Verte is a New York-based clothing line started by brothers Andre, Mark, and Tino Razo and wives Athena and Desiree in 2002. They're known mainly as a T-shirt brand, but through creativity and connections, the team has been able to escape the empty hype that has become synonymous with Lower East Side and Williamsburg screenprint shops. We sat down with the crew to talk about family, New York, skateboards, and their new collaboration with skate shoe company etnies that drops this weekend.

Complex: So how does one go about pronouncing your brand?
Mark: “Vert” but we kind of leave it open for interpretation, just to see what people say.

C: When did it first start?
Athena: In 2002 we started doing a T-shirt line for our friends, and since then it’s been mostly shirts, but we are also do some special projects with different brands. Come Spring/Summer ’09, we’ll be launching a full clothing line.

C: Can you talk a little about the shoe you are doing with etnies?
Mark: Well, A good friend of ours is working over there as the Art Director. We are doing a Jameson [the low] and the Ollie King [the hightop]. We asked for the Ollie King shoe specifically because it was an older, beefy skate shoe that reminded us of skating back in the day in Vermont. We had to ask etnies to go and find one so that we could re-create it.

C: What did you change?
Mark: We streamlined the Ollie King to cut down on the padding a little bit. The Jameson is more of a wearable shoe, and then the jackets round it out into a little mini-collection.

C: What is that jacket made of?
Athena: Pleather! It’s lined, and came out really dope.

C: Had you done a shoe before these ones?
Andre: We hadn’t done a shoe before, but etnies made the collaboration process really easy. We first sat down with the templates, and were like, “Okay, so what are the restrictions?” The guys at etnies were like, “Do what ever you want.” They have it down, so it worked out.

C: It seems like going from ideas to the finished product could be somewhat challenging. Who is the point person creatively between the five of you?
Mark: The good thing is everybody has really strong ideas and viewpoints of how things should be. While sometimes that makes it harder, it’s good because in the big picture, we all have similar taste. We all throw a bunch of ideas out there and then we give it to Andre. One person is like, “I want a wolf howling at the earth” and then someone else figures out how to make that cool, whether that means us doing it ourselves or working with an outside illustrator to get it done.

C: What was the motivation behind starting the company?
Athena: Andre was like, “I want to do something with my family. I want to do something we all can do together”. It’s so fun seeing the brand evolve. First you see some of your friends with the shirts on and it’s like, “Oh, cool, you’re rocking our stuff.” But then a couple months ago, I saw this Japanese kid rocking one of our shirts and that’s just awesome! [Laughs]