Meet Latif Hamilton

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Latif Hamilton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Latif below.

Latif , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
There are a few things that come to mind around resilience. In all honesty, I’m still trying to figure out if I’m resilient or just a bit masochistic 😉 I think the core of my resilience comes from my childhood. I was raised by a 100% Disabled American Veteran with both mental and physical impairments that forced me to learn self reliance and leadership from early on. It’s a double edge sword that I’ve spent years working to re balance, because it created a tendency to consider discomfort and stress as the norm. That has had both positive and negative consequences in my life, but one of the positives has been my ability to remain relatively centered during times of adversity, and to push myself consistently beyond what I think is possible. Being under more extreme periods of discomfort might trigger doubtful thoughts about what I’m doing, but it never triggers a decision to throw in the towel, instead it usually fuels my spirit to keep going. As a creative, this has been extremely empowering and critical in my ability to ride the constant up and down roller coaster of entrepreneurship.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
At SpiritHoods, we design animal-inspired products that create extraordinary experiences and help people bring the spirit of the wild into their everyday lives. As a brand we are dedicated to the celebration of life, the connection with oneself, the animal kingdom, and to those around you.

A SPIRITHOOD ISN’T JUST A PRODUCT, IT’S AN EXPERIENCE

Our designs transform the way in which you interact with the world, and the way the world interacts with you. They are magnetic, spontaneous, and create new­­ playful interactions wherever they go…

WHEN YOU SHOP WITH SPIRITHOODS, YOU ARE SUPPORTING ENDANGERED ANIMALS.

SpiritHoods donates 10% of net profits to the conservation of endangered animals and their habitat. With your help we continue to raise money and awareness for the beautiful animals of the world, which desperately need our help now more than ever

ANIMAL WELFARE

SpiritHoods is an animal-centric brand recognized worldwide for our iconic collection of faux fur (aka fake fur) products and our tireless efforts to help put an end to the primitive and incompassionate use of real fur. Over the years, we’ve seen noticeable changes from some of the world’s most influential fashion houses and boutique brands alike — from simply introducing synthetic furs to their product line all the way to creating full blown fake fur collections. And while we are sooo grateful that others are now more conscious to avoid using real animal pelts, it doesn’t stop there for us. We have high standards, even higher ambitions, and a limitless amount of creativity and passion. We’re also very humbled and thankful for all of the love and support our fans have shown us and the animals for the past 10+ years.

We’re not just designers of faux fur products, we’re also friends and partners with several nonprofit organizations who we collaborate with regularly to help endangered animals around the world. From the very start, we’ve donated a percentage of profits to help protect endangered animals and their habitats — it’s just in our DNA. We’re proud to have been awarded cruelty-free recognitions from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA); receiving their Libby Award for Best Animal-Friendly Clothing Company in 2011, 2012 and 2022. In 2019, we donated and collaborated with Animal Tracks Inc., a southern California animal sanctuary for wolves, monkeys, kangaroos, and other exotic animals, to create awareness and to champion animals rescued from the black market pet trade. In 2020, we released a special collab with Panthera (a leading wild cat nonprofit organization) with 100% of proceeds benefiting wild cats around the globe. We’re so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish so far and we cannot wait to keep doing more.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Cultivating a positive mental attitude and learning to embrace challenges as though they are the norm (because they are) has been one of the most empowering things I’ve learned over the years. We get bad news in some form or another constantly, so learning not to personalize the challenges of life or be too reactive to news that you hear is empowering, especially because sometimes last minute changes and obstacles are there to help you even though they initially make your life harder. When I recognized the value in operating this way I become a better leader, healthier, happier, and made better decisions.

2. Find mentors and build a supportive team. Sometimes it feels like we have to take responsibility for everything, or do everything, but taking on too much responsibility just drains ourselves of the vital life force we need to lead and build a beautiful company. So being inclusive and asking for help, finding mentors early on, and empowering your team to make decisions and let go of control in key areas is an absolute must. It’ll save you years of work and headaches.

3. Make sure to find a counter balance to yourself. If you are a creative and want to be successful as an entrepreneur, you need to find someone who is good at Finance and/or Operations. If you are an Operations wizard, you’ll need to find a creative counterpart. Life is always about balance, if you partner with someone who doesn’t give you constructive criticism (which is sometimes difficult to hear) but instead thinks exactly like you… you’re going to end up missing key attributes that are critical to success.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
As a highly seasonal fashion brand that is evolving, shifting, and growing through all the economic and environmental challenges, we are constantly in need of growth capital. Generally speaking, the fashion industry is not as desirable of an industry to invest in. In order to overcome the financial obstacles and allow room for our own mistakes on the path to what we believe will be major success, we’ve invested into key strategies to minimize our dependence on ad spend and other ballooning areas of expenses in the post Covid world. Wearable tech for example, gives our customers the opportunity to stay more connected to the brand and earn rewards while doing so. Strategic changes to R&D have allowed us to stay more relevant in the Spring/Summer season as we now offer lightweight apparel products. Re-launching wholesale sales, amazon, and other important revenue channels are aimed at improving our overall revenue and driving awareness to new potential customers. Continuing to invest into the development of internal infrastructure and minimize dependency on outside agencies and organizations has also been critical to our evolution and overall progress.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.spirithoods.com
• Instagram: @spirithoods
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spirithoods/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spirithoods
• Twitter: @spirithoods
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHQPqgTJjZOX2SV0X-7RpJg