Most people who rent out luxury apartments on South Beach are there for vacation, but not Vinny Blanco. Strewn across the couch are piles and piles of clothes, and large boxes of more clothes are piled up throughout the apartment. As the co-founder of Seleb Tees, Vinny is here on a mission. Even though selling t-shirts hand-to-hand for $40-$70 might sound like a difficult task, it’s not. Thanks to their unique designs and high-profile clients (Fat Joe and the Terror Squad clique were all wearing Seleb Tees during their “Lean Back” performance at the MTV VMAs), Vinny’s t-shirts with iron-on designs go quick. Designs include Shyne’s mugshot, classic scenes from the movie Scarface, fallen icons like Bob Marley and Aaliyah, a pair of white-on-white Air Force 1s, Michael Jordan with his championship rings, and countless others.
How did you come up with the idea to start Selebs?
Well, I had a partner. I met him out in California. He’s from Philly, and I had just moved out there from Philly. I was working in TV, doing production work, and he was kinda in the fashion industry. We started making shirts on the side, just for us to wear.
What was the first design you put on a t-shirt?
Biggie wearing the crown. We started wearing it around, and you know how L.A. is. Everybody was like, “Wow, where did you get that?” It spread like wildfire from there. That was about two years ago.
Is he still your partner?
Nah, we separated. He just wasn’t business-oriented. He had a creative mind, but he couldn’t understand the business aspects. I was making the shirts and handling the business, and the partnership just went bad.
There are a lot of clothing lines that print right on the shirts, but your designs are a little different. How did you come up with the idea to use iron-on designs and add stones to them?
We had bought some shirts at first and just started putting stones on ‘em. And in Philly, they always wear iron-on shirts. They’ve been doing it for a while.
After the Biggie shirts, you started doing ‘Pac, other icons?
Everything, yeah. People just started requesting stuff. We started taking it to clubs and then got the shirts in a few rap videos. Mr. Cheeks was wearing one of our designs in Lil’ Kim’s [“Jump Off”] video. That was the first major exposure we had.
What are your best sellers?
Biggie and 2Pac, of course. But everybody’s got their favorites.
How did you get your product to artists like Mr. Cheeks and Fat Joe?
We were in Hollywood, so it really wasn’t hard. A lot of people were trying to find us. We were doing good, we got our first store account. [But as far as the partnership], we had our ups and downs. But when we split up, I just moved back to Philly and got my whole crew together and regrouped.
$70 is pretty expensive for a t-shirt. Why not try to keep the prices a little more reasonable?
But the thing about that is, you’ll walk down the street and see somebody wearing the same shirt you have on. You’ve gotta keep it exclusive, cause a lot of people are trying to do it now. There’s a lot of imitators. There’s plenty of money to go around, but when there’s so many other people trying to do it, it kinda takes away from the value. It’s exclusive, so not everybody can get it.
So how can someone purchase a Selebs shirt?
We have a few stores that carry it, like Shoe Gallery in Miami. Or, they can visit the website www.selebtees.com or call 818-687-0401 or 484-994-8799.
