I just came across this photo from a few years back. I shot this myself (Yes, it was complicated. No, I didn’t hold the camera in my teeth) for the Untitled book that Steven Vogel worked on. The image was meant for my essay on “Screenwear,” as I cheekily coined it. It was during the period where the secret society of “streetwear” and the internet were really coming to a head, and the entire industry and subsequent consumer demographic were raising hell over webstores, news dotcoms, and online blog hype. Seems kinda funny and trite now, considering how symbiotic the relationship has become, and how homogeneous streetwear is today in the online realm. Hmph.

Anyways, the photo was interesting because all of the elements depict where my life was at on that exact moment, years ago. We were still so green as a brand and business that I was running all our designs off a 4-year-old PC brick. I was literally shivering in my poorly insulated studio apartment, so I had to work late nights with those surplus-store Rocky gloves on, also resulting in a nasty cold that even prescription pills couldn’t fend. Dinner? A box of Reese’s Pieces. I used that fabric swatch on the right to base some early snap-backs off of; the swatch on the left was never seen from again. Blah blah, the point being, that to all the kids who email me everyday inquiring as to how to start a clothing company, I guess it starts off something like this.

If your fingertips are frostbitten, you’re on the right track.

by bobbyhundreds