How Jerry Lorenzo Built Fear of God With Just $14,000—and What You Can Learn

Starting a streetwear brand isn’t about having a massive budget. It’s about knowing how to create demand, build a loyal community, and use social media engagement to make people care. 

Jerry Lorenzo had zero experience in fashion. No design school. No investors. Just $14,000 in savings from throwing parties and a clear vision. Fast forward to today, Fear of God is one of the biggest luxury streetwear brands in the world. I His pieces are worn by NBA stars, rappers, and fashion elites, and his ESSENTIALS line is everywhere.

So how did he do it? And more importantly, what can you learn from his journey to apply to your own brand? In this blog I will talk about how to increase social media engagement. Let’s break it down.

1. Build Your Brand Before You Even Sell Anything

Jerry didn’t jump straight into fashion. He spent years in culture, throwing high-profile parties in LA where artists, designers, and athletes connected. He wasn’t just making money—he was making relationships.

This is key: He built his network first. By the time he launched Fear of God, he already had tastemakers ready to wear and promote his pieces.

What you can do:

• Increase social media engagement by building an audience before you start selling. Post content that connects with people first. People don’t buy a product (t-shirt) they buy the meaning behind it.
• Get involved in your community. Attend events, network, and collaborate with people in your space.
• Understand your audience’s lifestyle. Lorenzo’s time in nightlife gave him insight into what people wanted to wear before he ever made a single design.

2. Increase Social Media Engagement To Make Your Brand Feel Exclusive

When Jerry made his first Fear of God designs, he didn’t pay for marketing. Instead, the right people got their hands on his clothes—Big Sean, Kanye, and other culture leaders in his community.

People saw them wearing it, and they wanted it. That’s how real demand is built.

What you can do:

• Boost social media engagement connecting with a community that your brand symbolize. Do the research and figure out wear would they hang out? If that person and others were meeting up what type of activities would they be doing?  And  when you begin to interact and understand these people they need to understand what you stand for. After that you can get your product in front of the right people. Always start with local tastemakers.
• Create Value Content. Don’t just release a product—hype it up first.  Create meaningful content around the product so you can deliver value to your audience.  You need to be relatable so people can develop a connection with your brand. People are not assets they are living souls so you need to be relatable and talk to them. There’s a person behind the brand it is not a machine and you need to show it to them.As far as production never overexpose your brand. Fear of God stayed exclusive by keeping production tight. If you flood the market too fast, you lose the appeal.

3. Have a Social Media Engagement Plan

Fear of God didn’t just blow up randomly—every move was intentional. The Instagram, the brand storytelling, the product releases—it all followed a plan.

What you can do:

• Post with purpose. Every piece of content should either build hype for your band, tell a story for your brand, or showcase your product. No random posts.
• Engage with your audience. Respond to comments, start discussions, and make your followers feel like insiders. If someone Dm’s you, respond back to them. Let them know your real.
• Be consistent when commenting on post . It needs to be done at least 5 days a week this is the only way it can work and you need to be engaging with your audience in a genuine way. There should be no bot like responses or fire emojis for a response. That is very common and often times can be viewed as fake. Remember people are not slow. A strong social media engagement plan means posting regularly, not just when you feel like it. This is the most organic way to grow a community. Paying ads to boost post or getting in front of people is not a recipe for long term success. If you just want to make a quick buck go ahead and pay ads, but if you want a brand that can last for decades the foundation will have to be built properly and there’s no ways to skip steps to get there.

4. Drop Strategically, Not Randomly

Fear of God didn’t follow the usual fashion schedule. Jerry dropped pieces when they were ready, not because of industry deadlines. This built even more demand.

What you can do:

• Plan your releases carefully. A steady stream of limited drops will always hit harder than one big collection. Always more demand than product when planning your release not the other way around.
• Announce your drops in phases. First, tease. Then, reveal. Then, drop. You should always have a voice in the lifestyle you embody for your brand as well. Be active in discussions on Instagram with your followers and random people who follow the lifestyle your brand showcase. This boosts social media engagement naturally on your page so you don’t have to depend on the “Algorithm” to get your streetwear brand in front of people. You can organically do it yourself, but it just takes massive effort.
• As you begin to get people invested in your movement make your early customers feel special. Reward loyalty with exclusive early access, special packaging, or small-batch releases.

5. Build a Community, Not Just a Customer Base

Fear of God is more than a brand—it’s a culture. That’s why it has lifelong customers, not just one-time buyers.

Jerry’s decision to create ESSENTIALS was a genius move. It allowed more people to buy into the Fear of God lifestyle without lowering the value of the main brand.

What you can do:

• Engage your audience like insiders. A strong community drives sales, word-of-mouth, and organic engagement.
• Give your audience something to connect with beyond the product. A movement, a message, a deeper meaning.
• Have a community manager or find a service that specialize in engagement marketing to communicate with your preferred audience. You can also be your own community manager. But you must keep the conversation going in your DMs and comments to build up lifelong customers. With thousands of brands in the world you have to be willing to do what most don’t to separate yourself from the pack. If you truly care about your brand it starts with a community. We offer social media engagement service here at Norff. If you would like to get in touch with us  fill out the contact form here so we can position your streetwear brand in the place it meant to be.

Final Thoughts

Jerry Lorenzo didn’t follow the fashion industry’s rules. He created his own. That’s why Fear of God is what it is today.

If you want to build a brand that lasts:

• Increase social media engagement by making your brand feel exclusive.
• Boost social media engagement by controlling your product drops and creating hype.
• Have a social media engagement plan so you’re growing intentionally, not just hoping people notice.

Hype fades. Real brands last. Be one of them. You can watch the full break down of this video here.