Meet David Moser | Clothing Brand Owner & Designer

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

Hi David, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The main purpose behind the business was to have something of my own that really allowed me to express myself as an individual and as an artist. I love to create new things and make something out of nothing, and I wasn’t really igniting that fire with the career that I had at the time. I knew I wanted to start a brand years ago, but often talked myself out of it out of fear of failing and not knowing where to start, or how to begin as a lot of people do. Until one day, I stopped procrastinating and sat down, did a bunch of research and got on it. As I started to navigate things and began to build the business, I realized that I also wanted to show other people how easy it can be to get started and to influence others who were thinking about making that leap but were too scared due to a lack of knowledge or information. I wanted to show others that it is possible and that there is help out there if you’re willing to look in the right places. So now, in addition to creating clothes for my own clothing line, we’ve navigated into custom clothing and creating clothes for other brands and companies to help them grow their business as well. We’ve also started to reach out and hope to build programs and classes that help educate people on things like how to start a business, where to seek funding, and how to build financial literacy.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
The Citizins originally started out as a clothing brand which was mainly a platform for me to express myself and come up with things that I thought were cool. However, I didn’t want to just be your run of the mill clothing line. I mean, we all know there’s plenty of those already. I wanted to be a brand that was dedicated to giving back to the same communities and people that supported it. Which is where I came up with the name. Our goal as a brand grew beyond just creating clothing. We also wanted to create opportunities for others and help raise funds and create programs where people, especially those that live in inner-city communities can go to gain access to free information and classes where they can learn more about starting their own business and where to find funding, financial literacy, home ownership, etc. We’re still in the process of building those relationships and creating those programs, but we’re definitely working hard to really get that aspect of the business up and running.

In addition to creating clothing for our own brand, we’ve also started creating custom clothing and hats for other brands, businesses, and sports teams as well. Which has been really fun. I’ve had a blast getting together with other creatives, business owners, and coaches to talk about what they’re into and what they want and have put some pretty cool stuff together. Especially with our custom hats that we started doing. Our customer’s really love the hats and I always love seeing their reactions when they get them. Our custom clothing line actually started as something that we were doing on the side for friends and family since we had the supplies for the clothing line, but it slowly started to grow into one of our main focuses of the business. Which I’m actually really excited about because it’s been so fun branching out and working with other people and their styles to help expand my own.

Just like most businesses, we’ve definitely had our fair share of peaks and valleys. Sometimes more valleys than peaks. But we keep pushing and working hard to make it work. We’ve definitely had to evolve and transition as a business and as a result, we were able to expand and create new relationships and other avenues for our business to grow. But we personally love a good challenge and love to see what we’re capable of.

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.
I would personally try to take them to places they’ve never been. So we’re staying away from anything they would have back home. But there are so many places to ch0ose from. We would definitely spend a little time in Downtown Phoenix bar and restaurant hopping. You got to go to Scottsdale and see everything they have to offer, especially the shopping. We could even do a day trip out to Tucson or Prescott and see what events are happening out there. Then you have to do at least one thing outside. So I would take them to the pines up North or to one of the lakes sprinkled outside of town to go out on a boat or some jet skis to really soke up that Arizona sun and send them back home with a sunburn.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to a few people, starting with my daughter Amayah. She’s always been my biggest fan and supporter no matter what it is I do. She definitely keeps me going and striving to be the best me I can be every day. My family and friends for all their support and encouragement. And my friend and barber Gabriel Valdez, Owner of Liv Barber Shop in Gilbert, Az. Watching him work hard and taking advantage of his opportunities to go from renting out a station to owning his own barbershop was definitely an inspiration. And it was during some of those haircuts that he told me to take that leap of faith on my own business, so he definitely motivated me to get things moving and I’ll always appreciate that.

Website: https://thecitizins.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecitizins/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecitizins

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecitizins