FROM MY DESK TO YOURS. (Have you seen my keys?)

Dear IB fans!

(Taps squeaking microphone…”Is this thing on”.....) With the opening of our SF store last week, I got to meet so many of our Bay Area (AKA Bae Area) fans, and was overwhelmed by the love and support we received at our Valencia Street opening! #blessed #feelingthelove #myoprahmoment #ibsf It was this feeling of support and the sight of total strangers believing in my brand and vision, that encouraged me to draft a short note of thanks to those who read the blog, follow our email and subscribe to our brand.

“Intentionally ________.” was founded 1 month after I relocated from Brooklyn NY to Los Angeles in the Spring of 2014. In the first month of relocating, I lost my job of nearly six years, moved into a just-beyond-my-budget home in Highland Park, and launched into my first live-in relationship I had had in over 15 years. Being fired from a job that i loved, and losing a work team that I became very close to, sent me into a white wine fueled mini-midlife-downward-spiral-crisis. I was in a new city, surrounded by LOTS of people in yoga pants, and now the stability of my work life had vanished! In the month that followed my termination (RIP solestruck.com) I decided it was time to finally give life to a bunch of google docs I had been tinkering with over previous year. The closing page of my bank statement “THIS PAGE LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK” sat tacked to my LA inspo board, just like it had in my tiny Manhattan office, which hovered above a midtown Sabarro, steps from Penn Station. I sat and stared at this page for what seemed like days. It was this single confusing paper, (why on earth do they have this page in my bank statement?! Filed under life’s great mysteries!) and my love of product development led me to launch “Intentionally ________.” I saw the market opening in ways it hadn’t done before. In that shift, I saw a niche, literally  a “________ “ in the mid-tier market, and decided to try and fill it with my vision and desire to create.

[SF PARTY PICS HERE]

Flash forward to 2018 and here I am. That whirlwind love-affair-turned-relationship that helped move me to Los Angeles has long since sailed, I have relocated to a new neighborhood and a much tinier apartment, and IB has started to take on an identity of its own. Two stores have been opened, a vintage ARCHIVE launched, and a complimentary apparel collection continues to thrive on the site and in our stores. Last week, as I ushered my mom and her lifetime best friend out of a car and into the SF store for our opening--it hit me all at once, as I helped guide her walker up onto the curb of Valencia Street. In that moment, I silently realised,  I am living my dream. That I have worked for this moment, and that I am here. I stopped and looked around me. Friends from my previous job, past clients, current clients, life-long besties, and some potential crushes all co-mingled as I seemed to be frozen taking it all in. It was an odd feeling, a sensation I wish I could capture and bottle. Maybe it was being proud? Maybe I was just hallucinating from fatigue. Maybe I needed an iced americano? I am still not sure, but in that moment, I felt gratitude and a sense of calm.

[SF STORE]

With all of that said, I wanted to send a personal thank you to those who follow, shop, frequent, covet, support and love our brand. We make mistakes, some bigger than others---but we are evolving, and it is our client that is at the helm of our focus. As we launch into this new chapter, I want to thank those who have been with us, inspiring us to push and grow, evolve and do the damn thing. I am grateful. I hope you enjoy this next phase of our brand as much as I am enjoying shaping it, giving it life, and continuing to let IB grow. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

Best,

Ty McBride

Founder and Creative Director, “Intentionally ________.”