and at American Tobacco, to give him working space and funding despite his company being non-tech. American Underground was reluctant, but Moore was relentless, using Twitter and his personality to make some noise.
Moore discovered that Chris Heivly, co-founder of MapQuest who sold it to AOL for $1.2 billion, worked at American Tobacco. Heivly is the managing director of The Startup Factory, which funds tech start-up companies.
Moore walked into Heivly’s office hoping to convince him that he was worth the investment, and though Heivly believed in Moore’s vision, he said he couldn’t fund him. Moore tried the office of John Austin, who also explained that while Moore had charisma and a great product, he only funded tech companies.
“I was feeling like this is unacceptable. There’s too much money over here and too little of us,” Moore said.
That’s when Polite told Moore that the N.C. Central lab at American Underground at Main was usually vacant. Through many hoops, Moore was able to work out the current partnership he has in order to work in the space.
“It’s a great environment, and it definitely needs more minority entrepreneurs,” Polite said.
Another seed planted.
Moore also is in talks with Lenovo. Joe Scarborough, a senior specialist in video production at Lenovo, has been buying Moore’s products for years and wants to get him under the “Lenovo umbrella.” Though Lenovo hasn’t been able to provide funding for Nyla Elise yet, executives asked Moore to help them design wearable technology and have given him computers and tablets as compensation for now. They want Moore to use their products to create Nyla Elise designs.
“It’s huge because it just brings other companies who want to work with me now,” Moore said.
Clearly, Moore’s current challenge lies within the funding realm and not in gaining exposure. He said people don’t understand how hard he is grinding. He believes his company has the potential to be the next “Life’s Good.”
“It’s bigger than me, it’s bigger than my daughter,” he said. “Nobody in here works harder than me or is going to work harder than me. It’s the method to the madness. It’s not just a piece of clothing. It’s not just a fad, it’s a movement.”
Moore’s t-shirts, tanks, hoodies and letterman jackets range from $20 to $5,500. He said you’re paying for the story behind the jacket and buying a piece of art, a piece of history.
Proceeds from that jacket benefit families who stay at the Ronald McDonald House. Ninety-five percent of all Nyla Elise products are manufactured here in North Carolina. Moore said his clothes are for everyone, living any type of lifestyle.
Nyla’s favorite design remains one of Nyla Elise’s earliest – the one with her baby handprint. Moore calls it the “vintage logo.”
“My goal is to inspire people as much as I can before I expire,” he said. “Anything you want in this world, you’ve got to find something you want to do and do it for the rest of your life.”
Visit www.nylaelise.com.
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