Meet Mario Gonzalez of Wazhappinin in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mario Gonzalez.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Mario. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The story of Wazhappinin started by my girlfriend introducing me to the pin world in mid 2016. I discovered that multiple companies had made pins of some of my favorite characters, mashed up as one! Once I found out that this was possible, I quickly took on to google and searched “how to start a pin business”. I read and researched a ton of articles, watched videos, and even though I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, I decided I was going to go for it. With one design and 100 pcs of that one design, I launched Wazhappinin in November of 2016. The design was of “bowlbasaur” the pokemon with a marijuana nug on its back instead of its normal leaf design. The community loved it, and it sold out in less than a month. With this excitement, I reinvested all my earnings and kept pushing out more designs and variants of sold out designs. I started with no advertising and kept networking with other companies to get my name out there. In less than two years my company grew to acquire over 5,000 followers and happy customers around the world! Now we continue to produce our designs as well as making pins for other companies, including some popular bands!

Has it been a smooth road?
It has not been all happy sailings since I started! I’ve had to change manufacturing companies multiple times and had to learn the hard way about what is the best price you can get while maintaining the best quality for your products. Shipping errors can occur as well and packages can get lost or stolen, The biggest issue I’ve dealt with is having to replace lost packages for customers. I hate having my customers wait for something they paid for and always want them happy so they can return. But we all learn from our mistakes, so all we can do is push forward and try avoiding these issues so it doesn’t happen again.

Tell us about your company. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
Wazhappinin is first and foremost is a pin company. I make the illustrations on my Ipad, transfer them over to my mac, and get my illustrations made into a physical wearable item. The pins I specialize in are “marijuana themed” or “parody” for the most part. I love doing mash ups of my favorite characters and making pins out of them. Some of my popular designs are Rick and Morty x Cheech and Chong, Smokemon(pokemon x weed), Rick and Morty x Dragon Ball Z, and Simpson characters! The thing that sets us apart from other pin companies is that we were the first to do multiple mash ups of Rick and Morty, as well as the first to do mash ups of pokemon characters with weed references. We sell out of all of our products that are limited edition, collectors love our items because we usually make very limited runs of things. For example we made a very limited run of only 25 pcs of an all gold set of Rick and Morty x Cheech and Chong pins that sold out in less than 24 hrs. I think selling out my very first design in less than a month was also a huge surprise and shock. It made me realize that I might have a chance in this industry and make a small mark on the pin world. Those are some of my proudest accomplishments that we’ve had as a company.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I grew up in San Diego and skateboarded since the age of 9. My whole life I’ve seen my favorite skateboarders skate all over this city. I use to make my parents bring me to Hollywood or Venice beach as a birthday gift because I wanted to see all the spots my favorite skaters had skated in the videos I had seen. I later became a musician and thus making Los Angeles essentially the best city in the world in my eyes. After graduating from high school in 2009, my dream was to attend the Musicians Institute and graduate from their guitar program. All of the people I looked up to, whether it was musicians or skateboarders, they all had one thing in common, Los Angeles, CA. This place to me represents so much to me not to mention the rest of the world. I was very lucky and fortunate enough to make my dream a reality when I moved out here in 2015 to attend Musicians Institute for their guitar performance program and to later graduating in 2016 from that school with a degree in music. I have stayed here ever since and never don’t plan on moving any time soon. Living here is a surreal experience for me to this day and I constantly remind myself how lucky I am to be here in Los Angeles. Creating my band Little Homies and my business Wazhappinin in this city is a dream come true. This city has so much to offer, with opportunities knocking on every corner, but it also comes with its disadvantages. There are so many people. That’s it. The amount of congestion this city has is ridiculous and I wish there was a way around it, unfortunately, I don’t think there is. This is the price you have to pay to live in this amazing City.

Pricing:

• Rick and Morty x Cheech and Chong pin set $16
• Rick and Morty x Dragon Ball Z pin $12
• Simpson Shredding Snowball glow in the dark pin $10

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wazhappinin.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wazhappinin/
• Facebook: facebook.com/wazhappinin

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