Ford Makes ComplexCon Debut With 2022 Maverick Customized By Big Sleeps

Ford is driving the culture forward!

Source: Nigel Degraff / Courtesy FORD

We were excited to spend last weekend at ComplexCon in Long Beach courtesy of Ford, who made their debut as the conference’s exclusive partner via a series of stimulating panel conversations called Complex Connects. Before we get too deep into that, we want you to get into this fully loaded 2022 Ford Maverick customized by famed tattoo artist Big Sleeps (aka David Cavazos). We had a chance to talk with Big Sleeps about his unique designs. He’s known for his unique lettering style, which he revealed was heavily influenced by the graffiti he saw all over the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles where he grew up. Sleeps works have been included in major gallery and museum exhibits such as “Scratch” at the El Segundo Museum of Art (2014), “Aftermath”exhibition At Robert Graham Gallery (2016) “Roll call” Exhibition At L.A.Louver in 2016. While he’s previously collaborated with fashion brands including Hurley, Umbro and Adidas he told BOSSIP this was his first time painting a car! We loved the symmetrical style of his painting and once he showed us a few of the words he’d painted on the truck, we had such a good time finding all of the messages embedded into the artwork on the truck.

Source: Nigel Degraff / Courtesy FORD

The Ford Maverick customized by Big Sleeps was prominently displayed near the seating area for the Complex Connects conversations. Hosted by Claire Atkeu, each day of Complex Connects featured three panels featuring influential leaders in music, fashion, sports and more. We were lucky to attend four out of six of these panels — which were completely packed! The first of these conversations was “SOMEWHERE ELSE with Will Nichols: Why No Idea is a Bad Idea.” Nichols is a multi-media artist who paints, does photography and also designs furniture. He’s one of the top three photographers in all of Blockchain and his collecton ‘Somewhere Else’ sold over $1.1 million in sales in less than 2 months. We really loved the one on one convo between Claire and Will and he only further piqued our interest in NFTs! Claire spoke with artist and Fat Tiger Workshop owner RELLO. We loved hearing about his start, coming from Chicago and working with Joe Fresh Goods. Sunday we made it in time the Inspire and Diversify panel featuring DJ Pope, Ayyde Vargas and Trinidad James. This was a great opportunity to listen to some experienced music biz professionals talk about the intersection between music, art and culture. We also caught the final panel (pictured above) called MOVIN ON UP: Elevating How you Market Yourself + Your Brand, which featured Donye Taylor, Junghoon Son/ Vandy The Pink and Doralys Britto, who dropped gems on how they got started, built their communities, and created business models that work online & IRL too.. Overall we’d say the Complex Connect was a great opportunity to get some great advice from the pros and do some networking.

One of the highlights of Ford’s presence at ComplexCon had to be the big reveal of one of their newest offerings. Attendees got a first look at the truck and even had the opportunity to win an all-new 2022 Ford Maverick, a new kind of pickup for the makers and doers that is packed with clever technology. To be honest — it’s perfect for tailgating and for folks who are intimidated by big bodied trucks, it’s much smaller and easier to manage. The Ford booth featured a video game that attendees could play for a chance to win prizes. Of course the ultimate prize was the new Ford Maverick which was given away Sunday!

Sadly we didn’t win the truck — or any sneakers BUT we had the time of our lives at ComplexCon thanks to Ford!