Hey, roommates! Some of you may have seen a handsome man by the name of Antonio Brown grace our timeline, especially in the last few weeks. Well if you didn’t know he is the CEO & Owner of the luxury shoe brand, LVL XIII Brands, Inc.!
The company started in December of 2012 and launched it’s first collection in the market in August of 2013. Just two months after the brand’s initial market release, LVL XIII had sold over $250,000 worth of shoes! Following such an amazing start, celebrities like Jason Derulo, Chris Brown and a slew of other celebrities began rocking LVL XIII’s sneakers!
Antonio says that once he started his research, he decided that he would not accept “NO” from the universe and he refused to give up on this dream. He says that the universe began to “conspire in [his] favor” and brought people in his life that he needed to turn his dream into reality!
“Something I am beginning to experience in my 20’s is the power of faith and action. As long as you refuse to give up and continue to take steps toward your dreams, the easier it will be to attract the tools you need in order for your idea or plan to come to fruition.”
Ironically, Mr. Brown never thought that he’d be a shoe designer. He had no experience nor did he know how to even manufacture luxury footwear.
“All I knew was that I loved high-end footwear and I wanted to design and own a sneaker brand.” So he did what any millennial of his time would do, “After determining this was what I wanted to do, I raced back home and Googled ‘how to start a footwear brand. If I had not worked for the companies that I have, I don’t think that I would have been able to gain the understanding of running a business nor the challenges of manufacturing so that I would be able to start my own brand.”
Well, The Shade Room was in attendance for the long-awaited unveiling of the LVL XIII luxury footwear collection lastThursday And baby, was it spectacular! The event was called “The World Is Not Enough” and was hosted by Antonio as well as R&B soul singer, Melanie Fiona, and we must say that we were so grateful to be apart of such a beautiful, artistic event! It was a celebratory occasion, being that it was the first collection to be released since Antonio filed his lawsuit against luxury conglomerate, Louis Vuitton. We had no idea of the surprises that were in store for the unveiling which included a very special presentation followed by a surprise performance!
The event’s ambiance was super lush with gorgeous shades of lavender hugging the entire space and the lighting was as elegant as ever! Everyone’s attention was directed towards the stage, seated in perfectly aligned rows of chairs, trying to figure out what was about to happen but finally after a brief announcement, the show began.
“I wanted to do something different. I didn’t want models to be walking down a runway, but I wanted to still be able to showcase the shoes in a way that you could see them and understand the dynamic around it.”
By the way, when you go to www.lvlxiii.com, you’ll notice that the names of the shoes (like Genesis, Rowan and Gideon) have some relation to spirituality and/or mythology and that’s because Antonio regards himself as a spiritual person and is also fascinated by Greek mythology. So, I encourage you all to research some of the names, because they have some deep meanings and the designs are hella chic!
“I want to give back to the kids! I want to give them the same opportunity that I had which was being able to not worry about where they’re going to get school supplies or a backpack when all they should have to worry about is getting up and getting dressed for school.”
Street, luxury and future are the core values of LVL XIII Brands Inc., but when they slapped fashion giant Louis Vuitton with a lawsuit for allegedly infringing upon their trademark. It was a metal plate placed on the on the toes of their footwear which bore strikingly similar style like Brown’s LVL XIII brand.
Check out the shows below:
They are definitely hot but Antonio knew because he was a newer brand that it was up to him to fight for the rights to his own creativity!
“We are going up against one of the largest conglomerates in the world and it’s like your classic David & Goliath story,” Brown said, “I want to set an example for people to realize that just because they’re bigger than you and just because they have more money than you doesn’t mean it’s okay to steal someone’s idea.”
Currently the lawsuit is still in limbo, but Louis Vuitton sure has snatched their very similar-looking shoes from off of the market! They will not be picking on the little guys anymore, especially since Antonio has chosen to fight back and stand up for all the independent brands that this has or may still happen to.
“I want to inspire change, I want to inspire people to believe and I want to give back and open schools. So, in order for me to get there, LVL XIII had to happen, because I needed that platform and foundation in order to grow and to be able to have the money to do all of the things that I really wanted to do.”
Antonio says his unveiling gave him a sense of vindication since it was the first launch since his lawsuit situation began in March 2014. Brown told Upstart Business Journal
“I took everything I had financially to build this brand, and there were days that I didn’t eat, couldn’t pay my rent. had to build the brand and I did.”
The designer also told us he had to remove his own creations from the market until he could prove his case, of course costing more money, but LVL XIII wanted to make it clear that they were not going to back down. They are going to come back stronger than ever and this unveiling was the epitome of this! Antonio believes that the lawsuit will inspire other designers to protect their ideas and creativity.
