ATHLEISURE MAG #96 DEC ISSUE | NEW YEAR, N3W YOU

THE GOOD

So for me, I have my charity/initiative, THREESIXTY really up off the ground and running which is an initiative that I run out of Rikers Island for young men who are incarcerated 18 - 21 and just seeing it finally for so long. We envisioned it and now seeing the lives that are affected by it, now seeing all of the positive change that has come from it is just the greatest feeling. It’s one of those things that you have that thought in your mind, but then you wonder can I really do this, and how is it going to be? But then you actually start to see it happening, it’s an incredible feeling. I’m super proud of that.

THE ADD

I always say that I’m going to do more things for myself and it never happens! Like when you’re thinking about it in a selfcare space. You know, I’m one of those people that always say it, and then somehow I’m last on the list when it comes to doing that self-care and doing those things for me. So I’m always thinking of ways to pay attention to me and what I need – whatever that is. It could be a massage or whatever it is, I’m just not a person that does stuff like that so, wanting to get better at taking care of some of my stuff is important for me to start doing.

Now moving into this New Year and starting to film BMF again and getting back on set and getting back into that mode is really exciting for that. The next season of BMF will premier in March so everybody can gear up and get ready for that. There are really some exciting things that are coming in the New Year.

I’m always excited for The Chi, an incredible show! So between BMF and The Chi, I don’t think that you can go wrong.

I still have Inala my haircare line that’s taking off and doing amazing, always really proud and excited about that!

THE BUZZ

Continuing to grow in the philanthropy space and giving back, that has always been a priority, for me. There’s always a lot going on. I’m constantly growing and really building my production slate of more projects that I want to produce and to really get out there to the masses. There are so many stories to be told!

@lala PHOTO COURTESY | La La Anthony

LA LA ANTHONY

ACTOR, ENTREPRENEUR + AUTHOR CATCH UP ON BMF + THE CHI

THE GOOD

Good things would be moving into our new space at SRGN Studios and designing it because it’s a lot different than our current space. Having my own office will be really great as well. Being able to spend more time with my kids in their school.

THE ADD

I think that looking at new investments and new businesses to help and new categories as well from Original clothes, Original bags, and shoes as well as a bunch of other things.

THE BUZZ

All of the Original stuff! Working on the original brand, I have been working on it my entire life on it and to see where I’m at now, changes to where I once thought that Originals was going to be. That and music, I’m just a creative!

@ciambrone PHOTO COURTESY | SRGN Studios

DOMINIC CIAMBRONE

THE SURGEON

SEE HIS LATEST PROJECTS

THE GOOD

Interestingly enough, one of those things must remain under wraps because of an NDA. Aside from the strike lifting, I released a new single and music video called Movie that I’m incredibly thrilled to tell you about because so much went into bringing this new music to life. Lastly, and most personally, on 11/11, my wife and I released the pilot episode of our comedy series/ proof of concept that we produced together on the Tough Love Series YouTube channel. I’m so proud of that production and of her and I. It’s a six-episode series that’s released weekly. We’ve had 20k views in two weeks thus far, and it’s encouraging. The strike really made me feel like we aren’t in control of our careers, so creating our own content is empowering and gives me a sense of joy that is not to be compared.

THE ADD

I thought I was going to release an EP this year and at least four or five music videos but when the strike lifted, my marketing and promotions plans changed drastically. Tomorrow still isn’t promised, so anything could change, but I’m looking forward to releasing more music in as intentional a way as possible, but I’m working on forming a slate so that I can be organizing as opposed to spraying and praying.

THE BUZZ

Music, Music, Music! I might be in something that’s kind of superhero-like, but on a more personal level, expect a LOT of music. My wife and I have a short film that we intend on filming and a feature film script that I’d love to see come to light in 2024. I wrote a pilot script about my high school football coach, Otis Mounds, that hopefully finds its way onto the right actor's desk… but I can’t confirm any of that because of the scope of what it would take for those scripts to come to light. What I can confidently talk about, though, is MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC. Oh, and I have some philanthropy in mind that I’m very excited about and look forward to sharing at the right time.

@danielaugustin

PHOTO CREDIT | Ben Cope

DANIEL AUGUSTIN

ACTOR, PRODUCER, SINGER CHECK OUT RAP SH!T

THE GOOD

Interestingly enough, one of those things I learned to be more resilient. This year was a bit tough with everything in general.

Professionally, I learned to be more empathetic with employees, everyone has different situations on different days. I basically learned to be more empathetic with them.

I learned to be more patient, I have a 2 year old baby girl and I have been working on my patience like you can’t even imagine. Working on that patience has helped me in managing my company, managing my baby girl, etc. Being able to have a balanced life between my work and my life is another. When you live in a rushed world, you have to find a balance.

I’m also doing a real estate project with my husband and we’re working on building our dream home. It’s been challenging and I have been learning a lot – permits, plans, working with architects, it’s new for me and very nice at the same time. I’m also inspiring myself with interiors so I want to learn from that and who knows if it will also find its way into the brand. It’s something different than working in fashion, it’s a life project and it’s something that gives you that security and it’s another chapter in my life! I think that 2024 will have big things!

THE ADD

I think for this year, I postponed travel a lot. Trips that I wanted to do, I had to postpone them as I had so much going on. I hope that in 2024, I can accomplish one of those! I always say that once a year, you have to go somewhere that you have never known. So maybe go to 2 countries that I have never been and I’m good with that. I try to do more than I did the last year as well. I try to push myself and get myself to the objective. With the baby, it’s been tough I travel with her and I travel without

her and I just try to manage time. I think managing time is the smartest thing that you can do, but it is not easy!

THE BUZZ

New collections for the SS24 we are ready and we are finalizing details right now. FW24 we are working on this and already have samples so collections for sure. Of course, we want to do something in NY, let’s see – I’ll let you know! We also want to go to Europe too – Paris or Milan. Europe is a good market too because people are spending a lot there.

We are hiring more people and I am getting to the point that I need to delegate more. Our Human Resources is doing a lot of interviews every month and we have a good database of new people. I go to events too so that I can be active in the industry. I try to do everything that I can! I want to have a bigger team in 2024 so that we can do more things.

@seta_apparel

PHOTO COURTESY | Andrea Salazar

ANDREA SALAZAR

CREATIVE DIR. SETA

CHECK OUT SETA'S LATEST

THE GOOD

After living 22 years in America, doing 6 months in London, it was transformative for me. Being close to Germany where I spent a lot of my childhood and my growing up years, I love Europe and it has a very different perspective in a lot of ways. I could be just as happy in London, but we have it very good in Los Angeles now! That was incredible and it kind of gave me the courage to also embark on Piano Diaries. It’s something that I wanted to do for so many years and I just can’t believe that it is actually true now! It just came out and it feels unreal that we’re finally doing this!

THE ADD

I’m working on a feature film about the life story of Dr. Biruté Galdikas, she’s a primatologist who has spent over 50 years in the Borneo rainforest studying the orangutans just like how Jane Goodall is to chimpanzees and the late Dian Fossey is to mountain gorillas. Dr. Biruté Galdikas has studied the orangutans and is the authority on the species and it’s not looking very good for the orangutans because they only live in the canopy of the rainforest and that rainforest is getting cut down wherever people can make a dollar from it. I had sleepless nights years ago and I felt that I needed to do something so I embarked on filming her life and telling her life story. This project started very small, and it's been 4 years now.

THE BUZZ

I’m still a songwriter and I have songs coming out with Tom Walker, James Arthur and other artists. One is with Chapter and Verse with Helix Records. I’m working a lot more with DJs, so there will be a lot more coming out there. I’m also taking a bit of time off so that I can focus on Piano Diaries and to make that a reality.

@tobygadmusic

PHOTO COURTESY | Toby Gad

TOBY GAD

WINNING SONGWRITER/PRODUCER LISTEN TO PIANO DIARIES NOW

THE GOOD

We finally released our album, CLUB ROMANTECH. It’s been such a journey. A lot of fun, traveling, and emotions. It’s been an unforgettable experience with so much love.

THE ADD

Personally, we wanna find more time to take care of ourselves - reading books and spending time in nature.

Professionally, we are gonna keep working on our upcoming album and continue to tour, so we can meet our icons all over the world. We started our own record label and it would be fun to sign another artist/producer.

THE BUZZ

We’ll be touring quite a lot during spring/ summer. So you can catch us doing both live and DJ shows. We are currently working on a lot of new music and features so stay tuned. A lot of new Icona Pop tunes on the way.

@iconapop

PHOTOS COURTESY | Icona Pop

ICONA POP

SYNTH POP DUO LISTEN TO CLUB ROMANTECH NOW

THE GOOD

You know, 2023 was pretty awesome and I always feel cocky or braggadocios, but I love my life, I do. When I look at it, my children are blossoming and growing and we continue to water these flowers that they are. I transitioned from WWE to AEW which is a whole new exciting set of circumstances in front of me. Beth and I are firing on all cylinders. We make sure that we’re sitting down and spending quality time with each other – eye contact, actual time. As long as those things are all aligned, then everything is exciting.

So going forward looking at everything – I look at work and I see that I have a blank canvas and I can tell all kinds of fun stories and work with all kinds of new people.

On the acting front, who knows? Which is also very bright. Hopefully, there is a season 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for Percy Jackson and The Olympians. At this point, the wrestling stuff when I was told that I would have to end this thing, anything from this point on is truly all just bonus. None of this was supposed to happen. So the fact that I am 5 years into a comeback that was not supposed to happen, from the minute that I was able to walk out, the first night in coming back, everything has been just gravy on top or a cherry on top of a really great sundae.

This year, I got to perform in Wembley Stadium, I had never performed there, I got to perform in The Forum and team with Sting and Darby, I never got to perform in The Great Western Forum.

It’s pretty fun at this stage in my career to find these bucket list items that I didn’t even realize they were. I was like, wait, I get to perform here, that’s pretty fricking awesome. I’m doing Wembley, yeah that’s cool. There’s a few things like that that would be fun like wrestling in the Tokyo Dome, that would be fun. That’s kind of the amazing part of this job, you can still find things to try to conquer.

THE ADD

I’ve often said that I like the idea of writing another book. That’s one that kind of continues to be pushed off and pushed off. I wrote half of it when I was filming Haven because I had some down time when I was out there. I didn’t have kids yet, it was much easier to carve time out for that and then the muse sort of just floated away. Things got really busy, so I thought that I would have to push that away, but it’s something that I want to get back to. I also always wanted to write a children’s book as well. Those are 2 things that I think would be a lot of fun to finally get going on.

THE BUZZ

I’ll still be continuing my AEW path and that’s every week, it doesn’t stop. Then, who knows? In terms of acting, I never really know. I have to see what it is and then say, “oh, this could be fun.”

I will say that it would be nice to just take a vacation. Beth and I have taken one vacation and it was our honeymoon and even that, it worked around Vikings, because I filmed in Dublin and we were going to fly to Hawaii for our honeymoon, but I couldn’t get back to Dublin in time so then we went out to the Oregon coast and just went to a Temple of the Dog concert and then went and saw Bruce Lee’s grave, Jimi Hendrix’s grave and it was this weird Seattle trek and then we stayed in Cannon Beach where The Goonies was filmed, so I would really like to take a vacation at some point.

@ratedrcope

PHOTO CREDIT | Disney/David Bukach

ADAM COPELAND

ACTOR, WWE HOF + AEW WRESTLER

WATCH HIM ON AEW + DISNEY+