 |
| via Crooked Tongues |
Over the last couple of years, many practitioners of screen-printed sweats and tees have made a switch into the loftier realm of denim, shirting and pieces that bridge a gap between all-out casual looks and quasi-formality. Most have failed, because it takes more than mere entrepreneurial spirit and gift-of-the-gab to make that leap. Plus their product is mostly corny.
Denmark seems to hold the majority of the talent for simplicity, quality and design, and Norse Projects are key players in the wave of great Danes who use collective backgrounds misspent in graffiti and skating for the forces of good, giving us exactly what we want in our wardrobes. Scandinavia’s interpretation of streetwear is serious. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen the Norse Projects patch as the signoff on a substantial amount of hats, shirts, knitwear, jackets and the t-shirts we’ve owned in a long, long time.
There’s collaborations too—our favourites are the Elka coats and gloves, but their appreciation for the sneaker side of things is deep. We’re assuming that Norse get approaches to join half-baked collaborative “programs” on the regular, but their footwear output at time-of-writing has been fairly frugal—an excellent New Balance 670 and a very good Kopenhagen for adidas. We suspect that there’s more on the way in the not-too-distant future. Our man in Denmark, Mads Therkildsen spoke to Norse’s Mikkel Grønnebæk to get some extra insight on the brand.
Could you break down what Norse Projects actually is?
Norse Projects is a collective, which was started in 2002 by Tobia Sloth from Street Machine, Anton Juul who skates for Nike SB and Carhartt and myself—Mikkel Grønnebæk. We had an idea that Copenhagen needed a store for streetwear. I lived in London from 1999-2001 and watched what happened over there with The Hideout and Bond International and all the stores over there that had a lot of interesting brands, that you couldn’t get in Denmark. So when I moved back, Anton and I started a brand called Castle, which made caps and t-shirts—a lot of graphic stuff. Afterwards we got the idea to create our own store. And because Anton skated for Street Machine there was a natural connection to Tobia, who thought it was a great idea. So we started as a store and then it’s taken us four years to build our own clothing brand.
How has the experience been with creating your own brand in some difficult times for retail?
That has actually been great, because we’ve produced a small line of tees and caps in-store for some time, but it’s just recently that we’ve started selling out products to other shops. It’s been great because when you have a shop yourself you make the stuff that you miss from the other brands. Of course we’re very inspired by what’s happening in Japan and the States. But some of the Japanese goods are too expensive to freight home. And we felt that we’ve missed something, and why buy other peoples brands, when you can make your own stuff? Also the way we’ve done it is doing basic and classic products—all of it produced in Europe in very good quality and at a fair price. People have supported that, so it’s been a great time to do so, because there’ have been so many hype products and we feel it was better to go the other way and give people value for money instead of the hype.
Norse started as a retail space. How come you decided to make the transition to also have your clothing collection?
Why buy other peoples’ products, when you can make it yourself and we all had the interest and we had the distribution. We didn’t have that much experience, but it’s been very interesting to just jump into it. My dream was never to be behind the counter in a shop – it was to be creative and get the chance to make some clothes that you yourself want to wear.
Do you have a certain retail strategy for Norse Projects?
No, not really. Of course we want to be in the best shops around the world, but we also feel that if there’s a great shop in Roskilde (a small town in Denmark), why not let them sell our products. There’s no reason to be in five shops in Paris and five shops in Copenhagen and five in London and not sell to any other. You can’t live of selling to three high-end shops in the world. So our strategy is that if a shop is good and the buyers and sales people in the shop understand our concept and can convey it, then I can’t see any reason in not selling to them.
How did the market welcome you?
Super—people have been able to sell our products and that’s been very positive. Our products are being sold in shops that I feel is some of the best in the world, such as The Hideout, Dover Street Market and Colette and some others. But it’s just as important that other shops can sell our products.
Where do you seek inspiration for your designs?
A lot of vintage shopping! Also old military styles and functional stuff inspires me. Styles from the work industry, for instance fishermen or factory workers or soldiers. It could also be English gentlemen mixed with tree huggers mixed with some street stuff. The inspiration for the colors comes from the nature. Also a lot of our styles is very Scandinavian—and the colors too is something you could find in the woods or at the sea. It wouldn’t fit Norse to do neon stuff—that’s not Danish. But we find inspiration in a lot of stuff—music, art, and other brands—whatever.
What brands do you respect?
There’s many that I respect, both for the quality and also what they’ve done for the culture. Of course brands such as Visvim and Supreme, but I also think that J-Crew makes some amazing stuff. I really like the brands, that can make simple stuff and manage to do it well —for instance Ralph Lauren. There’s not a brand that I’m a giant fan of, but it’s clear that a brand that Visvim makes fantastic clothing of fantastic quality. It’s expensive but it’s also extremely well made. I also like a lot of outdoor brands like Patagonia or North Face Purple Label or Beams—I know that it’s a little conservative, but I think there’s some good references in their products. Also Yuketen makes great stuff.
It seemed like 2010 was the year when Norse Projects blew the fuck up. Do you have a specific consumer in mind?
No, we’re four people who works with the collection and we’re four totally different types, so we all make something that we ourselves like and that means that the collection is very mixed. But we don’t have a “muse” or specific customer in mind. Our customers ranges from 15-year olds to 60-year olds. It’s hard to relate to just one specific customer. But to see two different persons in each side of the age scale or with different style wearing our products is very dope.
With your products are you trying to fill a gap in the market for a certain consumer looking for wearable pieces that aren't fussy or stuck in the past either?
I like our idea about the products being timeless and long lasting. I don’t think we’re trying to fill a gap in the market, because there a so many brands out there, I just think that there are lot of stores that have carried Carhartt and Stüssy and other basic brands, that now wants some new brands...and as said earlier, we try to give the people “value for money”.
Do you have a perfect sweatshirt, t-shirt, denim and sneaker in mind when you prepare a collection?
No, not really. We just try to make some clothing that we ourselves would like to wear that we find perfect. The most important thing is that we really try to make the best product when it comes to quality and price.
How did the whole patch branding come about?
Functionality. Patch branding derives from the military. I really think it works well, when you take an element from the military and mix it with casual wear. We also do stuff without patches now, but our strategy has always been to use patches, so people can recognize the brand from a long distance.
Sourcing the right materials globally seems to be a focal point for Norse—does that involve a lot of travel?
Yes. We go to 2-3 textile shows a year, where there’s around 700 exhibitors. That can be hectic, but you have to go to find the best materials. I would say that material sourcing is about 50 % of the work for the collection.
What kind of music would you say “fits” your brand, if any?
I listen to a lot of music and we also do at the Norse office. We listen to a lot of English music—such as Ian Brown and the Stone Roses. Also old psychedelic rock, folk country—but we’re really open to a lot of music. Music is a great inspiration source for Norse.
Will you continue with the store now that the clothing brand takes up so much of your time?
Definitely. We have Street Machine, which is like or “sister store”, who will now get some of our street products. In Norse we will stock more “casual” items. We want to work with the brands that have a great history and sense of quality and materials. The store is a huge part of Norse, ‘cause it’s also there we can show our own collection, and we sell a lot of Norse products in the store.
Where does your passion for streetwear come from?
My background comes from graffiti, design and art, but mainly skateboarding. I think that skateboarders always have been early adaptors of fashion and they’ve created a lot of trends. I’ve been part of this culture for 20 years, so the interest comes from skateboarding. And when it became natural for skateboarders to wear other brands than skate-brands, I also started to become interested in Nike or Stüssy and stuff like that.
What was the brands you rocked or respected backed then?
Back then it was all about Vision, Aiwalk, Gordon & Smith, and Stüssy of course. Generally a lot of American west coast brands. But we also skated in PUMA Suedes, adidas Campus’ and Jordans back then.
What’s your relationship with sneakers?
I think of sneakers as a tool. You walk on your feet all day, so it’s important to have some nice footwear. I won’t call myself a sneakerhead or collector, but I have always liked shoes. And I don’t like when shoes get too old, so I always have new sneakers—and many of them. We also stock a lot of sneakers in the store, and it’salways been part of culture I come from to wear fresh new sneakers.
Running shoes are big in Europe, but in places like Denmark especially, they're huge - did you grow up wearing running models?
No, I actually grew up wearing Vans, Airwalk and Converse, because I skated a lot. But in around 1990 I started wearing runners. I’ve never been into running, but to me Nike made some technical runners in the ‘90S, which made it interesting for me to wear runners.
What are some of your favorite sneaker silhouettes?
I could go on, but these are some of them: Air Max 1s, Rod Lavers, Jack Purcells, Vans Authentics, and New Balance 670. In the recent years I’ve been really into old school simple stuff with vulcanized soles. But I still have a lot of Air Max 1s.
So far you’ve done two sneaker collaborations—one with adidas and one with New Balance. Could you tell a little about the inspiration behind them?
With the adidas project, we were invited to represent Copenhagen in the City Series. There were some restrictions on the design— like we had to use yellow and black, because the original Kopenhagen model had those colours—and you could only use one extra colour. But we really wanted to use navy, so the black was left out, because we wanted a white sole. We really like the outcome. It’s simple and casual, which is something I think represents Norse well.
With the New Balance 670, I went back into their archives and researched. Again I wanted to make something which was timeless, and therefore I think it worked well with navy. The mesh we used was the original. And we added the min green to update it a little and make it fresh. We wanted the buyers to want to rock them also in three years and still feel fresh in them.
You seem to show a lot of restraint with pieces like your collaborations last year with Elka. On the New Balance and adidas designs, the execution is clean—no daft logos or fussy details. Is there an overall Norse Projects aesthetic?
Our aesthetic is that we’re from Scandinavia—we’re normal people, who want to make long lasting products. We try to keep it classic, with some technical updates or contemporary updates.
How come you still haven't been to the New Balance factory in Flimby?
We haven’t been invited—haha. We only had one week to make our New Balance 670. So we didn’t have the time. But I have to stress that it’s important to meet your producers. If we’re lucky enough to get the chance to make another one—I would love to go there.
Is there any specific sneaker you would like to collaborate on?
I would love to work with more sneaker brands. My dream is to make a technical Nike sneaker, an ACG or maybe an old runner. I really find the project that Wood Wood made with the Lunarwood was amazing and fitted the Scandinavian terrain.
Norse Projects
No comments:
Post a Comment