I NEVER HAVE A NORMAL DAY

Dear Readers,

Autumn is on its way, and before we even knew the glorious summer days are over. There’s hardly anything new about, it happens every year yet, most people do get upset about it, like there’s anything we could do about it. Yes, change, for most people, is an undesired event, the majority of us would prefer for everything to stay the same because routine is reassuring, it allows us to switch our brain off and resort to instinct-like behaviour, wake up, make coffee, go to work, go home and go back to sleep. The same can be said about our industry. Even though on the surface, and in the public’s eye, we present ourselves as the hub of creativity and the creative innovators in the industry, this perception really doesn’t apply to the majority of the people involved. As a matter of fact, I would argue, that fashion, streetwear and street culture, is by far much more conservative and stagnate than what we like to believe.

Change is bad, the unknown is unwanted and the same repetitive routine in our lives is desirable. Adverse reactions can be seen everywhere, say for example when Bread & butter decided to mix up the trade show calendar by introducing Barcelona as an extra event, the entire industry de-evolved into a group of bickering old granddads who’s favourite golf course just closed down for a week. An example of the other opposite is how unimaginative our industry has become, the majority products have remained at a mediocre excitement level, yet we all celebrate each new line as if it were the key to Pandora’s Box, as long as we don’t change anything everything is good. Ironically, we have all been going on about how bad the industry is doing and how boring everything is for the last five years, but please, don’t change anything. Yet, change, adaptation, evolution are vital for success, not just on a financial basis, but for everything. We need to get away from the school of thought that change is disruption and therefore unwanted, because the exact opposite is needed. The world of which we are a part, is changing so rapidly that we need to move with it, or if we can get ahead of the game, because that used to the appeal of street culture and young fashion. If we cannot be the innovators who can? Chanel? Gucci? Black is the new black? I don’t think so.

Change is good, and things need to change here, because the old way of doing things no longer works, the old ways are over. There’s no point in hanging on to them either, because you will just lose in the end. That’s why we all thought that the claim “I never have a normal day” fits perfectly in this issue. It’s an expression we use all the time; ironically those people that strive to have a normal day are the ones that use it the most and it has a somewhat negative connation to it. We, however, saw it as something positive. Thank God we don’t have a normal day every day, it keeps us on our toes and forces us to think differently for every turn we make and continuously forces us to adapt to these new situations. Not having a normal day shows that the individuals involved have the capacity to master new challenges and move themselves forward and that was also the criteria for this issue, new ideas, new labels, new ways of doing things without ever losing the quality.

The claim actually comes from Sandy Bodecker, the Vice President of Nike Skateboarding, whom we had the pleasure of interviewing for this issue for our title story. If one organisation represents change, innovation and willingness to move forward than it is Nike Skateboarding, but please, read for yourself.

We are more than happy to present to you our selection of new innovative people, brands and artists, and brands that are willing to move forward in this issue, and we hope that you’ll share our idea that change is good.

Steven Vogel for streetwear today