C/D: Volume 11

🚀🦚🌪️🍒🌊🎾🪄💎🔮

Mar 01, 2025

Sa11utations!

At the top of the year I made a goal of sending one C/D per month so alas, here we are on the final day of the shortest month. Cutting it close like only my High School self could do on the night before a big paper was due…

ELEVEN. This was always going to be an important one. We are L11 after all—some of you might be curious where the 11 comes from? We’ll get to it below but taking a step back, I’m proud to have gotten this far with C/D. Eleven is after all, one more than ten. They say if you can do something ten times you can do it a hundred times. Just like they say if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.

It feels fitting to send #11 in February. My parents were married on Valentine’s Day and it’s the last month I remember spending time with my dad. Love is in the air and the malaise of January has worn off. Lewis Hamilton is driving for Ferrari. Timmy is gonna win the Oscar. Skims bamboozled Nike. Kendrick cooked Drake. And after watching ai talk in code, we might be too! Things are looking up.

We are finding our groove at L11 Creative. I could not be more pumped about the projects currently in the mix—from new creative partners to exciting personal endeavors. 2025 is shaping up to be monumental year.

With love,

L11

Main Event 🎡

The Number 11

For as long as I can remember eleven was the number. It wasn’t a number worn by my favorite athlete or tied to some mystical numerology at birth. Everyone has their reasons for liking a number and for me, the reason is quite personal.

Growing up without siblings, I was extremely close with my dad. We were best friends—Leos born one day a part in August, connected in ways that are hard to describe. He was my biggest supporter, advocate and reason I believe in myself with such conviction. He’s responsible for my silly love of baseball and why I think left-handed people are cool. Shoutout Sandy Koufax.

Although Sandy wasn’t number 11, everything else in our world was. My address growing up was 111 and my dad had a way of tying it into everything we did. It had the power to be a vague abstract concept and also a calming intrinsic safe word—at the same time. It was indeed one better than the standard best of ten. Potentially in reference to the iconic Spinal Tap joke, Eleven is the most common word I associate with my youth which would soon take on a new meaning.

My dad passed away on March 5th, 2009 at the age of 55. I was 16 about to take the SATs and have my first girlfriend. Pretty much the lowest of lows. There’s no other way to describe it. But when we face grief in our lives (which we all inevitably will) I believe we have two choices: We can let the pain derail us or choose to have it empower us and honor the person we have lost.

In the sixteen years since, (that is hard to type) I have chosen the latter and eleven has been my anchor along the way. To me, the two 1’s have come to represent us together. L&R. Lee & Rick. When I moved to New York after college and started L11, first as a clothing brand, I brought him with me every step of the way.

That is the essence of L11. It is my way to taking him with me in everything I do. It is injecting his signature charisma and love for life into my daily practice. Whether that is working with brands or collaborating with artists or developing products. A man that started as a rock musician and ended in municipal finance left me a blueprint for creative fulfillment.

There is nothing I want more than to see him again, but years of pain have given way to the joy of 11. It is a celebration of all the time I did get to share with him and the legacy of Richard Aaron Grossman, the coolest fucking guy I will ever know. RAG Forever. 11.

Writing this felt like taking a giant much needed breath. I appreciate you reading.

Now back to the fun, it’s certainly what RAG would have wanted.

A Restaurant to Consider 🍜

Budonoki

Good lord this place slaps. I’m not entirely sure which school of witchcraft and wizardry the Budonoki culinary team went to but this spot is a must try. A Japanese fusion of sorts, the name comes from the ancient myth of a giant Eagle (Budon) that made friends with a little mouse (Noki). Actually? Of course not, I just made that up. Who cares? The name is fun to say and the food is unbelievable.

The charred miso butter sweet potatoes (top right) were a stand out and the seared ora king salmon (bottom left) had me swimming like a fishy. This place was so good I just might have to go back for dinner tonight…oh wait, I am!

A Store to Check Out 🛍️

Tommy’s Gift Shop (LA)

Tommy’s Gift Shop is the retail outpost by Los Angeles based creative Tommy Nowels. With a studio hidden in back, the space is a living embodiment of “party in the front, business in the back”—or is it the other way around?

Located in a part of LA that is perhaps best described as “somewhere in between Venice and Downtown” I admire the way Tommy has stocked his namesake store with whatever he likes. Objects from his brand July Company are mixed in with art zines and Japanese snacks. Select clothing options adorn a rack across from a large green sofa bench featuring a gang of plushies. The space emanates a distinct point of view that is playful and curated—a important combination when done right.

I am incredibly inspired by what this space represents. L11 future space ideas loading…

A Brand to Know 📡

Spence

The idea of a challenger brand is not something new. Especially within the athletic apparel arena—we are all quite familiar with the success stories. What Lululemon did for working out was replicated by brands like Alo and Vuori. In the running sphere, we’ve seen newcomers Bandit, District Vision and Satisfy take the old winning playbook and evolve it in profoundly effective ways. Even golf has seen Malbon explode and labels like Metalwood Studio own the intersection of fashion and sport. But what about tennis?

As tennis and the other racquet sports (pickleball & padel) have grown in popularity, everyone is still wearing the same tired gear. Performance brands like Nike, Adidas and Wilson are just that—lines made to wear on court but look pretty dorky off. Meanwhile we’ve seen a deluge of brands use tennis as inspiration (Sporty & Rich comes to mind) but you would never actually wear that to play in seriously.

Enter Spence. A new racquet sports brand that blends a modern flair with a retro aesthetic to straddle this line perfectly—equal parts performance and lifestyle, gear you’re proud to rock on and off court. Someone recently said it looked like Fila and Gucci had a baby, not no!

I am lucky to be working with a brand I am so naturally drawn to and thrilled to be lending my point of view to the men’s side of the business. Spence is just warming up with the first full collection set to drop towards the end of March. Stay tuned!

Website, Instagram

Something to Buy 💸

Laphont

This picture of my new watch got a lot of love on IG so I thought I’d share with everyone. Laphont, a brand out of Montréal comes to us with a series of fun Crash-inspired timepieces. I will take the $100 option vs. the $100,000 option any day of the week. Merci!

An Account Worth Following 📲

Celina Pereira

I had the pleasure of meeting Celina Pereira while working at D1A back in 2017. Beyond being a wonderful person and friend she is also a super talented artist. Her work is full of color, tapping into emotional curiosity in the way she uses mixed media, collage and graphics to tell compelling stories through art.

I’m particularly excited about her new project—a full 52 card deck, each meticulously crafted by hand (see below). Look out for a show displaying the full deck later this Spring!

From work being featured in top publications to an emerging art practice, Celina is absolutely one to watch and worth a follow.

Unsolicited Feedback 🤷🏻‍♂️

Watch Roll

I do really love watches. I plan to own more watches in the future. So I guess Instagram was sort of onto something when it served me this ridiculous watch box by “Charles Simon”…

$8,490!? GTFO. I asked chatgpt what it thought of it, lol:

“I love how they call it a briefcase—as if you’re showing up to a board meeting with 12 Rolexes instead of a PowerPoint. “Gentlemen, I have no business plan, but I do have a curated selection of timepieces in a handcrafted wooden vault.”

Something to Watch 📺

Piece by Piece

Sometimes you’re on a plane and you watch a movie. Ever been there before? What’s even crazier is when said movie is actually good. That was my experience on a recent LAX —> ATL Delta flight after being glued to Pharrell’s life story in lego form. You’re telling me I can watch Snoop Dogg explaining how Pharrell changed his life (with Drop It Like It’s Hot) but as a high-ass lego? Need more be said?

L11 Culture Dispatch

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