Daniel Solomon has been passionate about sports and fashion for as long as he can remember. It wasn't until his time at Indiana University, where he studied apparel merchandising and marketing, that he discovered the opportunity to merge these two worlds. As he began selling sneakers and hard-to-find apparel pieces to players on the basketball team, Daniel started to grow his network and immerse himself in the world of personal shopping and fashion styling. This was just the beginning. After graduating from college, Daniel interviewed with several fashion companies before deciding to embark on a journey of his own in the industry. The rest is history! In 2019, Daniel founded Fly Solo Consulting LLC—a consulting company dedicated to providing luxury services to athletes in personal styling and shopping, brand management, and marketing—and hasn't looked back since. From working with the next generation of superstars every year during the NBA Draft to curating exclusive shopping experiences during NBA Summer League through his annual Solo Suites event, Daniel has continued to push the envelope in the world of fashion styling and brand consulting. And, it doesn't stop there. Along with this, he has also immersed himself in the fashion design and production space through his apparel brand with Dwayne Bacon, "Bad Section," and is working on launching another captivating project called "Closet Tours"—one that is sure to further highlight the synergy between sports and fashion. Truly incredible!
Take us all the way back! How did you get started in the industry?
Yeah! I went to school at Indiana University and studied apparel merchandising and marketing. They kind of tied hand in hand so I started learning about fashion there. Simultaneously, back in the dorms, I became friends with some of the guys on the basketball team at Indiana. I have been selling sneakers since I was about 11 years old. Long story short, I wanted every shoe that came out but my parents would only get me a pair or two a year; so I figured out a way to flip sneakers and make money since I was 11 years old. When I got to college and I was studying fashion and then became friends with the basketball players, I was selling shoes and getting them clothes as well. I grew my network through the basketball team at Indiana, and when I was leaving Indiana, I was just applying to different fashion jobs in the industry. Anywhere from streetwear to designer to footwear—I was interviewing at Adidas, Dior, all those places. My whole life, I've always made money on my own so I kind of just skipped that process and was like: “I'm going to do my own thing.” That was kind of risky at the time because I was back home and didn't have any income. At that point, I convinced my parents to give me a room in the house and let me use the credit card to charge this new upcoming collab—which at the time was the “Supreme x Louis Vuitton” collab. It was a very sought after collab. I knew if I got a bunch of that stuff, I would be able to sell it really quickly and start with some seed money. So I convinced my parents, they let me put $10,000 on the credit card, and I had 30 days to pay it back. It was basically like a trial and error type thing, but I was so convinced and confident in myself that I could do it, that it didn't even faze me. I wasn't even stressed. I ended up getting the release and I flipped everything within like 2 weeks. I had seed money to start and then from there, I just kept going—investing more and more money into the business until I got to this point where I work with over 100 athletes doing so many different things. On a more professional level, it really all started basically in Indiana. Once I started selling the stuff, it basically was like a ripple effect. One person found out, then the next guy, then the next guy got his teammate, and it just grew from there.
My first client was OG Anunoby—he plays for the Toronto Raptors—, and he went to Indiana with me. So I started getting him all the clothes that he needed that were sought after, hard to get, or that sold out right away. But, I didn't want to be a typical reseller like that. I wanted to figure out different ways to help these athletes. What I saw from my end was that a lot of people tried to take advantage of them right off the bat. Whatever they're buying, they overcharge them or they are trying to take advantage. So I wanted to create a company that was all for the athletes, but within fashion. What I did was…I just started telling these guys: “Anything you want, I can go get it. I can find it, curate it, and bring it to your hotel, and set up a shop at your hotel.” It basically evolved from me having a room with 10 pieces of clothing to bringing one little suitcase to a hotel to now doing crazy events with thousands and thousands of pieces and tons and tons of athletes. I'm a stylist. I'm a personal shopper. I'm a brand consultant. I do some marketing deals (too), so what I do on an everyday basis really depends on my client.
Before we dive into your personal brand, let’s dive into your journey early on! How was that transition from college into the fashion and styling world like for you? What were some challenges that you faced early on?
There were a few different challenges. To start, the main challenge was like: “How do you even get yourself out there? How do you meet all these guys? How do you get clients?” I had been selling stuff for a long time on different websites like eBay. When I was younger, eBay was really the only predominant reselling website. Now you have StockX, you have Grailed, you have GOAT, you have Poshmark, you have a million different ways you can sell stuff. But when I was doing it, you really only had eBay. When I got out of college, all these websites started to develop and I was trying to get into the space so I was (like): “Ok, if I could get a couple clients, start selling to them, and then also sell stuff online as well that kind of will get me going.” So I would say the biggest challenge was really just where to even start. Where do I even start to get these clients, you know? I kind of had to develop a way to organically grow it through the people that I already knew. Overall (though), I don't think those things were that hard for me because of the way I went about everything. I was like, “There's nothing I can't do. Let me just reach out to people and figure it out.” I literally had the outlook of: “If I send 200 DMs on Instagram, and one person answers, it’s a positive.” I was willing to work with anybody. Once everything started going, I think my biggest challenge has been accepting and bringing other people into the business. I like to do everything on my own, and as things got bigger and bigger—you have shipping, logistics, marketing, outreach, buying, selling—I had a million different pieces of my business and it was getting overwhelming. I like to make all the decisions, so it was tough for me when it got so big that I had to start bringing people in. The first people I started bringing in were my family members, so that kind of made that challenge and transition a little easier. My brother works with me and helps me with logistics, inventory and all that, and then my mom actually runs the books. So it's kind of like a family business now. I truly have had this crazy belief in myself for so long. I had this (mindset) of: “I don't need anyone else to succeed.” That was good when I wanted to start my own business, but once you have the business, you can't be thinking that way. I needed people to help me grow and develop on the journey.
In 2019, you founded your company—Fly Solo Consulting. Let's dive into that venture, what was the inspiration behind creating this business?