Meet Daniel Parker | Entrepreneur x Embroidery Artist x Fashion Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Daniel Parker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I really wanted to make a living off my passions and creativity. Ive been working jobs since I was 15, my work ethic has always been very good, I never had no problems moving up and being promoted with a company. I’ve had a lot of jobs and one of them being Walmart, I was with them for damn near 10 years on and off. Eventually though I realized working for a company wasn’t doing it for me. I wanted to be my own boss, I wanted to make a living doing what I love. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy and it was going to take a lot of time and effort but something inside of me knew I was capable of building a brand & business. Soon after “starting” the business I realized I had to find ways to maintain that same confidence and energy i started with.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
From the beginning I’ve been hands on with the brand. I learned how to sew at a young age. At first I was getting patches of the logo made from overseas and I sewed them on all the gear. When the pandemic hit I wanted to get more hands on. I hustled up some money and invested in my first embroidery machine, I studied and really put in a lot of practice. Now I do most of the brand embroidery, cutting and sewing. And more than just doing the logos I’ve been making a lot of fire patches. From your favorite sports player to your favorite artist and cartoons.

I like to say my hats are my “specialty”. Of coarse I get blanks and make some really fire hats but my favorites are when I custom the New Era fitteds. Whatever team it is I add extra patches on it representing that city.

I’ve also starting offering custom embroidery for other businesses logo(s). Im honored to say I’ve worked with a lot of great entrepreneurs and businesses. I start off charging at $25 and up digitalizing fee to turn their image into an embroidery file. Once I have the file made I can see the stitch count and base the price on the work.
It’s pretty much the same with personal embroidery needs as well. Obviously I can do clothes but I’ve also done bathroom towels, golf towels, pillowcases, there’s a lot I can embroidery.

All in all I’m very proud of my work and I feel it really speaks for itself. Detailed designs and clean stitches.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

Man I’m always trying get friends from other places to come down to the ATL. From the city to the outskirts cities it’s so much to do.

Off tops if they’re my friends we definitely going to the sneakers, thrift and clothing stores. VersusATL, Heetatl, the clothing warehouse, rag o rama, good times atl there so many places to name.

Lenox mall is always a good easy spot to go too and kinda get a feel for the city.

I only eat plant based so I gotta slide on all the good vegan eatz spots Plant based Pizzeria, Slutty vegan, Vegreen fusion, cafe sunflower, and definitely bar vegan. Bar vegan is an experience for anybody forreal it’s lit there.
One thing is for sure though late late night eatz, my spot is Pho24.

Downtown is always lit you got the nightlife there but also ton and ton of family friendly activities.

I invite all my entrepreneur friends to come down and check out the all the sneaker events and all pop ups in general around the city. There hasn’t been too many Sneaker Exits I missed, The Sneaker travels are getting, Thriftcon or Vintage Connect Con is the vibe. Those are some of the big ones but there’s always a pop up or convention going on somewhere in the city.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I got to start with my daughter and her mother in TN. Y’all really made a man out of me. Things became very serious once my daughter was born. She’s my biggest fan by far, she has no problem hollering out “Gimmeemlaces” and that her daddy has his own brand. It’s not easy at all to sacrifice my time away but that’s kept me motivated, and is a big reason I’m where I am and where I’m going

my lil brother & partner Jigga man.. we literally manifest all this bro.. Gimmeemlaces (our brand name) is a slang that was just amongst us.

My parents have been nothing but the best. They gave me love and support, provided for me, home schooled me and have shared with me all their resources. More than that though they have been awesome mentors to look up too.

All my family and true real friends they’ve showed endless support and really do deserve credit I can’t list and name everybody but my family knows I love them more than anything and my real real friends know what’s up, from the DMV to Columbus, out TN & KY to Texas they know what we been through.

Special s/o to the good managers at walmart that mentored me and gave me game on management and business.. it really put me ahead of the game. Big s/o to my FAVORITE

And to the late great NIPSEY HUSSLE. Your music and the way you moved inspired me like no other artist did. I read damn near every book you publicly recommended and I keep your music on repeat through my marathon nh.

Website: Gimmeemlaces.com

Instagram: @Gimmeemlaces

Twitter: @gimmeemlaces

Facebook: @gimmeemlaces

Other: Tiktok @Gimmeemlaces

Image Credits
Most of our pictures are shot by Melissa Areiza @melissareiza2.0 on ig