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Hi Eugene! First, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m the Managerial Editor at Hypebeast. Originally, Hypebeast was founded in Vancouver by Kevin Ma. But in the summer of 2006, Kevin made the move to Hong Kong which was around the same time as myself. I had just finished university in Edmonton and at the time was hellbent on being a professional soccer player. I was really only good enough to play in Hong Kong (a country consistently ranked in the lower echelons of the soccer world) but hey, I loved the sport that much. After realizing that there was really no glamour or sustainable career to be had playing in Hong Kong, I was able to leverage a pastime in sneakers and writing towards a freelance position at Hypebeast. After a few solid months of contribution, I came on full-time as one of the first-ever editors. It’s been crazy thus far and an extremely enjoyable experience. Not a day goes by where I don’t get excited to roll into the office.

Hypebeast.com is pretty fashion forward. What’s your personal focus?

While Hypebeast’s predominate focus is on fashion, I’m just as interested in fashion as I am in other creative mediums. Finding different platforms for communication will always be interesting to me and it doesn’t necessarily need to reside in product, although the ability to easily consume product makes it something most people can easily appreciate.

Lots of Pinners use Pinterest in different ways. How do you use Pinterest?

I like to use Pinterest as a way to reflect back on inspirational elements. To be frank, I don’t necessarily use it to find cool pins from other people but just want a place to store things of personal interest. I have some other projects outside of publishing that are product-based, so it’s cool to find some interesting details worth potentially rehashing into my own particular angle.

Your blog Hypebeast is followed by a lot of guys who look for creative inspiration. What advice do you have for male pinners?

I think that an important facet of anything to have longevity is to do it for yourself. Too many people are overly concerned with numbers associated with their social media accounts. Whether I have 0 followers or 1 million, I’ll still continue using Pinterest to track things of interest. It in itself is a great and convenient tool to catalog inspiration.

We’re intrigued by your board ‘Pow Wow Hawaii’ and the collaboration that’s going on with other pinners. Can you tell us what inspired you and what you hope to see?

My best friend Jasper Wong moved back to his native Hawai’i a few years ago after a stint in Hong Kong. Seeing a creative community that could benefit from a different perspective, he set out to create this large scale, creative-based event called POW WOW. The whole premise was to get artists both local and international involved in building up the local art scene. It’s heavily rooted in the process of art as it allows people to watch artists paint murals across town and take in some of (street) art’s finest personalities. In a time when money is so often the goal, Jasper’s efforts with POW WOW were purely altruistic. This really helped open my eyes up and emphasized finding value in intangible things.

Thanks for the pinterview, Eugene! We look forward to seeing more of your inspirations. Happy pinning!