Meet Spencer & Shayne | Co-creators and Owners of BLAMO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Spencer & Shayne and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Spencer & Shayne, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
When we started our company we would work 10-12 hour days 6 days a week and on the 7th day, unable to do anything else, we would sleep. That was honestly our pace for about 10 years. We were younger, and had more energy, and cared about what we were building, and felt like we needed to put that much energy to keep it all running. We made some decisions, for example how we design and self-producing our own product, that locked us into this pattern. Our cycles would oscillate between the high of creating and the lows of burn out. Somehow, we made it through and we learned and we shifted. In the last 5 years our work schedule looks more like concentrated times of extreme focus to periods of time off for recuperation. We have come to recognize the value of our time and the importance of the work life balance for our physical and mental health. We are still learning how to create that balance but definitely prioritize our health. This balance is only possible when you can hand over jobs and roles to other people, understand that the to-do list will never be cleared, prioritize the most important items of the day and trust! It helps that we have a business partnership where we can keep each other accountable for taking care of ourselves and fill in when the other person needs time off. We spend a lot more time these days pursuing passions outside the business and maintaining healthy routines and honesty I think it helps our business in a way that is much more productive than just putting in the endless hours.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I think the fact that we have a brand the encompasses such a broad range of products is one of the first things that people notice. We design and produce everything we sell. When you go to our website at first glance everything we offer may seem unrelated, but the closer you look you realize it is an entire world. One of our favorite things is to set up shows where we can feature the combination of all the pieces and create an experience through our designs. Because we make so many different products it is a challenge to keep it all in stock. We have made-to-order on some items, which we know is not the most convenient for people in our fast-paced world, but it allows us to offer something we may not otherwise be able to offer. We also believe in creating high quality products. Quality and quantity is an environmental issue and we want to do our best to keep our footprint as low as possible.
What we have noticed over the years and learned repeatedly is that we do things differently. In the beginning there were all these rules that were imposed, especially from the fashion aspect, when to produce, when to release, how to accept payments etc etc. We quickly learned that these rules were set up for much larger companies with much larger budgets and we started to forge our own path, out of necessity. At the time it was unpredictable and a bit scary, but it helped us realize that we were most successful when we made our own choices based on who we were as a company and how we wanted to be in the world. We basically applied a creative approach to the business side and that has continued to work for us all these years.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
As creatures of habit, we tend to stay local. Some of our favorite neighborhoods are Highland Park, Figueroa, Arts District, Tokyo Town. Best place to get outside is the LA Historic Park, the LA river near Frogtown, Griffith park. York street is our favorite strip to eat, people watch, witness the low rider procession, food trucks and more. It’s got a bit of everything and is changing daily. Must sees: Lucha VaVOOM, Cinespia at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. And explore – anything you want is available in this city!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We talk a lot about the fact that this is a team effort. Our name is associated with the brand, but there are so many people that make the dream a reality. Huge thank you to our families who have contributed in every way possible. Thank you to our incredible Bali team that is responsible for all our production, our LA team that fulfills the orders and communicates with our customers, our community, that has been supporting us for over 16 years, and of course our customers, who are the best!

Website: blamo.store

Instagram: blamoclothing blamotoys

Image Credits
Photos by: Spencer Hansen