Based on Cong Le Tran’s Vietnamese roots and upbringing in Germany, he carries two worlds within himself in the best sense. They guided him throughout his quest to find a unique creative voice. Even more so as a 1980s kid, experiencing a significant turning point: The beginning of the internet era. With this rich potential of innovative ideas stemming from the analog and digital world and his practice of Buddhism, Cong Le Tran celebrates creative work that is genuinely inclusive and mindful. Present Magazine met the entrepreneur and co-founder of the streetwear label Flowers For Society to discuss his journey – from DJing with vinyl to setting up a Metaverse for sneakerheads. It perfectly illuminates the forces behind non-linear creative processes.

Cong, what is your work all about, 

and how did you start out?

The core of my work is that I observe an awful lot.
My background, however, is in music. Hip-hop was a way for me to escape my conservative Asian upbringing.
Back then, the rap game was where you could go a long way with rebellion and an attitude.

Did you make or DJ your own music? 

My sister’s friends introduced me to the Douala Club owner, a famous techno club in Ravensburg back then, hosting the likes of Monika Kruse, DJ Hell, Sven Väth, and Funkmaster Flex. At 14 years, I was bold enough to introduce myself as a great DJ and became the first resident DJ in this techno club to play hip-hop records. I loved how I could lose myself, with 800 or 1000 people moving to the vinyl I was playing. Later, I started making beats and worked in artist management. Naturally, the big dream was New York City. From 2004 I was there regularly with the intent to stay, but my father called me at the end of 2006. His mother had passed away. That hit me very emotionally. Being the family man that I am, I immediately flew back. With that, the dream of making it in New York City was shattered for the time being.

I’m sorry to hear that. You seem to have found your way, nonetheless. What came next for you?

As I got involved in the agency world, I noticed that people and their intrinsic motivations fascinate me tremendously. 

I’m a Buddhist, so what drives me are the elementary questions in life: Who are you? What do you do and why? What shapes your identity? I have been meditating for over 30 years. I hold great affection for this space where nothing exists. I draw everything from it. My fears dissolve there, but I also dare to dream big. So when I encounter creatives for a project, I always try to meet them on this level. I strive to create something that is not inspired by books but from within. You will come across ideas you’ve never had before in your inner black space.

While drawing ideas from your inner self is not per se unusual, I am aware that there can be tremendous pressure to identify through professional performance in the Vietnamese cultural context. It strikes me as almost a rebellious act when you say you perceive your value exclusively from your inner self. Does that require courage?

Yes, the wish to make your parents proud is deeply rooted in Vietnamese culture. I’ve been told I will fail at many points in my life: Young father. Father of three. No academic career, especially in a country where your degree and title mean everything. Going after a job that is often driven by randomness and luck. Consequently, my ambition was influenced by the will to find my identity and a certain moral compass leading me to sustainable decisions. In the agency context, a workflow is often based on criteria that are only relevant in economic terms. So I decided to take a more wholesome approach and say: Hey, how could we activate forces together that make you unique? What resources are available to us? Can we hold ourselves to high standards?

Do you find it challenging that,
by going the extra mile, some
invisible processes take longer and that growth takes a long time? Where do you get this patience from?

Your question makes me think of a conversation we had years ago. You said that cooking was your most beautiful form of communication design. That struck me as a remarkable sentence with many parallels to other creative processes. A ragout takes six or seven hours. You can’t cook it in an hour; it will look different, and the drip, the smell, the texture, and the taste won’t be the same. So you have to work patiently. My patience connects to the belief that some things cannot yet be foreseen but can be felt intuitively. In creative teams, I love to apply methods helping everyone to calm their minds and trust their guts. Before the customer, the product, or the strategy comes into play, I ask my team to act on intuition and then use the head as a compass to direct that energy. Lastly, my patience also came from a lot of impatience, causing me to make many mistakes. I still get annoyed about this sometimes. However, at 38 years I now have 19 years of professional experience. So with Flowers For Society, I wanted to do things differently and embrace the great uncertainty. 

What was the original intention
behind Flowers For Society? Was it primarily supposed to be a sneaker label or a community space?

I’ve known my business partner, Till Jagla, for years. We used to exchange ideas about how to work creatively in an honest, transparent, and positive manner. Under these shared values, we wanted to bring something new into the world. Due to Till’s long professional history with Adidas and our shared love of streetwear and sneaker culture, we decided on a sustainable sneaker brand linked to a new Metaverse for collectors and the NFT community.

What’s the story
behind your name?

The most beautiful gesture for me is to give someone flowers and honest words of thanks. We only had a vague idea about the name, though. Through serendipity, I gradually came across all the clues. A friend introduced me to a botanist from Vienna while researching symbols for resilience, transformation, and empathy. She arrived with her old MacBook, and when she flipped it open, it revealed a sticker in the shape of the Buddhist Flower of Life. It represents the union of everything and everyone. That hit me hard. As a Buddhist, causality and karma mean a lot. We instantly decided to use the Flower of Life as a basis for our corporate identity and grid.

Let’s talk about these botanical
metaphors for a bit. So much of
the startup vocabulary has a
connection to nature, like seed
funding or growth hacking. Do you use these images on purpose?

My personal goal was to develop something out of the ordinary that would not allow for artificial growth. If we wanted to unnaturally speed up the growth of our little plant, we’d contradict our intentions to be community driven in the Web3 space. Especially when it comes to the specific metrics in shoe design that you can’t accelerate. As in cooking, some things must take their time. On a more philosophical level, I love the contrast between botanical science to this fast-paced environment. Botany is one of the craziest meta worlds out there. What botany doesn’t like is coercion. I relate to this a lot. If something feels forced on me, then I’m out. Creatives are like botanical organisms: they need time, familiarity, and freedom. They need to
be fed. And sometimes a glass of water. (laughs) 

Your approach is primarily a digital Metaverse. Does mindfulness
even work there? Or is something being lost due to the increased
use of technology and escapism
in the digital world?

Funny you bring that up. The other day, I was chatting with US colleagues from the industry about identity and mindfulness in the Metaverse and Web3 area. It’s interesting how the same thing is being said from different perspectives. On the one hand, mindfulness is impossible because there’s just too much noise. Due to anonymity, you can reinvent yourself as a character. You are not even tangible through decentralized technology. On the other hand, I’ve experienced our community users being incredibly helpful and attentive to each other. They would return to week-old questions in Discord because they had found the answer. Everyone speaks very respectfully to each other. So, from my point of view, it depends on what community values you uphold as a company. Those attract the right people who also adapt to the culture of conversation. We once had a case where three people from another brand came into our chat looking for trouble, and our community responded very politely and charmingly. I strongly believe in self-organization and thought it was really great. Neither of us founders had to step in. So to answer your question about whether mindfulness is possible in the Metaverse: yes and no. To some degree, it’s up to the companies to enable good interaction with each other. As for FFS’s background in botany,
I hope we can mark a point of view: Mindful, respectful, and empathetic towards individuals and communities.

In addition to the Metaverse and Web3 world, you also have real-life touchpoints. You’re not just an online community discussing streetwear.
It sure makes a difference that you also have plans to open pop-up shops and organize meet-ups, right?

Yes, totally, we serve both worlds. Some perceive us as an NFT or Web3 company, and others as a sleek footwear and street culture showcase. But above all, we love real-life experiences like pop-up stores, concept stores, or exhibitions. For example, we are working on a collection of both digital and analog assets with a New York NFT artist, introduced at a show where people can meet each other. We’re also planning to create an offline experience disguised as a flower shop and a café, with a sneaker and apparel shop in the back. It is important to me that this well-rounded affair of digital and analog ideas appears very stringent.

Our generation’s reference to both the analog and digital worlds makes us unique. Do you feel that this knowledge empowers and equips you with innovative ideas?

Yes, definitely. It builds a different periphery and depth, especially relating to creative processes. I still think fondly of my old pager and the cassettes I recorded. When I’m introducing my kids to equipment like my old turntable, they’re totally intrigued. And as much as I appreciate using WhatsApp – an emoji will never replace actually standing in front of someone to compliment them. Analog moments shape and feed your inner self. I’m grateful for memories like my gig as a support DJ for the Fugees. Bringing them back is my own Metaverse that I can create anytime.
That background allows me to feed into a sophisticated, fun, aesthetic new way of designing.

If consider design as a dynamic, ever-developing practice, I love how it unfolds a particular power when linked to social interaction. When it projects a dimension of emotional value. How do you manage to know yourself well and consciously enter into situations and conversations in which you get to the bottom of your emotions?

I used to address the fact that I went through team therapy  to break the ice. Sharing that I faced my fears and followed up on my doubts has led many people on my team to open up to me. They thanked me for being able to talk about themselves, unlike in other settings that often restricted them in their creative being when they couldn’t speak freely about these experiences.

Would you say addressing these personal issues within teams could help us improve our creativity? 

If you’re seeing a therapist, that’s not a stigma for me. It’s part of your identity. Who am I to say that your creative output is worth less just because you are talking to a professional about what should be the most crucial thing in your life, which is your mental state and well-being? Everyone draws strength from different sources when they’re
feeling shit. For me, it is the balance between admitting mistakes and enjoying success, knowing yourself, and
accepting that you need help. I recommend everyone to do some self-discovery. It doesn’t have to be therapy,
but get to know yourself and your endless multifacetedness. It will help you realize that a lot of criticism from
outside stems from childhood beliefs that limit you. It would be a shame if you didn’t overcome those.