Take it from the streets
The comparison is hardly taken as an insult. After all, the biggest streetwear brands today were born from, well, the streets and all the nit and grit the scene represents. The self-named urbanwear brand Marc Ecko, in particular, was created in the mid-‘90s, when the designer was 20 and a student at Rutgers University, and was intended to capitalize on his roots as a graffiti artist whose influences were deeply entrenched in skateboard and hip-hop culture. His first urban apparel line, called Ecko Unlimited, sold mostly upgraded versions of the spray-painted T-shirts he first started selling from a makeshift design student in his parents’ garage 10 years earlier.
Ecko Unlimited, which finds inspiration in mundane street activities, video games and action sports, has become the touchstone of a youth culture that recognizes no boundaries, and sees fit to claim individuality by wearing graphic hoodies, logo-heavy shirts and loud, offbeat footwear. The brand’s famous logo depicts a rhino, the dwindling population of which Ecko is persevering to reverse.
Now, Ecko’s street sense has been posterized into Marc Ecko Enterprises, which churns out sub-brands such as Marc Ecko Cut & Sew for the contemporary, style-discerning male and Red by Marc Ecko for the brand’s fashion-savvy female fans.
Another division of Marc Ecko Enterprises was also born from the immense profundity of the urban scene. Zoo York, began in 1993, is the largest action sports company on the East Coast, and borrows its name from an artistic and social philosophy inspired by the New York City graffiti art subculture of the ’70s. The name originates from a subway tunnel, called the Zoo York Tunnel, running underneath the area of the Central Park Zoo. This tunnel was a haunt of early old school graffiti artists who hung out with the hippies around the Central Park Bandshell in the late-’60s and ’70s. This crew of artists and skaters were instrumental in developing the hip-hop scene in New York during the ‘70s.
In the early ‘90s, three skateboard fans, Rodney Smith, Eli Gesner and Adam Schatz, resurrected the name by pasting it onto apparel, skate decks, and footwear. Today, Zoo York has grown into an international brand with corporate offices in mid-town Manhattan and posting rights of $22 million in retail sales for 2004, thanks to a youth-infested subculture that realizes that comfort can actually manifest a predilection for style. Sooner or later, this subculture infiltrates the mainstream, eventually causing a full-grown trend. Think about it: Where do you think this year’s ubiquitous skull and bones logo originate from?
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Marc Ecko brands are available at the Ecko Unlimited Concept Shop, second floor, TriNoma, North Ave, Rustan’s Makati and SM department stores.
Zoo York is available at all Rustan’s, Stoked, and Shoe Salon stores.
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