LTG vs. Todd Alan Breland

This afternoon after many trial and errors, Laura/ltg chatted it up with RYZ's latest winner, Todd Alan Breland.  Read on . . .

ltg: Hi Todd! I swear I'm ready to interview now, I am just debating on if I should throw this egg salad sandwich out the window it was gross.

toddalanbreland: NO WAY TOO LATE

ltg: nooooooo

toddalanbreland: eww. egg salad. you should just go put it in the toilet. that’s where it will be later anyway ha

ltg: or in ryzware’s shoe ew hahaha

toddalanbreland: yeah that was pretty gross ok Todd...so where are you from oh funny you should ask me that Laura

ltg: ok why don’t you start by telling the RYZ community exactly what you do? You working today?

toddalanbreland: haha. nah I don’t work for the man. been there done that. art should never be a chore

ltg: most definitely, I was checking out your site and I noticed you do a lot of work for indie bands like nightmare of you and elefant.  do you know those guys or you like the music?

toddalanbreland: yeah, I've done a lot of work for bands. I think music, art, and fashion all go hand in hand. I think if you are a creative person, its easy to jump into the whole spectrum

ltg: yes for sure. creative outlets belong together.

toddalanbreland: yeah exactly I usually try and stick to working with bands I enjoy

ltg: nice

toddalanbreland: I am actually friends with most of the bands too so, it works out well I guess, everyone is in a band in NYC ahaha

ltg: well tell our community about designing your RYZ shoe, was there any inspiration or method behind it or did you just choose a solid design of yours you thought would look sick on a sneaker?

toddalanbreland: lets rewind to contest 3. I should have won that one! just kidding. I actually entered a design like one day before the deadline for contest 3. not much 'art' to it but more of a pattern/design. I wanted the shoe to actually be wearable. well. low and behold it didn't win obviously.  so I realized it wasn't artistic enough. anyone can get a well designed sneaker anywhere, but its the art that makes RYZ unique

ltg: ooh yes so you went back to the drawing board

toddalanbreland: so I took a piece that I had just finished and loved it so much I thought, 'this would work perfect for a shoe.' the colors were neutral...could easily be wearable, but still be unique enough to be artsy.

ltg: yes I like the neutral tone, some of the designs are really loud in color

and I think that’s one thing people forget to keep in mind when they are designing

is that you actually have to be able to WEAR the shoe

toddalanbreland: I think it works well because it doesn't alienate men or women from wearing it.

ltg: yup cables is our best seller and it is also gender neutral

toddalanbreland: I'm a simple guy

ltg: I like simple things. really

toddalanbreland: I would never wear 98% of what I see out there

ltg: on our site?

toddalanbreland: well in general. its weird. art ends on canvas for me usually. I don’t like to wear it. really weird thing I guess.

ltg: hmm so what are you wearing?

toddalanbreland: right now, nothing just kidding

ltg: ah the luxuries of working from home

toddalanbreland: give me some jeans and a solid color shirt and I'm good to go

ltg: I see and shoes?

toddalanbreland: plain white American apparel shit. diesel jeans. white pair of vans oops shirt not shit

ltg: lol

toddalanbreland: haha

ltg: ok

toddalanbreland: simple

ltg: so what new projects are you working on now, what can we expect to see from the breland before the year ends?

toddalanbreland: but I love to see my art everywhere so to have it be on a shoe is really cool to me. new territory

ltg: that’s what we are excited to be giving to all our users out there

toddalanbreland: this year has been super busy. I finished up a solo exhibit in conjunction with absolut vodka, working on a project for Bloomingdales right this minute. things are always happening

ltg: nice may I suggest a project?

toddalanbreland: hopefully my art will be on a private jet before the year is out. someone give me a template. Sure what’s up?

ltg: I think the perfect pairing for you would be to work with TAB hah

toddalanbreland: HAHA that would be amazing

ltg: seriously

toddalanbreland: but, I did a Pepsi can, so I don’t know that would fly. I would love too.

ltg: you should reach out to them anyway, its not like TAB competes with Pepsi

toddalanbreland: how much more perfect could that be?

ltg: and they are your name sake no?

toddalanbreland: yeah. trust me, I've already thought of it. just waiting for the invite ha

ltg: nice.  well now that you have an extra grand in your pocket, what are you planning on squandering it on?

toddalanbreland: I’m going to buy 1000 one dollar bills with it.

ltg: oh phew for a second there I was afraid you were going to say stock in Lehmens brothers

toddalanbreland: HAHAHAHA nah, I already lost all of that

ltg: ha so it sounds like with your plan you are ready to get some serious gentleman’s club action

toddalanbreland: shhhh...my girlfriend is in the other room. yes, i just can't let her know.

ltg: oh really? Did you know, portland has the most strip clubs per capita than any other city in the US? yes yes RYZ is located in quite a grand city

toddalanbreland: really? hmmmm. some really bored dudes there apparently

ltg: possibly hmm so now that we are severely off track, I'm going to fast forward here, so anything I didn’t cover you want to bring up? shout outs?

toddalanbreland: anything I didn’t cover, you want to bring up' - whoa.....

ltg: I know

toddalanbreland: whoa there haha

ltg: I just wanted to give you an opportunity for shameless self promotion but yeah, if you want to give me a hard time about it I take it back!

toddalanbreland: this interview edited will be this "how are you?"  "thanks Todd." Hahah

ltg: that would be pretty funny sometimes I wonder if anyone even reads my interviews *sigh*

toddalanbreland: they’ll read this one

ltg: they better

toddalanbreland: im famous

ltg: ok I think we can end on that

toddalanbreland: i have a soda named after me

ltg: thanks Todd! ha

toddalanbreland: its in a pink can hahaha ok no for real for real this time

ltg: ok thanks so much for your time great talking to you!

toddalanbreland: of course. anytime, ill hit you up when I see you every now and then

ltg: for sure, we want to see you on the site. later tab!

toddalanbreland: ciao ciao

Todd shoe is available for presale now.  Enter 'TRUST' as a promo code and recieve $20 bucks off your purchase!