At the time of this interview, Rayquan Davis had only been back in Baltimore for four months. After stops in Missouri, Virginia, Texas, Germany, and Florida - the Brooklyn born, Baltimore made designer is back home and ready to turn the lessons from his five-year journey into the biggest streetwear brand in the city. Ray hasn’t been alone though, assist from the people he met along the way have helped him craft his Eat Greedy brand into what we see today. (This interview has been condensed and edited.)
What got you into designing clothes?
Back in 2013, me and the designer [Veejees] who did my logo for Eat Greedy were working on a brand called Wasted Youth. I got under his wing. When I do certain things I hit him up. I get his feedback, see what he thinks, see what I can change up. That’s like my tutor right there, I watched him doing it and picked it up myself.
How was the process going from having the ideas to handling the ideas yourself?
Knowing exactly what people like is really hard bro. It’s placement, it’s how you use the logo, what type of clothing item or clothing piece you put the design on. It’s different but that’s what I get feedback for.
What does the name Eat Greedy mean?
What we mean by it is get what you deserve. Be greedy for the things you want. Go out and eat, don’t let anyone tell you-you can’t accomplish such and such or you can’t achieve this. Don’t let them make you believe that your dreams aren’t realistic. Go get it. Eat greedy this you, this [is] your life.
Why the name Eat Greedy though?
So Eat Greedy is actually a blog that my brother Xavier, well Zay runs and that’s what it originally started out as because he’s [really] big on music.
It still exists?
Mhm, the Instagram is EatGreedyTV. He drops local Dallas or Texas artist. It was his idea originally, me and him were in a group chat with a bunch of our friends from Germany and we were like bro it’s fifteen of us in here let’s make some money.
Whoah Germany? Let’s talk about that for a minute.
When I was a soldier man.
You started in Texas though?
I’m originally from New York, Brooklyn. Came out here [Maryland] when I was about 11-12 years old. Graduated from Randallstown. Went to school for a little bit, University of Maryland Eastern Shore. There for a little bit. Funds was kind of tight so I was like damn bro I can’t be on Mama’s couch all my life. I got up, signed my life away to Uncle Sam for four years. Started off in El Paso as a first duty station but my basic was in Missouri. My training for my job was in Virginia then I got sent to El Paso, spent two years there. Then November 2015, I went to Germany. Also, that’s where my little youngin’ is, I got a lil boy out there. I spent some time in Germany, met a couple cool people mainly the ones that I’m working on the brand with now, Zay being the main one. This was his vision and I told him I’d help him bring it to life.
What parts of different places and experiences have you incorporated into the brand?
Well, when I was in Texas I was getting some of the Wasted Youth stuff done out there. Then we took a little step back, chilled out on it. I had people hitting me up like “When’s the new Wasted Youth coming out?”. I hit up Veejees like when’s the New Wasted Youth dropping and he said “In due time”. So once I got to Germany and left in June 2017, I’m in this group chat like it’s so many of us in here why we not trying to figure out a way to make money. For me, I feel like the easiest way to come up and make a couple dollars is to come up with a brand. Brand it correctly of course and do things in a professional manner.
What caused the slump?
I left Germany, came back to Baltimore [in] 2017. I get back to Baltimore [on] June 14th. Spent six months here, moved to Tampa. Was still pushing the brand, even did a pop-up shop out there.
How hard is that - traveling but still trying to build a brand? Did you feel like you had to start over?
Yeah, that’s exactly what it was. Luckily I had those people who were down for the brand. Wanted to support the brand and wanted to support me cause we the homies, we doing something positive. They want to help towards that. After I moved to Florida I still got some people chipping in from the group chat. We had got a bulk order of about 70 shirts made and some preorders on our OG tees. So I had a pop-up shop at Club Asia in Tampa and all I had was OG tees. I got a lot of positive feedback, what killed us was when we got the rest of the shirts some of the logos were too small. The logo is the size of a quarter on 2XL t-shirts. Me and Zay chopped it up and were like bruh we can’t even sell these to nobody. When I got back here in May I think I gave it like two weeks. Got me a job, got me a little bit of cheese and got me some samples made up of a hummingbird t-shirt sweat short combo.
What’s the hummingbird mean?
The hummingbird signifies high energy.
Oh, so it’s an alternate logo?
Yeah, the Fat Kid isn’t our only logo.
Let’s talk about establishing a team. I feel like that’s an important piece of the story too - you building a team versus when it was just you and Zay or you and Veejees. What is the Eat Greedy team today?
The team consists of myself, Zay, Blu Moon, Twiggy, Danish Cakes, Stewie, my big bro Ty in the Sky, Zhané-Ashanti, and my homie Steve that’s currently attending Morgan State. He’s also one of the designers for the shows up there so the team is pretty sturdy. Bro, it’s an amazing feeling when you literally don’t have to tell people what to do. They promote it on their own. It’s really a great feeling and I appreciate all of it honestly because they could have just left me and Zay to do this by ourselves. They fuck with us and I’m forever grateful to them.
What’s your day to day role these days?
Work from 9-9 normally, get off, smoke, then probably head over to Danish’ crib and knock some of the work out. Knock those out and get those shipped out then getting things ready for future orders.
So you don’t get a lot of sleep?
Nah bro because working in the car business is crazy bro. The schedule might say you’re off at 9:00 but if you’re with a customer you don’t get off until that customer leaves. So I was with a customer until 11:30-11:45 at night. Still had to shower. That ran me till about 12 then I went to Danish’ house and got work done and I didn’t leave her house till about 5:00 in the morning just to come back and wake up two and a half hours later to get ready for work.
What keeps you going?
The feedback bro. A couple days ago I was sitting talking to my mom and I broke down. I was like yo this shit beautiful. I’m really getting positive feedback all around from everybody. It’s not just here, it’s on Snapchat, it’s on Instagram. Even my plug bro [laughs]. Soon as he saw I got gear he hit me like “When this coming out? When this coming out?” It’s a great feeling. A very great feeling.
Take 15% off of your next Eat Greedy order using the promo code EG2018 at https://www.getwhatyoudeserve.co.uk and be sure to keep up with Ray on Instagram and Twitter.
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