Passion? Does It Pay Off?
Does it cost to have passion? Just ask Michael McCallie, who grew up impoverished. After having a difficult childhood, McCallie now owns a successful clothing store called 'Expense Taste' located in Murfreesboro.
McCallie customizes and designs his clothes, shoes and accessories. The theme behind his designs is what many would consider clothing with an edge. McCallie incorporates African American childhood shows, movies and culture into his designs. McCallie has gained popularity for the uniqueness of his design, fabrics and the quality of his collections. What has shaped McCallie into loving fashion was his brother Slim Will, his aunty April Will, and rap artists from the 90s.
“Like the difference in what they were wearing was like it was never seen before,” McCallie said. “You got to get it made custom and that’s what made me grow into to like ok I’m going to customize mine and I am going be different”
Humble Beginnings
Born and raised in Chattanooga Tennessee McCallie grew up poor. He often stayed with his aunt because of his mother’s addiction. At age 10, Will adopted him. His aunt was a celebrity interior designer for Young Jeezy, and a worker under CeeLo Green’s wife as an apprentice that allowed Will to design other celebrities' homes.
“When he started living with us permanently, I just remember him being curious every time I would decorate our house or go over color pellets for the houses I was designing,” Will said. “I kind of knew he would go into some type of creative field. At the time before he started designing clothes, I was thinking he would go into graphic design or something like that.”
Every season his aunt redecorated and customized their home. Witnessing Will’s creative talent led him to his passion.
“I was just learning a lot of stuff from her so that kind of help me probably get into a creative mind of customizing my shoes, customizing my shirts, and stuff like that,” McCallie said. “And then that grew me a small business inside my school which people would bring me their shoes to paint them.”
McCallie also drew inspiration from his favorite artists. He would watch Dipset, The Notorious B.I.G, Tupac Shakur and many more on Tv. McCallie observed that everything they wore was custom-made. Seeing Dipset and Cameron come out in pink jackets and bubbles coats open up McCallie’s mind to think outside the box. McCallie saw their fashion as different and he loved different. That inspired McCallie, at age 11, to start designing his own clothes. Not growing up with much McCallie wanted to wear clothes that other students in his class didn’t have.
“You see all the rappers, they use to have on these coats, jeans, and boots,” McCallie said. “And I was like wow we don’t have any of this stuff over here. So, from there I think it was actually Dipset and a few other people who got me into fashion. The difference in what they were wearing was like it was never seen before. You got to get it made custom and that’s what made me grow into to like ok I'll customize mine and I am going be different and from that, it just spirals to this big ball of just clothes, fashion, shoes, hats, and stuff like that.”
The start of his career: School
Since McCallie had his own sense of unique fashion, his schoolmates took notice quickly. Many would ask McCallie where he got his shoes and pants from. As a result, he launched his own business in school from students bringing their shoes and clothes to school for McCallie to design it.
“I was always into fashion,” said McCallie. “I always had an eye for it, love for it. I found a vendor online that sold really nice stuff for a cheap price, and I started to order it for myself. And people always wanted it too, so I started to put in more orders for it and started selling out of my trunk.
“It went from me pulling up at gas stations selling glasses, hats, t-shirts, and stuff out of the trunk to eventually having a clientele follow me whatever I went which means I thought it was time for a building.“
McCallie's adoptive family owns a clothing store. His brother Slim Will often tried to get McCallie to tell him where he brought his clothes from and still, he wouldn’t budge.
"I was just a young boy and I use to just come into the store,” McCallie said. “He would see the shoes that I order and be like where did you get those because he would want to order shoes too for the store. I’m like I’m not telling you because I didn’t want nobody else to have them.”
After building up a clientele inside and out of school McCallie began dreaming of opening his own store. McCallie went to his brother who already own a clothing store but didn’t know much about fashion.
“I had a clientele that follow me whatever I went,” McCallie said. “That means I thought it was time for a building. And from there my older brother had a store in Chattanooga. So, I was about to open up my own, but he ended up telling me to come into his store with my products and start promoting from there. So, I merge with his store and that helped me a lot because I learned a lot from him.”
Learning the Ropes
During time working with his brother, Slim Will, McCallie said it was a good opportunity to merge with him.
“I have been in the business industry for a while at that point so when Mills told me he was opening he own shop,” Slim Will said. “I thought why won't he join my clothing store and advertise there? I did teach him some things like taxes, permits and whatnot. But it was good working with him and seeing him develop on his own.”
Will teaching McCallie the basics led to his success in the industry?
“He taught me stuff like managing, you know don’t wear your best stuff let the customers get you best stuff, “McCallie said. “Because I was more like I’m going to order this and I’m going to go wear it out and show everybody that we got it, but he told me sometimes when you wear it like people don’t want it to wear it anymore after they seen other people with it.”
After learning from his brother, McCallie decided to go solo. At the beginning of 2022, McCallie open his store called “Expensive Taste.
“Eventually I came down to Murfreesboro,” McCallie said. “I saw there weren’t no clothing stores down here no urban clothes stores. So, I found a prime location and I took the risk coming down here and not knowing nobody just open up a store.”