Recent public relationships with creative fashion entrepreneurs and corporate America have been identified as oppressive towards creativity. Public figures like Kanye West and Tremaine Emory have expressed their dissatisfaction with these relationships. Their partnerships with corporate brand have been characterized as challenging. The negative experiences associated with corporate America damages the reputation of its infrastructure. Kanye’s relationship with Adidas and Tremaine’s relationship with Supreme have both ended in public dissatisfaction in corporate partnerships. But are Kanye and Tremaine experiences evidence of a negative in the intersection of creativity and corporate America.
Kanye and Tremaine have a good reputation amongst fashion consumers. This makes it easy to perceive corporate America as an oppressing towards creative expression. We can begin to wonder whether the infrastructure of corporate America can support creativity. What is the responsibility of corporate brand in its relationship with an independent fashion entrepreneur? The answer to this question is depending on the brand, the independent entrepreneur, and the goal of their relationship. Corporate America is responsible for a system the manages cost and price to produce a source of income associated with profit. Corporate Americas infrastructure supports creativity by using supply and demand to connect it with creativity. The demand for what fashion corporate supplies is support but the creative production of visual aesthetics.
While the involvement of the independent fashion entrepreneur satisfies the creative needs of a corporate structures. Both are responsible for making sure that the demand of the customer relates to a supply that is visually appealing. While creatives feel encouraged to take creative risk. Decision related to risk should take into consideration the sacrifice corporations must make to productively achieve this risk. I believe that creativity is another word from problem solving. And corporate America has an infrastructure that can scale problem solving to produce consistency. The problem solving inherent to corporate America and the Creative entrepreneur bring them into conflict and compromise. Conflict and Compromise may have been the source of Kanye’s and Tremaine’s dissatisfaction with their corporate partnerships.
The conversations around Kanye’s and Tremaine’s experience could dissuade creative independent entrepreneurs from building relationships with corporate brands. But is their evidence of a relationship with a corporate structure that achieved balance of conflict and compromise. I want to draw attention to the professional career of Salehe Bembury. His portfolio is a range of professional public relationship with corporate partnerships. His portfolio spans 11 years of creative collaboration with corporate sponsorships. I imagine that every relationship was not absent of conflict. But his reputation has proved that he successfully. engages with risk. Salehe Bembury acknowledges that his risk must consider that sacrifices that will be made by his corporate partners. And where there is conflict both Salehe and his corporate partner privately manage shared compromises.