Meet Shannon Gilford and Sherence Bonds | Owners of Urban Christian apparel

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shannon Gilford and Sherence Bonds and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shannon and Sherence, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
We pursued a creative career because we knew that we wanted a business that embraced positivity in today’s society. we wanted to embark on a journey that was different from “the norm”, but also aligned with our personal beliefs. Our goal is for the world to openly represent your love for Christ at any age! Then we realized fashion would help us reach those that relate! Our apparel is worn by youth, teens and adults!

A creative career allows you to work beyond set limitations in a regular work enviroment. We have the freedom to create designs and products of our own, while also contributing to the fashion industry through Christian apparel. We also constructed our our website, stuctured the tools we use for marketing and advertising , and manage our own social media. All of these components require creativity! While its not easy, its fun and definitely a knowledgeable experience.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
With pleasure we bring you, Urban Christian, a Christian apparel brand. While there are other religious apparel brands, our brands is different from others because we are based on Christianity.

Overall we are proud of all the goals we’ve accomplished within our first year of existence. Its a great feeling to know that people all over the world are wearing our apparel and loving the message were sending.

Our journey to get where we are currently has many positives instead of negatives. We got started by writing down our thoughts and plans. Then we not only acted …but continuously prayed on them.

We are consistently researching our market. This helps us figure out ideas for designs, color schemes, and most importantly the look we were going for.

We both have skills that contributed tremendously to building the business. This helps out with the challenges, Having a business partner is remarkable. We feed off of each others ideas, give constructive critisism, divide tasks so the job doesn’t become too overwhelming and keep the ball rolling when one may have a full plate at the time.

The ultimate lesson we’ve learned is to trust God when He gives you a vision. That has been our fuel for embarking on this journey. We take something positive from difficult situations, because we feel there is a lesson in everything… whether the outcome is good or bad.

We want the world to know that our goal is to make God popular again. Its seems the love of God is diminishing in today’s society. Urban Christian wants people to openly be proud about their beliefs. We speak so much spiritual inspiration into our social media followers and customers. We also encourage other business owners and those that want to get their business started, but are afraid they won’t have much support. LAUNCH THE BUSINESS, and watch how the support comes! You have to be your biggest cheerleader, even when it seems hard. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF ALWAYS.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We live for bars with excellent food and drinks. We love roof tops and restaurants for day/night parties. We also enjoy sports so attending a hawks, falcolns, or braves game would be dope as well. But the kid in us also enjoys places like Dave and Busters/ Andrettis. Concerts in the park. We can have fun doing just about anything.

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?
Its so many people to name! A shoutout must be made to our family and close friends. They listen to us rant and rave about the good and bad aspects of a business. They listen to our many new ideas. They are the ones that lend helping hands behind the scenes and continuously give encouraging words, feedback, and even share ideas on how we can reach higher heights! Many of them have had our backs since day 1! We remember when we first launched our businesss. Many of our first set of orders came from them! It was the fact that the love and support immediate! It’s just a pleasant feeling to know that they truly believed in us from the start!

Website: www.urban-christian.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/_urbanchristian

Facebook: www.facebook.com/urbanchristian20

Image Credits
Muhammad White Miss Money Shot