Smoke Break is me trying to bootstrap a cartoon series. The idea is to create something from nothing. I came up with these characters, Bill Backwoods and Swisher Steve. That's what initially started Smoke Break. I thought it'd be funny to create personas and social profiles of the characters. Then, evolve it into a web series with the hopes of getting picked up by a network to create an actual cartoon series. The goal of Smoke Break is to create a cartoon series.
I pitched this concept to a contact who had ties to Netflix early on, mind you, it's my idea, but his proposal was pay me $500/month and give me 5% equity that's retracted after 2 years to create this all for him. FUCK THAT.
My name is Kyle Bebeau. I'm a creative addict. I just turned 29. For the past 10 years, my dream has been to create a clothing brand. I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Digital Arts & Design from Full Sail University. My first attempt was Realeyez Apparel, back in 2009. Mac Miller wore our original logo t-shirt in a music video with Rhapsody. It gave the brand great exposure, but was short lived. After graduating, I shifted my studies to learn software engineering.
A few years later, I made the move out to Los Angeles. I've been scraping by surviving off of my creative as The INiT Group for the past 5 years. This past year, I was commissioned to engineer Anderson .PAAK's website. It has been a beautiful struggle. I've learned a lot of hard truths servicing my creative to people in todays world.
I caught a huge break at the beginning of 2019. I created this throw pillow through Smoke Break that looks like a bag of weed, the OG Kushion. It got featured on NowThisWeed's snapchat and facebook page. From there we got the product posted on The Chive. Sales took off. We've sold over 1,200 since the beginning of January 2019. Smoke Break just got accepted to exhibit at Agenda Trade Show. Looks like it's off to the races again!
Thanks for taking the time to read my story. Use "REALEYEZ" to get an additional $4.20 off any product.
If you have any interest in investing or other business inquiries. You can reach me at kyle@theinitgroup.com.
