thread's not dead - doITlab

Inspirations
Back in 2005 there were nowhere near as many brands around as there are
today, and a lot of that has to do with the Internet and the way the music industry
has grown to rely quite heavily on merchandise as there is a direct correlation
between music, music merchandise, and music-inspired apparel. Back
then it was all about the likes of Rockett (who are still awesome), Heartcore
Clothing and Ordinary Clothing. They were all making a good go of it, so we
looked up to those guys and that kind of status is what we were aiming for when
we started out.
Before them, Blink-182 was still the biggest part of our lives (they probably still
are), so all we knew of brands was Atticus and Famous Stars & Straps. We probably
even drew some inspiration from them just
because of how much Blink influenced us! If we
could have put our name on some super-baggy
Dickies or those really shit two-stripe baggy
jeans with a bike chain hanging from the pocket,
we probably would have!
These days there are so many brands around
who inspire us and the market is so much more
competitive. Which I think is great as it means
everyone is battling to raise the bar. I’m sure a
lot of people will say that Johnny Cupcakes is a
huge inspiration. What Johnny Earle has done
with that brand is phenomenal. Everything
about his branding and marketing, attention
to detail, his retail stores, the way he runs his
business, the way he interacts and gives back
to his customers... it just has the whole apparel
community in awe. He’s not a chancer like us,
we’ve had some lucky breaks and have fallen
into a lot of this as well as throwing in some
hard work, but he’s worked his ass off every
day to get to where he is, harder than almost
anyone in our industry, and he’s known where
he wants to be from the start. I’d love to get the
standard of our branding somewhere near that
one day.
Electric Zombie are really on top of their game
THREAD’S NOT DEAD • Jeff Finley
PTS Custom Jacket
at the moment too. Kyle’s branding is tight and he’s really putting his all into
the attention to detail of his products and extras for customers, as are a lot of
brands these days. You don’t just get a t-shirt when you buy one anymore, you
get a ton of creative goodies. That TMNT line EZ did was one of the best lines
I’ve seen in years and it stunned everyone in the community. Pizza box packaging?!
Genius!
Artists-wise there are too many inspirations to mention. Michael Shantz has
carved out a great niche with that style of his. The way he captures humour with
subtle lines and expressions in a way that can’t be imitated is awesome. Chris
Sandlin (SockMunkee) has really settled into his own style now as well. His
linework is outstanding and we love working with him.
Chad Lenjer is another dude who kills it every
time. The fact that each design he does
is a masterpiece in its own right is awesome.
Chad is an artist in every sense of the word.
His work wouldn’t be out of place in an art
gallery. Jon Contino is one of my favourite
designers around at the moment. His work is
timeless, classic and so versatile. I’m looking
forward to working with him more. The
Black Axe dudes are an awesome design collective,
we love working with them. They all
bring something to the table and you know
when you hire them you’re going to get something
special and they really get what our
brand is about.
Standing Out
We were quite lucky that we started when we
did, because in late 2006 there was a bit of a
MySpace boom, and it seemed like hundreds
of brands just popped up overnight and started
doing exactly what we and other companies
like us were doing, which was great as
it showed what a powerful tool MySpace was
and it inspired a lot of kids to get into business
and be creative which is great, but it
Case Studies & Interviews 91