We were recently hit up by this NYC clothing company to review some of their shirts, so i finally got around to take some time and check out their new line, website and write ups. I’m gonna start with the website, because right off the bat it gave me trouble starting this article: Their main site is clean, easy to navigate, but a bit unimaginative and bordering on boring. I did want to copy and paste their Brand Statement here, but couldn’t…why ? cause it’s a flash site! Ok here is a quick lesson: when you have a brand, especially a smaller one, you want people to copy and paste things off of your site…text, pics..all of that. It helps your stuff pop up everywhere, and when your site is simple to begin with, why even bother with flash ? Ok so that being said, i quote from their email:

“The Bonafide Icon brand was presented in 2005, based out of NYC. The name “Bonafide Icon” means being recognized and held in honor among the elites. The brand stems from the different elements of the New York lifestyle. Bonafide Icon has adopted the phrase “League Leaders” and uses influences from music, art, movies, sneakers and pop culture and infuses them into graphics with a strong sports emphasis. With this, Bonafide Icon’s hard work results in the mixture of innovative, dynamic concepts and creative graphics.”

Now to say it in a few words: this line is about sports, and sport icons. Basically, if you’re a famous athlete, you’re an icon, and no one can dispute that, and this line appeals to the sport fans who wanna look a bit fresher than simply rockin jerseys or lame fan shop articles.

I was also sent a description of every shirt, but i rarely read them because in my mind, the shirt has to stand on it’s own. It’s like a piece of art: the story behind it should only enhance the impact, not be the meat and the foundation. Especially, because it means something different to everyone and inspiration is the opposite end of result. That being said, this is a line for sports enthusiasts, who like specific sports icons.

When that is clear in the shirt, the shirt ends up working, makes sense and looks dope.

Such as these two tees, which are hommages to the boxing greats as well as clyde frazier:

UNDISPUTED TEE

CLYDE TEE:

I do enjoy these tees, because they’re concise and clear. You know what you’re getting, and it’s either for you or it’s not. And the brand message is clearly reflected.

This is exactly what i’m missing from the other designs. I see the connection but the designs themselves seem hastily put together and just don’t look good. The message is unclear, and the design is poorly executed. A few examples….

Pro Stars Tee: I don’t get it. Lame design

Point Gods Tee: Ok a bunch of great point guards. I guess for the hardcore basketball fans ? Designwise, it’s boring.

Showtime Tee: Now this is pretty cool. Definitely ironic, made me smile remembering the movie….but this is a fictional character…how does this relate to honoring the great athletes above ? This does not fit at all! The design makes sense though, cool ironic tee. Would rock it once, but that’d be it. It’s purely for that instant smile, but gets stale pretty quickly. And peoples: the 80′s trend has passed. You still see it out there, but come on. Let’s keep it moving…

There are some logo based tees and a hat, not really worth mentioning (check website links at the end).

I did save the best for last though! Now this design comes in a tee and in sweatshirt, and it’s fucking dope! A nice stab at the overpaid yankees and really nicely put together (maybe i got that wrong, but that’s how i see it! now if i would’ve read the shirt description it might have been something completely different but hey, i don’t see t-shirt descriptions hanging in stores, so i treat the tees as if they were hanging on a rack someplace):

Salary Cap Tee & Sweater:

Those are fresh! Good times. Would totally rock those to the ballpark….The Mets one that is!

All in all it seems like this company is on the right track. They have a goal in mind and appeal to the sports fans amongst the streetwear heads. There aren’t many other companies doing this. I like that they managed to hit the concept dead on with a few shirts, really making icons of their favorite athletes and allowing their clientele to look fresh promoting their love for sports. Everyone has a favorite team and is a boy / girl at heart with the wide eyed amazement we have for what seem like superhuman feats at times. It’s not quite developed yet though and some of the designs are pretty boring (stop making logo based tees! seriously, what is the point ? branding does not work for small timers, be original! especially during these, often hard, times…).

Check out their site and online store:

http://www.bonafideicon.com/

http://www.bonafideicon.com/shop.htm

Definitely keeping Bonafide Icon on the Radar (great name as well!). And so should yoy!

Clapback out!

Teruo Artistry (awesome name!) is an interesting new brand from the Bay Area. My very first impression is that of a brand that is still somewhat trying to find themselves but are off to a good start. The idea behind the brand is a combination of being rather general, yet also thought out. What i mean by that is that i really liked their story (the name is the first name of the owner’s grandfather, read the whole story here: http://www.teruo.com/company.html) but their mission statement is a bit vague and sounds like some page filler most labels write (we didn’t like what we saw, we made our own, we’re creating something from nothing bla).

Their designs are clean, using nice coloring and a bit going against what is popular right now: their prints are rather small, in comparison with the full front prints or allover prints that flood the market at the moment. I’m a bit torn, since i like the idea, and their designs are simple yet expressive buuuut nothing new. A microphone, a boombox, a grammophone, a tape, a speaker…all elements of design we’ve seen a thousand times over. I guess it’s part of a lot of people’s lives (we all love music, we wanna rep where we’re from) but i don’t see a lot of originality from a purely iconic point of view. I do have to admit though that the colors are nicely put together, the designs are very clean and there is an undeniable Teruo look. I always appreciate lines that are put together well:

SOURCE: http://store.teruo.com/tshirts-2.aspx

They did send us the LIFE IN STEREO shirt though and i must say: excellent printing (very smooth), nice details (inside print, lining, embroidery on the back, sleeve print) and something i have never seen done before…..and i’ll quote “No Two Prints alike, handpicked fabric from around the world uniquely accents each print”. To clarify, there is a piece of fabric stitched into the back of each tee (near the bottom), that is unique with each tee. I am not sure how that would work, especially once you start selling 100′s then 1000′s of units, yet it’s still a really cool idea. I’m sure you’ll find some tees with the same patterns…i don’t really want to spend too much time speculating…still a fantastic idea which has not been done before (that i know of). Here are some pics i took and what i grabbed from their site:

All around dope shirt, interesting approach. Great way to stand out from the pack!

They also make 1 hoodie, which i don’t like design wise, it’s a bit cheesy and the gun design has been overdone, but once again, very nicely put together with printed stitched and woven details, colorful and on a clean dark background. So for those down with that design, this would be a dope hoodie to get, it’s a matter of personal taste, but you simply cannot deny the love for details and quality:

Last but not least they also make hats. One thing i don’t think is effective, is for younger companies to put their logo on hats, without any other adornments or in any other funky way. The brand is not strong enough yet for kids to rock simply the logo, even though it’s nice and clean, it’s smarter to focus more on design and have more interesting hats than just a majority of purely logo based ones. In Teruo’s case, they have too many logo hats and not enough design ones, but the two hats that are not just the logo are DOPE! Pure freshness. Check it:

This also comes in a brown / yellow sun colorway. Very, very nice usage of the logo and japanese influenced design. I was blown away.

In closing, this is a really cool up and coming brand, keep your eyes peeled. I’m interested to see how they develop their designs, and maybe add some more unique symbols. I highly recommend their website, it’s easy to browse, has a bunch of cool info in their blog (regularly updated!) and though i am not too hype on every single item, the line looks nicely put together, makes sense within their mission statement and could easily fit into a highly specialized streetwear shop or simply a skate / record store. Keep it comin’ Teruo! And send us some of those fresh hats

Make sure to hit up:

http://www.teruo.com/blog/b.html