In the past couple of years the hat with a paper plane logo has been seen on celebrities everywhere. The iconic symbol is the logo for Jay Z’s company Roc Nation. Some people know what the logo means while others think it is a stylish hat. But what very few know is that it is the brainchild of Jay Z and Emory Jones, the Head of Lifestyle at Roc Nation. I was recently introduced to Emory who gave me the opportunity to chat with him about his past, what he is doing with Roc Nation now, and where he sees things going in the future.
Getting out of the elevator on the 39th floor of the midtown office for Roc Nation I was greeted by a polite woman named Jasmine who said Emory would be out in a minute. Behind her was a large lit up sign of the famous paper plane logo. Emory came out and happily showed me around before bringing me into his office. He had to excuse himself before we started to take a phone call with New Era. Afterwards we talked about our mutual love of clothing and hats before getting into things.
Growing up Emory was always into fashion. To him it was a way to express his individuality in a world where everyone wants to be a clone. Even back when Emory was 15 years old his favorite pastime was shopping. Jay Z and their other friends would make jokes about how Emory needed to go to rehab for shopping back then. Some of his closest relationships in the music business even started due to a mutual love of it. For instance, sneakers are why he has such a good relationship with the legendary DJ Clark Kent.
A few years back Emory and Jay Z were tossing ideas back and forth. They realized after the mega success of Rocawear it made sense to venture into fashion again. That conversation was when the Roc Nation apparel line was born. Both of them knew it would be a hit. Despite the success of Rocawear, everyone questioned it though. It was not only outside people either. Even people close to them would not give it a chance. To them, urban wear was some sort of black mark. Ironically though, Rocawear was the reason they could be in the office they are today.
The vision for how to make Roc Nation apparel work was clear as day in his mind even back then. And that vision has been materializing by day with Emory at the forefront of things. Now that the lifestyle division of Roc Nation took off the same people who said it would not work behind his back are praising him to his face. That does not bother Emory though. The way he sees it, people get comfortable with what is working, and trying something new is scary. None of the naysaying was taken to heart. In fact, people not thinking it would work only made him work harder.
One of the people who did see the vision from the start was Mike “Upscale Vandal” Camargo. A former employee of Roc Nation, Billionaire Boys Club, and consultant to many major brands, Upscale Vandal spearheaded things with Emory. Upscale Vandal himself followed a non-traditional path into being the fashion icon he is today. Perhaps that is why the two clicked on an idea others did not believe in. Emory said Upscale Vandal is an extremely humble hard working individual who was always shot down at the beginning of his career. But that doubt is what pushed him out of his comfort zone to achieve what he has. Looking at Upscale Vandal’s popular Instagram you will see someone at the forefront of fashion doing collaborations with brands like Adidas, eating at the best restaurants, and being driven around in a Rolls Royce. And with all that he still finds time to give back to the youth who are continuously asking him how to achieve their own dreams in the industry. It is easy to see why him and Emory are close friends.
A major point Emory stressed was the relationship between brands and hip hop culture. From the beginning Emory saw themselves as organically cool. It is who they were. It did not take him long to realize that brands did not make them cool, but that they made the brands cool. After that he knew they could control the way they were treated because they controlled the culture.
Over the past few years it seems every celebrity has been spotted with a Roc Nation hat on. From Jay Z, Fabolous, Meek Mill, DJ Mustard, and Justine Skye all the way through Victor Cruz, CC Sabathia, and Justin Bieber. Surprinsgly though, Emory says they never asked any artist or athlete to wear the hats. Though he knows they could have asked at any point they never wanted to put anyone in a position where it seemed they were taking advantage. In Emory's mind it was a conflict of interest asking to promote the hats. He saw it as something where if they made the right thing, and got people to respect it then they would not need to ask. And that is exactly how things have worked out.
In terms of growing the apparel brand Roc Nation has moved past hats into clothing as a whole. The hats are still the major item that will sell, but they wanted to move forward. They brand is in 40 stores across the country. The way Emory sees it the die hard fans will find a way to purchase regardless. But to grow the brand he wants young kids who are coming it to take a look and see the stuff without necessarily buying. Those kids may not buy now, but they are being primed to for later. He knows he cannot stop kids from buying what they want to today, but he can make them see why buying this is worth it later.
What makes Emory most happy is that the paper plane logo has become the face of the company even more so than the success of the apparel line. It is because there is no number value you can put on legacy, which is what the logo is quickly becoming. And he is the first to admit that the goal has always been much bigger than clothes. The paper plane teaches us to imagine, to dream, and to be persistent. The goal is to embed those values into people so they are inspired to do more. The paper plane is about mentally getting somewhere before you physically do.
When it comes to marketing Emory has a unique approach. With influencer marketing these days we always see brands trying to get to the influencer themselves. Where Emory differs is that he wants to get in front of the person influencing the influencer because they are the most powerful ones. Those are the people who may have smaller followings, but are the true leaders of what is going on in the culture.
As for his most important lesson in business, Emory says keep people around you who are willing to lose and win with you. It is important to have people willing to do both because real success will put you in positions where both happens. If everyone on the team is there for each other then they can be each other’s crutches when it is needed.
A particular brand Emory has been working with for five years now is Puma. He actually created the #PumaLife hashtag that has been used over 113k times on Instagram alone to date. He also led the discussions that turned into collaboration deals for Puma with Solange Knowles, Meek Mill, and Rihanna. These three have been the most popular things Puma has done in that same five year period.
To show their appreciation for Emory, Puma recently launched a special capsule collection with him. Back in the early 90s before Jay Z even had a record deal he was with Emory in Vegas at the fight with McNeely right after Tyson got out of jail. That weekend Emory was dubbed “Vegas Jones”, and is even where Jay Z’s popular song “Can I Live” came from. For this collaboration he wanted something that touched on both Vegas Jones and Emory Jones so he came up with the phrase “Bet On Yourself”. He explained that coming from where they do everyone bets on all the wrong things instead of betting on themselves. The limited collection dropped on January 27th, and quickly sold out to no one’s surprise
The average day for Emory is that there is no average. Each day is entirely different where he is pulled in a million different directions. To Emory though, this is all bigger than him. He is just proud to be part of the culture, and happy to be creating a legacy. Moving forward the only thing he looks for is growth and positivity. So far it seems he has the Midas touch on everything he has put his hands on. Where things go from here is only known to him and a few of his trusted advisors. The only certainty though is to know that he will continue to bet on himself, and get paid in dividends for doing so.
