Staying Positive w/ Rahmi Halaby

Founder of Philadelphia-based photography and streetwear brand talks creating a brand image, merch with a mission, and life as a creative navigating the gig economy. OPC’s latest release, with 100% of proceeds benefitting the American Civil Liberties Union and Colors of Change is now available.

It’s always been bigger than the profits. At a time when they felt too much media attention on urban communities focused on negative stereotypes, Rahmi Halaby and Will Miller created Only Positives Co., a self-described “photography-based lifestyle brand working to combat negative urban stereotypes and spread positivity.” Using a combination of music, photography, clothing, and live events, OPC and Halaby’s related projects have focused on spreading positivity while promoting creativity and collaboration among inner-city art communities. Having taken a break from clothing after OPC’s 2019 “Positive Liberty” collection to pursue a variety of creative ventures such as DJ-ing and digital marketing, Halaby announced last week on Instagram that OPC would return for one final clothing release and that 100% of proceeds would benefit social justice organizations that share the brand’s mission. In addition to funds, Halaby is also raising awareness of the ongoing struggle for communities of color to receive equal and equitable treatment through his activity on social media, which includes curating a playlist of over 100 songs speaking to the ongoing fight against oppression in America. We sat down with Halaby to discuss starting his own clothing company, networking within creative communities, and life as a freelancer.

A graduate of Gettysburg College, Rahmi Halaby combines his organizational management education with his interests in photography, music, and streetwear to pursue creative business endeavors aimed at spreading positivity and collaboration in his community.

Thanks for talking with me, Rahmi. First, I have to address the two elephants in the room. We are about four months into the coronavirus pandemic and a few weeks into what feels like a spiritual and historical reckoning with race and police relations in America and around the world, so I have to ask: How are you doing? How are you keeping yourself busy? How are you staying positive?

It’s crazy but I’m doing well. When quarantine first started, you know, I stocked up on snacks and junk food and figured we were kind of just waiting it out. But I’m a person who needs a routine. So I typically wake up, go exercise up on the roof, work until around 5 or 6, and then kind of relax and work on other projects. I imagine this would be pretty tough for someone living alone, but I have two roommates here so that helps having them around. We can keep each other entertained and everything.

But yeah I’ve had a lot of my white friends reaching out to me asking about everything, which is nice and all. But also this stuff really isn’t anything new. So it’s cool that people are caring about it now and bringing attention to these issues, but at the same time it’s hard to be phased by it when you’re sort of used to thinking about this stuff. It’s not like any of these problems are new. But it’s good to see all of the support and people getting out and using their voices however they can. I was going to a protest in Philly recently and a friend hit me up asking me if I had a bike because he was organizing a group to ride around and hand out free water and supplies to protesters. So it’s cool seeing the community come together like that.

You’ve worked your way into some interesting creative circles around Philadelphia. I see you as a designer, creative, and maybe even edging on community organizer. How have you seen your various networks respond to what’s going on? Do you see much organization going on within the local creative community?

Definitely, like within the streetwear and fashion community you obviously have people selling clothes to benefit various bail funds and things like that. And then you also have artists designing nice images and messages for people to share. When I first saw stuff like that I didn’t really know how to feel about it because a message on a pretty background can feel a little shallow, but I think it's good to be creating those messages of positivity and support that other people will want to share.

It seems like a lot of people in fashion and media took a pause to give the moment the time and attention that it deserves but are now wondering how to get back moving again. Not back to normal necessarily, but how to get back up and running in a way that can feel somewhat normal but at the same time save room for what’s going on. It’s easy enough to attract customers with a cool design on a t-shirt, but then adding on top of that the fact that a certain percent of proceeds will go toward the various related causes. Have you seen much of that going on around Philadelphia?

Yeah definitely, it's cool to see clothing brands especially be able to keep up their business and support themselves but also do so in a way that supports the cause. Obviously organizing efforts have been tough with the covid situation, though. People are gathering for protests, but it’s still hard to organize any kind of in-person event thinking about social distancing and everything.

Lets jump back to the beginning of OPC. Even as far back as high school, you were always a person I saw as an early sneakerhead. I respect you too much to say “hypebeast,” but you always kept up with the latest Jordans and New Balances and were taking pictures of your sneakers for Instagram before that was really popular. Where did your original interest in creative arts and fashion come from, and what inspired you to act on that and venture out to do something with it?

Well yeah I don’t think you can say hypebeast because it wasn’t even really hype yet. And for me it definitely started with just sneakers, I didn’t care much about the rest of my clothes. It might just be a white t shirt, some basketball shorts, and then a fresh pair of Jordans. I would be lined up in the Granite Run Mall with Will Miller waiting on whatever new basketball shoe was about to drop. And we’d be taking our sneakers into the woods to take staged photos of them, and then we even started to have some people hire us to take photos of their sneakers. I was early posting on accounts like Kicknation. And then I went to Gettysburg College to play basketball, so for me it started mainly focused on sneakers. 

Will was already into photography and I was starting to get into it, as well. A friend at school asked me to help sell some t-shirts with photos printed on them and after we sold a handful, the idea of starting a clothing brand seemed more viable. I went to France for the first time with the basketball team, and then I went back to study abroad in the south of France later on. OPC was already an idea at this point, and the classes I took in France felt perfect to pursue that project. I took a class called Global Brand Management where everyone had to create a brand as an assignment, so I used OPC because it was already there. I entered OPC into this entrepreneurial fellowship competition at school and we actually won. So that got us $10,000 to put toward inventory and branding.

Do you have any firm plans about this next release, like when things might be available, if there are going to be new designs, and which specific organizations or causes these proceeds will benefit?

We’re shooting for next week (6/19). I had ideas for like 4 or 5 new designs, but with the complications of covid and everything I’m thinking we’ll just stick with two, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt. I want to put the proceeds toward the ACLU and Colors of Change. I feel they do important work and my neighbor is actually involved with the ACLU, so it was an easy connection to make. As for other things people can do to help, I’ve put together a long list of organizations people can support and actions you can take to bring about change from the comfort of your home without spending money.

Regardless of the current circumstances, the original mission of your brand has always been to defeat negative urban stereotypes and, instead, uplift the positives. How important is it right now to shift the focus from the negatives to uplift the positives?

I’m a pessimist by nature. So it's not like I’m always that happy-go-lucky guy or anything like that. But thinking about creating a brand that honors my local community and can apply to any city, I did some digging into what “positivity” really means. I don’t think it has to be all smiley faces and stuff like that. Like I can say fuck and still be positive, you know? We’re trying to change the idea of what it means to be positive. Like at our pop up events I want an old lady to be able to walk by, see a young and diverse crowd of people, hear the music, and feel good about it. 

Stepping away from clothing specifically, what I’ve always thought is interesting about the projects I see you working on is that you’re never doing just one thing, but whether its fashion or music or creative marketing, there seems to be the common thread of positivity, connectivity, and uplifting your local creative community.

I definitely see myself as a connector more than anything. You’ve probably heard of Center City Sips? It's kinda cool, like organized happy hours around the city for young professionals. It’s become pretty corporate and fratty, though. So we decided to organize a similar thing called Savior Faire, which translates in French to “knowing how to act in social situations,” but this was less corporate and more geared toward local creatives. And it was awesome! We had some drink sponsors like Ketel One and Peroni and it was a great time. I love bringing people together like that and seeing what comes of it. Like there is actual music that was made as a result of this stuff. Someone who makes beats met a songwriter at one of these events and now some songs exist because of us. That is so cool to me.

Jumping to the topic of being a freelancer and working on multiple projects at a time, I understand that out of college you originally had a full-time job with a large corporation and you left after a short time to pursue this more creative avenue. What gave you the courage to leave a more stable job to pursue your passion projects and made you think it would work out?

Yeah I worked regional sales for a big company and it was hell. I always thought it would be short-term when I took the job, but then I went to South by Southwest after my first couple months and knew that was it. I spent a week down at the RecPhilly house surrounded by artists and musicians and there was just no going back after that. I was already spending my time at work just like working on OPC designs. So when I returned back to work that next week I asked my supervisor if we could talk. I stepped into her office and before I could say anything, she said “I already know what you’re going to say, just say it.” and I said “Yeah I quit.”

It's funny actually. There was this deer that had gotten hit and lay dead on the side of the road when I first started working. For months I would drive past this deer watching it just slowly decaying day after day while I’m on my way to what felt like prison for 9 hours a day. And then when I finally quit, the deer’s body was removed.

Now I work for a small marketing company where I’m able to use my experience with social media, marketing, brand management, all of those things. It’s a small team but that’s what pays the bills right now while also allowing me to work on these other things on the side.

So if it’s not corporate, where will Rahmi be in 5 years? Clothing? Music? Philly? France? New York?

I think it’ll definitely be clothing again at some point. Music will always be a huge part of my life, but I’ve found that I don’t really like when I have to treat it like “work.” Small stuff like DJ-ing an event here and there or creating playlists is one thing, but I want to avoid letting music become like a “job” so that way I can always find pleasure in it. I think this upcoming final release will be a nice way to close the book on OPC and think about what the next project will be.