Where do you see the current scene heading as it’s growing and what do you think that will lead to in the future?

Today we think we are getting really big. I'm not talking about BKRW, I’m talking about the whole industry. Everything we think is really big is really small. Even Hypebeast is really, really small. When we see how many people there are in the world, how many connections we have is nothing. So yeah, for sure, in the future we will be even bigger. We aren’t that many people today; it’s still underground. For us, it’s not really underground anymore, because it’s already more than three years old, but it’s all still underground. I think that in like 3-5 years a big company from advertising or from a magazine will do like what we’re doing, but not exactly the same. They will pick up the best things from SlamxHype, the best things from BKRW, and say let’s put it in our web magazine. Today if you look at Vogue magazine, their website is bullshit. Vogue is one of the stronger magazines in the world in the fashion industry, but their website is no good. So let people grow up. Then there will be new graphic designers, new web designers, and they will come to this kind of industry and say, it’s over, let me do something new. And it will be new. In five, ten years probably, I think with the Internet it will be really quick, so in five years, there will be an explosion.

Do you think that with the current growth of street culture, will it ever become so big that it will take away from the original roots that the culture is founded on?

Yeah, we always take away from the roots. Who can say that Echo is bad for the market? Nobody can say that. Who can say that LRG is bad for the market? Who can say that? It’s bad for the background; it’s bad for the roots. But in some ways it pushes the new generation to create something new. If the young generation doesn’t try to do something new, it will be bad, because it will be the end of street culture. But that will never happen. For my generation, the big examples are Echo or Triple 5 Soul. When we started in around 1990, it was really the beginning of streetwear, even in the US. It was ’90; it was the beginning of Echo. I met Mark Echo in his house in New Jersey. It was young guys. They did drawings in their parents’ garage, blah blah blah, really young. Five years after that, he sold the company and became what he is today. You can say he sold out or whatever, but street culture is still there, the background is still there, the roots from the beginning are still there. We have some new people in this new culture, so it would be the same if Crooks or 10 Deep became really huge. I think we will have people that are now ten years old who in 5-8 years will come out with new things, new ideas, new designs, new concepts. This is what I’ve come to accept in someways. I’m 37 years old. I started this business 20 years ago and it's still not dead. It’s good to show people that you can start with something small and you can explode. Today Fujiwara is one the godfathers of streetwear, but three years ago who knew about him, except for the real underground people? But Fujiwara, how much money does he make? Nobody cares. We respect him. I have a lot respect for Echo; I’ve got a lot of respect for Fujiwara; I’ve got a lot of respect for Camella from Triple 5 Soul. I met her a long, long time ago.

         But I also have a lot of respect for the people who started in this industry with the real roots and ten years after, they decide to do some business. You start the business when you’re 15 years old, then, after you are 20, after you are 25, one day you want to do [real] money. It’s not your role to always be authentic. I’ve got kids today, so in some way I need to make money. I try to be always in the middle between business and culture. But I have to make a living. I have to pay the rent, I have to pay the school, I have to pay for everything. But in some ways I don’t sell [out] my culture. I use my background to make some money. When I did the Bearbrick for Chanel, I didn’t sell [out] the culture of street toys. I just mixed two things, my culture with toys and my connection with Chanel. I do both and a little business. What can I say? It’s not good? I don’t care what people think. I know everybody was really crazy about the Chanel x Bearbrick. But in a way, it’s just business; it’s not underground. Who can say that Chanel is underground? It’s just respectable because it’s high fashion. But we don’t care; it’s just money. So this is what I say: you can respect your culture and your role and you can do money. Besides that, you have a few brands, like SSUR, Russell, which has always been a small brand, but he also does some design work. He keeps his culture in this way. It depends on what you want. For sure, I’m not crazy about Echo or LRG, but I can understand them and I can respect that. I can’t say these guys don’t come from my culture; they come from my culture, but he sold his company and took another way. I think all the new brands that are coming up would love to be there. Even if people want to stay really underground, they want to become like Supreme, and Supreme, who can say they don’t want to do money? Like Stussy, they don’t do money? Haha. But Supreme is underground. It’s underground, but how much money do they make?  I think it’s not bad. I think it’s really good if some people don’t like this, because it pushes them to do new things.

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