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How many Beatsmedia readers have gone to festivals like Ultra? Have you bought t-shirts from vendors? Do you ever wonder what it takes to be a vendor, and how a t-shirt design ends up decorating thousands of happy, dancing festival attendees?

YRS Gear is a new company taking its image, philosophy, and brand to the masses.  Their first booth is going to be set up at Ultra Music Festival this coming March.

Marcie sat down with the founder of YRS Gear to find out the inspiration behind YRS designs and what it takes to go from drawing board to Ultra.

MARCIE: YRS Gear is up and running strong. You guys are more than a clothing brand, you’re a philosophy of life! Tell me, what does it mean to be YRS?

YRS:  First I want to say thank you for having us, we are humbled by your praise of YRS. With that said, YRS is a lifestyle. To be a YRS person, you need to be Youthful, not in age but in spirit, you must be Relentless in your tasks but Recklessly committed to your goals, and you must be a student of life; we are all looking to learn and try new things everyday and one can never forget that. Lastly to be YRS you need passion for whatever it is you love in life. To have that fiery passion is the essence of what it means to be a Young Relentless Student!

MARCIE: What is your distinguishing philosophy when it comes to relating design and dance music?

YRS: When it comes to art I have pulled the idea of paint as music waves. As you can see on the Headphones shirt; we have paint dripping down, I believe that this iconic symbol of paint, music, and art will be not only accepted by my target, but embraced. The symbolism for me is that music is erotic, but clear in its message, and I feel that our paint interpretation takes this theory of music and makes it tangible, and people will connect with it, with out even realizing.

As for my philosophy on dance music itself, I am a DJ as well, (Grandma’s Boy), and I believe that every set compiled of EDM takes you on a journey through the mind of the DJ.  If you listen close enough to a set and really understand the song selection and order of the songs you can gain insight on the DJ and his personality through his music. The idea that a set or a producers song gives insight into their lives, is extremely intriguing to me and is why I have delved deep into the culture of dance music.

MARCIE: Who are the YRS designers, and how often are you going to launch a new design?

YRS: Ok so this is a multi headed monster of a question. Lets start with this statement: I design all of the art with out designing any of it. That may confuse you but let me explain; have you ever heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”? Well I write the thousand words and then have an artist draw it up. I have a very specific look for the  art of YRS, but I was blessed with business skills, not art, so I have to use what I have and outsource for the art. However, now that we brought Marshall Cole onboard, (Co-owner and Art Director), we will not have to outsource the art as much anymore, which is a huge relief.  To answer the last part of this question, I would say we are trying to come out with between 3-5 new shirt designs every quarter, and 1-2 new products every quarter. We are expanding into a lifestyle brand, so with that we need to expand into more then just t shirts.

MARCIE: How long have you been working to take YRS down to Ultra? What are your plans for Ultra and Winter Music Conference?

YRS:  Ever since I created YRS in July of 2011, I knew that this was the first festival I wanted to vend at. My philosophy for YRS is, “why have an EDM clothing company and not bring it to the EDM Fans?” Some people dream to open a store front on fifth avenue, I dream to be an official vendor at every major music festival.

In early January, I got an email from Ultra Music Festival confirming that I was selected to be an Official Vendor at the music festival for 2012. From this moment, I started budgeting and raising money to create an experience with my vendor booth, (we can talk about this later but I have a full philosophy on how to create an experience every time someone buys a YRS product.)  Once we settled our budget we started to look at what we wanted to reorder and what we wanted to create. We decided to create four new shirts and three new products for Ultra. We have two tank tops, a woman’s unique headphones design, and lastly a “brain child” of mine, my “nocturnal” shirt incorporating the passion and lifestyle of a DJ. We also created firework glasses (these will be awesome for all ravers!), A Drawstring bag, and YRS Gear wristbands!

As for what we are planning for the WMC we have plans to storm night clubs, pool parties, and just do loud and crazy things so that whether they like us or not, they’ll know who we are. We are planning for Ultra and WMC to be our “birth” into the EDM culture. Our goal is to leave Miami on March 27^th with everyone talking about this new EDM brand and wondering which festival they will be at next!

MARCIE: What has been the most challenging aspect so far of setting up a booth at such a massive festival like Ultra?

YRS: Well Marcie, we can talk for days about this, (haha), but I think the key points here are the following: Once we got the word that we were a go with Ultra, everything started getting inflated to numbers I had never worked with before.  It’s a massive festival, and everything that was being ordered for inventory needed to be inflated to accommodate our fan base.  For example we ordered 30,000 firework glasses, and we were having internal arguments as to whether that was enough or not. Also Ultra has to approve all the product that we sell so there was a lot of waiting time while the art was being approved or denied by Ultra, (however I must say for such a big festival they are amazing at responding quickly and effectively answering all my concerns).

I think the most challenging aspect of this is the unknown. Setting up vending at Ultra is a full time job. Since we haven’t made any real money from it, I’m putting a ton of hours and money into Ultra in the hopes that it will pay off. I have to thank my friends and family for understanding this and making sure that I had the personal finances to continue everything and make sure that I brought a great product and identity to UMF.

Really my grandmother is the one to thank for this. On that note for a minute, the companies name is actually PLAYRS Inc not YRS inc, and that’s because it stands for Paulette Levy Always, Young Relentless Students. Paulette is my grandmother, and without her assistance and support none of this would be possible! Lastly, I think I need to touch on the delegating aspect of UMF. YRS has many local (UMass) and country wide events going on, let alone bringing on artists like yourself to sponsor. Making sure this did not skip a step while planning for Ultra has been extremely tasking. Adam Dion (our COO) and Raphael Leopold (our Public Relations director) have been instrumental in taking on the burden of these tasks, which has allowed me to focus with the manufactures to ensure that our product is produced correctly and on time for UMF.

MARCIE: What’s your favorite design right now, and is there a story behind it?

YRS: This is the hardest question you have asked, even though the Headphones shirt is our identity, I think my personal favorite is our “Together” shirt. The genius for this shirt, is credited to my father (Cliff Medney). He realized that the word “together” could be broken down into “to get her” and this concept of “what do you do to get her, so that you can be together” was perfect for the YRS brand!

MARCIE: Every scene has a look and style associated with it, but everybody still tries to stand out from the crowd.  How are you keeping things fresh so fans can proudly identify with YRS, but also express their individuality?

YRS: Great question! YRS believes this statement to its core. Which is why we have 10 different designs within the first 6 months of operation, we believe that people should be able to express their relentlessness through their own personal taste, and we are trying to facilitate that through new and innovative designs, while keeping the overall YRS theme constant throughout.

MARCIE: What kind of rapport are you establishing with the artists you sponsor?

YRS: I believe that creating a lifestyle like YRS is 50 percent vision and 50 percent personal. With that said, I always offer my sponsored DJ’s and artists multiple avenues of exposure. I want each and every one one to see how commited YRS is to their career, whether they are a local talent or a national phenomenon, each of them are crucial to YRS and its mission. We have a monthly podcast we film that we give our artists the ability to appear on, we also have an R-artist page, and a built in sound cloud on our website!  We also give our artists the ability to do their own things. Our DJ Intelli-G is hosting a live web 3 hour set on February 27^th, and we are fully endorsing its airing!  We recently had DJ Construc on the podcast and he did a scratching tutorial, which as an EDM DJ myself, was mind blowing, (I don’t scratch much, so to learn from someone as talented as Construc was a real honor).

MARCIE: As a startup company gaining national recognition, what do you hope to accomplish in five years time?

YRS: Wow, that’s a loaded question! In an ideal world, I’d like to see YRS Gear become YRS Entertainment, and have DJ’s, Photographers, and artists all under the YRS movement, and just throw awesome festivals that encompass music, art and expression. See Marcie, I have a vision to facilitate happiness and I believe that festivals are the ultimate release for music fans. Whether it is EDM, Rock, or Hip Hop, music lovers of any specific genre love to come together and share that passion of music through dancing and experiencing.

I believe that festivals today are lacking in one area. First let me say that I have nothing but the utmost respect for every company that throws these festivals. I know that they are extremely difficult; however in my mind festivals today are missing the “movement.” For me when I attend a music festival I start thinking to myself, “why is everyone here? Is it solely because a company was able to pull the best talent in the world and put them in one place? “ I usually answer myself, “of course Matt, that’s the whole point!”  I think that if we can create a festival that transcends the talent, and is more about the passion and emotion that is behind the brand throwing the festival, we can reach a whole other level in terms of experience.  I hope in five years YRS is more then a clothing brand, it’s a way of life!

MARCIE: Are you ready for the crowds in Miami? Will you have any time to relax down there?

YRS: Honestly Marcie, I don’t think anyone can really be ready to handle 200,000 people, but I think we are on the right path, and our hard work during this preparation stage will pay dividends during Ultra. As for time to relax, I think I will relax on the 27^th (haha). The days leading up to UMF, we are going to be hitting the streets hard handing out flyers talking about YRS and making sure come day one of UMF people are aware of YRS and our message! We are however taking a road trip to Miami so that two-day drive will be somewhat of a reprieve, and I think it will be exciting. Marshall is going to video document the entire week. We hope to put a small documentary together at the end of Ultra documenting the 10 day adventure!

MARCIE: What advice do you have for artists and fans out there who want to keep dance music and the festival scene community based?  How will YRS help people of all ages feel the unifying power of dance music?

YRS: This is a great question! I think that a lot of “true EDM fans” are starting to get annoyed with the mainstream turn EDM has taken in 2011 and now here in 2012. I think that it is both good and bad. Let me explain: All in all, bringing more people into the EDM world will be better for the long run, it will make the scene sustainable for the true fans to keep experiencing more elaborate and exciting festivals. For example, YRS could not be possible if this movement was not occurring. On the other hand as a true EDM lover, it really pains me to see people attending the festivals and shows just to roll face (ecstasy) and get hammered. There is a definite decline in passion and love for the music, and as you put it so elegantly, “the journey through a song.” I believe that this is a phase though, and sooner than later the drug association with EDM will subside, and the true reasons for why people have jumped onto this movement, (the music), will emerge as the overwhelming reason for its global take over.

YRS is one of the many brands/ companies/ artists who believe in the true passion of EDM and Music in general, and want to help push this movement from being a fad to being a cornerstone of the Music industry.

MARCIE: We look forward to seeing you down in Miami.  Where can readers catch some upcoming YRS events around the country?

YRS: YRS events can be found on the facebook page at www.facebook.com/yrsgear and shortly on the website under the r news tab at www.yrsgear.com/rnews. We currently have monthly events in Boston at Think Tank and Umbria. We have to thank Glow Boston and Green T Enterprises for facilitating this and allowing us to come in once a month to bring YRS passion to the clubs of Boston.  We are also currently at Session 73 in NYC once a month, and starting in May we will be at Vex nightclub in Dayton Ohio with Run DDT. We are always looking to come to new cities and explore different cultures throughout America. Lastly, we have Bamboozle in May locked down for our second Festival, and we are planning our first YRS festival for early August!

Visit YRS online HERE