At age nine, Brandon "Bimma" Williams would lace up his Air Jordan 9s in hopes of one day being as fresh as his older cousin. After years of collecting sneakers, that kid in Louisiana carved out his own path. By the time college rolled around, Williams and his friends looked beyond the general releases that they could find at the mall and tracked down special regional pairs and limited drops — amassing a collection of everything from the “Hawaii” SBs to multiple pairs of “Copper” Foamposites. At LSU, his crew was the one that football and basketball players would hit up to get their own rare kicks and it was only a matter of time until Williams would go on to channel this passion into a career.
With a background in marketing, Williams first teamed up with Saucony in 2013, bringing an eye for the lifestyle scene to a brand that had its focus on performance gear. He later had the opportunity to team up with one of his favorite artists, Ye, by working on the adidas YEEZY team and its YEEZY BOOST 350 V2 line. With a bevy of knowledge regarding collaborations under his belt, he then joined Nike’s marketing team and played a role in launches involving the likes of Travis Scott and ACRONYM.
However, it was Williams’ unrelenting entrepreneurial spirit that took him to the next level. In 2019, he launched Claima Stories with Bimma, placing himself in the spotlight for the first time. His 100+ conversations featured industry leaders from Melody Ehsani and Jeff Staple to Bephie and Chris Gibbs.
Now, Collab Lab is Williams’ current chapter. What began as a one-off discussion about Pharrell’s viral Louis Vuitton x Timberland collaboration is now a series full of the unfiltered truth about collaborations — analyzing what makes a hit and breaking down the reasons why a project is a miss. As Williams continues to spark conversations with the sneaker world, he gave us a glimpse behind corporate curtains and broke down why collaborations aren't as special as they used to be.
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