by Jacob Espinoza. Photography by Lacey Ward.
Capital Brand creates clothing with a local flavor that have an international appeal and isn’t afraid of a little controversy.
TJ Hooker, Ike Boogie and Josh Walker create fresh designs that appeal to the hip hop culture, sports fans and sneaker heads by spinning familiar icons and logos in original ways. The name, Capital Brand, is based on the fact that their hometown Portland is the sneaker capital of the world.
The company began as a boutique store on MLK called Caviar, selling clothes from various urban designers. Their business model changed drastically after they started designing their own t-shirts. A design they created mimicking the logo for Dunkin’ Donut, “Dunks N’ Jordans”, hit the blog circuit in 2006 with an overwhelming response–including being posted on Hypebeast.com. The response forced them to expand their development quicker than intended (and the design ended up getting them into some legal issues with Nike).
“I always say nothing ever goes as planned. This is not what we planned. We all have a lot of things we are good at. This is just what worked.” Said TJ Hooker.
Sneaker collectors themselves, they originally funded the business by selling their own Jordan collections on Ebay and other online sites. They sold over 150 pairs of sneakers and made over $10,000. Their shirts have since appeared on artists such as Ice Cube, Jae Millz of Young Money, Kid Ink, Yelawolf, Ill Will, and Stalley. Their “Rare” New Era hat was featured in the Soulja Boy video “Digital”.
They were also approached by Boyz II Men’s management about having the legendary R n’ B artists wear their shirts during a performance on network television. Capital Brand respectfully declined.
“It’s crazy thinking that 15-years-ago that would have been the dopest shit ever, but now it’s like ‘I don’t want Boyz II Men wearing our gear,'” said TJ Hooker.
The store is still at the same location but now has The Capital Brand logo printed on the window and only sells designs from their own collections along with vintage hats and jackets.
Their Summer ’11 Collection has been hugely successful thanks in large part to a shirt that reads “Fuck Your Swag” and a favorite for Blazer fans everywhere that resemble the Los Angeles Lakers logo but reads “Losers.”(Dallas 4, Lakers 0, in case you forgot).
Every shirt hasn’t been as successful. The crew works hard in the designing phase and says they have 30 designs for every one that ends up getting printed on a shirt.
“That’s one of the things that’s been fun about it. Just challenging yourself to be humble and excel,” said Ike Boogie.
Some shirts that get printed end up getting taken off the shelf earlier than expected. Josh told us about one design they had titled “Kicks in a Box” that never quite caught on. The shirt was a play on a funny music video starring Justin Timberlake called “D*ck in Box.”
“Time is of the essence,” said Josh. “Maybe if we would have come out with it the same time as the video came out it would have caught on a little better.”
A “Winning” t-shirt they created directly after the infamous Charlie Sheen interview had more success.
A recent headline on their blog read, “We went from tagging walls, to tagging shirts.” That headline is exactly what the American Dream is all about. They’ve made the necessary sacrifices to put themselves in a position to make a living off their talents. The same aggressive, witty and at times deviant nature of street art now gets applied to the designs they put on their shirts.
This mindset has helped them create some brilliant shirts but has also put them in some grey areas legally. They’ve received cease and desist letters from both Nike and the NBA for images placed on their shirts. They recently got in a bit of a trouble for a popular t-shirt design they created that read “Nike Head” and contained a picture of a female giving fellatio to a Nike Swoosh. Some shirts they’ve been forced to make changes to, but they’ve been forced to take others off their shelves entirely–namely their “Dunks N’ Jordans” t-shirt.
“It’s been a fun ride, but we have a lot of ride in us.” Said Ike Boogie.
Make sure you check out Capital Brand at www.thecapitalbrand.com.
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Josh, TJ Hooker, IKE Boogie
