aaliyah gaston

  • EXPERIENCED OPERATIONS LEADER & EXPERIENTIAL PRODUCER

  • EXPERTISE IN BRAND ACTIVATION, RETAIL LAUNCH & ACTIVATION STRATEGY

I'm Aaliyah Gaston — an experiential strategist and producer, born and raised on the West Side of Chicago.

For the last 7+ years, I've been the operational engine behind Every Now & Then and Joe Freshgoods, one of the most influential names in culture-driven retail. That seat put me inside moments most producers only see from the audience: New Balance launches at the Museum of Contemporary Art, a brand dinner with Hennessy, activations at WNBA All-Star weekend, pop-up residencies in New York and Chicago, and a showing at Paris Fashion Week — work that hasn't just sold product, but shifted how culture and fashion tell their stories.

Here's what I actually do, underneath all of that: I build the machine that makes the moment possible.

The line around the block at a sneaker drop? Somebody mapped that crowd flow. The flagship store that opened fully staffed, fully trained, on the exact date it was announced? Somebody built that hiring pipeline from zero and wrote the five-week training program. The festival that ran three days without a visible seam? Somebody owned every vendor, every permit, every contingency. That somebody is me — and I've done it 40+ times, across four markets, managing over a million dollars in project spend, for globally recognized streetwear brands and Fortune 100 companies including New Balance and McDonald's.

I started as a project manager at a multicultural advertising agency, where I learned the truth that's driven my career since: the gap between a great idea and a great outcome is always operational. Someone has to translate vision into work plans, budgets, timelines, and teams — and make the power players look effortless while doing it. I built my reputation being that person. In 2022, I launched AG Consulting to bring that same engine to other brands and organizations, and I now also serve as a capacity-building coach for the State of Illinois' i2i program — because teams, not just events, are things you build.

What I believe about this work is simple: anyone can open something for a weekend. The real craft is building it to last. And everything I make carries where I'm from — authentic stories with the creative, resourceful energy of Chicago in them. Every project gets both: the moment people don't forget, and the systems that keep running after the lights come down.

When I'm not producing, I'm in Chicago with my two dogs, plotting the next thing.