As the world continues to integrate new digital technologies into everyday life, community continues to be at the forefront of the conversation. Digital communication tools have made us the most connected that any generation has ever been. Similar to the ways that embodied communities must be shaped and formed, the same attention will need to be given to future and current digital communities. Without pretending to have all of the answers, HXOUSE, a Toronto-based think-center, incubator, and accelerator, has brought together a number of multi-disciplinary creatives from different cities to talk through what the future holds for digital communities.
StockX has partnered with HXOUSE to deliver keynote discussions and events at a global scale. The result is a collaborative international tour that takes HXOUSE’s unique blend of cross-disciplinary learning and makes it accessible to new markets. This year, StockX and HXOUSE will host seven events in cities across North America in preparation for another five events internationally in 2023. At each event, StockX and HXOUSE will host cultural voices from each cityto break down the creative’s unique points of view and talk about how they’re disrupting their respective industries.
Last week, StockX and HXOUSE hosted the fourth of seven collaborative events in StockX’s home city of Detroit. The event featured a panel and an NFT-based competition that brought together the city’s foremost digital creatives. The panel, which was hosted by StockX’s Chief Impact Officer Damien Hooper-Campbell, featured four of the city’s most prominent creatives, all of which already knew each other very well. Rick Williams, Bre’ann White, Tony Whlgn, and Paulina Petkoski all shared their individual stories before giving those in attendance a brief look at the powerful tight knit creative community found in Detroit.
StockX x HXOUSE Detroit Panelist: Rick Williams
Rick Williams founded the boutique sneaker store Burn Rubber in the Detroit Metro area in 2007. Starting small, the Burn Rubber initially found larger brands to be hesitant to give them the rarest sneakers. Williams quickly broke those barriers down through his own designs in partnership with his friends at New Balance. Not long after that, Burn Rubber became one of the first sneaker boutiques to receive exclusive Tier 0 releases. Eventually, Burn Rubber would go on to officially collaborate with New Balance, giving Williams the opportunity to design his own sneaker. “I’m really just an artist that understands business,” Williams says on the panel. Through his work with Burn Rubber, Williams has become one of the, if not the, pre-eminent forces driving Detroit’s sneaker and streetwear culture.
“Community is the cornerstone. We’re telling our authentic stories to hopefully inspire someone else to live their authentic life and tell their authentic story. That is community.” As a part of the panel, Rick Williams spoke directly to the ways that each person on the panel’s individual work ethic has made a contribution to the community they’re now a part of. “The humbleness and the humility to help someone else win, that’s how I win,” said Williams who’s worked with nearly all of the other panelists at some point in his career. “I believe that what we need to instill in our children is, ‘You’ve got to work hard for yourself,” he said, “If I put in 40 hours for a company, I’ve got to put in double that for myself.”
A Rick Williams Inspired Look
StockX x HXOUSE Detroit Panelist: Bre’ann White
Bre’Ann White is a prominent photographer from Detroit whose talents have taken her around the globe. Beginning her career in 2010, she’s curated stunning photographs and branding materials for organizations worldwide. Her work is deeply inspired and influenced by the city of Detroit, which she has used as a platform for the notable success that she’s found. White’s work has been exhibited in The African American Museum of Phil, Arabic National Museum, Playground Detroit, UICA of Grand Rapids, N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Norwest Gallery, and SaveArtSpace. She’s also become well known for her work with a range of celebrities from Rick Ross to Cardi B.
Bre’ann White is all in on the future of Web3. When the concept of future technologies was presented, White made it clear that she’s already living in the future. “I have 22 digital apartments that I own,” she says playfully, “I remember when the NFT came out and everyone was confused. I was like, ‘it kind of makes sense.” As she continued to speak on her participation in the world of Web3, she made a point to mention the ways that it’s strengthened her friendships and created new ones. “I actually took my partner out on a date. We went to the moon and we went to some different art galleries,” she said, “I have friends around the world that I can’t get to all the time so I always find creative ways to hang with them.”
A Bre'ann White Inspired Look
StockX x HXOUSE Detroit Panelist: Tony Whlgn
Born and raised in Detroit’s east side, Tony Whlgn is the creator of The Whlgn, an unorthodox art and design firm based out of Detroit. A self proclaimed “Art School Dropout,” Whlgn moved to Brooklyn, NY, to work for Marc Ecko prior to returning to Detroit in 2009 to found his eponymous design firm. In the time before he returned to Detroit, Whlgn amassed a treasure trove of creative experience, working for Kith NYC and designing album artwork for artists like Joey Bada$$ & Big K.R.I.T. Since returning to Detroit, Whlgn’s design firm has sought to inspire and expose creative entrepreneurial careers and empower creative youth from the city.
In conversations about the future of technologies, particularly around Web3, Tony Whlgn offered a piece of advice to those hesitant to get on board. “I think the best way to approach NFTs and Web3 is to adapt,” he said. “A lot of things that are going on or that exist now may not exist in five years, just like things didn’t exist five years ago.” In terms of his own personal excitement around Web3, Whlgn is very excited about the ways that digital and physical spaces can come together.
StockX x HXOUSE Detroit Panelist: Paulina Petkoski
Paulina Petkoski is a social entrepreneur, stylist, fashion designer, professor, curator, and gallery owner from Detroit. Early in her career, she moved to New York City, pursuing an education in fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She’s worked with a number of significant fashion designers from Diane Von Furstenburg to Isaac Mizrahi, and Marc Jacobs to Calvin Klein. In 2015, Petkoski moved back to Detroit to co-found Playground Detroit, a gallery that hosts all kinds of events, from art exhibitions to movie screenings. Paulina also teaches at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit in their fashion department.
“Detroit’s community is unparalleled,” said Petkoski, “Community and collaboration and where they intersect, that’s where the magic happens.” Coming from New York, Petkoski notes the structure and already carved out spaces for creative communities in that city. Since moving home, she’s been working to bring what she saw in New York to Detroit, creating spaces for creatives to come together. “In contrast to living in New York and my experiences there where everything is very competitive, in Detroit we opened up a gallery space that’s really a place for the community to connect,” she says. “Through the events and exhibits and programming that we’ve been able to have in that space, so many different people have been able to come together.”
StockX x HXOUSE Detroit Panel Host: Damien Hooper-Campbell
Damien Hooper-Campbell is StockX’s first-ever Chief Impact Officer. His previous experience includes working for brands like Harry’s, Zoom, eBay, Uber, and Google; on top of all of that, he’s a Harvard Business School graduate. “Our role as the Impact Team, at the most basic level is to help each other and team members across StockX to see each other as human beings, to build our muscles around empathy, and to do that all in service of creating better experiences for each other, our customers and our communities,” he says, “If we as a company are successful in this work, then our team members should feel like ‘Yup, I am who I am and that’s actually valued. It’s beyond accepted, it’s valued and I’m being asked to incorporate it into solving problems and innovating everyday at this company.”
The StockX x HXOUSE Detroit Panel marks the second time this summer that Hooper-Campbell has hosted one of these events. Considering his position’s heavy focus on community engagement and the panel’s focus on digital community, Hooper-Campbell’s position as panel host was more than fitting. When asked further about his new role at StockX, he said this, “This role and this team and the scope of this is us saying ’We need to be more intentional in owning the reality of what happens when thousands of human beings – from different geographies and just about every other aspect of identity you can imagine – come together in virtual and physical workspaces and they bring their difference.” It isn’t always just as easy as ‘Come and bring your full self,’ it is ’yes, own who you are and at the same time, let’s make sure we’re being intentional about learning who each other are.”
