Adult Swim Creatives Talk Etnies Collaboration

Complex: That was cool to see the show on the big screen. Is there anything else like that coming out?

JE: There's nothing new coming out in theathers, but I'm working on an hour-long special that we're co-creating called The Return of Freaknik. Do you know what Freaknik is?

Complex: No, not really.

JE: Basically it was a Black Spring Break that went down in Atlanta and got shut down back in '98 or '99. So the show is going to resurrect that, and it's going to be starring T-Pain and Lil' Wayne and all these other artists like David Banner and some other dudes.

Complex: It's all animated?

JE: Yes, it's all drawn, and T-Pain plays the ghost of Spring Break, the Spirit of Freaknik. He brings this party back to Atlanta and the artists have done all this music for it, and it's amazing.

Complex: Do their characters resemble the real life versions?

JE: No, it's all new characters that they're going to be voicing. I did all of the design background, basically all of the art for it.

Complex: When is that happening?

JE: Next year. It's in production right now, so we're hoping to get it done by next year.

Complex: How does this project fit into the etnies brand? Is this a new area to get into?

EC: The spirit of the brand, the irreverence and creativity that Adult Swim fits in there nicely with skateboarding. The fun that skateboarding provides is well manifested through the characters and programming. For the 20-plus years that etnies has been around, it's always been about innovating, creating, and taking things to the next level. We've done collabs in the past, but for this it's a whole new medium, a whole new collaboration and a whole new set of consumers that we can reach with this collaboration. We can open Adult Swim to new audiences and vice versa. It's about creating cool product that makes sense so that's why when we first talked about this, everyone got so excited.

Complex: So employees were like, “Do this one, do this one!”

EC: Right, exactly. So, for etnies, this was a smart play to push boundaries and go further. This shoe is a good starting point, and I think there is a lot of room to grow and move further.

Complex: Are there other shoes already in the works?

EC: At this point nothing is in the works, but we've already discussed doing the next one, and its almost more of a partnership than it is a collab. For the green one, the Ignignokt character shoe, is only 300 pair at retail. But the brown one with all of the characters in it with the laser etching, is broader at 1800 pairs available for purchase.

Complex: Great, thanks guys. When do the shoes drop?

EC: In the next couple of weeks or so, through October.