I believe everybody is handed five lanes of identity: their gender, their social environment, their professional identity, their material security (finances and a sense of safety), and their values and beliefs. These are mostly shaped by factors out of our control from birth. Eventually, we start to challenge these lanes and shape them into the version of ourselves we want others to see. Then there's what I call the sixth lane: the one you open yourself. It's the same you, moving in a new direction. Nobody hands it to you, and nobody can take it once it's yours. Welcome to Lane Six, a blog about the business side of that idea: how independent creatives turn identity, culture, and experience into brands and careers that last.
I'm Brian Bachelor, founder of Jadesix, a design studio rooted in sport, the arts, and activism. I'm Jamaican by heritage, raised between Toronto and Brooklyn, and I attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. I've spent about fifteen years in footwear and apparel at Adidas, New Balance, and DC Shoes. Before Jadesix, I built my first brand, Lemar & Dauley, which landed in Patricia Field and UNION NYC. Now I'm back with a new brand, while also in school studying business, learning in public.
Here's the first piece of free game: your five lanes aren't baggage to hide, they're the raw material for what you build. One of Lemar & Dauley's best-known pieces was a hoodie with The Notorious B.I.G. smiling in his Jesus piece and "Spread love, it's the Brooklyn way" across the back. It pulled from a borough connected to us and a pop icon the culture already loved. That same instinct put our pieces on Spike Lee, Swizz Beatz, and Kid Cudi. A bigger company can outspend an independent creative, but it can't copy where you're from or what you've lived. Try this today: write down your five lanes and circle the one nobody else in your space can honestly claim. That's where your brand starts.
If the phrase is new to you, "free game" means value somebody gives you without asking for anything back, the kind that would have taken you years to learn alone. It always sounded cool when the local hustler in a movie told a young individual "yo shorty, peep game," because whatever came next deserved a mic drop. That's what this space is for: creative people building a brand, a career, or a side project they think about at 2 a.m. Each post tackles one piece of the business (positioning, pricing, production, or partnerships), drawn from the streetwear world, corporate offices, and the court and field. I don't have it all figured out, but I've taken enough bruises to save you a few steps, and yes, lol, this is also part of a school assignment I'll explain later. If something here hits, take it and run with it; if it doesn't, like Jay-Z says, "costs you nothing, pay me no mind."
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