CORE: How has the response been so far?
RH: The response has been great! We have people asking for the hats, wanting to know where they could be found and what new colors or styles we have coming out next.
CORE: What advice do you have for other young entrepreneurs?
RH: Stick with your vision and don’t give up. There WILL BE opposition and obstacles that you will face when trying to establish yourself and the last thing you want to do is throw it all away because you thought you couldn’t weather the storm.
CORE: What other places do you guys cover other than the VI and PR is there plans to expand to more?
RH: Other than the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, we have also created fitteds for Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, and the Dominican Republic. As we grow more we will begin production of fitteds for the rest of the Caribbean and also major African, Asian, South American and European countries. Our goal is for our hats to be worn by individuals throughout the world.
CORE: Were there any obstacles along the way? If so what were they?
RH: With any business there will always be obstacles. For International Fitteds, one main obstacle was financing. Getting the money together to get the website and the right products was a struggle at first. Another was choosing the right manufacturer who can produce what you envision your product to look like. I had gotten many samples of hats from manufacturers that were not up to my standard in terms of quality and fit.
CORE: Who continues to be your inspiration/role model?
RH: GOD first and foremost because he supplied me with the vision and means to get it done.
Second would be family. Without their support and inspiration, it would have made things harder to get accomplished.
CORE: What do you consider success? Have you already achieved success?
RH: Success is achieving goals that you have set out to accomplish. We have set different goals for the company, each one having a greater level of importance and we would like to achieve each one in order as we grow.
With that being said, I would say that we have achieved success because we have completed several of our goals set so far. One goal that we have completed was being able to come up with good designs for our fitteds. Another goal was being able to obtain our products with our desired quality and fit and also in the styles and colors that we wanted. Finally, we were able to create a safe and secure website for customers to make purchases.
CORE: Why Intl Fitteds?
RH: International Fitteds because we are focused on representing countries not a part of the contiguous United States. We wanted to create something appealing that people would want to wear and still have it mean something to them at the same time.
CORE: Are Intl Fitteds available in stores?
RH: Urban Threadz. We are in the process of expanding from online sales and moving into storefronts. We are working right now on a few locations in the VI and also in other Caribbean islands. Once we have finalized locations, customers who prefer to shop at local retail stores can look on our web site and obtain that stores name and location. Other advertising methods will be used also to inform customers, such as print and email advertisements.
