A-Ron vs. Complex + jeffstaple
I originally had an article drafted last week on a few interviews I found on the internet by way of the hype machine. But friends of the Consortium, Better Than Yours, put me on to an interesting development — a little blogosphere beef between Heron P. and the writers over on the Complex Blog surrounding an interview Heron did with NYC coolguy A-Ron.
Basically what I drafted last week still applies. Here’s my take on the whole thing:
I don’t have any beef with Heron for setting up and broadcasting the interview. (He put us on to the whole blog game and is considered a friend of the Consortium.) It’s cool that he’s at least to some degree a player in the whole NYC LES/street scene. There’s plenty of interest in the interviews as evidenced by the whole controversy. I don’t think the Complex writers need to attack Heron personally and knock his hustle.
That said, A-Ron is a completely polarizing figure and the post over at Complex touched on this fact.
First, aNYthing wasn’t anything special as a brand. To me, it looked like A-Ron was just a flunkie/junkie who just wanted other people to pay for his good times. They had one shirt and one design. The store on Hester was just confusing. While other brands were developing strong retail presences that reflected the mentality of the brand and gave it a physical identity, A-Ron seemed to lack a clear direction.
Secondly, any businessman who would enter into a deal with an investor without the foresight and prudence required in such matters is no businessman at all. It seems A-Ron dropped the ball and I don’t feel sorry for him.
I say all that to say this: A-Ron got lazy. He’s emblematic of the problem plaguing the streetwear game today. He had a design, a little tshirt that caught on. He got a little money and sat back thinking that the money would just stack up. He never elevated the brand into a cultural identity and made it more than just a clothing line. He never pushed it forward. The apparel business is a fast and fickle mistress. What’s hot now won’t be tomorrow. You gotta think two steps ahead.
And now, trying to rebound from his failure with aNYthing, the interview gave me the impression that he hasn’t learned much. His new “members-only” spot just sounds like a place where he and his friends can hang out and party. That’s cool. I like to hang out and party. But for A-Ron, I won’t contributing to his coke fund unless he can really do something new and innovative with his Off-Bowery line. But when he says he’s trying to start at least another 15 brands, it just seems like the odds are against him. He couldn’t do it with one, what makes him think he can do it with 15+.
If you want to check out some real creative, innovative shit, check out Bobby Hundreds’ interview with jeffstaple of Staple Design featured in The Hundreds Zine. jeffstaple is someone who I’ve always had great respect and admiration for. Reading these two interviews back-to-back really sets the stage for two, almost competing views of the whole “streetwear” game. It’s companies like Staple Design that are on the cutting edge, while people like A-Ron are playing catch-up.
Feel free to disagree or add your two-cents in the comments.
January 14th, 2008
9:56 pm
hmmmm, where to begin?
there is definately a difference in the angle at which these two cats approach the game. i feel like aron, with his history at supreme and riding and working with/for that whole scence back in the infancy of american streetwear as we know it (besides stussy – but thats another story alltogether). he was born and raised on the more grimy side of the downtown scene. he has that whole credibility thing going for him and often times thats all you need to get you in the door.
jeff, on the other hand, has a great deal more business sense and a more disciplined and what seems academical approach to design. don’t quote me but i don’t think he was born and raised anywhere close to the LES that aron was a part of. this has obviously influenced his direction as much as arons youth has influenced his.
as for the ‘direction’ i refer to.
i think aron is/was doing something unique and something that most brands these days (including staple) don’t focus on. aron is all about the ‘scene’ and supporting the local culture – selective as he might be in his support. from the beginning he announced his intention to promote not just a clothing company but a lifestyle as well. this is where i think things get interesting.
usually a brand develops into a lifestyle or cultural icon – something associated with a certain set because it has been adopted by that set – not because it was pushed on that set. just like the ‘hush puppy’ phenom discussed in the “tipping point” something becomes cool because a certain set of inovators and quote unquote cool kids pick it out for whatever reason and then the early adopters catch on to it and before you know it Supreme is born or BAPE is born. aron, on the other hand, is trying, right from the start, push his brand as the uniform of the downtown hipster cool guy. he didn’t let it take its natural course. it had no room to develop and take on its own life. aron jumped into a game that is already feeling the effects of over saturation and perhaps he thought that it could thrive on his name alone.
what about jeff and staple? jeff has been a character on the scene for quite some time. i believe staple has been around for almost a decade – almost as long as supreme and other big names in the biz. however, his brand has taken a much different direction than that of supreme or its japanese counterparts. staple design has been much more low key – of its own choosing or because it just hasn’t got the cult status of supreme and other names – i’m not sure, but, in my opinion it has not grown as legendary as names like supreme, neighborhood, w)taps, or even ALIFE. perhaps this is a reflection of the owner. jeff, from what i gather from interviews and his blog, seems like a much more low key personality. he seems more thoughtful and level headed than aron.
aron has that energy and showmanship that you can’t help but be attracted to. he’s got his hands in everything facet of the ‘scene’ from his connections to artists dash snow and ryan mcginly to musicians the virgins and kid america. it seems like anyone and everyone in the LES has some connection to the don. that kind of exposure can be great but i can see how it could bread a lot of contempt – i mean the guy is living the dream. he parties, he creates he gets payed to hang out but perhaps as eyecues said this has made him complacent of late.
this ish is rambling on so i’ll close it up and then give a once over to see how disconnected and terribly written it is! anyway, i can’t really hate on aron – it would be hard to call the guy anything short of motivated or argue that he lacks tenacity. he seems to bounce from one project to the next without any down time and being mired in controversy and legal issues all the while. as for his alleged drug habit – i can’t even begin to comment. although, i will say i hope for his sake that he isn’t hooked on smack! not healthy.
anyway, aron and jeff are def. on different trajectories in the same universe. they occupy spaces in the same LES yet they seem miles apart. however, the thing that ties them together is that they are creative, motivate types, that, in their own way, are trying to do something for the community and city they love. you can’t hate on anyone for that.
January 14th, 2008
10:13 pm
ALSO…i’m actually not exactly sure what role aron really played in the whole aNYthing brand. i know some other trust fund dude fronted the money and their relationship is the crux of aron’s current legal battle. judging from the new aNYthing line, however, aron must have had some say in the design because the new line sans aron is ABSOLUTELY terrible – while you might have mixed feelings about the prominance of the aNYthing logo and the seeming lack of creativity of the brand you can’t deny that at the least it was clean and focused. the new ish is complete crap. i’m out
January 15th, 2008
12:18 am
Nick – Stussy store opening in 3 weeks. Same block as commonwealth. Hit me up.
January 15th, 2008
12:36 pm
You definitely bring up some good points, soundune. Some things I touched on but could maybe clarify some.
First off, A-Ron is certainly a character. He’s entertaining to watch and seems like he has infinite energy. You certainly can’t knock his hustle, or his status as an original NYC LES tastemaker or scenester. Was the original aNYthing shirt cool? Yeah, no doubt. I remember when we were back in NYC a couple of years ago and that shit was still on the low. We saw a couple of official players sporting the tee and we had to track that shit down and find out more.
There really is something about the scene that A-Ron is a part of that is really unique to the NYC LES. It’s something that goes back awhile. Something that is threatened, as A-Ron mentioned, by gentrification. Rivington is hardly the street it was even a few years ago when we first started going there. You certainly can’t deny A-Ron’s status or credibility as an original player.
That said, I just have never seen him as an innovator or artist. I never really thought that A-Ron era aNYthing had really great clothes. I thought the store lacked creativity and focus. The whole thing just kind of stalled if you asked me, and the brand never really went anywhere. And certainly now it’s lost any sense of legitimacy that A-Ron brought. It’s not even on the radar.
jeffstaple is an artist, a designer, and a businessman. Dude is OG. Like you mentioned, they just celebrated their 10th anniversary. To mark the occasion, they put out really great collaborations and great graphics like they always do. Staple Design has a feel. Although, their clothes are always made with great quality and great design, with wearable innovative graphics, the clothing line isn’t really what makes Staple a great brand.
If you read the interview with The Hundreds, the clothing line is just a sandbox, almost a calling card for their “visual communications” agency which I think is the clutch move. It’s great to make clothes, but I think the culture is more than clothes. And that’s what Staple realizes. The whole “visual communications” agency thing acts as a platform to express art and creativity in many different forms.
Staple has a philosophy. They have a whole idea of a “Staple Lifestyle”. That kind of shit drives a brand and draws people to it. It’s how people identify with the brand. Just like Supreme. They have a feel and a philosophy. Supreme means something more than just dope clothes. They have their beginnings in the same skate/downtown scene that A-Ron does. But they’ve taken that mentality and incorporated a wide variety of artists and other cultures.
A-Ron has a lot of energy and a unique mentality. He is certainly an interesting and entertaining character. But, in my mind, he has a lot of work to do if he wants to be anything more.
March 20th, 2008
7:33 am
Humility…Thats what crushes my spirit about this so called “Street Game”. These guys who charge $40 for a t-shirt lack any sort of humility. Why? Hanes has made a living selling 4 T’s for $8.99 for a good while now so it can’t be to further their entrepreneurial enterprise. Maybe its for their creativity or intellectual property because the shear fact that people do what they do on threadless.com everyday is nothing short of phenomenal. And these guys think they have a read on the pulse of the street because they are from the LES. Not to be critical but the LES is in DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN…not Harlem, not Washington Heights, not Dyckman Projects but Downtown. So I truly doubt, outside of their poor decisions to dable in opiates and barbiturates, that these guys know strife. Give me $15 T’s, $30 Hoodies, and $50 Kicks, and I know you can afford if you don’t act on avarice and vanity. The sheer fact that people are willing to stand in line, in a Star Wars like fashion, should be a testament to your creativity. Remember Hype Kills, lets just hope that this becomes a movement and we can cripple if not eradicate the perpetuating standard of overpriced, overhyped and less than intelligent design. Give me the COGM, a computer and a screen printing machine and I would put out Heat like a fire extinguisher, and it won’t be a “Free Pimp-C” t-shirt (although that shirt was the shit, the 1st Time round). They all start out like Supreme end up like Marc Ecko and kids lose millions of dollars in the transition. Be Original, Be Reasonable, Be Innovative but Be Real Son.
March 21st, 2008
1:46 am
word – i smell a little retrospective on the summer ts of yore…they may not have been as slicked down but they were crazy creative
August 5th, 2008
4:44 pm
Jeff Staple is one of my heroes because of his hustle and his “we’re just doing shit we love” mentality.