Youth Quake: April 2009

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Locals only

SOPHOMORE

Do you feel like teenagers and high school is a very big influence? I mean, the brand is called Sophomore…

Nostalgia I think in general. Our theory with the graphics is that we want people to kind of look at them and have a double take. Like there are two meanings. One, it looks cool visually and two, there’s a deeper reference.

Do you think the name Sophomore lends itself to that?

Yeah, I mean we wanted something collegiate. Then we looked up the word Sophomore and it means wise fool. We thought that was cool.

Do you think people who don’t live in New York will get the references you make on most of the shirts?

Sometimes I’m surprised when they do get it, other times they won’t get it and they’ll just buy it because they see it on someone.

Are you ever afraid that they’re going to be too New York?

Well when we did the “Page Six Six Six” shirt, I really don’t think Page Six was as big then as it is now. So I knew that people were buying it just because they saw Britney wearing it. They didn’t think about what it meant and also it sort of just looked like newspaper. I’m trying to think of another example that was like really insider and no one else got. Oh, we did a “Max Fischer for President”,like all the clubs he was in on the back. I think that was too insider. It didn’t sell well. “Stay Gold” did great because everyone knows that movie, but you don’t have to know that it’s The Outsiders. When we first started making shirts, we sold them at Union and Anything, those were the people that were buying our stuff and talking about us. So we kind of wanted to keep that mentality even though now the graphics are a little bit more accessible, especially the moon and the sun. It’s more just kind of graphically cool and not as insider. That’s what we want to stick with, that feeling.

Read the rest of the Interview with Chrissie Miller HERE