It’s crazy to look back and see just how fast 2011 zoomed by! Below are highlights from each month of 2011. If you’re not familiar with my brand, I think that this is THE post to catch up with!
JANUARY – With this being the 3rd year of me running Fur Face Boy, I wanted to refresh much of the overall branding starting with this very blog and website. I spent the last half of 2010 working to get this site running and looking the way I envisioned it and though I’m happy with it’s current state, look for a few more changes and add-ons in 2012. EVERYTHING is a constant work in progress : )
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: H-Town Sneaker Summit, Fur Face Bowl
DID YOU KNOW? When I was vending at the H-Town Sneaker Summit in Houston, I ate some Bánh mì that my cousin, Vy bought for me.
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FEBRUARY – All I can really remember from this month was that it snowed and iced a lot during Super Bowl time here in Dallas. I also remember that because of the weather, it took 3 hours to drive to work and then when I showed up, everybody was sent home early so I had to drive another miserable 3 hours driving home. WTF?!
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Super Bowl Vibe, Valentine’s Day Tee, Series 4 Box Set winner, Valentine’s Day Cards, All-Star Bear Mai Tee, Your E-mails, My other blog
DID YOU KNOW? I tried to get into one of the Super Bowl parties at ALOFT by wearing a very nice suit and a photoshopped press pass. It didn’t work. *Embarassing*
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MARCH – This was the month where I decided to leave my job as an in-house graphic designer for Half Price Books. This was a HUGE step in my life and I still have zero regrets. I got to recapture my time and as you continue to read through this post, you will see that I used a lot of my time to do some traveling. One week I was in London, the next I was in Austin and the next I was in Los Angeles. It’s fun as shit, but I get homesick like a bitch. Anyways….Time > Money all day, any day.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: My resignation letter, Calculator Fan Art, London Lovers, Japan Relief: Ultra FFB, FFB Paper Doll
DID YOU KNOW? I sat next to a REAL bum on my plane ride home from London to Dallas. Dude was stinky as F
! #Losing
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APRIL –Still high from leaving my job, I continued to take advantage of my time by going to daytime baseball games, eating at places I’ve always wanted to try, working on new FFB designs and making stuff. I was basically just living it up as much as I could.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: FFB On Deck Swag, School Help, More of your e-mails, I Fail All of the Time, Custom FFB Air Max, Stockyards
DID YOU KNOW? I had to sign a waiver form before eating a Hell Burger from Rooster’s Roadhouse while visiting Denton, TX. The slider sized burger was packed with Javanero sauce, ghost peppers and chili! My mouth, intestines and butthole turned into small portions of hell for the rest of the night. NEVER AGAIN will I eat another Hell Burger!
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MAY –This month was all about releasing my Series 5 line. After searching and searching for a spot / business to host my release, I ended up releasing it at my old screen-printer, Hamhula. The guy that runs Hamhula is a very good friend of mine, Scott Llyod. We were both drunk one afternoon, started bullshitting around and then decided to release my new line at his shop. Magical.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Farmer’s Market, Poem for My Mom, FFB Series 5 Line-up, FFB x Hamhula Collab, Fur Face Diggler
DID YOU KNOW? Me and Scott bullshitted around with some Blondes on the day we decided to have my Series 5 release at his shop.
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JUNE – Was all about the Mavericks. I’m not sure many know this, but I’m a die-hard Mavs fan. I’m gonna admit I didn’t concentrate too hard on FFB work because my Mavs were constantly on my mind. When they beat the Heat in game 6….my life completed.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Don’t Ever…, Angel goes to NYC, Fur Face Diggler: Champion Edition, Bear Mai Minecraft Fan Art, Fur Face Kicks
DID YOU KNOW? I wore my Jamal Mashburn jersey to the Mavs Championship parade.
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JULY – I paid the price for concentrating more on the Mavs than FFB in June. In July, I had a new FFB event pretty much every weekend of the month! One week it was Kixpo, the next week it was the UNKO x FFB collab event, then the next weekend it was the 2011 Summer Seies release at Shogun, THEN after that weekend, it was off to San Diego for Comic-Con AND THEN after that weekend it was off to Japan to visit my brother! Keeping busy is always good though : )
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: UNKO x FFB Collab, FFB x Shogun II, In-N-Out Burger
DID YOU KNOW? This is all I packed for my trip to the San Diego Comic-Con.
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AUGUST – I spent the first 2 weeks of August still in Japan visiting my brother and sister-in-law. When I got back, I spontaneously decided to showcase my brand at the Pool Tradeshow in Las Vegas. August was also a good month of FFB press! I was featured on G4TV’s Attack of the Show AND I was mentioned on the Hundreds Blog!
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Japan Part 2, Japan Part 3, Japan Part 4, FFB Alumni Club, Deep Ellum Outdoor Market
DID YOU KNOW? I’ve been mentioned on the Hundreds blog twice now. Click HERE for the 2010 mention : )
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SEPTEMBER – Immediately when I came back from Vegas and the Pool Tradeshow, I made a quick trip to visit some family and friends in Tampa, Florida. I have to admit, at this point I was getting pretty tired of traveling. I decided to take it easy on traveling, start on a new series of tees, and decided to market my brand a bit more by going back to my roots a bit. Like in 2009 (the year I first started FFB), I gave away FREE tees to everyone in the U.S., only this time it was an EXCLUSIVE tee made specifically for this give-a-way! September was also the month I introduced FFB’S CLOSET, a webstore that sells clothes, sneakers and much more from my very own wardrobe. I really wanted to expand my brand more and by doing those 2 things (Free give-a-way and FFB’s Closet), I think I accomplished it some.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Craig Newmark, Believe in Your Dreams, Fur Face Ham, Nammi Truck, Hardcore Show
DID YOU KNOW? I hung out with some very cool FFB fans during my short trip to Florida.
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OCTOBER – I started designs for FFB Series 6 early in September and finished all of the designs by the end of October. For me, it usually takes a month or 2 after the designing to get things quoted, printed, labeled, planned and organized for release. So long as I had production scheduled and managed right, I figure I use my in-between time to help do a write-up for a T-shirt Guide book, do a little more traveling and just continued to do whatever I wanted to do. It’s SUPER-AWESOME being my own boss.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Life, Portland, My Weekend, Happy Halloween
DID YOU KNOW? If the Texas Rangers would’ve won the 2011 World Series, I would’ve released this shirt. –Oh well, maybe next year : (
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NOVEMBER – I used this month to continue prepping everything for the release of FFB Series 6. In-between, I prepared a presentation at the University of North Texas about ‘Pursuing Life‘. I stayed up days and nights prepping my presentation to make sure that it was within a certain time limit and that I knew what the hell I was saying. In the end, my presentation went perfect! Hopefully in 2012, I can do more presentations about my brand. This may sound kinda strange but…..I kinda like doing it : )
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Meanwhile…, Black Hoody
DID YOU KNOW? The Black FFB Logo Hoody was supposed to be apart of the Series 6 collection, but since I felt that I needed to have something to release for Black Friday, I decided to release the Black Logo Hoody on Black Friday instead.
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DECEMBER – This was the month I finally released FFB Series 6! After a couple of months of production, I teamed up with my buddies at We Are 1976 to release what I feel is my best line….yet!
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: FFB Tattoo Boy, My Shitty Artopia Recap, Watch the Throne Tour, Series 6 Line-up, FFB ♥ We Are 1976 Collab
DID YOU KNOW? Me and Vynsie (of We Are 1976) brought up the idea of having my release party at her shop over dinner at the Olive Garden!
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So there you have it! 2011 packaged together into one post. It’s still so hard to believe 2011 is over. It went by with the blink of an eye! All in all, 2011 played out exactly how I wanted it to go. This year was definitely more about Ha Mai (me) than it was about Fur Face Boy, which is what I wanted. It was a year to figure out my time, how to use it and also figure out myself some more. People constantly grow and when you make a dramatic change to your life such as quitting your career, you have to figure out how you adjust / adapt to it. Now that I have a sense of my time, I want to use it more properly in 2012. I have to admit, and you may have noticed from reading this post, I abused much of my time this past year. Maybe I did more traveling than I needed to? Maybe I started projects way too late? Maybe I eased up on pushing my brand? Whatever it is, I’m gonna try to come back more focused in 2012. It’s all about trying to find that right balance, I guess. I don’t know……I’m just gonna keep going at things day by day and whatever happens, happens. Here’s to 2012!
ONE LAST DID YOU KNOW? This past year I turned 30 years YOUNG.
YEA! 
YEA! 
