This local craft and clothing business inspired me today | 001
Chris Tam talks about building a true local and community-centered business that's been serving Alameda for over a decade
My homie, Chris Tam, and his family have been pillars in the Alameda community for decades. He's built several brands and businesses before creating his current company, All Good Living.
Over the years, All Good Living has evolved its offering from a clothing and merchandise business to building a non-profit arm called the All Good Living Foundation, created to help provide necessary resources for unhoused youth in the Bay Area.
In this interview, we explore All Good Living's origin story, Chris's journey to creating the business, Chris' inspirations, the successes and challenges the company has faced, and his most significant needs for the industry right now.
Check out the edited audio interview below!
To give the people a proper understanding of your offering: what is All Good Living?
We have All Good Living as a brand; we started with baby clothes, but now, we make kids' and adult clothes, gifts, and accessories. Then, we have our design and production arm, where we help make different types of merchandise (clothing, toys, and accessories) for other companies and brands. My wife, Rose, runs the operations for both the brand and the design arm – shoutout to her for holding it down!
Why did you start All Good Living in the first place? How did the vision come to be?
Initially, I co-created a shoe store called District Footwear, and we sold trendy shoes. Eventually, my partner and I had different views on building the culture and where we wanted the business to go.
After District, I started a clothing brand called Peacekeeper, with sports and locally themed designs. The business fizzled out, so we ended up selling it.
Then, I had this dream for a brand centered around a positive lifestyle. Over time, the brand idea felt like the right thing to pursue, so I decided to sell our business, and we eventually started All Good Living.
What was your background before starting All Good Living?
Honestly, I was just okay with art, but I always felt like I saw the greatness in other artists. When I was younger, I thought I was creative and could develop good ideas for certain things. But I had a vision of helping other artists do incredible work. I became more of a Creative Director, managing other artists and their work.
Who have been your biggest inspirations?
My dad is my biggest inspiration. He was a healer who helped people a lot. He had a 40-year career in the Alameda Unified School District. He started in Special Education and then became the Vice Principal at Otis Elementary. After that, he went to many different schools before becoming Principal at Miller Elementary School. He positively impacted the culture in each school he worked in through test scores, grades, and faculty satisfaction.
My mom has also been such a big inspiration for me. After my dad passed away, she was heavily involved with my kids. She's helped us with All Good Living, which I'm so grateful for.
Regarding more famous people, Tony Hsieh from Zappos has been a huge inspiration. I've read about what he did for Zappos's culture. He was in the trenches with his employees, and I strive to lead like that.
I also have a friend named Joey, one of the most brilliant artists I've ever known. I've known him for decades now, since high school. Once we started using Adobe in the early days, we designed a lot of stuff together–this work became the foundation for what All Good Living does to this day. He's always had excellent technical skills and an imagination that I've never seen before, and he would draw bizarre shit. He had this book of art, and on one page, he'd draw three little pigs with axes killing a fox; then, he had another page full of penis drawings — just teenagers being teenagers. He's been my leading creative partner for a long time now.
Why did you start the All Good Living Foundation?
About four years ago, we wanted to create a non-profit with a vision based on the values of All Good Living, i.e., strengthening and helping the community.
We started by helping unhoused kids with essential resources. We partner with schools and their administrators to provide a free service to the kids called community closets. The closets provide clothing, shoes, and toiletries, and now we're doing food because one in four kids in Alameda County go hungry every day–we've got to change that.
We're in most of the schools in Alameda and six in Oakland, but we provide our services to all the Alameda County school districts.
What've been the most significant successes you have seen throughout All Good Living's history? What would you call out so far?
We've been able to get into stores like Whole Foods in most parts of Northern California, which has been huge for us. We also partner with Hyatt Regencies and want to continue expanding that partnership.
What wisdom would you want to share with the audience about your and All Good Living's journey?
I started brands, companies, and the foundation because I just felt called to do what was right. But, if I could go back, I would've tried creating a better plan for executing our strategies. We learned how to build the plane as we were flying it, which worked because we've had success, but life could've been easier with a plan.
What are your biggest goals for All Good Living right now?
We have big plans to expand to the Oakland Airport soon. We're in a lower foot-traffic area in Downtown Alameda, and we love the impact we have in this location, but we want to be in a higher-foot-traffic area.
What are your most significant business needs right now? What can the audience or I help you with?
We've been fortunate enough to build success with the quality of our design. Still, we need more help with marketing and storytelling, so we appreciate you helping to tell our story through this interview and project. We can get our story and name out more in ways like this.
Learn more about and support All Good Living’s mission through the links below!
Such an inspirational and informative interview. Looking forward to seeing this company grow and succeed even more!