Stay Loose 2012 Clothing Line

Stay Loose launched its first clothing line in October 2012—the collection included two t-shirt designs, a zip-up hoodie, a snow beenie and four skatedeck designs.

The 2012 Collection

Photography

I never skateboarded a day in my life—it was coincidence that I had an unused skatedeck hanging around my apartment and decided to try printing one of my designs on it using an ink transfer method using mod podge. I brought a couple of the decks along with me when I started tabling at events that year and ended up meeting some skaters and saw this as an opportunity to get some nice brand images.

I also met and reached out to a couple of other local creative people that first year to get some lifestyle shots and start to build the brand lifestyle.

Video

Lookbook

I hand-made a lookbook to bring to events. The cover is made out of cardboard with canvas stitched on top of it. I used the same mod podge image transfer technique as I did on the skatedecks to print the Stay Loose badge logo on the cover. Inside are 7’ x 7’ pages bound by string.

Promotions, Traffic Drivers and Misc. Social Post Samples

The early days of Stay Loose on social media were dedicated to introducing people to the brand and essentially working out what the brand was in real-time. With the custom skatedecks I was creating and all the photos of skaters I was getting, our identity was very skate-forward early on.

Stickers

We printed two stickers to match our t-shirt designs and used them as hangtags and to hand out at events.

Festivals & Events

Humble beginnings for sure, that first year I built everything from scratch including a big wooden display that wrapped around my table that I could hang my hand printed skatedecks, t-shirts and hand painted Stay Loose sign. I only made a few sales at these first events but I was unbelievably determined and inspired to continue. I also met some good people including a young skater named Keegan Cumisky, who represented the brand for a number of years and a local singer/songwriter named Matt Long.

My first ever tabling at Amityville Apple Festival October 2012

Valley Stream High School December 2012

Art in the Park in Long Beach, NY October 2012