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What You Get From It with Hello, Cool Teens
260 Plays1 month ago
Something we have long sought on this program is The Ear of The Teens. Well, folks, this week’s show sees The Teen Whisperer in our very studio, where he reports on various teen and non-teen phenomena:
We introduce the Camo Bracket, compare favorites, talk about being a collector, old Banana Republic catalogs, Supreme hats, military surplus, Christian Bale in fatigue pants, Kei trucks, New York, and much more!
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Transcript
Introduction to Jimmy Business
00:00:04
Conor Fowler
Good afternoon. This is one of the making we have in the studio today. Someone very dear to the show, although unknown in some ways. So I think we have a revelatory and insightful discussion with our friend and consultant, Jimmy Business.
00:00:35
Conor Fowler
ah AKA Hello Cool Teens, which I guess is at Hello Cool Teens on Instagram.
Mysterious Persona and Humor
00:00:41
Conor Fowler
This is the premier interview. He's showing face, but only to us.
00:00:46
Matt Smith
yeah
00:00:47
Conor Fowler
So I think that we i think that we are going to get into some normal stuff and then we're going to play a little game.
00:00:55
Matt Smith
oh yeah oh yeah
00:00:57
Conor Fowler
So I don't know how much I how much to reveal about you since you were so mysterious, Mr. Business. So I wonder if you would give us a give us a small sampling of your because I did guess right off the air.
00:01:13
Conor Fowler
I guess the I guess the at least the career correct, right, which is arms dealer.
00:01:16
Mike
yeah Yeah, yeah Sure, so I sold my first handgun no, okay, I'm kidding
00:01:18
Conor Fowler
um And so if you could just, you know, talk your shit a little bit.
00:01:21
Matt Smith
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Introducing Mike and His Interests
00:01:27
Matt Smith
Hahaha!
00:01:27
Conor Fowler
Yeah, i small arms!
00:01:29
Mike
Small I started yeah, I get a bill from somewhere.
00:01:31
Conor Fowler
Right.
00:01:31
Mike
Um, just just I'm gonna go by Mike because Jimmy business every time you say that I'm gonna crack up so mike that's cool um Yeah, Mike i I live in New York City
00:01:36
Matt Smith
Haha, nice, nice.
00:01:38
Conor Fowler
I i like it.
00:01:46
Mike
I'm, ah I don't know, I work in technology. ah I love clothing. I love camo. I love weird shit.
00:01:52
Conor Fowler
Yes, this is the stuff.
00:01:53
Mike
ah You know, that that's pretty much it. I'm... ah Yeah, I mean, that's it.
00:01:57
Conor Fowler
ah consonmate A collector, a like conscious and consummate collector.
00:02:00
Matt Smith
yeah
00:02:01
Mike
um'm i've I've always been a collector.
00:02:04
Conor Fowler
what So this this is a question that is not written down, but what would what do you have a thing that you can remember being the first thing you were collecting? Like for me, probably GI i Joe.
00:02:13
Mike
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, as a as a child of the 80s, you know, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe is a big one, Star Wars. I think I actually started out with Star Wars and I wasn't really a collector in so much as everybody's like, it's your birthday, it's Christmas here, have this Han Solo, have this, you know, whatever, this off-color Luke Skywalker that I later found out, ah you know, 20 years later is worth like five grand and I, you know, burned it with hairspray.
00:02:28
Conor Fowler
sure.
00:02:28
Matt Smith
Right, right.
00:02:31
Conor Fowler
You can collect as much as a kid can.
00:02:41
Mike
ah
00:02:41
Matt Smith
Right. Oh, yeah.
00:02:42
Mike
you Yeah, of course.
00:02:43
Matt Smith
God damn, dude.
00:02:45
Mike
well All the stars and...
00:02:45
Matt Smith
i think I think every one of us certain every everyone of a certain age that has like been quote unquote collecting for any amount of time since our childhood and like has this story where it's like, dude, why in the fuck did I do this?
00:02:56
Mike
Oh yeah, 100%.
00:02:59
Matt Smith
like i I have probably, i don't I don't even know how many hundreds of thousands of like sports cards ah that are basically not worth the paper they're printed it on at this point.
00:02:59
Mike
Yeah.
00:03:06
Mike
Yeah.
Supreme and Collecting Culture
00:03:11
Matt Smith
um unless it is like one of those weird variants but like i pulled i pulled like an 800 hockey card out of a pack when i was a kid and that i've looked it up like from time to time and it's like worth three dollars or something now like motherfucker why didn't i sell this when i was 12
00:03:23
Mike
Yeah, yeah.
00:03:26
Mike
Yeah, that that's you know that that's how it goes. And and you know honestly, I see a lot of that, too. and in I mean, not so much anymore. I think it's a lot of it has died down, but especially around you know the Supreme World and the hype world, where people just buy the stuff.
00:03:41
Mike
And you know there's collectors. They put it in their shelves. And they got it in plastic. And like I can respect that. But at the same time, if I'm going to buy a stupid accessory from Supreme, I'm going to use it.
00:03:51
Matt Smith
Right.
00:03:52
Mike
I'm going to use the you know the beaker.
00:03:52
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:03:54
Mike
I'm going to use the axe. i'm gonna
00:03:56
Conor Fowler
And that's that I feel like the coolest shit that they make probably is the accessories because a lot of them are like have a nice patina, you know, I mean, it's like you can make it your own.
00:03:56
Mike
not money on it Yeah, totally accessories game Yeah Yeah, and they ah they I was thinking about it ah supreme ah has ah
00:04:05
Conor Fowler
That's nice.
00:04:07
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:04:12
Mike
has and And this is just random like ah in their accessories. they've ah They're probably the streetwear brand that's done the most accessories with royal warrants ah attached to them.
00:04:21
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:04:22
Mike
And like i they did like a Kent brush set a couple of years ago and they did something else.
00:04:22
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:04:27
Mike
there was like a buy I had a list somewhere. I was like, oh, what Supreme accessories have royal warrants?
00:04:30
Conor Fowler
Do you know how that happens?
00:04:32
Mike
I have no idea.
00:04:33
Conor Fowler
Yeah. Do you know how that happens? Like they just pitched the queen. Like, I don't understand. Because of course, like the brand is the brand, right? I mean, it's like everybody knows Supreme.
00:04:42
Mike
Yeah.
00:04:44
Conor Fowler
And if Supreme came to you and said, like, let's do a collab, you would probably say yes. Right. I mean, but maybe it isn't maybe it isn't so easy.
00:04:51
Mike
Yeah, sure.
00:04:55
Conor Fowler
I don't know.
00:04:56
Mike
I have in the world of, you know, NDAs and ah protecting your IP, who who knows, but
Life in New York City
00:05:02
Mike
they've definitely pulled some very interesting, you know, accessory collabs out ah over the years.
00:05:02
Conor Fowler
Wait.
00:05:07
Mike
A lot ah lot of fun stuff.
00:05:09
Matt Smith
Yeah, 100%. Are you from New York originally?
00:05:12
Mike
ah So I'm actually originally from Western New York and then I lived in Central New York But I've spent the majority of my life here and in New York City.
00:05:14
Matt Smith
Okay.
00:05:20
Mike
So I've i've been here about almost 30 years I'm in the like South Brooklyn Park Slope area.
00:05:20
Matt Smith
That's awesome. What neighborhood do you live in? Okay.
00:05:28
Mike
Yeah.
00:05:28
Matt Smith
Nice, nice. I spent a good bit of time down that way when I lived there.
00:05:29
Mike
Yeah Yeah Okay, yeah
00:05:29
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:05:32
Matt Smith
I worked in Carroll Gardens, partly in the Lower East Side, also for our our friend Eva with Epaulette. Yeah, South Brooklyn is definitely an interesting thing.
00:05:41
Mike
Cool. Yeah.
00:05:44
Matt Smith
I always loved Kensington too. I dated a good girl that lived down there and I was just like, wow, this is super quiet and chill.
00:05:46
Mike
yeah
00:05:50
Mike
Yeah. Yep. I am. I'm definitely closer to that Windsor Terrace Kensington like South ah Park Slope area. And it really is.
00:05:58
Matt Smith
yeah
00:05:58
Mike
It's like the the suburbs.
00:05:58
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:06:00
Mike
I guess I just said the suburbs of Park Slope because that's ah that's where I'm at.
00:06:04
Matt Smith
Yeah, it kind of makes sense. And yeah, the F train is so much more reliable than the fucking G and L trains that I had to take all the time.
00:06:05
Mike
Yeah.
00:06:08
Mike
Yeah.
00:06:11
Matt Smith
So, you know, wonderful. And it doesn't seem like they've gotten better in my 10 years since I've been gone.
00:06:16
Mike
No, I don't know why they print timetables. It just never makes sense.
00:06:18
Matt Smith
Oh yeah, yeah, same. I mean, it's kind of the same, like like, when I'm driving in Atlanta, they have these signs that's like, you know, six miles, 25 minutes, and I'm like, mother fuck me.
00:06:27
Mike
Yeah, yeah.
00:06:29
Conor Fowler
That's gotta be like you know that there that's like someone's job is to like make you miserable.
00:06:31
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:06:31
Mike
Yeah.
00:06:33
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah.
00:06:34
Mike
Yeah, I...
00:06:36
Matt Smith
As Lewis Black said, it takes away hope.
00:06:38
Mike
Yeah, well, my my my wife lived in LA for 13 years.
00:06:39
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:06:42
Mike
And ah when i used to when i I went out to visit her, and I was like, oh, how far away is this? And she's like, it's five miles. And she's like, oh, no, no, no, it's two hours.
00:06:51
Conor Fowler
fuck that yeah fuck that is my commute i was gonna bitch about my commute which is now more than 30 minutes disgusting two miles hello
00:06:52
Matt Smith
yeah i Yeah, yeah,
00:06:52
Mike
And I'm like, what?
Fashion Influences and Early Memories
00:07:01
Conor Fowler
this is Baltimore no one lives here it's terrible yeah it's like why and it just is uh they're never doing anything
00:07:02
Mike
That's insane. That's insane.
00:07:11
Matt Smith
Yeah, so um Mike, do you remember kind of like a first clothing memory, like something when you were younger that really just like smacked you upside the head?
00:07:21
Mike
Yeah, i mean there's there's two ah I mean, there's kind of two things. One, one some some clothes were like introduced to me. like my My parents were ah were pretty well dressed. My father was a a professor, you know um taught Western Civ.
00:07:36
Conor Fowler
interesting yeah of course let's not forget darren johnson also
00:07:38
Mike
ah He spent a lot of time in England, so he was heavy into the Seville Row, you know tailored suits, ah the whole thing.
00:07:44
Matt Smith
Oh yeah!
00:07:45
Mike
but um right So like you know my my ah you know Sean Crowley, who I know you've also had on your show, he's like he's the guy that's carrying that torch. So like whenever I see his stuff, I'm like, yeah, yeah, Sean definitely knows you know what he's talking about.
00:07:58
Matt Smith
Aha!
00:08:00
Mike
So my... my
00:08:05
Conor Fowler
It was an Anglophile. I will get them. We'll get them. I swear we will.
00:08:09
Mike
So they they they were they were pretty well you know dressed and had some good fashion sense. I remember like old ass Banana Republic catalogs coming to the house, stuff like that.
00:08:17
Matt Smith
Oh, the best!
00:08:18
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:08:19
Matt Smith
The best.
00:08:19
Mike
Yeah, like little you know of yellowish paper, printed black and white.
00:08:23
Mike
um And then my ah my father was friendly with um Tommy Hilfiger's father, this guy named Dick Hilfiger.
00:08:31
Conor Fowler
Hmm.
00:08:32
Mike
They called Hippo. And they knew each other for a bunch of years. and went
00:08:35
Conor Fowler
They called him Hippo.
00:08:36
Mike
um And was his that was his nickname. ah He was like a, what do you call a guy that works on watches?
00:08:39
Conor Fowler
Wow, dude.
00:08:44
Mike
Watchmaker, yeah, I guess that would be it.
00:08:44
Conor Fowler
A horological horologist?
00:08:46
Mike
And yeah. um And so i I guess, and I don't remember all the details because I was like seven or or eight, but my mom went on a trip and she's like, oh, you know, Dick Hilfiger's son owns these clothing stores now.
00:09:02
Mike
Here's some like white canvas pants and a purple like flannel shirt with like the little green, you know, Tommy, you know, a buttonhole.
00:09:09
Conor Fowler
Of course.
00:09:10
Mike
And I was like, okay. And you know you're going to wear this. And then it was like, oh, a spree. I just found out about this. So I i was really rocking some like hard 80s bullshit. But I liked it. And I look at the pictures. I'm like, all right, this is cool. And that was kind of like the, the you know hey, clothes can be fun. And then um I saw, ah what the hell was it? And this is kind of like how I got into like the milserp and like the but camo stuff was I saw ah Empire of the Sun.
00:09:40
Conor Fowler
Sure.
00:09:40
Mike
And there's this shot where Christian Bale like gets these gigantic like oversized baggy fatigue pants. And I was like, I need those pants. And that was kind of like the the moment where I was like, oh man, you know, Milserp and, you know, military clothing can look really cool.
00:09:59
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:09:59
Mike
And I think that was actually, if I were to put a pin in like the start of my interest in in that, ah that would it would probably be that movie.
Camo's Cultural Impact
00:10:06
Matt Smith
Nice. and Yeah.
00:10:07
Conor Fowler
they're like universally appealing i feel like they're one garment that like is almost universally appealing and that's like something but something very special about that i thought it came out like in uh early 2000s or didn't come out much before that
00:10:12
Matt Smith
And I mean...
00:10:13
Mike
Yeah.
00:10:15
Mike
Yeah.
00:10:15
Matt Smith
I don't know off the top of my head when that movie came out, but like...
00:10:22
Mike
No, God, it was like that was big Empire of the Sun, but no, the movie was like it and now I'll date myself.
00:10:23
Matt Smith
Oh no.
00:10:29
Mike
It was like 1988, 89, something like that.
00:10:31
Matt Smith
Yeah, that's what I thought.
00:10:33
Mike
Yeah. Because Christian Bale was like 14.
00:10:35
Matt Smith
87.
00:10:36
Mike
Oh, Jesus. Well, there we go.
00:10:37
Matt Smith
Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, at that point, like, that's a great time to get into military surplus too, because there was fucking surplus stores on every corner.
00:10:39
Conor Fowler
yeah Yeah.
00:10:48
Mike
Yep.
00:10:48
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:10:49
Matt Smith
That's in a little bit of an an exaggeration, but like, you could, yeah.
00:10:51
Mike
No, they were everywhere.
00:10:52
Matt Smith
yeah
00:10:52
Conor Fowler
Compared to that, yeah, I mean.
00:10:54
Matt Smith
they were everywhere and they had good shit like that there was still so much Vietnam stuff and like even World War II and Korean stuff that like was still i mean i remember like i think i started shopping at surplus stores when i was like 12 or 13 and you know not it was
00:10:54
Mike
Yeah.
00:10:56
Mike
Yeah.
00:10:59
Mike
Yeah.
00:11:02
Mike
Yeah.
00:11:10
Conor Fowler
Was sunny surplus a national chain? Have you heard of this? Is that foreign to you, sunny surplus?
00:11:15
Mike
No, no.
00:11:17
Conor Fowler
They had them in Maryland. They had like a yellow rocket ship.
00:11:20
Mike
Oh, wow.
00:11:20
Conor Fowler
I don't know.
00:11:21
Mike
Now.
00:11:21
Conor Fowler
Anyway, that's, that's what was available.
00:11:23
Matt Smith
That's sick. Yeah.
00:11:23
Mike
Yeah.
00:11:23
Matt Smith
Yeah. But like, I remember, you know, if I could go back in time and go to like my, the little you know hole in the wall circle store that I shopped at, like, I would be a millionaire because it was, it was like, and you know, jungle pants and pops and everything, like five bucks a pop stacked to the fucking ceiling.
00:11:24
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:11:34
Mike
Yeah.
00:11:34
Conor Fowler
You can make them in.
00:11:34
Mike
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:11:35
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:11:35
Mike
Yeah.
00:11:35
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:11:37
Mike
Yeah.
00:11:42
Mike
yeah
00:11:42
Matt Smith
I think about this often if you can't tell.
00:11:45
Mike
Yeah, no, that's that is ah that that's definitely you know a lot of like my my fashion ah in you know middle school and yeah I guess end of elementary school.
00:11:55
Mike
like When I started skating too, that was kind of like, you know all the kids I skated with ah were like wearing cut off fatigues or like you know ah olive drab cargo pants and like a t-shirt or a crew neck and you know some shitty air walks.
00:12:11
Mike
And that was just kind of what we wore.
00:12:11
Matt Smith
Oh yeah, yeah.
00:12:13
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:12:13
Mike
and then um You know, i as I got into it more, I was just like, oh, there's other camos out there. And I found out about Strictarn, right? So Raindrop camo.
00:12:23
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:12:24
Mike
And I found out about Flecktarn. And I was like, these are cool patterns. And I was like, oh, but the history behind these patterns. I was like, I'm not going to worry about that. i'm just gonna I like what I like and I'm going to wear it. and
00:12:34
Matt Smith
Yeah, totally.
00:12:34
Mike
It kind of went went from there because as we you know know, Camo can can get political too. and ah you know I try not to delve into politics, but definitely you know Camo can be so many things to so many people.
00:12:46
Mike
It can be just identity. You can like the patterns and colors. You may have a political affiliation or a military affiliation while you're wearing it. um You may just like the cut of the pants and that's the pattern they come in.
00:12:57
Mike
you know there's There's a million reasons.
00:12:57
Matt Smith
Right. Also, since since basically the dawn of army sur or military surplus, people have used it in a counter-cultural way.
00:13:07
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:13:07
Mike
Yeah, 100%.
00:13:08
Matt Smith
like you know Going back to even like the returning vets that you know started motorcycle club culture in in the like late 40s and early 50s, I feel like at its base, like I'm not going to put on a fucking
00:13:08
Conor Fowler
one
00:13:14
Mike
Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.
00:13:25
Matt Smith
German Nazi camo uniform like you know if I see those I don't even think twice about buying them just because like I that's not me um but you know like it's always been this thing where it doesn't have to it has whatever affiliation you put onto it not yeah it is and like like yeah
00:13:26
Mike
Oh, no, God.
00:13:28
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:13:45
Mike
Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.
00:13:46
Conor Fowler
Ultimately it's floral or Plant-based right?
00:13:47
Mike
Yeah.
00:13:51
Conor Fowler
It's like that's it's net it is natural it is nature Yeah
00:13:54
Mike
yeah
00:13:55
Matt Smith
Yeah, and like a big thing for the past few years as someone that like deals in vintage clothing, I've come to love things that the red, or sorry, I don't like to use redneck as a pejorative these days, but the hit assholes wore the like real tree, tree bar, that kind of like hunting camo.
00:14:11
Mike
Oh, yeah.
00:14:12
Conor Fowler
John and I, Leisure Loafing and I, we're talking about this today. like
00:14:16
Matt Smith
Yeah, like, and it's been a big thing of the past few years where like the queer community has started to like reclaim this and it's a big thing in that world.
00:14:19
Mike
Oh, man.
00:14:24
Mike
Yeah, real tree must just be loving the the exposure in especially in like the, ah you know, the streetwear world, sneaker world, and then just I mean, it's been it's been everywhere for a while, but it definitely flipped more.
00:14:32
Matt Smith
Oh, 100%.
00:14:37
Mike
I feel like streetwear started to to focus more on
00:14:37
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:14:40
Mike
a lot of real tree patterns. You see it, you know, Scusey, Supreme, Palace.
00:14:42
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:14:44
Mike
ah I mean, there's there's a million of them out there. And some are great.
00:14:47
Matt Smith
Right.
00:14:49
Mike
But yeah, I spent a good chunk of my ah formative years in in Central New York. ah And, you know, a lot of the clothes were Carhartt, Carhartt, Carhartt.
00:14:59
Mike
And, you know, you bought one jacket a year and it was your hunting jacket.
00:14:59
Matt Smith
Yep.
00:15:00
Conor Fowler
just Yeah. yeah.
00:15:04
Mike
So, you know, it was, it was dual purpose. You got a nice warm, big coat and it might be real tree. It might be, you know, a tree bark pattern. It might be a leaf pattern, but that was like your jacket. And so that was always people who was like, ah you know, I'd bring friends up state from the city.
00:15:13
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:15:18
Mike
They're like, why is everybody in Kamos? Like, cause you know, you commit to one good jacket a year and it's your, your year round jacket.
00:15:24
Matt Smith
Right, right. One of my biggest regrets of letting something go in my life is like the first Supreme hat I ever bought. um I got it used on like super future or something for like 30 bucks or something.
00:15:37
Matt Smith
But it was it was a real tree pattern before they actually had the copyrighted real tree.
00:15:40
Mike
Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:15:43
Matt Smith
And it had a brown box logo on it, fit my head perfectly. I don't know why I ever got rid of it.
00:15:46
Mike
What was that? 2006?
00:15:49
Conor Fowler
See motherfucker, I knew this show was gonna happen but but I Bet you could draw it like
00:15:50
Matt Smith
Something like that. Yeah, dude, I have tried to find this hat so many times.
00:15:53
Mike
I you know exactly the the one you're talking about. where the
00:16:01
Matt Smith
I'm like, I would pay probably not what it would retail for these days, but like I would pay a significant amount to get that.
00:16:07
Conor Fowler
I've seen the hat, I think, right? like real It's a real hat.
00:16:09
Mike
Yeah. that it there's ah there's a I have a lot of ah the the core of my collection of of supreme shit is is camo caps.
00:16:11
Conor Fowler
It's a real.
00:16:20
Matt Smith
Hmm, they've done some great ones.
00:16:21
Mike
So I've i've covered yes a lot of territory and it is it is interesting to see how in the early days, you know, there was ah There was basically my my assumption because I can't verify a lot of this you know and in what's out there.
00:16:37
Mike
But my assumption is that they just use a lot of dead stock production camo and then just had it cut into hats.
00:16:43
Matt Smith
yeah
00:16:43
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:16:45
Mike
And then later on down the road, you would see where Supreme kind of modified patterns for themselves. So you'll see like a Supreme spell out somewhere in the pattern.
00:16:51
Matt Smith
right
00:16:53
Mike
They kind of claim the pattern.
00:16:55
Conor Fowler
who
00:16:55
Mike
um Um, and then, you know, later on down the road, you then see the actual licensed, you know, real, real tree, Crip tech, all that stuff coming out.
00:17:00
Matt Smith
yeah Yeah.
00:17:03
Matt Smith
Right.
00:17:04
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:17:04
Matt Smith
Well, this is a great topic
Camo Pattern Bracket Challenge
00:17:06
Matt Smith
to lead us into our next section.
00:17:06
Conor Fowler
I was gonna say, well
00:17:10
Matt Smith
So ah with the We John's guys, shout out John and Dan, um we did something we called Stud or Chud.
00:17:10
Mike
Sure.
00:17:20
Matt Smith
This is not gonna be the same thing, but it it basically, if you haven't listened to the episode, goes through a bunch of various clothing and related items, and you pick whether it's a Stud or Chud.
00:17:31
Mike
Okay.
00:17:32
Matt Smith
So with you, we're gonna do a camo bracket and e and see what the reigning champion of Mike's camo preferences is.
00:17:33
Mike
Oh boy.
00:17:37
Mike
Oh no. Okay.
00:17:41
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:17:43
Mike
Oh God. All right. All right.
00:17:45
Conor Fowler
And there are tens of thousands of dollars riding on this. So you'd be very, very cautious with your choices.
00:17:48
Matt Smith
Yes, yes. So you've got so wait we've got 16 patterns going up um neck and neck and seeing which one reigns supreme.
00:17:55
Mike
Oh my God. it
00:18:02
Mike
so Okay.
00:18:03
Matt Smith
So let's start with the first two, which are tiger stripe and lizard camo.
00:18:04
Conor Fowler
ah
00:18:07
Mike
All right.
00:18:11
Mike
Ooh. ah Yeah, I think that, am I allowed to ah to to grade on the ah the range of available variants of that?
00:18:13
Matt Smith
We also, to preface this, we try to pair similar things, ah you know.
00:18:24
Matt Smith
Of course, of course.
00:18:25
Conor Fowler
du Go fucking hog wild Wow Wow, dude is out with the quickness to I mean ah Yeah, but I guess I don't know I feel like that was my That's my opinion, too
00:18:25
Mike
yeah All right. Here, 100% Tiger Stripe, ah yeah.
00:18:29
Matt Smith
Tiger, yeah.
00:18:44
Matt Smith
Yeah, well, it's it's one of the coolest patterns.
00:18:45
Mike
yeah
00:18:47
Matt Smith
um I have one pair of pants that are like a lightweight Vietnam pair that I got from nothing. ah Split the ass immediately because they...
00:18:54
Mike
Yeah, yeah, that that that happens.
00:18:57
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:57
Conor Fowler
Because Matt's got junk in the trunk, baby.
00:18:59
Matt Smith
I was going through a buy and I lifted like a 75 pound box, which was not the best idea I've ever had.
00:19:03
Mike
And you're like, yep, yep, the sound of rip stop rips ah ripping.
00:19:05
Matt Smith
um Yeah, but... tight Tiger is just... Yeah, yeah. talk
00:19:11
Conor Fowler
I don't think I've ever lifted 75 pounds. Anything in excess of 75 pounds.
00:19:15
Matt Smith
Tiger is is, it's not my personal favorite, but it is one of the best and like most, I think just most relevant to this day.
00:19:26
Conor Fowler
To throw, of course, to throw my father under the bus, he used to say that Tiger was not natural, right? Like ah the horizontal line doesn't really occur in nature.
00:19:38
Matt Smith
Right, yeah.
00:19:38
Mike
yeah well Sure.
00:19:40
Matt Smith
But you also have, there is also a vertical tiger, so.
00:19:40
Mike
Sure.
00:19:43
Mike
Yeah.
00:19:43
Conor Fowler
Right. Well, I'm saying the point is like, foolish, it still is good. It's like, cool, right?
00:19:47
Matt Smith
oh All right, so...
00:19:50
Mike
I mean, it's cool, ah but it it kind of reminds me of DPM and I i like DPM more than than lizard.
00:19:54
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:57
Mike
But anyway, I'll continue, please.
00:19:59
Matt Smith
Okay, all right, so Tiger Strike wins round one. ah The next two are All Season All Terrain and Duck.
00:20:09
Mike
Oh, come on.
00:20:11
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:20:13
Matt Smith
I also love both of these patterns, so...
00:20:15
Mike
Yeah, 100 percent. and And I'll tell you why. As much as I like a sat, I will forever think of ah Pamela Anderson in barbed wire with that her tattoo.
00:20:24
Matt Smith
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:20:27
Mike
And that's all I mean, it's that's it's that's super cool. And there's a lot of history in streetwear with a sat, but duck and all the duck variants, frogskin, all that shit.
00:20:30
Matt Smith
Also, yeah.
00:20:36
Mike
Yeah, yeah duck, 100 percent.
00:20:38
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah, ASAT was also ah developed just outside of Atlanta in one of the suburbs, so.
00:20:44
Mike
Yeah, yeah.
00:20:45
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah, Brigade Quartermasters, RIP.
00:20:50
Matt Smith
Okay, then the next two, we've got tree bark and real tree.
00:20:51
Mike
All right. What's next?
00:20:57
Mike
Damn.
00:20:59
Matt Smith
We did try to make this hard.
00:21:00
Mike
Boy, yeah. ah I'm going to go with Realtree just because of the spectrum and the ubiquity of it.
00:21:08
Matt Smith
ah I honestly, that's the problem.
00:21:09
Mike
Realtree. Realtree. Really? Really?
00:21:12
Matt Smith
Yeah, I thought you would have gone tree bark all day.
00:21:15
Mike
I mean, TreeBark's cool. And it definitely, it's ah it's a standout pattern. And there's a lot of good variants of it. um you know People have done their own versions of it.
00:21:25
Mike
I think Supreme did one. um But I feel like Realtree, if you were to look at the umbrella of you know what's under there, the Realtree offerings, there's all sorts of fun stuff.
00:21:37
Matt Smith
Yeah, Right, yeah, literally just treat.
00:21:37
Mike
um The oak leaves and the you know branches and and all that stuff.
00:21:41
Conor Fowler
Yeah, I was just going to chime in and say I think that it's nice, the like, sort of literal ah representation of the the branches and stuff.
00:21:49
Mike
yeah yeah A real tree, yeah.
00:21:51
Conor Fowler
Yeah, it's nice.
00:21:55
Conor Fowler
Right.
00:21:56
Matt Smith
All right, Connor, you want to take the next couple?
00:21:58
Mike
Uh-oh, all right.
00:21:59
Conor Fowler
Sure. So this ERDL slash brush stroke. Yeah, I feel like you probably I could guess this one. Let's see.
00:22:14
Mike
And what was, sorry, what was the other one? The brushstroke.
00:22:17
Conor Fowler
ah Yeah.
00:22:17
Matt Smith
Yes.
00:22:20
Mike
Is that?
00:22:20
Matt Smith
As a whole as's a whole, it doesn't matter like which variant.
00:22:24
Mike
Yeah, OK, I mean, so like I guess when I think brushstroke, I think DPM, um so I'm going to go with.
00:22:30
Conor Fowler
What does it stand for, DPM?
00:22:32
Mike
ah Disruptive pattern material.
00:22:35
Conor Fowler
Ah, right.
00:22:35
Mike
Yeah, real. Very, very straightforward.
00:22:37
Conor Fowler
the The military is so amazing.
00:22:41
Mike
I honestly don't remember what ERDL stands for, so you know that I'm.
00:22:44
Conor Fowler
You know, man?
00:22:45
Matt Smith
i would I did not know this until a few minutes ago, but it stands...
00:22:46
Mike
ah
00:22:53
Matt Smith
Hold on. Fuck.
00:22:56
Conor Fowler
Every good boy deserves such.
00:23:00
Matt Smith
it It is, I believe, um based out of the Natick manufacturing that did all the like tests and experimental uniforms.
00:23:09
Mike
Oh, yeah. Okay.
00:23:14
Mike
Yeah. um Also, your DL and Man, now now that I'm on the spot, I can't remember what it is, Woodland, M81.
00:23:24
Conor Fowler
Mm hmm.
00:23:24
Mike
They're always very similar to me, and um I always find them to be the most like cop-out pedestrian camo pattern. like When you're doing clothing that's in camo, I'm like, oh, really?
00:23:37
Mike
You did Woodland?
00:23:38
Matt Smith
Yeah, well, the difference with yeah ERDL and Woodland is um yeah ERDL has like a much more vibrant backside.
00:23:39
Mike
like There's all these other things.
00:23:49
Mike
Yeah.
00:23:49
Matt Smith
And the green lime dominant you know is obviously like a whole lot greener than its Woodland counterpart.
00:23:55
Mike
And it's also a tighter pattern too, if if I recall, than a blotchy would mean.
00:23:57
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah, totally. All right, I don't know.
00:24:00
Conor Fowler
I look at it a little bit. I mean, I have a woodland jacket that is like a large short, which is hard to find. And so I just like I feel like it's like almost the most ironic camouflage choice because it's like bland and droll, you know, so I think it's fitting.
00:24:17
Mike
Yeah.
00:24:19
Matt Smith
So ERDL stands for engineered research and development laboratories.
00:24:19
Mike
Yeah.
00:24:23
Mike
Here we go. Yeah.
00:24:25
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:24:25
Conor Fowler
That's actually way less bad than I thought it was gonna be. I thought it was gonna be something terrible.
00:24:28
Matt Smith
but
00:24:30
Mike
Some like French name or, you know, like what does this really stand for?
00:24:30
Conor Fowler
um
00:24:34
Matt Smith
Right, right.
00:24:34
Conor Fowler
Well, just like, what was it, the the disruptive whatever?
00:24:38
Mike
I'm just talking about pattern material.
00:24:38
Conor Fowler
I mean, it's like, yeah, they just do shit like that.
00:24:39
Matt Smith
That's right, the pattern material.
00:24:40
Mike
Yeah.
00:24:42
Matt Smith
Mm-hmm.
00:24:44
Conor Fowler
And they don't need to. But somebody gets paid for it, I guess. So so we've got Scorpion urban tracks.
00:24:48
Mike
yeah
00:24:51
Conor Fowler
I think I know one of those.
00:24:53
Mike
Wow, I actually, I am gonna look these up um because I off top my head don't know.
00:25:01
Conor Fowler
Wow, dude, we stumped the chump.
00:25:03
Mike
Yeah, you did, okay. Oh, okay, OCP.
00:25:06
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's Scorpion.
00:25:06
Mike
Is that, okay, OCP. And then and then what was the other one?
00:25:10
Matt Smith
And then urban tracks, it's like a gray with like white and black like shapes.
00:25:16
Mike
Oh yeah, I've seen this one.
00:25:17
Matt Smith
It's made for, or was developed for ah urban warfare.
00:25:21
Mike
Yeah.
00:25:21
Conor Fowler
I kind of like it like in a in like a pant.
00:25:24
Matt Smith
The only thing I know that that was ever actually like issued in that was a very rare uniform called the closed combat uniform. They made like four, it was an experimental thing. I can't remember who it was.
00:25:34
Mike
Yeah, it's a Natick pattern, right?
00:25:35
Conor Fowler
That sounds unpleasant.
00:25:35
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah, I can't remember who it was issued to.
00:25:36
Mike
yeah
00:25:38
Matt Smith
It was like two units or something, but they have a rare and like...
00:25:41
Mike
Oh, man. I think, I mean, OCP, ah you know, I got some stuff that's that's in OCP. Urban Tracks, now now i that I have seen it, I know what it is, but um like off the top of my head, clearly not on my radar.
00:25:48
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:25:55
Mike
But Urban Tracks definitely wins. That is that is a fun, weird looking camera.
00:26:00
Matt Smith
It's really cool.
00:26:02
Mike
Yeah.
00:26:02
Conor Fowler
It's also like the name of a record store in a city somewhere.
00:26:07
Mike
Oh, yeah.
00:26:08
Matt Smith
Oh, I'm sure it is.
00:26:08
Mike
Oh, definitely. Definitely.
00:26:11
Matt Smith
100%. All right. So the next, next pairing is chocolate chip or strict on.
00:26:19
Mike
Oh, man. ah yeah I mean, strict aren't 100 percent like ah chocolate chip ah has a special place, ah ah you know, as as a kid of the 90s, you know, seeing the the Gulf War go down on TV.
00:26:33
Matt Smith
Right.
00:26:33
Mike
That was my first introduction to um both chocolate chip and DNC, which is probably like my favorite overall pattern.
00:26:43
Mike
um But Strictarn, and this rewinds kind of all the way back to what we were talking about with Milserp, seeing that as Milserp in 1989, 1990, I was like, oh, some army wears these pants with lines on it? This is so cool. And I you know got a pair of cargo pants, immediately destroyed them. But I always, always liked Strictarn. And actually, um of the many supreme camos their multiple you know issues of of strict Tarn over the years um have always been my favorites.
00:27:20
Mike
um And, you know, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2024, this year they did, so they basically did a reissue.
00:27:29
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:27:29
Mike
I love that pattern. And and I think that pattern was like, it It was made so when you were at a certain distance, you appeared, you blended in more with whatever the background was.
00:27:31
Conor Fowler
oh yeah e
00:27:43
Mike
I don't remember the, I read up on it a while ago, but I also think it was an ineffective pattern.
00:27:48
Conor Fowler
Yeah, yeah, I think both of I think both of those ah but it is so fucking cool Yeah, I mean I have like a grenade pouch That I use as a camera bag.
00:27:49
Mike
um But it's cool.
00:27:50
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:27:56
Mike
Yeah, oh yeah.
00:27:58
Conor Fowler
I mean it just like it's cool. It's like abstract
00:28:02
Mike
my ah My first ah chocolate chip camo was, um I don't know if you guys remember skids, which were like those like kind of baggy, shitty skater pants. You bought it like carousel or whatever in the mall.
00:28:11
Matt Smith
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:28:14
Mike
So they had all wild you know patterns and they had one camo pattern and it was fucking chocolate chips. So I was like, yeah.
00:28:20
Conor Fowler
the
00:28:20
Matt Smith
right.
00:28:20
Mike
And of course immediately destroyed those pants too.
00:28:24
Conor Fowler
well hang on a second i'm this we're going off the rails here but you are a clothing destroyer like matt as far as i can tell right so what is up with that huh can you just not destroy a ship are you skateboarding are you still skateboarding that's bad
00:28:36
Mike
Well, also, that I don't destroy my shit anymore.
00:28:36
Matt Smith
ah just
00:28:44
Mike
You do not want me on a skateboard now.
00:28:46
Conor Fowler
No, fuck no, dude, and we need you, we need you with both working wrists.
00:28:51
Mike
um I do not destroy clothes anymore. But yeah, like when when you're a kid, of course.
00:28:55
Conor Fowler
Back when you were a young buck.
00:28:58
Mike
Fuck yeah. Plus they're like five dollars.
00:28:59
Conor Fowler
Well, Matt's still, Matt's still doing it, and Matt's still doing it with vigor and verve, je de vois, whatever.
00:29:05
Matt Smith
Yeah. Hey, man.
00:29:07
Mike
Well, I made it through having two kids.
00:29:08
Matt Smith
Closer been through horn.
00:29:10
Conor Fowler
i I respect it. I think it's great. I just like it would be hard for me without hurting my body to hurt my clothes that much.
00:29:18
Mike
Yeah, yeah.
00:29:21
Conor Fowler
And I work. I'm surrounded all day by like malicious five year olds.
00:29:26
Mike
Yeah, that that's that's still a problem. I have i have a daughter who's ah who's pretty young, but she's not like, you know, thrown up on me or anything anymore. So I don't have to worry about my clothes getting destroyed by the children.
00:29:39
Mike
And and generally, I work a desk job. So, you know, I ah there's there's not a lot of encounters with things that are going to destroy my clothes, my shoes just by nature of living and working in New York City.
00:29:50
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah, that's almost impossible.
00:29:52
Mike
Yeah.
00:29:54
Matt Smith
All right, so we've got we've got three rounds done.
00:29:54
Mike
All right.
00:29:58
Matt Smith
we're going to We're going to cut out one and we'll have a wild card.
00:30:01
Mike
All right.
00:30:03
Matt Smith
So the wild card is going to be Flecktarn or Alpenfage.
00:30:09
Mike
Flectarn.
00:30:10
Matt Smith
Okay, okay.
00:30:12
Mike
Definitely, definitely. Because that again, that just goes back to my my early interest in in camo and seeing Flectarn for the first time.
00:30:20
Matt Smith
Right, right.
00:30:21
Mike
I was like, oh, this is so cool.
00:30:23
Matt Smith
Yeah, it's really sick.
00:30:23
Mike
ah Yeah.
00:30:24
Matt Smith
I'm also not a big fan of the color red. So like, as as cool as I think alpine collage is, I don't know if I would ever wear it.
00:30:28
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:30:31
Mike
Yeah, and there's a couple different color pattern variants of it, but that default red, I actually don't own any more album flaw stuff.
00:30:35
Matt Smith
Right.
00:30:40
Mike
I got rid of it all because yeah, I was like, what am I gonna wear this with?
00:30:41
Conor Fowler
President.
00:30:43
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah, 100%. All right, so. Let's, let's go this or do this bottom to top now and we'll throw the wild card in.
00:30:53
Mike
All right.
00:30:54
Matt Smith
All right.
00:30:54
Conor Fowler
Hell yeah.
00:30:56
Matt Smith
Strictarn or urban tracks.
00:30:59
Mike
Strictarn.
00:31:00
Matt Smith
Okay. All right.
00:31:03
Matt Smith
Yeah, that, that makes sense. You're, you're, you're pretty invested in that pattern. So, and now, uh, what do we got?
00:31:11
Conor Fowler
Do you know anything about the designers, like the design process of that? I don't want to be putting you on the spot, but I figure you might.
00:31:18
Mike
ah No, and like i had i was I was the designer.
00:31:20
Conor Fowler
You were actually were the designer. You were the principal of designer. Yeah.
00:31:23
Mike
ah ah i mean I feel like I've i've i've read about it like three or four times, and my only you know lasting takeaway was that it was ah it was made to you know blur out people at a certain distance or or make them harder to see through optics or something, um but that it was also ultimately a failure.
00:31:30
Conor Fowler
but
00:31:38
Conor Fowler
No.
00:31:41
Mike
But as far as like the development of it, it came it came out of another camo that I can't remember the name of that was a German camo, I believe. And they took the little striped elements and then flipped it into its own camo pattern.
00:31:55
Mike
And don't I'm not an expert, but i I think that was the case.
00:31:56
Conor Fowler
Hmm.
00:32:00
Matt Smith
All right, so now we're going to, since you have a connection that both of these strict hard reflect on.
00:32:07
Mike
Strictarn.
00:32:08
Matt Smith
Really?
00:32:08
Conor Fowler
Yeah, dude.
00:32:09
Mike
Yep, yep, yep.
00:32:09
Matt Smith
Okay. Okay.
00:32:12
Mike
Gonna go to go with that.
00:32:13
Matt Smith
I can get down with that.
00:32:14
Conor Fowler
It's good. It's really like, it is calming, I think. It's very like brutalist and so sort of Soviet.
00:32:18
Mike
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:20
Matt Smith
Truly. And it's also like, it's an olive drab base, so it's pretty much wearable with whatever the fuck you want to wear.
00:32:23
Conor Fowler
be it
00:32:27
Mike
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. uh, hop or something like that.
00:32:35
Matt Smith
Right.
00:32:37
Mike
Something that's going to be like a little lower key because otherwise you'll just look insane, which I've definitely done.
00:32:39
Matt Smith
Totally.
00:32:42
Mike
Uh, I've really, I've really messed with some patterns. Uh, but yeah, it's, it's just harder. Like the straight lines, uh, in the strict art, you can also match it with, with other patterns.
00:32:52
Matt Smith
Yeah. Every time I see like an engineer garments photo shoot where they have like earned a penthouse, where they have six different patterns all wear worn together. Like I look at that or like old Vietnam photos, you know, where they're wearing an ERDL hat and tiger, you know, uniform.
00:33:00
Mike
Yeah.
00:33:06
Mike
yeah yeah
00:33:07
Conor Fowler
which they were doing because they were going to die and they were 19.
00:33:09
Mike
yeah
00:33:10
Matt Smith
Yeah. Well, I'm like, this, this looks cool.
00:33:11
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:33:13
Matt Smith
And then even if I try to wear like a camo hat with like a plaid flannel shirt or something, I feel like a clown. So.
00:33:20
Conor Fowler
Dude, you just gotta and step into it. I can't believe I didn't lead with this. This girl today said, you look like a clown, Mr.
00:33:29
Matt Smith
Nice, nice.
00:33:29
Conor Fowler
o' Connor. She says, because you walk like a clown.
00:33:32
Mike
Yeah, yeah. Oh wow.
00:33:34
Conor Fowler
And I'm like, what the fuck does that mean? I mean, funny like a clown, funny?
00:33:37
Mike
Ow.
00:33:39
Conor Fowler
She didn't appreciate it. She didn't appreciate it at all. she I did the whole monologue. She didn't like it.
00:33:46
Matt Smith
Yeah, of course, of course. Okay, so now we've got Realtree and Prestro.
00:33:59
Matt Smith
Cool, cool.
00:34:03
Matt Smith
All right, and the final semifinal round, or I guess almost semifinal round, we've got Tiger Stripe and Duck.
00:34:16
Mike
Duck.
00:34:17
Matt Smith
Duck, okay, okay.
00:34:19
Mike
Yep, yep, yep.
00:34:19
Matt Smith
Yeah, also my favorite my favorite actual pattern, so.
00:34:20
Conor Fowler
Yeah, I Think it's almost everybody's that's what John was saying like
00:34:26
Matt Smith
It's just, it's such a, like pants, jackets, whatever, hats.
00:34:27
Mike
Yeah.
00:34:30
Mike
and And everybody, I mean, everybody has done something with it, you know, double RL has has had multiple different duck patterns out there.
00:34:34
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:34:39
Mike
A lot of like, you know, historical reference patterns, ah you know, ah Supreme, student like, a you name it. um
00:34:48
Matt Smith
Every fucking GC Penny has un done Duncan.
00:34:48
Mike
ah Literally, every everybody's got I mean, JC Penney used to just sell duck camo, right?
00:34:53
Matt Smith
Oh yeah.
00:34:54
Mike
Oh, yeah
00:34:55
Conor Fowler
I got a, I got a flamethrower G.I.
00:34:55
Matt Smith
Yeah, I mean.
00:34:57
Conor Fowler
Joe for Christmas, Iwo Jima, and he had the, like, duck.
00:35:04
Mike
the heart the the frog skin.
00:35:05
Conor Fowler
What?
00:35:06
Mike
ah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:35:06
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:35:06
Conor Fowler
Yeah, yeah, I guess it is Rog's again, right? But yeah, they fucked that up. I can't believe it. I mean, how would you make such an error? I guess that it's didn't have computers.
00:35:15
Mike
there's and and There's just so many andf fun variants of that, like the Australia Sam, which is like the, I think the Australian Sammo, that's another, yeah, another cool one.
00:35:19
Matt Smith
Yeah, like, I love Ogon.
00:35:22
Conor Fowler
Mm hmm.
00:35:23
Matt Smith
Oh, yeah, Oz game is nice.
00:35:26
Mike
I'm sorry, go ahead.
00:35:26
Matt Smith
Oh, Bogon, the South Vietnamese duck pattern.
00:35:31
Mike
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:35:32
Matt Smith
Yeah, like I like that because kind of like Tiger, like the blacks fade to kind of a purple, so it looks just totally different.
00:35:38
Mike
Yeah. I just I mean, one of my favorite tiger patterns is that like purple tiger or like the purple like real I was in Japan, like, I don't know, two months ago, and real McCoy store.
00:35:45
Matt Smith
Oh, yeah.
00:35:52
Conor Fowler
Oh yeah, I want to talk about that too.
00:35:55
Mike
And that is my fucking mind.
00:35:55
Conor Fowler
and
00:35:57
Mike
But they had this amazing like, it was like a mix of like that purple tiger stripe with like the gold tiger, like all in the same pattern.
00:36:05
Conor Fowler
the
00:36:06
Matt Smith
Oh, that's not right.
00:36:06
Mike
And I was like, oh, these are so fresh.
00:36:07
Mike
And then I like flipped it over and it's like $750. I was like, no.
00:36:11
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:36:13
Mike
Cool, but no.
00:36:15
Conor Fowler
ah Dude, i I don't know. I mean, I feel like that's a I feel like that's like the going price for something like that, isn't it?
00:36:24
Matt Smith
Yeah, mccoy yeah.
00:36:25
Mike
I guess, I guess, yeah.
00:36:27
Matt Smith
yeah, sadly, sadly.
00:36:28
Mike
But they' their shit's just absolutely amazing.
00:36:31
Conor Fowler
My boy I met is in Japan right now. And he's like doing all the like vintage stores and stuff.
00:36:36
Mike
Oh, God.
00:36:36
Conor Fowler
And he's like, God.
00:36:38
Mike
it It's ah we we my buddy that I went with. We just were all over the place because he's also very into into clothing, a lot of vintage stuff. And we had some good conversations with like there's a ah bunch of shops in in Kyoto over by Nishiki Market that I've been to a couple of times. And I feel like now they've just kind of expanded and gotten bigger. But it's kind of amazing to just go in and see these just like racks of like highly specific, you know, we only collect L.L.
00:37:08
Mike
Bean Flannels from 1975 to 1990. And we will give you it in every color, every size, but it's only this time period. And then, like yeah yeah yes, it is.
00:37:17
Conor Fowler
Well, that's what you do, too. That's what you do, too, right?
00:37:21
Mike
So it's very appealing to me, right?
00:37:24
Conor Fowler
No, I mean, I think it's great what I'm trying to figure out.
00:37:24
Mike
but
00:37:28
Conor Fowler
Have you thought about why?
00:37:31
Mike
No. i I never have. I mean, I think there's just like a satisfaction in, um you know, with with collecting, I think with with all things, ah it's fun to like have the objects and see the objects and like derive, you know, pleasure.
00:37:47
Mike
And then I like to also know more about them. So like the history.
00:37:52
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:37:52
Mike
So very much like with the clothing and stuff. And and this has always been fun, especially with the collecting, you know, old old Supreme stuff. is trying to like unearth the story behind how something got made or who made this design choice or where did you get this pattern from or where was it made.
00:38:10
Mike
It's not just the having of the object. It's the ability to like then rattle off to some other nerd like myself.
00:38:13
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:38:16
Mike
you know I know all these really hyper-specific details about this collection of hats or you know what whatever it is.
00:38:16
Conor Fowler
Right.
00:38:19
Matt Smith
Right, right, yeah.
00:38:19
Conor Fowler
Right.
00:38:26
Matt Smith
Okay, so let's let's take you your top three answers have been Strictarn, Brushstroke, and Duck.
00:38:36
Mike
Yep.
00:38:37
Matt Smith
So what's the gold, what's the silver, what's the bronze?
00:38:39
Mike
Hmm.
00:38:44
Mike
I think duck is the gold.
00:38:45
Matt Smith
Okay, all right, yeah.
00:38:46
Mike
ah I think I i honestly because I just again in my mind I'm seeing all these different duck variants and and just how amazing they can look.
00:38:47
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:38:56
Mike
Strictarn is is silver and then the brushstroke camo is is the bronze.
00:39:02
Matt Smith
Nice, nice, that's it.
00:39:02
Conor Fowler
yeah mad and i did not discuss this but i think we're equally cheesed to have it be duck i mean i think that that's like
00:39:03
Mike
Yeah.
00:39:08
Mike
Yeah, I'd say ducks duck sick. There's a it's a good look. And, you know, yeah.
00:39:15
Conor Fowler
It's beautiful. It's like, wood it's like very nice.
00:39:16
Mike
Yeah, even my wife wears it.
00:39:19
Conor Fowler
It's soft.
00:39:21
Mike
So, you know, she blessed out a few camos and usually she does it for me.
00:39:21
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah. Dude, one of my favorite parts of selling vintage is
00:39:27
Conor Fowler
That's a good, that's a good point.
00:39:28
Matt Smith
Yeah, I love selling vintage to like women or femme people, um whatever their gender, and like it's just such a cool thing to me. I'm glad that's something that's happening more and more.
00:39:37
Mike
Yeah.
00:39:40
Mike
Yeah, I mean, honestly, a lot of my a lot of my like inspiration to comes from, um you know, my wife, ah she also, you know, she, she worked in reality TV, she worked in in fashion.
00:39:41
Conor Fowler
It's a version.
00:39:52
Mike
and um She's a producer. um So she does like, ah you know, photo and video production. And she also has a really good sense of fashion. um She comes from ah a a family that has been in, ah basically has a work wear business that's been in, you know, New York City for well over a hundred years.
00:40:12
Mike
So she's, she kind of grew up in that environment of like, you know, denim car heart, yeah, the the the whole thing.
00:40:12
Conor Fowler
Wow Yeah in the rag trade
00:40:19
Mike
And so she's always had really
Fashion and Relationships
00:40:20
Mike
good opinions. And then honestly, this, the Instagram feed came around um during the pandemic when we were just kind of like indoors. And I was like, man, I got a lot of fun, weird, cool shit in my closet.
00:40:32
Mike
I'm just going to create an Instagram feed for the hell of it because why not? right i'm I'm bored and like some of this stuff hasn't seen the light of day, some of this stuff doesn't fit, but I would like to at least be able to talk about it and like what it meant to me. and That was kind of how the feed got off. and you know Over the years, she's like made some suggestions here and there. and um But we'll go out and she'll see something like a fun camo pattern.
00:40:55
Mike
And she'll know what you know what I like and what I don't like. And she'll she'll guide me to those things sometimes. I'm like, yeah, this is good. And then she'll be like, oh, and it's for me too. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, OK.
00:41:04
Matt Smith
but That's awesome.
00:41:04
Conor Fowler
Yeah, this is like this is like in the movie when they say the name of the movie.
00:41:05
Mike
We can share this.
00:41:09
Mike
true
00:41:11
Matt Smith
yeah that
00:41:12
Conor Fowler
This is the entire, yeah, this is the entire fucking point of the thing. So we've done it here. Yeah. ah Well, now and you're like talking about your like love one, you know, that your partner or whatever. I think that's like a great it's and and that's what I don't know. I mean, people have relationships through clothing.
00:41:32
Mike
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And and the fact that we're we're both, she's also very into, you know, ah vintage stuff. ah We love an estate sale. You know, it's just how it goes.
00:41:42
Matt Smith
Oh yeah.
00:41:42
Conor Fowler
Bye.
00:41:43
Mike
And every year she's like, we got to go to Brimfield. And I'm like, yeah, we got to go to Brimfield.
00:41:48
Matt Smith
not
00:41:48
Conor Fowler
ah
00:41:49
Mike
Still have not made it to to b Brimfield. Someday I will i will go to Brimfield.
00:41:54
Matt Smith
Right, right. Yeah, it seems like ah the type of place that I would enjoy, but also just feel so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff.
00:41:59
Mike
Oh, yeah.
00:42:02
Mike
Yeah.
Vintage Shopping Adventures
00:42:05
Mike
Oh, yeah.
00:42:05
Conor Fowler
Maybe the kind of thing you would want to walk like on an invisible platform above it, like i at an aquarium.
00:42:09
Matt Smith
Right, yeah. Yeah.
00:42:12
Mike
Plus, just the ah you know yeah the the the width of what's available and then just all the you know the the stuff that you don't know about because you're not in with the certain dealers. you know they They always have like their their hidden gems.
00:42:25
Matt Smith
Right, right.
00:42:25
Mike
If you're a regular you know dude rolling up, they're they're not going to show you that. But if you know somebody,
00:42:29
Matt Smith
Yeah, when i'm ah what when I'm in the art style mode, I also don't want to talk to anybody unless like I'm actually interested in something.
00:42:30
Mike
like
00:42:37
Mike
Yeah. Yeah.
00:42:38
Matt Smith
like i you know I might do a, hey, how are you, and a thank you if I don't buy anything, um or if I do like um what I call a mercy buy. um
00:42:48
Conor Fowler
Yeah, dude it stresses me out so much I don't want to have to fucking like tell someone I don't want to buy something are you kidding me?
00:42:51
Mike
yeah
00:42:53
Matt Smith
yeah yeah like but and I just imagine it yeah I imagine Brimfield is just like would make me feel so similar but also like way more anxious because I would I would know a bunch of people and I would have to chat with them
00:42:55
Conor Fowler
I'm not cheap. I just don't like it
00:42:57
Mike
yeah
00:43:08
Mike
Yeah.
00:43:11
Mike
Yeah.
00:43:13
Conor Fowler
and that's yeah there's so many like vintage fairs and like craft markets and shit and it's like not only are you like destroying this person's livelihood you're like shitting on their passion and that's what i want to be i don't want to be responsible for refusal in that department
00:43:13
Mike
Awkward conversation you don't want to have.
00:43:15
Matt Smith
yeah
00:43:32
Matt Smith
right
00:43:38
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:43:38
Mike
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, there there are people that definitely, you know, to take offense to that. I think there's there's sellers out there that you're like, no no photos. And it's like, well, I was actually taking this photo because I was going to send it to my friend that I'm shopping for.
00:43:51
Mike
But now, you know, sorry, dude, like I'm not going to try to steal your, you know, this image and claim it as my own.
00:43:51
Matt Smith
Right.
00:43:52
Conor Fowler
Right. You go fuck yourself, buddy.
00:43:55
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:43:58
Mike
Like I'm actually trying to help you sell stuff. But, you know, it it is what it is.
00:44:02
Matt Smith
Yeah, totally, totally.
00:44:05
Conor Fowler
Yeah, it's complicated. The ethics, the ethics of commerce are complex.
00:44:11
Mike
But, you know, there's ah there's other times when you just you see something and you're like, that's the thing. And you waffle back and forth, you know, like, oh, it's one hundred dollars, you know, more than I want to spend. But it's something that's super unique.
00:44:23
Conor Fowler
You're going to buy that shit anyway.
00:44:23
Mike
And I know. Yeah, you're going to you end up buying it and then or you don't and you feel the fucking regret of it like.
00:44:26
Conor Fowler
What?
00:44:28
Matt Smith
yeah yeah
00:44:29
Mike
ah
00:44:30
Matt Smith
then yeah it's
00:44:31
Conor Fowler
So this is a two part question. Like, what was the last thing that was like that for you?
00:44:33
Mike
Yeah.
00:44:36
Conor Fowler
I feel like you wrote something about it recently.
00:44:39
Mike
Uh, it's I mean, geez, uh, what's the last thing I regret not buying? I don't even know because Oh man, um, there's actually I i bought this, uh, thing, uh, man, it's actually in my feed.
00:44:46
Conor Fowler
No, I mean, the last thing that you said, fuck it, I don't care how much this costs.
00:44:54
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's...
00:44:58
Mike
Basically there's, uh, this, this company in l LA it's called, uh, I think it's monetality.
00:45:03
Conor Fowler
e you Yeah.
00:45:03
Mike
Um, I believe the guy is Japanese. Um, yeah.
00:45:07
Matt Smith
Yeah, it's my studio.
00:45:09
Mike
And he you know does does production in LA and there was this really, really cool like duck camo looking like satin lined pullover thing. It's it's in my feed, like, yeah I don't know, down two or three pages. And it was it was not cheap, but it also wasn't crazy expensive. I'm like, man, it's the middle of summer. I'm like, when am I going to wear this? And then I ended up buying it. And I was like, yeah, fuck. And I've gotten so much so much enjoyment out of that. And, you know, compliments and like, hey, where'd you get that? And
00:45:43
Mike
then I found out that there's more to the collection. So there's like pants and a shirt and like a trench.
00:45:47
Matt Smith
Oh, shit.
00:45:48
Mike
And just get I was like, no, I'm good. I'll just stick with this one piece. I don't need to buy every piece, but I think that's the last thing where I was like, you know, fuck it. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna do it.
00:45:56
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah. It's great when it works out that you actually like get a lot of wear and enjoyment out of the thing and not just like look at it in your cause.
00:46:03
Mike
yeah
00:46:05
Matt Smith
I'm like, what the fuck did I buy this?
00:46:06
Conor Fowler
Right. ahead the That's terrible.
00:46:06
Mike
And then, and then
00:46:08
Conor Fowler
It's so terrible. Like the regret, the buyer's regret is like a dagger.
00:46:13
Mike
Well, there's also the buyer's regret when you buy. So, you know, in in in my in my world of collecting, right, I buy ah just a shit ton of stuff from from Japan, and it can be so hit or miss. And a couple years ago, um I found, so in 1998 for the opening of one of Supreme's stores in Japan, and still the the details are are foggy on this, but they um ah supreme produced basically a bunch of patagonia ripoff stuff so they had like fleeces windbreakers yada yada yada with a little patagonia logo but it said supreme and it had like the twin towers on it and
00:46:54
Matt Smith
Oh shi- Yeah!
00:46:54
Conor Fowler
oh see We're going there! We're going there! ah Jesus.
00:46:59
Mike
super Super cool and you know, it's when they were flying like, you know below the radar and you know No one was coming after them with cease and desist orders and it's just a real like piece of like supreme history Also, it just like looks cool and I found the the Grail which was this like orange version of the fleece this like zip up polar tech fleece ah that I guess Drake war and therefore like repopularized and I got it and it was too fucking big.
00:47:30
Mike
And I was like, I cannot wear this. I tried to wear it a couple times, try to wear it layered. I'm like, this is the this is the fucking grail piece. And I i just it doesn't work. And I ended up selling it to ah a guy in New York um who ah hopefully is is getting a lot of enjoyment out of it because it's it's so rare.
00:47:40
Conor Fowler
Damn.
00:47:46
Matt Smith
and Yeah.
00:47:48
Mike
And it was one of those things where it's like, fucking, I'm just going to spend the money on it because, you know, i I want this and then to get it and have it and have it not fit.
00:47:56
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:47:56
Mike
But that was a lot of a lot of
00:47:57
Conor Fowler
That's the agony and ecstasy of the whole scene I think Well you get it's like a double victory like like when you get something that you like That also fits your like fuck.
00:47:59
Mike
ah Yeah, you know, it really is. It really is. And when you're proxy buying and you can't communicate and you know, the measurements are off, uh, you know.
00:48:07
Matt Smith
Right.
00:48:07
Mike
um Yeah. Yeah. Yup.
00:48:15
Conor Fowler
This is this is like parses.
00:48:15
Mike
Yup. Yeah.
Journey with Supreme
00:48:18
Matt Smith
Yeah. So how long have you been into Supreme and collecting it?
00:48:21
Conor Fowler
I
00:48:22
Matt Smith
like Is that like kind of your main focus?
00:48:23
Mike
I mean, No, no. um i mean the So when I moved to the city, I had kind of an ambient awareness of Supreme.
00:48:34
Matt Smith
Right. And what what like what year would that have been?
00:48:35
Mike
on I was like 98.
00:48:39
Matt Smith
OK.
00:48:39
Mike
So you know they were very much in in business and established. And you know I had skater friends that that were Supreme, but it was basically inaccessible when you lived in you know upstate New York, unless you went to the city to to buy it.
00:48:51
Mike
So a couple of my friends had like the old like Everlast ah you know Supreme spell-out shirt, and like a couple of them had like
00:48:57
Conor Fowler
Mhm.
00:48:58
Matt Smith
Right.
00:48:58
Mike
like tree bark caps or something that's like, Oh, that's cool. And, uh, you know, I, I went there a couple of times, um, I don't know, like late nineties and it was, you know, intimidating because I'm already like the old, you know, old a gift escape for shit.
00:49:05
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:49:09
Matt Smith
Right. Is this was right.
00:49:10
Conor Fowler
yeah
00:49:13
Matt Smith
Right.
00:49:14
Mike
And I'm just like, I just want to see what's going on. I just, you know, and I kind of, um, just kept, kept tabs on it over the years and, you know, collected hats here and there and, uh, sure.
00:49:23
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:49:23
Conor Fowler
You're affable though, right? And you're like a photographer, so you fit in.
00:49:28
Mike
But, you know, it was it was different. Right. And then I actually and then it just did like the hype grew and like the where I was working, you know, I i wasn't really like I didn't have the ability to like dress up like or dress, up dress down, whatever like that.
00:49:30
Matt Smith
you
00:49:42
Mike
So I was like, I'm not going to spend money on this stuff. And it really wasn't until probably twenty. What was it, 2017, um, when Supreme opened their first store in Brooklyn that I was like, Oh, you know what?
00:49:56
Mike
This is now local. I don't have to go into Manhattan. Hopefully the lines aren't as crazy. Uh, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll kind of swing back into this.
00:50:04
Matt Smith
Right.
00:50:04
Mike
And, uh, you know, I would say probably since 2017, the, the interest in it kind of ramp back up. um And then really in the last like four or five years the the focus on the Like camo streetwear And then primarily the supreme stuff has been of interest to me and it's really a lot of the old like the older um You know under the radar supreme stuff from you know, the the late 90s early 2000s that uh
00:50:37
Mike
that has been my focus. But I still buy, like I still actively buy stuff you know that they release. um The last two seats last three or four seasons have been hit or miss. they They did some good re-releases of stuff from the archive.
00:50:50
Mike
They did some fun camo patterns. um I'm still very much a fan, but ah there's definitely time. So I'm like, ah maybe I don't need a big logo across my chest anymore.
00:51:01
Matt Smith
Right, right.
00:51:01
Conor Fowler
We need to move.
00:51:03
Matt Smith
I mean, if you, you know, you've been around and aware of this since like, 98. And I don't remember the exact year that like, they were sold to whatever acquisition firm, but like, has it has it dramatically changed, like from your vantage point?
00:51:20
Mike
I mean, I think there's a there's a couple things at play there, right? i When you become beholden to someone else, you know, as as your boss, when you get bought by a private equity firm for a gigantic sum of money, now, you know, um my assumption is, you know, James Gebbia had someone that he now had to report to, where before he only had himself to report to.
00:51:43
Mike
Uh, and so that probably changes the dynamic of, of the business because when a a firm like BlackRock buys you, they really just want to probably juice you for returns.
00:51:43
Matt Smith
right
00:51:51
Mike
like I don't.
00:51:51
Matt Smith
Wait, is it really fucking BlackRock that bought the...
00:51:53
Mike
Yeah. black But, uh, was it black?
00:51:54
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:51:55
Mike
No, not, no, it was not BlackRock.
00:51:56
Conor Fowler
it's What is the...
00:51:57
Mike
I'm so sorry. That is incorrect.
00:51:58
Conor Fowler
No, it's l it's not LVMH. It's the other... ah VF.
00:52:03
Mike
Oh my God. Now i'm I'm like flaking on my Supreme history.
00:52:04
Matt Smith
Oh, it's... Yeah, Vanity Fair, that owns...
00:52:08
Mike
no No, no before Vanity Fair. Oh man, am I gonna have to look this up?
00:52:14
Matt Smith
Sorry man, didn't mean to do that.
00:52:14
Mike
i'm I'm really being putting on the spot here No, no, no, I know no that that's now ah Let's see I'm sorry.
00:52:18
Conor Fowler
But vodka.
00:52:24
Conor Fowler
Oh, they just changed hands again, I guess I'm.
00:52:26
Matt Smith
Jesus Christ.
00:52:29
Mike
It was the Carlyle group not blackrock.
00:52:31
Conor Fowler
Right, right, right, right, right, right.
00:52:31
Matt Smith
Okay, okay.
00:52:32
Mike
Oh they um
00:52:33
Conor Fowler
Yeah, what a nightmare.
00:52:35
Mike
So Carlyle, I guess, bought an an interest in Supreme and then Carlyle spun them off to um VF, Vanity Fair, which, you know, aligned Supreme with basically
00:52:45
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:52:48
Mike
all the brands that they had been collaborating collaborating with consistently over the years, like you know North Face, Timberland, Dickies, all that stuff.
00:52:49
Matt Smith
All right.
00:52:55
Mike
And then ah if you kind of watch the financials over the years since the acquisition, I don't think things were going too well or VF wasn't getting what they expected out of it.
00:53:05
Matt Smith
Right, right.
00:53:06
Mike
And you could you could see that also just in the in the product offerings where the the selection of stuff just got bigger and bigger every season and there were more of these like repeats like I'll use the the North Face stuff for example when you know Supreme first did their collab with North Face in, I don't even remember, 2014, 2011, something like that.
00:53:27
Conor Fowler
move for review.
00:53:27
Mike
It was amazing, right? And it was it was absolute heat.
00:53:30
Conor Fowler
Mm hmm.
00:53:31
Mike
They were all over it. Those jackets still go for a couple grand, easy. um And then over the years, they did more and more of these North Face collabs, and there was a lot of sick North Face collabs, and they weren't always consistent.
00:53:43
Mike
like They would happen like once a season or once every other season or something like that. But like when when VF got in the mix, ah it felt like every season had two bad North Face collabs with 50 different items in it.
00:53:56
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:53:58
Mike
And it was like they were just kind of like pushing that down to the consumer. And like the designs didn't look great. And i I definitely bought some of it. But it didn't just didn't have the same vibe that it had 10 years earlier.
00:54:13
Mike
ah So, you you saw a lot of that. You also saw, like, the in-store, you know, experience where, you know, if you look in Reddit or any of the, you know, forums from whatever 10 years ago, it was like, oh, everybody at the Supreme Store is such a dick. Like, they they kicked me out for taking a picture. And now it's like,
00:54:32
Mike
a totally, totally different world. Like, ah you really don't see a lot of that unless I guess if you acting like a fool, you might get ejected still. But ah it it definitely is not like what it was.
00:54:43
Mike
And that's probably, you know, the result of whatever corporate leadership handed down to to supreme.
00:54:48
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:54:50
Mike
So I don't know, the the acquisition by Luxottica is interesting. um I mean, you know, I feel like Luxottica has got the monopoly on basically all I wear in the entire world.
00:55:02
Mike
So who knows? it It wasn't who I thought they would end up with.
00:55:07
Conor Fowler
Meta Luxottica supreme Smart glasses, that's where we're going or to be like hey dudes are involved somehow
00:55:09
Mike
Oh, God. Yeah. Oh, my God.
00:55:16
Mike
So, you know, there's and there's always these these arguments online about how, like, supreme is dead, supreme is not dead. And, you know, when you started out, you'd said, you know, are arguably one of the you know best known fashion brands in the world.
00:55:28
Mike
And yeah, I definitely they have a huge cache and a huge following. um But you know, for for people that track that stuff, I guess, you know, it's easy to be like, oh, they they sold out big.
00:55:42
Mike
um But again, I guess supreme is, you know, what what you get from it, right? Like, if you get super seriously, if you're some like Instagram, like flexor, dude, I don't know, I
00:55:48
Matt Smith
Right.
00:55:55
Mike
I have no idea. like I buy what I like and and I wear what I like. and ah you know it's I've definitely over-purchased stuff in the past, ah but I've also skipped entire seasons, too, because it just wasn't my you know my taste. and I try not to buy shit for the sake of buying shit, but I don't know. My my my hope is that you know they can continue the the momentum that they've had, but maybe kind of draw it in a little more and and maybe make it a little more niche again.
00:56:25
Mike
I don't know if that'll ever happen because ultimately you're a corporate parent.
00:56:27
Conor Fowler
It can't happen. You can't put it back in the fucking box.
00:56:30
Mike
You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't.
00:56:31
Conor Fowler
It's the same story as ever.
00:56:31
Matt Smith
Right, right.
00:56:32
Conor Fowler
It's the same shit.
00:56:33
Mike
I know.
00:56:34
Conor Fowler
It's like every hip-hop album is fucking dog shit because they make it as many songs as they can to maximize streaming revenue.
00:56:40
Mike
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:56:40
Conor Fowler
It's bullshit.
00:56:41
Matt Smith
Yeah, I also find it funny looking at the wiki just now that Vanity Fair bought them for 2.1 billion and then they sold them for 1.5 billion.
00:56:48
Mike
Yeah. Yes, yeah, yeah, if you,
00:56:51
Conor Fowler
What a chunk change to these motherfuckers.
00:56:54
Matt Smith
I mean, yes, but like that's I mean, i I can't even fathom $1 billion, dollars but like, like half a billion dollar drop in the sale price seems wild.
00:56:55
Conor Fowler
You know?
00:57:01
Conor Fowler
No one can, yeah.
00:57:08
Mike
Yeah, yeah, i you know I think that a lot of the. Well, but my take is that you know a lot of the folks that were looking to cash in on on buying Supreme were were informed by the 2009 to 2016 hype peak that you know Supreme had, where you know everything so like everything sold out.
00:57:28
Matt Smith
Right.
00:57:33
Mike
Everything was being resold. like It was impossible to get. ah And it's like, oh, man, we just it's like printing money. um and then
00:57:40
Conor Fowler
Instantly, yeah.
00:57:41
Mike
Over time, you know you you push more product out the door, you have more skews, ah you make it easier yeah to purchase stuff, then it's gonna become you know maybe played out.
00:57:45
Conor Fowler
The golden goose.
00:57:46
Matt Smith
Right.
00:57:50
Mike
And like I said earlier, I don't you and't need to wear something that's like emblazoned with ah you know a gigantic Supreme logo ah anymore.
00:57:51
Matt Smith
Yeah. I mean, we're looking at Nike now.
00:57:59
Mike
like i I don't care. I actually have been appreciating a lot of their like flannel shirts and double knee pants lately.
00:58:00
Matt Smith
Right.
00:58:06
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:58:07
Mike
Just very low key.
00:58:07
Conor Fowler
No, people I know swear by their like denim and stuff.
00:58:08
Mike
but but
00:58:11
Mike
oh yeah Yeah, I have many many pairs of their denim and they continue to do a Japanese ah Salvage denim like Season and they do like a baggie or skinny.
00:58:19
Conor Fowler
Mm hmm.
00:58:23
Mike
They've had some denim in there. That's made in Hong Kong They also now have denim in the rotation that you know comes out of China um but you know if you go back 10 15 years and They had like Cone Mills denim.
00:58:36
Mike
They had other Japanese denim in the mix. Some of those old Supreme jeans are are amazing. I had a pair of 20 year old Supreme jeans that ah were just in amazing shape, but like also perfectly broken in.
00:58:47
Mike
And it was one of my most.
00:58:48
Conor Fowler
But could you do that from 20 years forward going for their shit now, right?
00:58:51
Mike
Yeah. Yeah. Who who who knows? um And I did, you know, for many years, I also appreciated that Supreme did do a lot of manufacturing in the United States.
00:59:02
Matt Smith
Yeah.
00:59:03
Mike
um And even going back to the the early days, there's there was definitely stuff that was was made in China or or made overseas. But you know I'm also a big believer of ah you know manufacturing in the US.
00:59:15
Mike
So anytime I come across something that's made here ah you know in in the clothing world, shoe world, or anything, it's just it's it's nice.
00:59:16
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
00:59:23
Mike
ah
00:59:25
Conor Fowler
Yeah, even if it doesn't exactly mean what it meant.
00:59:25
Matt Smith
Yeah. right
00:59:25
Mike
oh
00:59:28
Mike
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, there's a lot of garbage made in America, too. But like from the the clothing, you know, and and even just like the small scale maker aspect of things, it's just it's nice to support those businesses.
00:59:40
Mike
Sure, it's going to cost more. But I assure you that nine times out of 10, those garments that you're getting are going to last. And whoever you bought them um is going to take care of you if you have a problem with them down the road.
00:59:47
Conor Fowler
Oh, yeah.
00:59:52
Conor Fowler
And they're probably not made by children.
Supreme's Evolution and Future
00:59:56
Mike
Probably not.
00:59:58
Conor Fowler
But it's hard to say, yeah.
00:59:58
Mike
Ideally.
01:00:00
Conor Fowler
So I guess to wrap up here, we want, and there is much more to cover, but we're trying to be respectful of all our deadlines.
01:00:10
Mike
Oh, yeah.
01:00:11
Conor Fowler
ah Top five things in your whole collection, top three things in your whole collection.
01:00:17
Mike
Oh, God.
01:00:18
Conor Fowler
See, I knew this would fuck you up. I mean, and it's like, how would you?
01:00:21
Matt Smith
about you.
01:00:22
Mike
OK.
01:00:22
Conor Fowler
yeah But.
01:00:23
Mike
All right. ah I mean, i i can probably I can probably play this game. um Can I play this game? I don't know. The the top three, so I have what, um and I still haven't found all the details on it yet, but there is a ah DNC camo Supreme camp cap from, it's gotta be 2000 or 2001 that I had never seen before.
01:00:46
Conor Fowler
Mm hmm.
01:00:48
Mike
I did not know existed. um And i I picked up in in Japan. um Definitely like legit. ah It's the exact same shape and stitching and everything of of other caps from from that era.
01:00:58
Conor Fowler
Right, right.
01:01:03
Mike
And a couple people actually hit me up. They're like, oh, no, I've i've seen this cap. I had this cap. you know So like that was really cool because DNC is definitely my favorite camo pattern. And so to find an early supreme reference to DNC that also exists nowhere else. That that is really cool. That's definitely part of the you know the the top three. I would say the pieces of um the Supreme Carhartt, not Carhartt collab that they did in I think 98 as well, where they basically took the Carhartt design for the tour jacket and the double knee pants
01:01:40
Mike
and slapped a little you know S that was stylized as the Carhartt logo on the back of the pants. So they looked like Carhartt, but they were supreme. um And then...
01:01:52
Conor Fowler
whoa Wait, what business does Supreme have collaborating with the Democratic National Convention?
01:01:53
Mike
Wait,
01:01:58
Mike
but wait what? was that Is that a thing?
01:02:01
Conor Fowler
We're just talking about the DNC.
01:02:03
Mike
Oh no, not that DNC. Oh, come on, or you're busting my balls. No, I'm talking about desert desert night camo.
01:02:09
Conor Fowler
Nice, nice.
01:02:09
Mike
um
01:02:10
Matt Smith
Yeah, yeah.
01:02:11
Conor Fowler
Well, see, not everyone is hip to the academics, you know.
01:02:11
Mike
Sorry. Yeah, that's true. I'm sorry. CNC is another failed ah camo pattern that was popularized around the Gulf War that was supposed to evade Gen 1 night vision, but it turned out to be a complete failure.
01:02:14
Matt Smith
Yep.
01:02:25
Mike
But it yielded this very cool ah like geomat geometric slash like chocolate chip style pattern.
01:02:34
Matt Smith
Yeah, it's almost...
01:02:34
Conor Fowler
Yeah, yeah, I remember Matt showed that to me.
01:02:35
Mike
Gritty looking.
01:02:37
Conor Fowler
I was like, wow, this is like, yeah.
01:02:38
Mike
That's cool, yeah.
01:02:38
Matt Smith
Like to me, it seems like one of the, like that definitely influenced digital camo.
01:02:39
Mike
and
01:02:45
Mike
Oh, yeah, yeah, 100%.
01:02:46
Matt Smith
You know, yeah.
01:02:49
Mike
And then can I can I count something that ah is no longer my collection? Or does that does that not?
01:02:54
Conor Fowler
you Do whatever you want, dude.
01:02:55
Mike
Oh, man, I that that frickin the Patagonia rip off lease.
01:03:00
Conor Fowler
Hmm.
01:03:02
Mike
You know, and I and I, God, I just wish it fit. And going to find another one is just impossible. And I'm definitely not gonna pay the tax to ah to buy one.
01:03:12
Matt Smith
Right. Like just out of curiosity, what, what does that sell for?
01:03:13
Mike
I would much rather find it myself.
01:03:19
Matt Smith
Like right there.
01:03:20
Mike
ah I mean, I think that you, between like 1500, I would say it it's all, you know, it's all dependent on like condition and the size and the color.
01:03:30
Matt Smith
Right. Right. Right. Like, like, like a good condition. Like, okay.
01:03:33
Mike
I would say the spread is probably $1,200 to $1,800 on that fleece.
01:03:37
Matt Smith
Yeah. Yeah.
01:03:39
Mike
And the fleeces definitely fetch more, I think, than the bomber jackets ah do and and the coach's jacket do.
01:03:39
Conor Fowler
Yes.
01:03:46
Matt Smith
Right.
01:03:47
Mike
um just And that may be because of you know Drake you know had it out there for a while.
01:03:52
Matt Smith
Yeah, fucking Drake always ruining shit.
01:03:52
Mike
um But yeah. Hey, man. Hey, man. So yeah, I think that's i think that's the the the the top three. ah One of them had to be a hat. um
01:04:01
Matt Smith
Yeah, totally, totally. That's a good, good hat.
01:04:05
Mike
Yeah.
01:04:05
Matt Smith
Good hat. Well, hell yeah, Mike, this has been super fun.
01:04:10
Mike
Yeah, absolutely.
01:04:10
Matt Smith
um Yeah. Yeah, like Connor said, we have a lot of ground that we did not cover, but this
01:04:12
Mike
Yeah.
Tiny Trucks and Instagram Passion
01:04:15
Matt Smith
has been ah a real fun
01:04:15
Mike
Yeah. Well, if you if you ever want to do a part two, this is the first time I've ever you know done any kind of podcast. So, you know, I would definitely.
01:04:21
Matt Smith
Nice, nice.
01:04:22
Conor Fowler
See if I can premiere cool teens interview on any medium Yeah, this has been a blast
01:04:28
Mike
You know, I would i would i would love to to talk to you guys again because yeah there's definitely a lot of a lot of ground to cover. ah But this is this is very cool. Yeah, man.
01:04:38
Conor Fowler
e
01:04:38
Matt Smith
and well um Yeah, yeah, shout out your Instagram account so people can know and follow. Fuck, we didn't even talk about tiny trucks.
01:04:47
Conor Fowler
Oh yeah, hang on a second.
01:04:48
Mike
Oh, no!
01:04:48
Conor Fowler
we gotta talk about it We gotta talk about the little trucks.
01:04:50
Matt Smith
Yeah, we have to get in some.
01:04:51
Conor Fowler
Because the little truck is something that you really like. If Matt and I were going to kill each other truly, and we've been to that point before, if somebody gave us a little truck, or two little trucks even, we would be like, alright, fuck it.
01:05:01
Matt Smith
Yeah. Yeah, or, or i miss yeah, or they could give us a Mitsubishi Delica and we could just travel.
01:05:03
Conor Fowler
We're good. See you going 40 miles an hour or the other direction.
01:05:10
Mike
Oh my God, I.
01:05:10
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
01:05:11
Matt Smith
We could travel the country are you doing in-person interviews. Hey, if anybody's listening and you've got, you know, 15 grand,
01:05:17
Mike
Yeah, in in in my mind, I would absolutely love to to own. Yeah, Delica would be awesome. Even one of those just little like four wheel drive farm trucks and it.
01:05:26
Matt Smith
Oh yeah.
01:05:27
Mike
ah kind of tiny van or truck there's there's a guy up in the Catskills that uh sells he imports uh trucks and K vans and he also imports um firefighting apparatus from Japan so ah just think about a fire truck but make it this big and uh
01:05:34
Matt Smith
Oh, that's awesome.
01:05:41
Conor Fowler
Yeah.
01:05:44
Matt Smith
Wow.
01:05:44
Conor Fowler
That's what that guy Jeremiah, they were having this guy Jeremiah on who has like a clothing factory, um but he has one of those like red fire truck vans.
01:05:54
Mike
ah So cool. So cool. And in, like in the, in the grand scheme of, I guess, purchasing a vehicle, they're not incredibly expensive. They can start at three grand.
01:06:01
Matt Smith
No, no.
01:06:03
Mike
They can go to, you know, 20, 30 grand, really depending on what you want. But I would love to have one of those like micro four wheel drive campers, like, like the Delica.
01:06:10
Matt Smith
Yeah, same here, same here. we Please, God, someone donate a Delica to Apocalypse Duds, a camper Delica, and Connor and I will will hit the road immediately.
01:06:20
Mike
Nice.
01:06:21
Conor Fowler
that is that that is like both a nightmarish and dreamy prospect no dude i think we would have a blast i mean we could go see all of our like uh comrades you know this is the start of it everybody's always told me i should start a cult i'm starting it i'm starting a commune yeah we were talking about timothy mcveigh last time i mean it just kind of is what it is so
01:06:21
Mike
Nice.
01:06:26
Mike
Yeah. oh
01:06:27
Matt Smith
Yeah, it would be a dream for me, probably, a nightmare for Connor.
01:06:27
Mike
ah
01:06:35
Matt Smith
Yeah.
01:06:39
Mike
Now is this time.
01:06:46
Matt Smith
Oh, yes, yes.
01:06:48
Mike
Cool.
01:06:48
Matt Smith
Well, ah yeah, we we'll have you back on at some point, but shout out your, probably soon.
01:06:53
Conor Fowler
Hopefully soon.
01:06:55
Matt Smith
ah good to you know Good to chat and shout out your info for our wonderful listeners.
01:06:58
Mike
Yeah.
01:07:02
Mike
Cool. Yeah. My Instagram is hello cool teens. And that's that's it. I have no further self promotion.
01:07:07
Matt Smith
ah Post a lot of really cool shit recommended It's it's the worst
01:07:12
Conor Fowler
Just tasteful stuff, just like, and this is a thing I tried to puff you up about, like the amount of work that goes into shooting all of the product is like meticulous, you know?
01:07:22
Mike
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
01:07:24
Conor Fowler
And that's like liver of love, dude, that's so good.
01:07:24
Mike
I mean, ah you know and and And big shout out to to anybody that does lay downs professionally, because it is the most tedious. And you can see, if you look at my photos, you're half-assed.
01:07:35
Conor Fowler
Oh my God. i Straight up can't I like don't have the fucking like I don't have the foresight.
01:07:40
Mike
yeah
01:07:41
Conor Fowler
I don't have the like precision It's not my thing
01:07:44
Mike
Yeah, I got, you know, I had some like lighting stands like in the bedroom, like over the bed. So I'm sure when the cleaning lady comes, she's like, uh, what's going on in here? You know, and it's like, no, I'm just shooting clothes. Uh, but yeah, and, and, you know, my, my, uh,
01:08:00
Mike
my My thought is just like all right at least make it presentable and like try to take some good photos like the color isn't always good and like I'm not using T pins to like flatten things out but like I just like to represent it maybe get a close-up of a detail that I like and You know that that's how I roll and if you don't like it, that's fine Yeah,
01:08:19
Matt Smith
Hell yeah. the The worst part about any type of like clothing content is shooting fucking photos.
01:08:25
Conor Fowler
We got a license rolling by limp biscuit I think that should be like the song.
01:08:25
Mike
yeah
01:08:30
Conor Fowler
What is the other one highway? It's my way or the highway We've we've sung this before I know Yeah,
01:08:37
Matt Smith
ah Yes, fuck you for the nonpiscot reference. Fuck you.
01:08:42
Conor Fowler
yeah, it's my quarterly ration
01:08:45
Matt Smith
Yes, yes. Anyway, everyone, thank you for listening. Thanks once more, Mike, for coming on and shooting the shit with me and Connor.
01:08:54
Mike
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
01:08:55
Matt Smith
um I am Matt's... Actually, sorry. ah We are at ApocalypseDuds on Instagram, ApocalypseDuds at gmail dot.com. If you would like to send us an email, I'm not going to raffle that anymore.
Closing Remarks and Contact Info
01:09:10
Matt Smith
I am Matt Smith at Rebelsrogues.
01:09:14
Conor Fowler
And I am Connor Flower at Connor Flower.
01:09:19
Matt Smith
and we will see you next week.
01:09:23
Mike
Cool.
01:09:24
Conor Fowler
Cheerio.
01:09:26
Conor Fowler
God, I've got to stop saying Cheerio. That's like an angle of affectation.