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BEHIND THE STRIPES

Julie Hogg

By Atlanta United FC

March 12^th, 2024

The building located at 447 Moreland Ave just off Little Five Points is full of history. At one point, it was the historical Carnegie Library, which is evident with its high ceilings and brick exterior. But just like the city of Atlanta, the building has changed and reinvented itself over the years. In that way, it seems to define the city of Atlanta itself. A place of renewal and change.

And now the building is home to a new business: a streetwear boutique named Wish ATL.

Julie Hogg is the CEO of Wish ATL. Under her care and leadership, Wish ATL is the epitome of streetwear style. The shelves on the high walls that were once lined with books now display modern clothing from national and local designers. Down a stairway lined with books so neatly it looks like tile is a vaulted basement. Former security deposit boxes now display an array of the coolest sneakers, showcased in golden light.

The boutique, run by Hogg along with business partner and founder Lauren Amos, is special and rare as not only a streetwear business by a streetwear business run by women.

“The rewards outweigh the challenges but there are plenty,” Hogg says. “You often face where you're the only woman in a room. You’re faced with the ‘Well, you may not know streetwear’ or ‘You may not know sneakers because you're a woman’ or ‘You don't know the story.’ Folks don't understand that I have that basketball background. I do know the story. In fact, I know the person. So, I think it's understanding that you can't judge a book by its cover. We possess the same wealth of knowledge and passion for the street sneaker industry than a male counterpart.”

Hogg’s entry point to fashion was through sports. The Sandy Springs native played several growing up, including softball, soccer and basketball. Dressing up her uniform was a fun and simple way of self-expression and creativity that combined two of her passions.

“I look back in pictures now and I would have like matching shoes or matching earrings on to jazz up at my uniform. It was always in me,” she says.

Her first job was in player relations with the Atlanta Hawks, the city’s NBA team. The role, mandated by the NBA, made Hogg responsible for players’ off court obligations and responsibilities. Her position included helping players develop their personal brands. In that sense, she also became a stylist, advising players, especially rookies, on where to shop and what looks best on them.

“Atlanta finally is having a moment. We’ve been like this forever, but they’re finally noticing it. It’s awesome.”

The position at the Hawks scratched that itch for fashion she discovered as a young girl, and she soon set a goal for herself to one day run her own store. To learn more about what that would mean, she left the Hawks and went to New York where she could learn more about the industry and experience world-class fashion firsthand.

In New York, Hogg worked for a contemporary American designer Tracy Reese, which taught Hogg the lifecycle of fashion. Reese often sketched her own designs, then she also brought them to life and did her own fittings. Soon, Hogg understood not only the concept of contemporary design but also how it can be applied. Streetwear isn’t defined by its own category but stretches across many different kinds of fashion.

“CHANEL put sneakers on the runway. Balenciaga, and all of that, followed suit. Streetwear doesn't really have any boundaries anymore. It can run from luxury fashion to fast fashion, the kind of streetwear is ingrained now within fashion. It’s not a separate thing,” she says.

Reese’s company was small enough that Hogg was able to get her hands in many areas of the industry including marketing, branding, social media and runway production. Her time in New York prepared her for next role, which would give her the opportunity to move back home to Atlanta.

For Hogg, getting the opportunity with Wish was what she called a “full circle job.” It connected her two interests and brought her back home to Atlanta where she was able to develop the unique point of view that Wish embodies today.

“We always want to have something that's different from what you can find in the malls, or something that actually gives life to new brands that you may not have heard of,” she says. “We travel all over the world in order to find some of those up-and-coming sneaker or streetwear brands. We pride ourselves on breaking your brand and introducing it to the city.”

Some of those brands can be found in Hogg’s fit for the photo shoot, which embodies Wish’s cool and hip standard. The sports letterman’s jacket that Hogg wore was designed by Mitchell & Ness, a company that makes authentic vintage jerseys and apparel. Keiser Clark, a ready-to-wear label founded in 2016, designed the camo-style pants. And of course, Hogg sports adidas Sambas, a staple in the sportswear community that can pair with almost any outfit.

Wish is one of only three streetwear boutiques in the nation owned and operated by women – and only two more in the world exist. It’s a very small number, but to have Atlanta house one of just five of this type of store like that in the world puts Atlanta on the global fashion map. More people think about Atlanta because of Wish, and it’s a valuable piece of showing the world more of the city’s culture.

“They’re hearing so much more about the city and what everybody's doing here,” Hogg says. “It's also great when I'm just pleasantly surprised sometimes when people from all over the country or world are like, ‘Oh, I know Wish,’ and you're like, ‘You do?’ So it's cool.”

“We’re a community-driven space. We like to bring other opportunities to ourselves, to enrich ourselves in different ways.”

Hogg has served as the CEO of Wish for nearly a decade. In her time, the Atlanta native has seen her hometown grow, evolve and become a center point for culture.

“Atlanta finally is having a moment. We’ve been this forever, but they're finally noticing it. It's awesome.”

“We’ve been in the business for 20 years and folks kind of would ignore Atlanta. It would be New York and Los Angeles when they were looking for fashion or where they wanted the big brands to go. With what's happening in Atlanta with music and the movie industry, everybody's turning and looking to what we're doing. Our friends with the brand Atlanta Influences Everything, it really does because especially in our lane, people hop off the plane and they come right to Wish. For celebrities, musicians and just normal everyday folks, it’s their stop on their way to whatever they're coming in town for.”

Hogg was able to experience a true Atlanta moment on Sunday, March 17 when she was invited to attend the match between Atlanta United and Orlando City SC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The team was wearing the Resurgens Kit for the first time, which Hogg wore during the match (only wishing, as a true fashion icon, that she had paired the kit with different kicks). Watching the match from behind the goal where Saba Lobjanidze scored the opener, which got the crowd on their feet, Hogg was in prime position to see the play come together for the 5-Stripes.

“I usually stay in the basketball and football lane, but I grew up playing soccer so I know the rules. But just coming to a game, it’s like all of a sudden, it’s just energetic," she says. "I remember vaguely the whole rules in the game, but just to see it. I mean, it’s so athletic. It’s so speedy and timely that it’s really cool to watch. I love how the fans get behind everything. It’s so exciting. We’re right behind the goal and just to see the energy coming back to the goal every time is really cool.”

“The athleticism, the footwork, the energy going back and forth, that’s what’s so captivating. It’s really fun to watch.”

Owning one of the few boutiques like that in the world is certainly cool, but Hogg wants that number to grow. It’s something she takes pride in, creating more opportunities for young and local designers. In fact, it’s one of the pillars of the Wish brand.

Hogg makes herself available to young designers and younger people looking to break into the fashion industry. Whenever Wish is at an event, she and her business partner, Amos, open themselves up to answering questions and creating connections. Later in the year, they’ll host an event called Battle of the Brands, which creates an opportunity for young and local designers to showcase their work.

“We’re a community-driven space,” she says. “We like to bring other opportunities to ourselves, to enrich ourselves in different ways. Our line of communication, I answer my DMs I want to know what you're doing and how I can help because I don't want to be one of five stores.”

Being one of a few has its challenges. Twenty years ago, when Hogg was working at the Hawks, she remembers feeling the need to move on. Not because she didn’t enjoy the role but because she maximized her growth and there wasn’t a way to move forward, a problem all too common with careers in the sports industry, especially for women.

“One of the reasons why I was propelled to move forward was I was put in a glass ceiling,” she says. “I couldn't go any further than what I had at the time. This was 20 years ago, and there was no women general manager for me to follow. I was in the operations department. I was in negotiations and players trusted me. But there wasn't that path developed. I didn't know that, as a young professional, I could have done that. So, I pivoted and went a different direction.”

There are many women who helped Hogg get to where she is now, including her mother and Reese, the fashion designer she worked for in New York. But for a significant part of her path, Hogg had to make her own way. There weren’t many women managers setting an example for her, so most of the time she had to try things out herself. She developed her own path, which her family and her peers celebrated.

As part of Wish, Hogg hopes to be a role model for those coming up in the industry, and the advice she gives them is something she will often remind herself:

“Don’t be afraid to speak up and voice your opinion. When I'm in a room full of men, at the beginning of my career, I would whisper to a friend my opinion, and then they would say it and everybody would agree. And I learned really quickly, ‘Wait, that was what I said.’ Even if you have a shaky voice, you go ahead and speak up and say your opinion because it only reinforces that we have a seat at that table.”

"Even if you have a shaky voice, go ahead and speak up and say your opinion. It only reinforces that we have a seat at that table."

And that challenge goes beyond being a woman. It’s also about lifting Atlanta fashion and making it the best it can be. And that starts with the local teams. When it comes to fashion, Hogg wants to see local athletes step up their game.

“I want to take this opportunity to put a PSA out there that Atlanta athletes need to improve their style,” she says. “They're more than welcome to come here and let us dress them because we don't have a standout style athlete in my opinion. I might make some folks mad but I'm looking at some of them I'm like, Okay, we can improve that. So you they need to come on through. Like the tunnel fit game like we can help you.”