Roots by Be Unequaled

Our latest Q & A features German brand, 667.

Who or what are you?
We are 667

Who or what does 667 represent?
667 is a mindset 667 is a battle call 667 must not believe the hype 667 is one step ahead of the devil 667 is urbanwear for extreme and mobile action

What was the main idea behind 667? 667:
To print our own t-shirts just for us the Team 667

Why, when and where did it all begin?
When 667 started in 1997 we had no clue about the fashion business. Our motivation wasn't to build up a fashion brand; we just played with the idea of how to generate a platform for our complex field of creativity. What we wanted was to create a brand just for us that should appeal to a network of people with different creative thoughts. 667 was born and we started to print the classic 667 t-shirt on a self-built printing machine for a limited number of friends. The founders of 667 were pioneers in their surroundings, bringing streetart to t-shirts just using their own equipment and know-how. Nowadays, you can say that the 667 brand was born out of a tightly knit team of people with a solid background in graphic design, music, acting, filming and classic motor sports. And still the major value of the 667 network is to keep on reaching personal goals with the interdisciplinary help of the network. The slogan "one step ahead of the devil" symbolizes the powerful thought of breaking limits in a very positive way. We play with in the foolish surroundings of devilish thoughts and we live to generate a joyful, powerful and unique lifestyle. 667 is not a typical clothing company, 667 is a street fashion brand with its roots in reading the environment and reflecting it in it's own style. 667 supports different creative projects such as documentary films, movie projects, bands, dj's and ideas which represent a unique style of searching for limits, always being one step ahead...

Who is your target audience?
People understanding our slogan "one step ahead of the devil" in the right way.

What word or phrase sums 667 up best?
We are a kind of guardian angel!

What does the future hold for 667?
We don't know the future but I will ask my crystal ball tomorrow

Who or what are your biggest influences?
Reading the cities we are traveling to, motors, banksy, our handprinting machine, spraycans, our friends!

and finally, what makes 667 stand out from the crowd?
Our weapons are the ideas!

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Thanks to Mirko of 667 for his help with the Q & A.

What is Karmaloop?
Karmaloop is a community of style that sells clothing to the global streetwear culture, hard to find and limited edition gear for men and women

Who or what does Karmaloop represent?
We represent the type A personality, the early adopter, the influencer. The person who cares about having style, these are the people who are DJ's, Musicians, artists, designers, promoters, authors, or people who just like to turn the party out and live life!

What was the main idea behind Karmaloop?
Karmaloop was created as an alternative were people could find dope gear, people are sick off all the bull shit and conformity at the mall we have lots of stuff you won't be able to find anywhere else, we provide universal reach to the most innovative and flyest gear on the planet, we sell to over 35 countries world wide. With that being said about our quest for the unique, limited, and underground we are not all dogmatic about it we have a few brands on Karmaloop that have made it really big and or are bigger brands like LRG, Artful Dodge, Adidas, Nike we don't hate on success even if the brand is big if the stays true and are about good design then they make the cut. But we still have the brands on the site that might be one dude grinding out T-shirts in Brooklyn some place that is gonna be the next LRG or Stussy.

When and where did it all begin?
2000 in my parents basement in JP Boston MA! Man the stuff we went through to make this happen you wouldn't believe it floods, low money, no money, maxing out credit cards, getting robbed the list keeps going on but we kept believing and kept pushing and we have had amazing customers who have stuck with us and helped spread the word. We have over 15,000 Karmaloop customer Reps around the world that hold it down for us and promote the site When I started the company I had another job I used to pack the orders myself take them on the subway in the morning drop them at the post office and then go into work in a cubical....

How has karma been to Karmaloop?
Karma has been damn good, we have had a lot of luck, a lot of help, and a lot good stuff happen to us!

The Kazbah couldn't have been an easy thing to put together, what prompted Karmaloop to even think of such a feature for their store?
Basically Kazbah is an underground marketplace for the most up and coming underground brands. People kept hitting me up wanting us to carry their brand on Karmaloop like 10 a week, a lot of them were amazing but were to small to carry on the main site so we set up Kazbah selected only the best of the best and let them sell through the site meaning they do all of their own customer service and fulfillment. The response has been crazy! And it feels really good to see some of these brands just coming up killing it, some of them had little or no distribution before Karmaloop now they are global growing like wildfire! People need to check brands like 9 Grand, Beandip, Jeepney, Methods, Gold Coin...these brands got next, these are some talented cats, hustling and building the next LRG's the next OBEY's, I wish I could name them all because they are all dope.

Who or what has been the biggest influence to the store as a whole, or to the running of Karmaloop?
The customers and all of the staff all the people here from the beginning who never quit never gave up

The Karmaloop store has been around for a while now, but in recent years it's gained more and more exposure, how are you guys coping?!
Things are cool we are coping and just trying to go with the flow, working long days!

What does the immediate future hold for Karmaloop?
Karmaloop TV you will see it is going to be amazing! The Karmaloop Ikons programs we have people we think are streetwear Ikons modeling for the site we already have had some huge people sign on DMC, Gym Class Hereos, Common, Jason Lee, Roxy Oxycottontail

Where do you see Karmaloop a year, 5 years and 10 years from now?
Hopefully still selling gear and making moves

What are Karmaloops biggest goals and aspirations as a store or business?
Have fun, reach people and have an influence on people and culture, and make money

Have you achieved them or are still being worked towards?
Yes but hopefully there is more of all three to come!

What word or phrase sums Karmaloop up best?
bezerkoogearology

and finally, what makes Karmaloop stand out from the crowd?
We give a shit and love what we do!

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A huge thanks to Greg Selkoe, CEO of Karmaloop!

Who or what does Shawnimals represent?
At its core, Shawnimals is the characters and the world that are representations of all my creative parts. Video games, movies, comics, toys, etc. from my past all inform and inspire and become what Shawnimals is today. Shawnimals as a company is myself, my wife Jen and a handful of part-time workers.

What was the main idea behind Shawnimals?
An act of selflessness against a very evil being not only tipped the balance of good vs evil in Shawnimaland in favor of good, it also helped create the very first Shawnimal.

Why, when and where did it all begin?
As a company, it all began in my apartment in the middle of Illinois. A town called Normal, believe it not. It was after I quite my job as an editor at Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine, when I went back to college to study painting. I met my wife Jen, and I started making stuffed animals from misshapen characters from my sketchbook. That was back in 2001, and then it really wasn't until 2002 that the company formed. It's one of those things where it just made sense to make stuffed things from my drawings, since at the time I was tired of just drawing and painting things.

Will Shawnimals be sticking to what they know or branching out into other areas?
We have many seeds planted, so expect lots of branching. Vinyls, of course, but other toys, other merchandise, and other very fun, interactive things that we can't yet speak about.

What else does the future hold for Shawnimals?
We hope a lot. The biggest thing is the move from doing everything in-house, to having some of our line manufactured. We're happy that we'll still be producing limited edition lines in-house, but higher production characters (like the pocket ninja and so on) will be made in a factory. We're excited because it will actually allow us to be designers again, instead of manufacturers.

Who is your target audience?
It's a pretty wide range these days, but I'd say our core audience is predominantly female late teens / early 20s, but it expands beyond that, too, and often includes males, and, of course, kids. We're unique in that designer toy collectors dig what we do, but also some mainstream folks like our stuff because it's cute, and weird, and plush.

What word or phrase sums Shawnimals up best?
Cute enough to be lovable, weird enough to be unique

What has been Shawnimals' biggest achievement?
Allowing our business and creative path to evolve naturally. We started a while back, with literally nothing, and slowly but surely grow into what we are. No large sums of capital, no secret trust fund, and no hook ups into the toy industry from mom and pops. Just hard work, learning from mistakes, and trying to stay afloat the whole time. Now with write ups in Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, ELLEgirl, Seventeen.com and many, many others, I feel like we're at a really good point right now. We have a lot more to do, but we're very happy.

Who or what are Shawnimals biggest influences?
This is also a tough questions, because some are so obvious and others are somewhere deep in the recesses of our minds. I have a ton of respect for Dehara, Bwana Spoons, Devilrobots, Little Friends of Printmaking and many others. Generally though, it's trying to create a character that has some sort of twist. Like it's not just cute for the sake of being cute. There's some sort of neurosis, or some oddball thing about it. Like it might be cute, but it's got a moustache, or it might be throwing up, or it be ugly, but in that way it's pathetic and you want to take care of it.

and finally, what makes Shawnimals stand out from the crowd?
This is tough, too. I mean, as a creative person I want to leave the analysis to the critics and the people who are looking and buying our stuff. I'd like to think it's the odd balance we create between familiarity and weirdness. Like our Ninja. It's simple and direct, but there's something to it that people continue to love. Our Moustachio character. There's a lot of moustache stuff out there, but not like ours... a moustache with a moustache. Ultimately, it's up to people to figure it out though I suppose.

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Thanks to Shawn of Shawnimals for his help with the Q & A.

Welcome to the first ever Be Unequaled Q & A. We've been around the web to get in touch with some exciting brands and stores to bring you some great interviews. First up in the series is Threadless.com

Who or what is Threadless all about?
Threadless is a 24/7/365 t-shirt design contest. Designs are submitted, voted on, and commented upon by Threadless users.

Who or what does your Threadless represent?
MY Threadless? It's a wonderful world of artwork where graphic designers can get recognized for their work, a community can connect, and most importantly, where people can come to buy amazing shirts unavailable anywhere else.

Why, when and where did it all begin?
It was started in 2000 by Jacob DeHart and Jake Nickell in Chicago. Jake had won a one-time t-shirt contest held by NMUF in London. The two came up with the idea to create a website built upon that idea.

In the past year, a lot of changes have been made to threadless.com, so what else does the future hold for Threadless and skinnyCorp?
We're opening a physical store here in Chicago in late summer! We have a lot of other new exciting projects in the works that we can't really disclose yet.

Who is your target audience?
Designers, those excited about designers, and those excited about designer t-shirts.

What word or phrase sums Threadless up best?
Community!

Do Threadless have a favorite design? If so, which one?!
That's a tough question, so i'll just say the biggest selling design: Flowers in the Attic

and finally, what makes Threadless really stand out from the crowd?
Our designs are completely community based and every employee here is also a part of that community. We're not just a t-shirt store. It's a place to come and connect!

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A huge thanks to Bob Nanna of Threadless.com for his help with the Q & A!