Meet Shawn Sistrunk

We were lucky to catch up with Shawn Sistrunk recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shawn, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I discovered my purpose early in life. As a child, I was always sketching, painting, building things, and taking them apart. However, I didn’t fully embrace that purpose until much later. For years, I felt like something was missing from my life.
Fortunately, I’ve always held on to a childlike curiosity, and that curiosity is what eventually led me back to design after years of working in the hospitality industry. I decided to enroll at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design to pursue a degree in product design. From the moment I started, I completely fell in love with the work we were doing. Solving problems, and thinking deeply, I knew right away that this was what I was meant to do.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I co own a brand with a friend from school. Our brand is called Vagrent, we specialize in luxury, outdoor goods and equipment. Our one year anniversary will be coming up this year onThanksgiving, and we will be holding a special event downtown to celebrate with our supporters. Will be posting on social media as well as our website which you can visit at www.vagrentlifestyle.com.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Design is more than a skill; it’s a way of thinking. It encourages you to constantly question, explore, and push boundaries. I think if you’re interested in doing something similar or working to design, first of all, you need to have a passion for art, problem, solving and learning. I would challenge anyone that thinks that they’re interested in getting into design to really consider the repercussions of bringing ideas or concepts into reality and what that means. I’m very conscious of the things I decide to create or make. We are in a time where there’s so much waste, and it’s important to create principles for yourself to be able to follow throughout your career and your life in general.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Right now, if we could collaborate with anyone, I think it would be New Era. I would absolutely be so thrilled to see my products in Foot Locker, Lids or anywhere that nature so if someone’s reading this and they have connections at New Era you can reach me via Instagram shawnsistrunk@insta.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Josef Gutierrez
Claire Lester

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