Meet Milo Haberkorn | Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Milo Haberkorn and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Milo, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My thought process with Plateau came from my towns local punk scene where all of these younger people came together and created. It was music, merch, posters, graphics, etc.. It was everything I wanted. I was hanging out with a lot of bands at the time and I had one foot in the door so I took the next step and started my own business. At first I used my punk inspiration and my love for graffiti and hip hop, and made tees that were a mix of both. I took a lot of inspiration from the LA art collective Odd Future, the idea of having a group of people who are so close together and creating so much in unison drove me to believe that I could do that too, at the time of writing this it’s been almost 3 years since I started Plateau and I have built such an awesome and strong team and community around it all.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
with Plateau all of our shirts, videos, music, everything, etc.. there is always a sense of art over anything. I’ve put on so many events and shows that I treat more like an art exhibit rather than a Pop Up or a show. Some of my favorite things i’ve done with Plateau would be days where I have people come up to my booth, or come up after I play a show and tell me how they started a brand, or started playing music with their friends and they invite me to a show. The community i’ve built around tee shirts and a youtube channel has really changed my life. getting to meet new people and hear their stories is the reason i do what i do.

I stared Plateau in my schools library, the idea came from coming up with a tag that would look unique to write, and from that point on I just started to put it on everything. it was scribbled on my notebooks, on my desk, on my sketchbook, literally everything.

It was really hard for me growing up to choose a path. I was a straight C student in high school, I had no interest in a college degree, I knew whatever I wanted to in the future would be something i’m passionate about and that passion I discovered was Plateau. There were so many arguments between me and my mom about not going to class and to stop missing so much because of an event I was putting on, or show I was going to play. Getting to this point was not easy but I learned that balance is key, and you need time to work and focus, just as much as you need time to play and unwind, that was probably the hardest lesson for me to learn. I want the world (especially the younger people) to know that in order to reach your dreams you have to put in the hard work to get there.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
In Grand Junction there is everything from one end of the valley to the other.
There is some of the best food trucks you will ever visit. There’s a food truck called Pronto Bronto, it’s a hamburger joint with dinosaurs and sprinkles plastered all over it. There’s a pretty big nightlife with live music probably every night at a local brewery, or coffee shop. One of my favorite places is Copeka Coffee, I spend a lot of time there. downtown Grand Junction has an awesome environment with local shops on every block. My favorite thing to do in junction is to go on a nice drive or bike ride out in the fields kind of outside the city with my friends, you get to see all of the surrounding mountains and it’s really kind of surreal once you just sit back and look at everything.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shout out my parents and my Plateau crew and MF DOOM. My parents have always been strong supporters of what I do, but my biggest takeaway from my upbringing is how much art and music and culture they showed me. A huge shout out to my plateau family as well, without them i wouldn’t be driven to get to this point, everything I do is for them. MF DOOM is probably my biggest creative influence and there’s a long list of those, but i dont think anyone has left a more satisfying impression on me than him.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plateaugod?igsh=MWtxOXgzY2U5MmZsaQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@plateaugod?si=8H8qdSi2fBn3w1YF

Image Credits
Talen Hoffman
Desmond Danso
Riley Richardson