:: Attic Online ::

Name: Van

Vendor/Company/Brand:
ACRYLICK™

Staff Introduction:
Michael (co-founder/co-owner, creative director), Rex (sales, marketing, and promotions), and myself Van (co-founder/co-owner, interview question answerer/writer).

Years Acrylick has been around?
We’ve been around for 4.5 years.

Any interesting or humorous stories about starting up?
We struggled hard while starting up. I know it’s only been about 4 years since we started, but starting up back then was so much harder than if we were to start now I think. We didn’t know shit when we started, and that no doubt leads to comedy. All we knew was that we wanted people to see our shirts, and we had to get them printed fast to get our word out. We learned eventually. Doing our own screen printing was semi funny though, but that’s from inhaling all those chemicals, especially this stuff called screen opener, toxic ass materials get you high even though you only use them for their purpose. We learned that fast.

Where is your company based from?
In Los Angeles. We were born and raised in LA, so it’s only appropriate that we operate from here.

Brands that influenced your company?
Way back even before we started we looked at brands like triple five soul. They blew up the scene with what we saw was the nicest and some of the more original shit at the time.

So that kids know, how much and what does it really take to start a clothing brand?
Anybody could start a clothing brand, but if you want a good one it takes work. This means actually going out and learning how to design, learn about fashion and business, learn the history of screen printing, and actually learn how to screen print yourself. Don’t half ass shit. If you want to be a fisherman for a living you buy a boat, equipment and learn how to fish first right? Shouldn’t it be the same and fitting to buy a silkscreen machine if you were to design and sell shirts? We thought that way and bought a screen printing machine and did our own printing for about 2 and a half years; some don’t feel the same way though. After you actually have an idea of what you’re doing, keep on doing it. If someone gives you advice, take it. If someone gives you negative thoughts, don’t listen and keep on doing what you do. To give you an idea of how long and how much work it takes, we are still learning something new everyday. It’ll never come to a point were you know everything so don’t think that way or you’ll be going down quick.

Local celebrity DJ? How are you involved in the Southern California Clubbing Scene?
This question no doubt is for Rex, otherwise known as DJ WREX. All I have to say is that this guy is blowing up. He even has his own t-shirt. We keep him humble here at Acrylick™ though, no celebrities allowed here. Visit this guy’s myspace for all his upcoming events. He’s heavily involved in the So Cal Clubbing scene with his production company 4onesyndicate.

What ladies at the clubs grab the Acrylick crew’s attention?
All ladies are beautiful in their own way, we don’t discriminate. I can’t really answer this since I have a girlfriend. Mike himself is almost practically married. Only person here that could give attention to the ladies without getting in too much trouble is Rex, and all the ladies in the club get his attention, basically since he invites them all, and it’s his club the majority of the time. hah

How much % of Magic and Agenda is business? I want details.
Magic and Agenda is all business. From the time we arrive to the time we leave, business is #1 in priorities. Yeah, we consider the bar at the trade shows business too. Open bar is even more important business. But on the real, trade show time is serious to us. We get shit done.

How Did the Business Get Started:
We all knew each other from grade school/ high school, that being myself, Rex, and Mike. Mike and I were classmates in art class during high school. We always competed and we were the top artists/designers in the whole school. Well after graduating we both pursued art in our own ways. About a year later I got an email from Mike who was doing freelance design at the time, critiquing one of the shirts I was selling on my website for my at that time design agency if you would call it that. Well, we got the idea to start Acrylick™ from there. We both wanted to start a brand that had more purpose then the weak stuff out there just selling off their name and image they created. At that time the majority was weak stuff, we just thought we could do better and put out stuff we would actually be proud to wear. Rex then came aboard and handled promotion and marketing helping Acrylick™ get our name out. And we are where we are at today.

Tell me the truth, about how many % of your designs were done in a sober state of mind?
Crack kills.

Are you guys heavy shoe collectors? What is your prized piece and how many you got?
I wouldn’t say heavy, but as with everyone we like nice shoes. I see Mike and Rex come in to work with some nice shit often. I got a decent array myself. I have an assortment of stuff, the only shoe I got more than 15 pairs of are Nike FC’s, I like the design for some reason. I remember selling a pair of Eric Haze dunk highs, along with some other shoes I didn’t want on e-bay to get some money for a run of shirts a couple years back. I let everything go for dirt cheap looking back on it now. But we got our shirts made. We sold a lot of shit to keep this company alive during the first years. hah

Would you be bold enough to let MTV Cribs run an episode on your pad?
Why not, there’s nothing to hide. It wouldn’t be a good episode, but that’s on MTV. Someone there would get fired after that show airs.

Tell me the truth, about how many % of your designs were done in a sober state of mind?
Crack kills.

If you had 1000 bucks to blow on something, what would it be?
I think it would be buying a brand new AC for the office. It’s hot as hell right now. But on the real we would invest that money back in the company. There are obviously different types of people, some who buy and spend money on random shit they don’t need, some who save it for no reason in mind, and those who use it to make more money or get more value from it. We’ve been doing the latter since day one. If not that we’d donate it to charity, really.

What do you think of the term “streetwear”? Is it a legitimate genre or a generic label?
Literally the term isn’t good in representing the genre truthfully. What is really street? I guess compared to other genres in the clothing industry this is as “street” as it gets. What ever this genre is labeled all I know is that it’s putting out some of the most innovative stuff seen amongst the industry.

Do you see streetwear as the new urban with a rise and fall? How will it outlast mainstream exposure and saturation?
Streetwear will eventually have to fall as with everything, and with anything only the strong will survive after the fall. But we think it can go much deeper than that. The genre as people know it as can evolve into something else. We don’t like predicting the future, so I guess time will tell. When it comes, we will know.

What type of people would you fear rocking your brand?
We don’t fear anyone really. Our brand is meant to be universal, so we welcome everyone. All Creeds Respected ™ . This cool guy, cool brand mentality is wrong. If you want to wear our clothing go right on ahead. To sum it up, as long as nazi groups, rapists, and blinged out rappers stay away from rocking our clothing, we are fine.

How did the name, Acrylick, come about?
We’ve been asked this thousand of times, and there is no better way to answer this question but to give you the same response as we given everyone else. This is basically our manifesto, and after answering and explaining it so much, I pretty much memorized it word for word. Acrylick is basically a metaphor for finding ones soul and own individuality in the world. We chose acrylic since it has relation to paint. When looked at it to a deeper level, and found that the word can be much more. Acrylics in art are used to paint, and can be easily seen as an element we use to express our feelings, emotions, individuality, and soul onto paper, canvas, wood, etc. It is used to put what we have in our minds and hearts out to the world visually. We wanted our clothing to be the same as that. We want individuals to use our clothing as a way to find their own originative spirit by expressing what they feel within by wearing our clothing to express it visually without. We added a “K” to Acrylick for the purpose of giving our company name the originality we describe is out there in all of us. A car is a car. You can have the same model car, but painting it a certain color distinguishes it from others and makes it yours. This is the same reason for us adding the “K”. This is basically the same way we want people to use our clothing, not look at it as something that makes you part of a group. We want it to be looked at as making it show more of you so you stand out from the group.

Any brands you want to put on blast or talk shit on? Talk shit if you choose to LOL.
We don’t really talk shit, but the brands that feel the need to emulate, get no respect from us. We don’t mean emulating us at Acrylick™. We mean those that copy in general. Whether it may be a LOGO, a phrase, or a concept, copying is just wrong if you have the intention of doing just that. We know that 80 percent of releases out there may or may not be clones to others outside the industry but shit is still obvious even though some can’t tell. We also know that inspiration can come from the same place and watch seems as an intentional copy is really not. We catch ourselves in that place once in a while, where we created something that looks similar to what is already out, what we do then is to not release it. Some on the other hand, release designs knowing that it’s a carbon copy, basically just to get a piece of the pie or success. It may be business when it comes to that, but you still are a low ass individual.

I see Acrylick as a brand that is keeping it real with your honest pricing and innovative styles. What else do you guys attribute to your successful season?
It is just that basically. We aim to put out quality a piece, that’s all it is really. We sell clothing, we know to put out nice clothing that isn’t marked at “rape prices” and they will sell. There’s nothing more to it than that. The only thing we think adds to our pieces is that every design serves a purpose or has a valuable meaning, and we tell the buyer exactly what it is and about. When you give meaning to something, it makes it that much more valuable.

What sets Acrylick apart from the other cats of the industry?
Our message sets us apart I think. We started off as a company aimed toward spreading a positive message. And that is what we continue to do. There were a lot of brands that came up during when we started with the same go. They either gave up, or changed to the demand of the market. We managed to continue to follow what we originally set out to do. The message is still the concept.

So when is the Acrylick x Attic collaboration getting down?
It will be very soon. Whatever the collab will be when it happens, it’ll be something worth waiting for sure.

Shout outs?
We just want to give shout outs to the whole Acrylick family and supporters. As cliché as it sound, we really wouldn’t be here without the supporters. Also, shout outs to Attic for letting us have this feature, big up to James.