I met Jeff Staple at Jackson Ward. The nearly two-hour talk we had, over coffee and tea at Ettamae’s, was an incredibly inspiring experience. If you had told me over the summer that in a few months Jeff would be flying into Richmond from New York late Sunday night, that he’d be eating his first Richmond meal at New York Fried Chicken around midnight, and that I’d be having a sit down conversation with him two blocks from my apartment the following morning; I would have laughed in your face, especially from the New York Fried Chicken bit.
But yet, that all happened thanks to the VCU Student Hip Hop Organization (SHHO), a group of VCU students and alumni whose aim is simple: higher learning through hip-hop. SHHO collaborated with the VCU Brandcenter to bring Jeff Staple to Richmond for a lecture, held on September 13th. I’ve been to several of the VCU Brandcenter guest lectures and this was one of the most packed and diverse crowds I’ve seen. For those who don’t know, Jeff Staple (otherwise known as Jeff Ng) is a hugely influential figure in the worlds of communication design, hip-hop, sneaker culture, streetwear culture, and fashion in general. He is the founder of Staple Design, Staple Clothing, and NYC retail spaces, Reed Space & Reed Annex. He is the man behind the now legendary chaos of the Nike Pigeon Dunk and other collaborations with Nike, New Balance, Oakley, Lomo, Mountain Dew, Airwalk, Starter, Penfield, Kid Robot, Burton Snowboards, among others.
Preview: A Conversation with Jeff Staple from SHHO on Vimeo.
The man is both a veteran and a tastemaker of streetwear culture. His work defines and evolves the game all at once. In an industry full of shallow tee shirt graphics and nonsensical collaborations, Jeff Staple is an established standout. It would be easy to go on and on about his influence but I will choose not to preach. Instead, a word to the wise: Let the wise speak.
NEIL: Could you tell us the reason behind the names Staple Design and Reed Space?
JEFF: When I started making simple t-shirt graphics out of school, I wasn’t even really trying to start a company. I was just wearing one of my shirts when I walked into a store (Triple 5 Soul) and the guy that was working the store wanted to buy my shirts. But I didn’t have a brand at that point. I just had to think of a brand like right there on the spot. So I came up with Staple and that dude named me Jeff Staple. This was back in ‘96/97, and I was so dissatisfied with what hip hop fashion had to offer. I loved hip hop music and I loved the lifestyle, but the clothing was so cornball that I couldn’t be caught dead in it. This was like when Ecko was really popping off, and Sean John was just coming out and I was like, “Man, this is so much loud, meaningless yelling.” To me, the best parts of fashion were what laid underneath. Not the bling factor. So I just wanted to take hip hop back to the staple foundation, you know, the roots--the essential material that you can’t live without. That is what a staple is. Staple Design is like the design that requires the raw, basic, essential elements and that’s it. No added bullshit on top. And I went with that.
Reed Space is named after my high school art teacher, Michael Reed, who was really the first teacher that not only taught me about art and being creative, but also about communication--being able to convey messages and thoughts and ideas in a positive light. Designing and teaching are basically transferring messages from one person to another. He was incredible at that. He taught you without you feeling like you were being taught. He made you thirsty, which was dope. He passed away while he was teaching me and it had a huge effect on me. The one teacher that I really loved was taken in midyear, and that really hit me hard. That was in ’93, and I didn’t start Reed Space until 2002. So [for] nine years, I kept him in my mind, and when I decided to open my store, I named it after Michael Reed.
NEIL:How long did he teach you for?
JEFF: One year. Not even--half a year. Let me give you an example of what he did. I had just got a car back then, and it was a Honda Civic Hatchback. I bought these ill speakers that you put into the trunk. I was really happy, but then there’s the back seat and the hatchback in the rear and I couldn’t hear anything because there’s no way for the sound to escape. So I was telling Mr. Reed about this and he was like, “You should just take the lid off, cut holes in it, and ventilate it.” I was saying, “That’s nice, but I don’t know how to do any of that shit.” And he was like, “After class, let’s do it, you and I.” So after class we went into the workshop, the wood cutting shop. He got a hacksaw and was teaching me how to do it the whole time. We jury-rigged this really nice aerated mesh grill, all handmade by me and him, all after school hours. He didn’t have to do that shit.
NEIL: I’ve never had a teacher like that.
JEFF: Exactly. It was so dope that he took the time out. I always remember that. To me, it’s important to take time out, lend an extra hand. Whether it’s for one person or two hundred people, or a thousand people. The more people I could touch, it just adds to the world, you know? Just trying to carry on what Mr. Reed taught me.
NEIL: How was it growing up in Jersey? How important of an influence was New York City?
JEFF: Well, Jersey is a small state. Where I came from, Monouth County in New Jersey, is just rural, suburbia. It’s small. And I think, from a very young age, I needed to get out of New Jersey. I appreciate where I came from, but I knew that the speed of New Jersey wasn’t for me. I was coming into New York every weekend. My parents worked in the city and from a young age, like ten years old, they’d be like, “All right, we gotta work, so just walk in the city. Don’t go above 23rd Street.” They just threw me out there by myself.
NEIL: How old were you?
JEFF: Like less than thirteen. Maybe twelve or eleven years old.
NEIL: Must have had some crazy shit happen to you.
JEFF: Yeah, man. It was great! (laughs) I got conned so many times, but that’s how you learn. Like hey, little guy, want some sunglasses? And three card monte, like, “You got ten dollars, little kid? Come on, you can see where the ball is, right?” But that’s how you learned. You get conned. So I just felt, from a really early age, like the speed of New Jersey was not fast enough for me. I knew I was going to NYU before entering high school. Like there’s no question about it, you know? I applied for early admission.
I also always knew that there’s a big difference between people who were born and raised in a big metropolitan city versus those people who were born in the outskirts, suburbs, small cities, then moved into the city. Not to stereotype and pigeonhole everybody, but I think if you’re born and raised in New York, you feel like you’re privileged.
NEIL: Like assholes?
JEFF: *Laughs* I don’t know if they’re assholes, but more like, “Yo, I was born and raised in New York, I deserve to be here by default.” Outsiders are just hungrier. A person from the outside is more humble, hardworking, diligent. It’s a broad stroke, but I’ve found that to be very true in every city that I’ve been to. I’m very appreciative of the fact that I came from a small town, and I think I still have small town sensibilities deep down, even though I’ve seen the world.
NEIL: You’re quite the jetsetter. What do you think the importance of traveling is?
JEFF: The most important thing about traveling is to understand that the world is bigger than the place that you occupy. I could see how if you come from a certain area, the problems of that area and the obstacles in that area, and even the accomplishments, both good and bad, are your whole world. If you have a problem, it’s like, “Aw man. Fuck this town.” Or if something dope happens, it’s like, “Yeah, I’m the king of this town.” But then you got sorta zoom out a little bit and realize, like on Google Maps. You could just zoom out one click, and you’re meaningless. You know, maybe if you’re like a true baller, than you zoom out five clicks and people still care about you. But eventually, I don’t care who you are, you could be like Lady Gaga or Kanye West, you’re gonna zoom out to the point where people don’t give a shit about you. Travel reminds you of that. You go to a place and go, “Wow, everything I’ve done means nothing here. Everything I’ve accomplished, people don’t give a shit.” And conversely, every stressful thing that hinders me in New York or wherever you’re from, doesn’t hinder me here. You need to travel in order to open yourself up to think on a global level. It’s not just about me sitting here doing this or that. It’s really how it could affect or potentially affect the whole entire world.
NEIL: What do you think of the current state of streetwear culture? And what do you think about the use of that term to describe this culture anyway? It’s kind of an odd term.
JEFF: It is an odd term, but whatever, I’m not ashamed of it. People use it a lot, but it’s just a broad term so I don’t really mind it. In terms of where it’s going right now, I think it’s been in a weird spot for a while. We’re fortunate enough to live on the cusp of the culture. So when shit starts to look good, we’re generally the first ones to feel it. And then there’s mainstream that’s in the middle--they feel it later. When sneaker culture, for example, began to feel wack and corny, and it started to not be in a good place, we felt that. Me and the people I work with were probably sick of Dunks like five years ago. And maybe now, like a year ago, the mainstream is finally starting to be sick of Dunks. There’s such a delay, it’s almost like it’s back around. Like we were sick of camo, and then two or three years later, the mainstream was sick of camo. But now that the mainstream’s sick of camo, we’re kind of cool with camo again. You know? *Laughs* And then it looks like we’re behind. We’ve sort of lapped them, and they’re like, “oh this guy’s trying to bring back…” No. We already did a lap. We’ve already been there. So I think it’s in a weird place right now but I also think that the movement that replaced street culture is Americana. Plaid shirts, chambray shirts, right? That’s it. If you open a store now, it’s gotta have a dead moose head on the wall, you need old wood, a burning fireplace, that’s the look right now. That will pass, and what’s going to replace it is the rejection of Americana, which is street culture again. Like in your face revolutionary statements, maybe mixed with an infusion of Americana. The reason people like Americana is the craftsmanship, and the time that was put into it. It’s also a rejection of things made overseas, in China and stuff. So I think what you’ll see is the mentality of street culture mixed with the craftsmanship of Americana. Maybe you won’t see street culture the way it was, like a kid silkscreening a shirt in his bath tub. Maybe now it’ll be a 100% whole cotton shirt made in America that an artist in Vermont silk screened, but with like a dope graphic or message. I think that’ll be really good.
People ask me, “Isn’t streetwear dead?” I think it’s just evolving. I think like, Kanye, love him or hate him, is a great example. You could say hip hop is dead [according to] a definition that you have of hip hop, and you don’t think he is a hip hop artist, but he is a hip-hop artist--an evolution of the hip hop artist. I think that’s what’s happening with streetwear right now. What you think of streetwear as, like all-over print guns on a shirt, that might be dead. But I have a friend who really hates on streetwear, cause he’s all into Americana and he’s always like, “How are you surviving? Street culture is dead.” And I’m like, “You realize that everything I’m wearing is street culture, right? You don’t make that connection?”
NEIL: What do you think are the best forms of communication today, in terms of reaching the consumer?
JEFF: Twitter. I think Twitter is amazing. It’s kind of sad though. The reason why it’s so effective is because it’s so easy and so quick. And if you’ve been on this Earth long enough, you’ll know that anything that’s easy and quick is never really that good. It’s like sex, or fried chicken. *Laughs* But in terms of being able to communicate, it’s so powerful. I thought when I had a blog it was powerful, but Twitter blows blogging out of the water in terms of accessibility and touching people right away. Then again, it’s just about communicating, it’s not about authenticity or accuracy. All these things go out the window. When you go out in the Wild West of blogging and twittering, almost anything goes. I just started following Dave Chappelle today and I don’t even know if it’s really Dave Chappelle. It could be a girl in her panties in her bed just pretending to be Dave Chappelle. I have no idea. So validity is very very dicey in this new age world, but it’s also very quick and accessible.
NEIL: I feel like there’s duality here. I mean, why did you start a print magazine like Reed Pages?
JEFF: I’m really passionate about magazines, so I want to try to make a magazine you know? People want to be able to touch something. It’s an experience. People want to cherish something and put it on their bookshelf and access it. It’s not like you can’t access an old Hypebeast post months later or something. You can. You just do a search. But there’s just something about the process. Anything of a digital nature is strictly junk food. It’s the difference between eating a Peter Luger prime rib steak and Doritos. Have you ever looked at a blog or Facebook for too long, so that it feels like you’ve eaten a huge bag of chips by yourself? (laughs) You feel sick, whereas if you’ve eaten a dope steak, you just feel like, “Ahhh.” You’re in heaven. And that’s what I want Reed Pages to exist as.
NEIL: There’s this advertising book called the Brand Gap that you may have heard of. They define a brand as what people think about you, not what you say about the brand. It’s their gut feeling of the brand that defines what the brand is. For the Jeff Staple experience, what do you want people’s gut feeling to be?
JEFF: Fuck. I just want them to have an opinion. I don’t care what the feeling is. I think a lot of brands spend too much time and money in trying to steer their consumers into feeling a certain way. “I want you to feel safe when you think about my brand. I want you to feel rebellious.” I just want you to think about my brand. Maybe it’s naïve of me to say, but I just feel honored when anyone thinks about what I’ve created. Whenever I see someone hold a Reed Space shopping bag I’m like, “Holy shit, that dude spent money at my store. That’s dope.” It’s still wild that that shit happens. So love it or hate it, I just want you to have an opinion. Like, I love haters. I think haters are some of my biggest source of inspiration. We just recently did an Oakley collection, a six piece collection. The last one to come out was the Frogskin, which was pigeon inspired. I saw some guy saying, “Man, can’t Staple do anything other than those stupid fucking pigeons?” OK, this dude’s obviously an idiot, but also, I’m not doing a very good job at explaining what my company does. Because obviously we do a lot more than pigeons. With this kid, whatever rock he’s living under, I need to get to that rock. That is the inspiration that drives me.
NEIL: When it’s all said and done, how do you want to be remembered by other people?
JEFF: I think this is where my Asian blood kicks in. I just want to be remembered for being a hard working person, that’s it. I just put in my hours and did what I could.
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Thanks to the Student Hip-Hop Organization, the VCU Brandcenter, and of course Jeff Staple.
To see more of Jeff’s work and to purchase product.
www.stapledesign.com
www.reedspace.com
For the full length video interview www.theshho.com
by Neil Lopez (www.thisisforyoumom.com)
Interview and Lecture Photos by Duy Nguyen (www.acollegeproject.com)