Entrepreneur in contemporary fashion and design, Michelle Hanabusa, also a co-founder of Hate Is A Virus, a nonprofit organization that started to dismantle racism and xenophobia.
Can clothing have a voice, let its thoughts be known, and speak out? And how did Hate Is A Virus — an online movement — get its start?
Listen to this encore presentation by Michelle Hanabusa, who spoke at the Imagine Talks annual symposium.
After a career-ending injury, Michelle dived into a design background where she worked for companies such as BCBGMAXAZRIA & AEG. After her time in corporate life & some venture-backed trial & errors- Michelle K. Hanabusa bootstrapped a new brand called WEAREUPRISERS. The brand is described as a community-driven streetwear brand focused on story-telling for activists, trendsetters, and warriors of change. Her goal is to inspire change by partnering with like-minded partners to give voice to the underrepresented.
Learn more bout Michelle Hanabusa:
- Instagram: @mkhanabusa
- Linkedin: Michelle K. Hanabusa
- Twitter: @mkhanabusa
- TikTok: @mkhanabusa
Visit their website 👉🏻 www. weareuprisers.com
Below is our edited transcript of Michelle Hanabusa’s talk, “Impact through Apparel,” at the Imagine Talks Annual Symposium.
Fireside chat with Michelle Hanabusa
Francis Kong: I know a little bit about you, about love for you to also tell more detail to the viewers that I know that you are a former figure skater. I also know that you are and really, really strong activists for the Asian-American community and I also know that you are an entrepreneur as well, too. So can you tell us a bit about it? And anything else you want to throw in there and the details and yes, but tell us a bit more about yourself from some of those aspects?
Michelle Hanabusa: Sure. Well, I am Japanese American. We actually hit, I think, over 100 years now of our family being here in the States that my dad is, like, super passionate about, and he has yet to celebrate it. But and so —born and raised in Los Angeles, fourth generation and but my mom’s side is first-generation and so it was this beautiful blend of cultures and a way of growing up, you know, Americanized, but then also really like finding my roots within Japanese culture through my mother.
So I think it’s pretty rare to find fourth-generation who can actually speak and understand Japanese. But for the longest time, I really hid that part of my identity, you know. I was trying to really just fit in with my Americanized friends and try to blend in as much as possible.
Michelle’s journey as an entrepreneur
And that’s something that maybe we can go over later, but it really speaks to what and the reasons why I started Uprisers.
And growing up, I—I was a competitive figure skater for over 14 years, and so that really took up most of my childhood, waking up at four o’clock in the morning every day, training for six days out of the week out of— here based in Los Angeles, and that was my life. It was just I want to go to the Olympics, I want to be the next Michelle Kwan and I really idolized her. And I wanted— I wanted to —she’s probably the only familiar face that I saw on TV. We just happen to have the same first name, so I was like, “Perfect, I’m going to go into figure skating.”
But halfway through high-school, I was around 15, 16— I had to get hip surgery just from overuse and all the impact that skating really takes a toll on your body. So having that surgery kind of ruined the competitive career side with figure skating. The doctors did not recommend that I compete anymore and I could just do, like, more of like the show business side of figure skating. But that opened opportunities and doors for me to just continue more of like a normal life and really dive into school, get a college education and do all that kind of stuff. So I guess that was the start of my entrepreneur life.
Francis Kong : OK, fantastic. So were you starting—were you an entrepreneur as early as high school then and everything?
An entrepreneur in the clothing industry
Michelle Hanabusa: Well, yes, I think—no, I think I actually had to find different hobbies because if I wasn’t spending 15+ hours a week on the ice because I couldn’t do that anymore, I had to find other things that I was interested in.
So I started to dive into graphic design. I was really inspired by my aunt who was designing for like Disney at the time and I was like, “I’m going to be just like her.” I didn’t—and so I really started to go into that realm. I used to design a lot of my figure skating costumes and so there was always a clothing element that I was really interested in. So I would also go to vintage stores, kind of remake it, and then, like, forced my friends and my neighbors to buy it. So it was a mixture of, like, design meets fashion and then just trying to figure out how to market it.
And then fast forward to college. I also started, like, a very small entrepreneur-type business as selling to other sororities—my designs.
Francis Kong: Well, so, fashion design was always kind of in your genes at a very early on that you’re also picking up on very good sales skills as well, too, sounds like.
Michelle Hanabusa: Yeah, I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think it really helped me.
The 9-to-5 corporate life route
Francis Kong: OK, all right. So, what did you— is that what you basically did even out of college? Was that your first —when you came out of college, were you already really focus on creating your own company? Or did you do serious other jobs first before you started to hit your stride and having your own company?
Michelle Hanabusa: Yeah, I definitely went that 9-to-5 corporate life route. At that time, I was still struggling to find my identity and my voice because. The only thing I knew was figure skating, and when all of that was just taken away, I spent years just trying to find where I belong. And my parents never directly told me this, but I can just tell that they wanted me to have like a stable life, make sure I get a 401(k), all of those things that probably my parents’ generation thought that was a success.
So even if I didn’t necessarily want to do it—getting a college education, getting a really good job after college was something that was just embedded in my mind. So, my first job was actually in fashion. I was a graphic designer working underneath the creative director, and that presented itself really great opportunities because I was able to climb pretty quickly within that corporate structure, definitely got burnt out in the fashion world and told myself maybe I shouldn’t even be in this industry.
And so I moved out of that and started working for an entertainment group, which is AEG. So they’re like one of the largest like music conglomerates and they also dabble with real estate, I guess, for all the music venues and sporting events and stuff like that, so, [I was] working in their creative department.
The path to success for an entrepreneur
Francis Kong: What did you learn during your 9-to-5 corporate stint that has benefited you as you took a step into the laws of entrepreneurship?
Michelle Hanabusa: That’s a great question, something that I’ve learned that I don’t want to ever create a space that feels very political with hierarchies. But I did learn a lot: even just simple things of writing very professional emails and doing it really quickly, I mean, those really fast turnaround deadlines, thinking on your feet. But I think most importantly, networking within those industries, because a lot of those folks that I met during that time are people that really have supported me along my journey.
Francis Kong: Yeah, yeah, I think so. The successful entrepreneur [s], a lot of it has become the fact of not just what they’ve learned, but also who they’ve gotten to know well and connected with through that journey, right? Because just by definition, if you’re going to go to entrepreneurship, you need to have a network where you’re going to basically work with either internally or externally.
Michelle Hanabusa: Exactly.
Francis Kong: OK, very cool. OK, so let’s talk a little bit about 2020, shall we? This seems like a lot of stuff encourage, not just everybody, but specifically for you, when when I’m watching your— a lot of things are converging around this time, almost as if it was in a way preordained. So tell me a bit about from an internal political activist’s point of view, what ignited—what connected with you? What really spoke to you that happened in 2020?
Uprisers: Streetwear with a Purpose
Michelle Hanabusa: Yeah, so let me just backtrack a little bit, because, you know, when when I started Uprisers, I really wanted to highlight stories of folks and just creators who are— it’s underrepresented, right? I really wanted to create a platform so that we are able to share these authentic, impactful stories. And the name Uprisers came about because starting in 2016, I felt like this shift was happening and that the traditional way to do things wasn’t going to work anymore, and there needed to be radical transformations, radical shifts. I didn’t really know to what extent or what that meant, but that’s just how I felt.
And so my two other ventures that I started a couple of years ago actually stemmed from the name Uprisers. So when I started up Uprisers, it was being able to talk about this in a radical way, but also in a sophisticated, not—not messy way, I wanted to—I wanted to be able to do it in a very authentic way. And so, 2019 was a really great example of us collaborating with activist and content creator Asia Jackson.
And three years ago, she started a movement called— about colorism called MagandangMorenx. She’s half black, half Filipino, and she always struggled and was bullied growing up because of the color of her skin and she was not proud of it. And so MagandangMorenx is a global movement. So many people know about this and every year in October they celebrate MagandangMorenx and they want to collaborate with Uprisers as their first merchandise release to talk about this movement. So that was a really great introduction to the types of stories and movements we want to stand behind.
Being an entrepreneur has its challenges
Then 2020 hit, and we had a lot of great things that were in the works. And when it all came crashing down, it was this feeling of— I was scared inside because I didn’t know what was going on, I was like, “Is this the end of Uprisers? Are we going to be able to continue?” And we had a very small team at that time. And so I see them as family, I’m like, “What am I going to do about them, too?” You know, they were always there for me since day one when I started my entrepreneur journey. It’s like— I’m not just going to be like, “OK, bye. See you later, we’re in this pandemic now.”
And we had a meeting before lockdown being like, “How can we—” we’re community first, we want to speak for the people and we want to be able to listen to and respond to them, what’s going on in our immediate local community that we can somehow, like, activate and help out.
And I was just expressing this need of like we need to not stay silent this time because our fellow brothers and sisters are dealing with racism and dealing with xenophobia and who’s going to stand up for them, you know, and so we coined this term “Hate Is A Virus,” which essentially started as a food crawl, a weekly food crawl to go and support local small restaurants. We—and two days later, it went into lockdown. So then we were like, “OK, we have to pivot again, but that’s OK because we know how to do it.”
Apparel as a tool for combating racism and xenophobia
And I ended up connecting with Tammy Cho and Bryan Pham and the three of us got together to really create more of this digital movement that you see now. So, Hate Is A Virus became a very core aspect not only in combating racism and xenophobia, but really addressing our AAPI identity as well and how we can address certain issues that come up in our society and even stand in solidarity with other minority communities.
Francis Kong: What exactly would you say—how would you describe it in its simplest terms —message that “Hate Is A Virus” represent in [or] wants to convey to the community?
Michelle Hanabusa: What’s the one message — what?
Francis Kong: That the “Hate Is A Virus” wants to convey, like what is it—what is the mission and the message that it is conveying?
Michelle Hanabusa: Yeah, so Hate Is A Virus started off in response to everything that was going on during COVID-19, and it was to combat racism and xenophobia towards our Asian-American community because of the pandemic. Now that we’re—of course, we’re still dealing with everything, there’s a ton of hate crimes still occurring. But what does Hate Is A Virus— what is our overall mission that we want to do, carry moving forward, even past the pandemic?
And Tammy Cho is such an amazing leader and she’s really spearheading this as our CEO for this movement. We are going to continue to combat racism and just hate, but also addressing and educating our youth —AAPIs— with more like educational content, really letting them understand the American identity and identities that have come forth and the reasons why we are dealing with these things today and hopefully that can activate and mobilize our communities.
DNA of Uprisers: the warriors of change
Francis Kong: OK, I love that. It’s a really good, powerful, and strong vision behind that. Now, has any of that message or that mission carried over into how all the stories that Uprisers shares and its product line now?
Michelle Hanabusa: Yeah, I think —I think it a— the DNA of Uprisers is to —is to tell the authentic stories of activists, trendsetters, I like to call them people, I mean, sorry—I like to call them warriors of change. And so a lot of what Hate Is A Virus is doing as an organization is really— also an arm of what Uprisers is passionate about, you know, Hate Is A Virus is focused on combating hate and addressing those things. Uprisers is really—so the way I see it as a platform to address certain issues that we want to bring to the forefront, whether it’s about colorism, whether it is about Black Lives Matter, and how we can stand in solidarity with them about climate change.
Activating our community to go out and vote, right? There’s so many different things that we can be tackling, but I also don’t want us to feel like we can change the world, you know. It really takes a village to do something like that. And I just want to be able to slowly, slowly ramp up, so that we can handle and do what we do best with the things that we really care about.
Francis Kong: OK. Fantastic. Now, on top of that, also some exciting things are happening for Uprisers right now, too, especially coming in the early part of the 2021.
Uprisers: the first Asian-American brand onboarded with PacSun
Michelle Hanabusa: Yes, so with all that said, I think it’s awesome because the community has been really responsive to it. They understand the mission behind Uprisers were more than just clothing, you know, and being recognized on a larger national scale really says something as well. And so starting in 2021 in February to 11, to be exact, Uprisers will be the first Asian-American female brand that will be onboarded with Pacsun.
Francis Kong: Wow, that is huge, and congratulations on that. I—I can’t think of a better way to rise up my ashes of everything that we’ve been going through 2020 and to come back in 2021 with—we all really need is a nice, strong, fresh start and really putting ourselves out there this time. We’re coming toward the end of our time here but I really want to ask you one more question is—based on the other lessons you’ve learned and a wisdom you acquired over this journey of yours, what are some pieces of advice? Or what is the one piece of advice or one challenge you would want to give your audience that they can take away from our time together here?
The advice of an entrepreneur: be the change you want to see
Michelle Hanabusa: Yeah, if there’s there is something that you’re passionate about—interested and not like—also think about how we can be of service to our community, too. And if there is just one little thing that we can do every single day and almost embedded within our life lifestyle, I think that it could make really great impact for the future.
Francis Kong: I love it. That’s such a powerful message and you’re an example to the community and you have such a great network and I look forward to seeing some of your products online and also in stores. I plan on buying them and wearing them, so thank you so much for giving us that voice and also have fun —having fun doing this as well, too. So I think that’s the only time we have. I hope, I hope, I hope we can have you on a live stage sometime in 2022 and get to meet you in person and give you a big hug. And thank you for all the wonderful that you do in the community. Thank you so much, Michelle.
Michelle Hanabusa: I’ll give you a virtual hug now.
Francis Kong: You’re wonderful and you’re beautiful and thank you for always just being such a beacon and a warrior for all of us. Thank you so much.
Michelle Hanabusa: Thank you.
Francis Kong: You take care. I’ll talk to you again soon, OK?
Michelle Hanabusa: OK, bye.
Francis Kong: Bye.
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