Today we’d like to introduce you to Bobby Davis.
Hi Bobby, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story starts in Federal Way. Federal Way is a suburb south of Seattle, WA. I grew up there and my whole life I was into a wide range of things. I raced motocross at one point, the switched to skateboarding when I was about 12 years old. Skateboarding became a huge part of my life. It informed a lot of where I got my culture from. When I was younger there weren’t a lot of black kids that skateboarded so I was definitely unique in that sense. I always had a huge interest in art and at that time it was graphic design. There was a place at our local mall that used to print t-shirts. I would design pieces at my house, put them on CD’s and sell them to kids at school. Throughout high school I loved my art programs, as well as my science and math. The science and math boosted my love for engineering and my art background boosted my love for design. When I decided to go to college for Industrial Design I didn’t realize how perfect of a marriage my skill set had been. Studying industrial design opened my mind to a set of skills that were combined in totally new ways. I knew how to use CAD, Photoshop, and build things but I had never combined them in that unique way to be able to design ANYTHING. That was mind blowing. This was reinforced when I was able to land an internship at Pensar product Development, an incredible design studio in Seattle.
During that internship my mind was really blown. It was there I got to see behind the curtain of how products were really developed. It gave me the confidence to say to myself “I can design anything I want and bring it into the world”. From there I finished up my internship, finished up college and went out into the real world. My first year after graduating I was totally obsessed with an invention I had come up with during college called Hi-Duo. Hi-Duo was designed to be a flashlight/utility light. I had a little bit of money saved up, I was sleeping on the floor of dads’ computer room in a two bedroom apartment and all I saw was Hi-Duo being a huge hit! It should be noted that when I thought I knew about bringing a product to life was maybe 1% percent of what it actually takes. But nonetheless l went forward and was putting my all into. You can probably guess what happened… I ran out of money… so what did I do? I reached out to Pensar to see if they needed any help. For a 1 year and a half I worked at Pensar and continued to build hi-Duo with dreams of selling hundreds of thousands of units. August 2018, I made the decision to leave Pensar and try to take Hi-Duo to the next level.
After all was said and done it didn’t go the way I thought and the Kickstarter didn’t get funded but I had so much fun and felt amazing for bringing a production quality prototype to life that actually worked! After that I began doing a ton of consulting, branding, product development for clients. And then after about a year I started really paying attention to the bug I had for fashion design my whole life, specifically footwear. Shoes had always held such a special place in my heart. Especially in the black community shoes mean a lot, the represent history… moments. So, I pulled out my notebooks and continued to draw and write ideas for collections. I pulled references and thought about what I would build if I could ever get the chance to do so.
As I continued to build this collection I was continuing to get more clients for my consulting business and things were really taking off. On the eve of 2020 I made a decision that I would take things to the next level and really build a strong collection and offer my first shoe. So I said “What the hell… let’s get it” and really went head first into the shoe develop process. Having a background in product design I really felt like my whole life had been preparing me for this and I took right to it.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
No, it certainly hasn’t been a smooth road. That said, I don’t consider the journey to be “bad” I think that any patch along the journey that has been abrasive is directly correlated to a strong learning experience. For me personally, trying to think through all the small details of a goal or journey is a sure fire way to burn myself out before I even get started. My strategy is to get a general idea of the outcome I am aiming for and then proceed to take the most obvious actions towards that, the details that are unknown inevitably reveal themselves along the way. However, following that strategy means you’re going into a big situation partially blind and that’s when you hit rough patches. A couple of experiences right in the beginning of the shoe development process were like this. Having had experience manufacturing products I knew generally how to speak with factories and what they may need but every product is different. Especially as it relates to fashion products. So when I was starting I really had to take big chances of sending my tech pack to different factories, spending money I didn’t know if I would make back, or even if I would receive a sample back. A lot of the samples I got back weren’t great. There are countless learning situations, hiccups, and walls to encounter along the way and I am sure I will see many many more. But that is really part of the fun.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Personally, I am an experience designer. Formally, I went to school for what is called “Industrial Design” which is really the training and skills surrounding the design, development, and manufacturing of almost any physical product. These skills include, drawing, CAD, designing thinking / problem solving, It’s really a killer skill set because it gives you so much breadth to then dial into whatever really speaks to you. Currently, I wouldn’t say I am “known” for any specific thing. Before I stepped into the fashion & footwear I specialized in consumer electronic / medical design. I’ve worked with clients like Microsoft, Facebook, Oculus, and Dexcom doing really detailed design work on new consumer products. The hardware design aspect is what my company MIIRRORHOUSE focuses on. The fashion and footwear brand is called Live A True Life. Through these experiences I have met so many great people & mentors.
I am most proud of the fact that I remain open to learning in all situations. I use those skills on my own projects where I am offering products to the world. This is also what sets me apart. Being that my background is so vast regarding clients and projects I can bring all of that into fashion & footwear. What I would like people to know about my brand is that it is a young brand but a powerful one. I am combining potent ideas of personal development into meticulously design fashion pieces. The idea being that I want people to pursue whatever craft they claim with as much intensity, passion, and detail as they find in the garments I produce. That said, we have recently launched our first shoe. It is available for purchase on our website Liveatruelife.co and your support is greatly appreciated. It’s because of folks who see the vision and believe in the brand that we’ll be able to continue bring top quality product.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up I was a curious kid. Science and math always captivated me, as I got older that morphed into an interest in physics, space, consciousness. On the opposite end I grew up being obsessed with extreme sports. Racing motocross, skateboarding, rollerblading, BMX all got some of my time and attention. To balance out the trifecta I had a natural inclination to art, building things, working with my hands came very intuitively to me. When I was about 12 years old my Dad taught me Photoshop which was when the Pandora’s Box of design was really opened up. From there I totally delved into the world of computer programs. 3D CAD software, Photoshop, Illustrator. I would spend a lot of time on forums, learning new techniques and showing off my work. That really laid the foundation for generating ideas at a higher fidelity.
Pricing:
- Fenwick Low $189.99 + Free Shipping
Contact Info:
- Email: reach@miirrorhouse.com
- Website: liveatruelife.co
- Instagram: @miirrorhouse
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miirrorhouse
Image Credits
Jon Scotty Instagram @jonscotty_
