Now known to the masses as Asspizza, Austin Babbitt's first online alias was Tiny Trupa, when he was just a kid. Rapping on MySpace, buying stuff on eBay, and customizing action figures, he grew up in Astoria, Queens, with a dad who collected Marvel comics and encouraged every passing obsession. Early on, Austin learned to make things, put them out into the world, and, just as importantly, not give a fuck what people thought. By 16, he'd built an internet following that included musicians like Lorde and ILoveMakonnen, and was already encouraging other kids to make whatever they wanted too. Over time, what started as internet mischief and a hunger to see what he could get away with became his creative language.

By now, his history in New York's 2010s streetwear scene is well documented: selling his early T-shirts around VFILES, building Spaghetti Boys, the creative collective, and working alongside other defining figures of the era, including Luka Sabbat, Virgil Abloh, A$AP Rocky, and Heron Preston. But like most things, I hadn’t yet heard of him when we met at a booth at U-Haul Art Gallery in October. Austin was wearing a pair of jeans I liked, selling surprise boxes of art canvases in different colorways. It was the showmanship side of his practice that first caught my attention. Whether his ‘Follow Your Dreams’ cheek tatt was part of that, I couldn't yet tell. Before long, I fell down the rabbit hole. I learned that he'd made those jeans himself, and that a recent release had been pay what you want, with prices ranging from $25 to $6,000 depending on how much work you wanted him to put into them. At the other end of the spectrum, a tote bag arrives in pieces, complete with sewing instructions: a reminder to read the fine print next time, and to have a little fun in the meantime. He's unleashed countless experiments over the years, taken on thousands of orders, and was candid with me about learning the hard way what happens when ambition outruns logistics. There's no illusion that he's got it all figured out. But he keeps making things anyway.

For all the chaos, Austin is remarkably calm. He moves through all of it with a supernatural ease. He speaks about desire, fear, and the future with a level of rock-solid self-belief that, after more than fifty interviews with artists and entrepreneurs, I genuinely imagined was reserved for Obama. Pilot has determined that somewhere between President Barack Obama and a man called Asspizza lies the upper limit of human confidence. Of course, I've known plenty of people who are good at telling you who they are and what they're going to do. Who have a plan and the language to sell it and it’s great. Austin is different. His demeanor is subdued and he prefers to keep things “hazy,” as he puts it. And maybe that's where the magic comes through to me, and to the other people in his corner. Todd Kramer of FutureFWD Gallery calling to me on my way out, “I told you he was great.” Austin doesn't need to convince anyone, including himself, of anything. He seems to exist in a deep, deep state of certainty, or perhaps a state of unbothered uncertainty, that most people spend their lives trying to find.

Because, anyway, “All of this is just a side thing. Life is the real thing.” For someone who has built this bonkers, cultish universe around himself, Austin has a loose grip on all of it. Whatever he manages to build will always be secondary to the life he's living outside of it. But for the sake of the fans, we gave the side thing some attention, too. We spoke about New York, Soulja Boy, the slow death of quality, and what it means to move through the world without being afraid of what comes next. For someone who has spent time in the crossfire of streetwear spectacle and internet clout culture, his philosophy could have been printed on a church-basement bulletin: “Do the right thing. Stay strong. It'll all work out.”

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The following interview has been condensed for length and clarity.

Let's go right back to the beginning. What were you fixated on growing up? What were the things you thought were cool?

Austin: My dad was really into Marvel comics and collecting comic books and stuff, so he instantly taught me and my brother all about comic book characters and shit like that.

We were always into cool shit. He would buy us Pokémon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. We experienced all types of waves of toys because my dad was just a big kid and wanted to buy this shit for himself, so he used us as an excuse.

Then my brother put me onto a lot of cool shit. He's three years older than me, so I feel like he taught me a lot. I was just always into cool shit. I used to customize action figures. That was probably the first creative thing I did. I'd customize them and actually post them on a website back in, like, 2000-whatever.

You were online pretty early, then. What was your relationship with the internet growing up?

Austin: We were super, super early onto the internet. I was on eBay when I was like five years old or whatever. I was always buying shit on eBay. Early, early.

I was on MySpace. My brother was a MySpace rapper, and I created a MySpace account. I have photos of all this. It's crazy.

I was a rapper too. My name was Tiny Trupa. My brother was a MySpace rapper, and I wanted to live in his shadow, you know? He would put me on, though. So I was one of the youngest MySpace rappers of all time.

Did you always feel like you could be yourself online, or were you experimenting with different versions of yourself?

Austin: I was trying to figure it out. I was a big troll. Super crazy. I would just always troll, say crazy shit, weird shit, confuse people. I was just experimenting. It was a big social experiment, fucking with people. Me and my friends would just troll people.

At what point did you learn to turn that kind of fearlessness into something you could actually use in your creative practice?

Austin: It's about just not giving a fuck. 

If you treat everything like it's an exercise, like kind of embarrassing yourself just to not be nervous or scared of what people are gonna think, everything is just funny. Everything's a troll, you know?

Once you know how to do that, who cares? You can just be yourself.

How much do you think growing up in New York contributed to that?

Austin: I owe it to being from New York as well. You experience a lot. You just experience way more than a normal kid does.

It's the most diverse place. In school, you're around all different types of people. I think I learned how to communicate with all different people and get along with them.

I was a quiet kid, though. I didn't talk to anyone in school. I made all my friends outside of school. Literally, I have no friends from school.

Going back to the things that inspired you, what were the first brands and people that come to mind?

Austin: Growing up, I just wore Marvel T-shirts, Black Air Force 1s and the same pair of jeans, probably black Levi's or some shit.

When I was a MySpace rapper, I was super into BAPE because of Soulja Boy. BAPE was a really early inspiration. LRG full-zips. I would go to a place on Steinway in Queens called Dr. J's, and they would have full-zip hoodies and shit.

Then, after the MySpace rapper phase, I listened to a lot of punk music and just didn't care about what I wore. After that, around 2013, I got more into fashion: Rick Owens, Acne Studios, Supreme and all that.

And who makes it onto that list today? Who inspires you now?

Austin: I really fuck with 424. I wear their shoes every day. A lot of my friends make stuff too. My friend Steven Savoka.

It's kind of rare, though. There's not too much shit that inspires me right now.

But Virgil's lit. I love Pyrex. Pyrex is a big institution to me. Virgil's lit because we collaborated in like 2015, and I feel like he really just says yes to anything. He did so much, and it's just insane.

What was it like watching him build everything he built?

Austin: I didn't even realize it until I reflected on his life. I was like, this guy really did the most. It's insane. He really did his thing. It's fire.

I feel like God gives you what you can handle, so you just gotta prove that you can handle it.

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Intermission: Overrated or underrated. 

Soho?

Austin: Perfectly rated. I guess it is hyped. But I like Soho.

The iPhone Duo?

Austin: Probably overrated. Fuck that shit. We don't need bigger screens.

Drake?

Austin: Bro, I'm not hating Drake. He's not underrated, but he doesn't deserve the hate. He only makes bangers.

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You've been putting things out for a long time. What was it like for you the first time something flopped?

Austin: Every project I've done has been a flop, you know? Nothing is really... There's highs and lows.

At a young age, around 2014, 2015, when there was the most hype, I wouldn't drop anything because I wanted to do things perfectly. Eventually, I took a pre-order for hats, made a bunch of money, and they didn't ship for like a fucking year or some shit. So from the jump, I've had this bad reputation about shipping.

I've never really had a flop in terms of attention. There's always been hype around it and it always does pretty well. It's the execution: learning how to make the stuff and have a successful drop, with shipping, manufacturing, all of that.

I've just been teaching myself over the years. I'm transparent with my audience. I'll be like, 'Yo, I fucked up.' Thankfully, I'm very grateful for the people who've stuck around and followed me through the ups and downs.

What's your relationship with your ego? How do you stay grounded when things go well, or when they don't?

Austin: I just don't care. I truly see myself as no better than anyone else. It's all out of my control, you know? I'm grateful to just be able to do this shit.

This is just a side thing. Life is the thing. The fact that we can stress about making art and clothes and all this is a blessing. I never take it too seriously, and I truly give it up to God. He just always looks out for me.

We're all equal. No one is better than anyone else.

Do you think not taking things too seriously is part of what keeps you going?

Austin: Yeah. It might be a bad thing that I don't take it so seriously, but it could be a good thing too.

I try to never stress. I just always have faith. That's it.

When you stress, that means you don't have faith in God's plan. That's basically saying you don't fully believe in it. You just gotta be like, 'Yo, I trust you. Whatever happens, happens. Thank you for letting me create this stuff.'

People can't make it this far because they'll stress too much and they'll kill themselves. I had to give up and just let go. And it all worked out.

So let’s say when you want something, really want something – what does that feel like for you? Does it ever become overwhelming?

Austin: I've gotten every single thing I ever wanted. It all came true. I know if I want to, I can make it happen with hard work, positive thinking, and, you know, I've never been disappointed yet. I'm just very grateful.

Even if you lose everything, you can be glad you had it.

I just know it will happen. I've always known it would happen.

I know it's a long-term road. I'm already very grateful for what I've gotten, and I know it's gonna continue. But I know it's a long road, and all I can do is set the big goal. Everything in between, don't worry about.

There's gonna be ups and downs, but you never know what can change.

I think people stress out with all the points in between the big goal. Say you want to buy a building. You can have that one goal in your mind, and it's just that one goal. But people want to complicate it. They're like, 'Oh, but we need to figure out the license for this and whatever, all the laws and little details.'

That's where they stress, because now you have to envision all these other things. You can just focus on the overall main goal.

I wanted to talk about some of your projects that play with the format of things. The Assembly Required tote bag, for example, where something arrives unmade. What interests you about approaching a product that way?

Austin: Another project I've done was the Pay What You Want Denim, which I really like as an idea.

The minimum you can pay is $25, and it goes up to unlimited. The amount you pay determines how much effort I put into the jeans.

So, if you pay $25, you're just gonna get a shitty screen print on Walmart jeans. Some people paid up to like $6,000, and those are fully cut and sewn, with chain-stitch details and patchwork.

It was a good idea I had, but I didn't really plan too much. I just took unlimited orders, and we got like 4,000 orders. I didn't really plan it well enough, so it was kind of a flop afterwards. That's something I didn't execute properly.

But the next Pay What You Want thing I do is gonna be correct, because I've learned from this one. I want to do Pay What You Want hoodies or something.

There's a bunch of shit. I just try to keep every drop fun and always think of something new.

Do you feel like you sometimes make things harder for yourself than they need to be?

Austin: Absolutely. All the time.

I definitely make things harder for myself because I want things to be fun. My brand would probably be 100 times more popular if I just did the easy stuff that people want, that's easy to consume and easy to digest.

The people who work with me know how hard I make things and how annoying it is. But that's what makes things special. I like every piece to be unique. I like every detail to matter.

People like the copy-and-paste shit. People like the boring shit. I know I sell shit like that too, but my heart's not in it like that.

People consume the worst shit. It's everyone's fault for why everything is such bad quality and why you can't buy anything anymore that's good quality without it being super expensive. We all voted for the other thing by purchasing it.

Convenience kills the world because the quality is all gone.

Do you feel any pressure to make your audience happy, especially when you have so many people, fans, who follow everything you do?

Austin: There's no pressure. It's not about making them happy. If they like what I make, then let them be happy.

I want to create what I want, and I think it's the same thing. That's why they're happy.

Once you start making music or creating art for what the audience wants, you fall into a trap because they're gonna tell you, 'No, we want this. We want this.' I think my fans know I'm not gonna listen to them.

But if they're happy, I'm happy. I love my fans. They see that I talk to them and I'm just a normal person.

How do you maintain that relationship with people, particularly through social media?

Austin: I think people just know me. They know that I'm authentic, and I just put myself out there. I'm not trying to fucking hide anything.

It was easier back in the day to be yourself on social media. Now I don't even post that much. I don't have conversations with my fans or go live and do all this shit.

But you can ask any of my fans. They probably have a story about meeting me at an event, or I've talked to them, or they ran into me.

I've done a 50-state tour where I pulled up to every single state and shook hands with every single person who bought my shit. Everyone. 

I want everyone to have a story related to my clothing.

Even now, I'm lost when it comes to social media. I just post and hope for the best.

What scares you?

Austin: I think I just get whatever I deserve, so I don't care. Nothing scares me.

The only thing that scares me is wanting to spend time with my family, my loved ones, before it's too late. And that's really just up to me, so I just gotta do it.

We were talking about big long-term visions earlier. What does yours look like, right now?

Austin: I just always knew I was gonna win. I always knew I was gonna win and be something, even when I was young.

But the long-term plan, I keep it hazy because the second that you solidify it, that's what it is. It's kind of just a hazy vision of success where I know it's super lit, and it becomes clear as I go.

I want to own all my own factories in America. A lot of factories. I just want to do big things that will leave an impact for when I'm gone.

How do you manage your energy? Do you notice when you're running low, or do you actively try to protect yourself?

Austin: I'm learning to just stay calm. Always stay calm. I never get too emotional. I don't get angry. I just let whatever happens happen, and I stay strong.

Sometimes I wish I had more of a fire, you know? But it is a slow thing. If you just start to feel emotional and want to do something sporadic, it's just...

Fires burn out.

Austin: Yeah.

Finally, if you could leave people with one message, whether they know you or not, what would it be?

Austin: Just literally do the right thing, and it'll all work out for you. 

Just stay strong through every fucking moment. Do the right thing. They know what it is. It's in their spirit.