Is that something that you’re going to factor in to who you pick as your collaborative partners moving forward? He met Michael Kopelman. The North Face Produced a Psychedelic Capsule Collection with … It’s about doing the right thing. I started painting Canter’s and helping out Bobby’s store [The Hundreds] with the community, and scrubbing buildings and stuff and cleaning up trash. Sur Red Bull TV, Kyle Ng part à la rencontre d'artisans, de designers et d'icônes de la mode, pour faire découvrir le monde du streetwear. If you’re telling us this is not the right fund, we’re going to change it. That’s a community, someone who really cares. This is an important thing, but we can’t also forget about the other movements that we also support, like the Me Too movement and women’s rights. Definitely. In this episode of Uproxx’s Studio Visit – created in partnership with Foot Locker — Kyle took us into his home studio in Los Angeles where he broke down how the Air Max and his early experiences at Foot Locker helped to inspire his design ethos. “We are taking this time out to help our community.” That was part of Brain Dead’s message to its roughly 251,000 Instagram followers on June 1. Today the brand is huge, dropping collabs all … If you’re not going to speak up, but are directly influenced by Black culture like Nigo, and wearing a chain and saying you’re Pharrell’s best friend, if you do not understand that this is an issue that not only affects America but affects the global market as a whole, there’s an issue. Kyle Ng of Brain Dead Wants to Connect the World Interview. For Kyle NG and Brain Dead, the chance to work with one of the biggest clubs in the world is obvious. The second video of the series features Kyle Ng from streetwear brand Brain Dead. His designs, which grow organically out of his own interests, have a sort of practicality about them that makes them effortlessly cool while featuring a unique spin or interpretation that elevates them above the competition. From a production standpoint, have there been any challenges? We posted that, and people were in arms and super pissed off at us because they’re like, ‘How are you supporting a known accused sex offender.’ I got a call from my friend telling me that, too. I get it. So the Movement 4 Black Lives was Dev Hynes’ idea as well as the LGBTQ Foundation Fund. I’ve got to act.’ That whole thing with cleaning up the city just made me realize that we just have to do it. Doing some recon about a week ago, we found out about the kicks through cheeky Instagram posts by Brain Dead founder Kyle Ng, and friends of the brand. Not saying they have to do it with me, but just like this idea of strategizing and figuring out the right message or whatever. We talked on the phone, and then we got this thing going in like three hours, and the graphic was made. The shoes have now been revealed, along with confirmation we’ll be receiving two colourways of the Chuck 70 and one pair of the Bosey MC. He met Jules Gayton. All the cool brands before, like Shawn Stussy, he was powerful because he brought cultures like reggae, skateboarding, and surfing to New York, and vice-versa. I’m not saying everyone has to be going out in the communities, cleaning up South Central or whatever. Brain Dead is not one person, nor is it one idea. It’s a difficult subject, and I was thinking about it right before this. Today the brand is huge, dropping collabs all across the board. But above all else, he knew he wanted to use his platform to amplify the message behind these protests. It sits in the space between people. How much have you raised so far? I was like, ‘You know what? But it’s like, why can’t a brand just be culturally-minded, right? I think going back to the core values of what it means to be part of this community is most important. To find out more about Kyle Ng and his design ethos, check out the new episode of Discover Your Air above. Kyle Ng and Ed Davis started Brain Dead about six years ago, making t-shirts. Oh, fuck yeah. Robinson “One has the power of a billion dollars plus investment,” Kyle Ng, the founder of the brand Brain Dead wrote on Instagram. Kyle Ng and Ed Davis started Brain Dead about six years ago, making t-shirts. We understand that we have to do a better job of being ethical, and a lot of people DM’d us after that being like, ‘Hey, man. But it’s definitely not going to buy a Brain Dead x North Face jacket at a resale store. I just really respect his humbleness, and I respect what he does for his community and his fan base as well as the art world in itself. The sheer amount of work Brain Dead has done to bring attention to the movement is staggering. They’re bringing messages of lifestyle, and pioneering culture as a whole. And then their product didn’t really mean anything because they’re just seeing crazy dollar bills. So I just rode my motorcycle over there, and I just started cleaning. They might not know what’s happening over there, but there are protests in Japan, and in Shibuya, and in areas where they’re around. But today, it’s the man who makes the clothes … literally. I’m Chinese, but that’s my second home, and I haven’t seen shit from these guys. By showing our numbers, it just ignited the spark in people. We do what we can, but moving forward we have to even do more.’ People see that and I think care even more about your brand because when we released our main collection, it went crazy the next week. While plenty of brands have responded to the current times with messages of solidarity and special T-shirts, Brian Dead’s efforts have gone above and beyond, remained authentic and consistent throughout the past couple of weeks. Inside the Closet of the Designer, Social Fabric Host, and Comic Book Nerd. What do you feel is the streetwear community’s responsibility moving forward to kind of keep this issue relevant? Los Angeles based Brain Dead is a creative collective of artists and designers from around the world, founded by Kyle Ng and Ed Davis after they bonded over their love of post punk, underground comics, skateboarding, and the spirit of subculture as a whole. Kyle Ng, co-founder of Brain Dead, fondly recalls the meaning of T-shirts, especially growing up in the punk scene. I wasn’t sad. We had more support this collection. We’re not trying to be an ethically-based brand like Patagonia where everything is about sending that message. When I posted that thing about Supreme and then us doing the $500,000, it wasn’t an attack on Supreme. They called me immediately and they’re like, ‘We’re doing this,’ or, ‘Let’s work on our projects.’ There’s a lot of things that are going to come out in the next couple months that we want to work on, and into the next year. But moving forward it’s about how these big projects, like with the climbing shoe, how can we help the climbing community? Kyle Ng 和 Ed Davis | Via UBIQ. Creative Director Kyle Ng DP Chris Westlund AC Esther Woodworth Gaffer Cole Pisano Grip Paul Rodroguez Sound Design Kevin Chung Lee Cheng Fabrication Adam Lawrence PA Jordan Konow. Kyle Ng of Brain Dead’s T-Shirt Top 7. We’ve been doing masks and stuff for this cause. 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What will Brain Dead be specifically doing moving forward to continue the support of the Black community? Brain health Scientific research A scientific experiment to reanimate dead brains could lead to humans enduring a ‘fate worse than death,’ an ethics lecturer has warned. If you’re a streetwear brand, you immediately have to look at why people are looting these businesses, and what are you doing to change that? How did you go about determining what you wanted to donate to, what you wanted the proceeds to be benefiting? You challenged a lot of the big collaborators, Reebok, The North Face, brands that you’ve done projects with. We caught up with Ng to discuss Brain Dead’s recent initiatives, the streetwear community’s overall response or lack thereof to the current climate, how brands can hold themselves accountable, and more. We’ve never had those numbers. I’m criticizing the idea of him calling streetwear a culture when he’s talking about consumerism.’ Standing in line to me is not a culture. [Brain Dead] has a really big fanbase in Japan, and that’s my second home pretty much. He comes from a punk rock background. Today the brand is huge, dropping collabs all … Are they just posting some black square? That’s the main goal, which will then inherently develop a sense of culture and community within people, underprivileged kids and people of color and the Black community, and understand that there is a community that you have to support. You just need to fucking be human. Brain Dead’s received a ton of attention for all its releases these past few weeks. That’s considered like grail shit. I’m not sure if you knew that, but he comes from this band Test Icicles and he had Lightspeed Champion. We’ve been acquaintance friends for a while. He was like an old-school punk dude, and I just knew that he’s ready to take action, and he did, immediately. Kyle Ng is a creative director, designer and co-founder of the LA-based brand Brain Dead.He grew up in the Bay Area skateboarding, listening to and playing punk music. No one needs to look cool right now. Brain Dead ended up actually dropping a new collection this week. It’s different over there. Kyle and his business partner Ed are huge fans of all things subculture and their curiosity for minutia is unmatched. My whole thing about it now is that if they are trying to enter the Western market, they need to act appropriately. That film would be the first in … I saw him at the mayor’s house. You admitted the error publicly almost immediately, and said you were changing. They took out Fairfax and West Hollywood. Brain Dead’s Kyle Ng On BLM Releases & Brand Accountability “We are taking this time out to help our community.” That was part of Brain Dead’s message to its roughly 251,000 Instagram followers on June 1. After a couple days, that T-shirt raised roughly $500,000 that Brain Dead donated to M4BL and the LGBTQ Fund. Not just looking at what people are doing on the surface level of like, are they donating? One person gets back to me and was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got to get to my board and strategize this, but we’re going to do our own thing later on, okay?’ And that kind of pissed me off. https://www.nssmag.com/.../kyle-ng-brain-dead-the-north-face The post came when protests denouncing continuous racial injustice and police brutality, more specifically the murder of Geroge Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, were sweeping the nation. It appears they’re literally just doing this label as an art project, they don’t care about the money and hype etc and Hypebeast just happens to be posting the f out of this guy on the weekly so we’re all here thinking it’s a cash grab. So the riots happened in LA. Did you expect this level of response? Now kids think they’re like mini stock brokers in a resale market.