Instantly I am conflicted. An email from the marketing department of one of the largest athletic apparel companies in the world. A simple request, drawing to mind a complex array of thoughts. A photo, taken from my personal camera of my buddy, 2006 NFL MVP Shaun Alexander, somehow catches the eye of a big shot at this company– and now they’d like to use my photo on a billboard. Cool, right? Then why does everything in me want to tell this guy to “shove off?”
Maybe because my heart is cold to the Machine. A Machine that sells Mediocrity to the Majority. A Generation of Conglomerates that use Super-Stars like pawns to sell products to the Youth of the Nation, disregarding elements of Substance, Character, and Integrity desperately lacking from so many of these same Super-Stars. A vast sea of samness, with different logos. My heart is cold to this machine, and I can no longer be a part of it. You cannot have my photo. You can not have my fashion. I am tired of fitting into corporate boxes. Im am tired of being expected to conform. I am tired of the mediocrity. I want more.
Do The Extraordinary is born. Existing to identify with the style and heart of OUR generation, a geration of world changers, and to encourage, inform, inspire, unite, and invest in the Extraordinary causes of so-called ordinary people. I enlist the help of the most talented people around me. We create a Clothing Brand, that is so much more…
Blayne Walsh begins to imagine, dream, and conceptualize the designs for our first run of clothes.
Shaun Alexander consults, networks, and cohorts with me to create a launching pad for the Brand.
Together we coordinate the entire Movement, placing causes like Global Hunger, theAIDS epidemic, and Child Exploitation at the forefront of our efforts.
We sell Fashionable Street Athletic Apparel for a new generation, and use the money to give back. With a chip on our shoulder, and a Hunger for more, we set out to prove a simple point: We are SO extraordinary, capable of such extraordinary things…It’s what we DO that matters! Do The Extraordinary