Design in the New Era
Jeff Staple: As everyone knows, history repeats itself. I think right now we are at the stage right before that. We are sort of at the dark ages right before a new Renaissance period. I do feel like there will be a resurgence or Renaissance 2.0 of street culture.
Nick Jackson: There's gonna be a period of no logo, no logo, no logo. And then slowly but surely, it's gonna start creeping back. I don't think it's gonna get to the level it was at in 2007, which was absurd, but I do think it's going to start creeping back. One thing that will never change about human beings is that they're looking for identity, and that's what clothes have always been about.
Jeff Staple: I think inevitably there will be a little bit of a push back of against the Americana, hand-crafted, hand-tailored things. I don’t think that’s going away by any means because that is genuinely really great stuff. But I do think that eventually people are going to get tired of being so serious and brown. I am already seeing it from a footwear standpoint and footwear is such a great indicator of the culture. You can just see that the [Nike] Bo Jacksons are back the Ken Griffeys are back in their original acid green, neon, and floral red colorways.
Scott Sasso: It's going to be exciting. It seems like its time for a change. We’ve all been buckling down so long. There’s all this Americana, simple, classic, you know. I get it. I’m on it. But I think that it’s time for something new to happen. Everything goes to zero and then it will start again. In 5 years we’ll all be talking about crazy fucking t-shirts again.
Bobby Hundreds: I'm personally interested in trying to get all-over print back in the mix albeit in a different format. We're working on bringing back patterns and repeating graphics. Camo is always the precursor to that shift, and by this time next year, camo is going to be everywhere. Last time allover print hit it was preceded by camo, and what Bape was doing with camo, and what Maharishi was doing. It's right around the corner. I think people are tired of what's out now. Like chambray button ups with boots is just not practical.
Augie Galan: I think that tees are a part of most young people's wardrobes and probably even slightly older people’s now. T-shirts are always going to be an important part of how people express themselves. You're basically showing somebody what you want to tell them without actually telling them, and that’s what a t-shirt is.
Bobby Hundreds: At the core, the graphic T-shirt is the cornerstone of streetwear. You can't ever change that. Sneakers play a huge part and headwear is obviously in there. But it's really all about T-shirts. Every single one of these streetwear brands out there, the prominent ones, more than half of their sales and the units that they're moving come from T-shirts. At the end of the day in streetwear, T-shirts are king.
Jeff Staple: As a creator I still have a lot of fun making T-shirts. Designing shirts taps a different part of you brain than cut and sew. It’s kind of naive to say, but it takes you back to ’95 and the reason why I got into it in the first place. Even though I don’t personally wear them all the time, I never even considered not printing t-shirts.
Adam Weissman: There’s always going to be a need for a graphic tee and I think done right, anyone can wear one.
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