Derrick Guidry is a nice guy. In a phone call with the Daily Press he’s kind and polite, asking about your well being, your day, and apologizing if he may have excitedly spoken over you, and who can blame the guy? He’s passionate about the reason for his phone call, his clothing line named LAers. LAers (pronounced ‘layers’) isn’t just a way to say Hey, I’m From LA, it’s an acronym that means Love All Equally, Respect Self. It’s a creed Guidry came up with and lives by after a short stint in prison.
“After I did my time and came home, I wasn't bitter,” Guidry says, his slow-as-molasses, Louisiana-born southern drawl still clinging to the timbre of his voice.
“One of my friends said I had a great attitude for just getting out. He said, ‘You have such a great attitude, you positive while others might have fallen back into bad habits.’ I like my freedom, I like my lifestyle. My life is, I love everybody. If you don't like me, that's on you. You gotta respect yourself before you respect others. Makes sense to me. I don’t discriminate. I grew up with black, brown, white, you name it. Growing up in Santa Monica -- which was a different from what it is now -- I knew I could adapt to society because I grew up here.”
Born in Louisiana and raised in the Santa Monica Pico neighborhood, Guidry grew up in a household and neighborhood in constant chaos. He details a childhood without a father, growing up being shot at and being “tested a lot” for being a “light-skinned, green-eyed guy that dressed well… a pretty boy”, with gang-affiliated brothers living the only lifestyle they knew to provide for a struggling family.
Growing up, Guidry was aware of what his brothers did to get by and attempted to stay out of trouble by playing basketball at his local Boys and Girls Club in Pico. Eventually, being raised in this environment, Guidry said: “you don’t go looking for trouble, but trouble finds you.”
He was arrested and placed on house arrest for selling drugs and eventually did two years in prison for reasons Guidry was reluctant to go into detail about. “That wasn’t me… that wasn’t my life.”
Prison changed Guidry, for the better. With a wife and child at home and his brothers continuing their lifestyles in the same prison dorm he was in, Guidry knew he had to take steps to become a different person, a better man. “I’m visiting my son through glass, with my family driving hours to see me... They [the prison] telling me when to eat, when to sleep, when I can do phone calls...I couldn’t live like that, couldn’t do that to my son.”
After serving his time, Guidry went through changes; he and his wife divorced due to “being on different pages” and his brothers were now in prison long-term. Guidry had nothing left besides his son and his goal of starting a clothing line.
“I knew I had to get my life together,” he said. “I knew what I was doing, it wasn't my life. I was still in my 20s, kicking it with people that didn't have jobs, no career or anything, but I still had dreams.”
To start his own clothing line, Guidry had to get the money to do so first, a tough task when a previous life haunts your potential future.
He worked odd jobs here and there-- well-known club promoter, security guard, program coordinator -- anything to help make ends meet, support his family, and keep his dreams of LAers alive. But when applying to more lucrative jobs, livescan fingerprint checks and criminal background checks would come back scaring off potential employers, putting Guidry back at square one.
“You don't get it til it happens,” Guidry says, commenting on how a mistake in your past can affect your life. “If I knew how serious it was, my life would've been straightened out a long time ago. State, City jobs, everywhere, it still gets pulled up.”
Luckily for Guidry, his laidback, friendly demeanor kept him employed. He credits the Boys and Girls Club and New Roads School for employing him despite the setbacks he suffered in his youth. “I grew up at the Boys and Girls Club, so they knew who I was,” he said. “New Roads, I was the security guard there. The kids, teachers, cafeteria staff, everyone liked me and I liked them. Once they got to know me, they knew I wasn’t what my background check said. They knew the real me.”
He worked his day job and worked on his fashion line in his off time, starting LAers a year ago.
“It’s not where I want it to be but I know it'll grow. I have passion for this. People love it, they stop me ask me where they can get it. That’s why I keep doing this.”
LAers is a sporty, lifestyle brand, akin to something you'd see at a Lids, Champs, or Footlocker. The hates display "LA" in bold, stylish letters, with "ers" following in lowercase. The hats come in different colors, mimicking popular sports team’s colors while bringing different variations in color as well. Aside from the hats, LAers shirts, tank tops, and v-necks have the mantra fully spelled out on them.
The brand can be found locally at Bay Street Boards in Santa Monica as well as the Rogue collective in Downtown LA. Additionally, Guidry makes house calls if you’d like delivery.
Next for the brand is a hat collection for the 1988 Samohi reunion, every piece custom made for the alumni. “My biggest following is Samohi alumni, this city supports me,” Guidry said. “I have over 3,000 pieces sold just by social media and word of mouth, and that’s just the city supporting that.”
While Guidry wants his LAers to be the next Nike in terms of outreach (although he jokingly says Nike-type money would be nice), Guidry says LAers is all about the message.
“I’m just trying to put love out there because there's a lot going on in this world. It’s perfect timing for this message. Beyond that, I wanna make my mom and my son proud. They saw what I went through and I never gave up. Never let them see you give up and always and stay positive. I want to set an example and let them know this, LAers, this is for them.”