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...about us
Our Purpose...
We all start out as kooks, no matter what you think. We all enter the world uneducated, raw, and clueless. For you kids who are lost, being called a kook is one of the most hurtful things in the realm of action sports. The word kook usually means you have no style, no substance, no respect, but are trying like mad to fit the image.
We're taking a little different spin on it though. You can bet your ass being a kook will never be a good thing, but we're using it to remind you of something extremely important; its not about the outward perception of perfection, but will always be about the trip and the stoke. These are personal things that no one else can have a say in. If you remember, that was probably the main reason you started surfing, skating, skiing, etc... Ok, well maybe the first time was to impress a hottie, but you came back for a deeper reason.
You getting it yet? Life is a constant revision. People don't get it right the first time, very rarely anyway. Kook Wear is a direct result of that revision process.
We always knew the environment was important to us, but like a lot of young people, never really understood what that meant. We went to school to become engineers, primed to change the world. We graduated, got hired, and realized the only thing that changes is the date. Big companies are real good at managing the bottom line, but everything else is usually just for show, from the clothes to the stupid catch phrases they use (It'll take years to crack the brain washing). We quickly realized “Corporate America” might not hold that shiny key to happiness.
Kook Wear is our latest revision. We really want to make clothes you're proud to chill in. The brand is as environmentally conscious as we could think to make it. From our fabric, to the inks and dyes, to the packaging it's shipped in. We realized there's more chance to influence the world through these clothes than any engineering company. This is our chance to be creative and put some substance behind all this talk of preserving the environment. Plenty of brands out there urge you to feel natural, but we want you to be natural. They spend so much time, creativity, and money to snap pictures in some of the most beautiful places in the World. Well, we'd rather spend the extra money on using organic and sustainable materials. This way we can make sure that beauty hangs around for a little while longer. We'd rather everyone get a chance to see it in person someday than have to remember it from a magazine advertisement.
The Clothes...
We want to put clothes out there that send two messages:
- Remember to have insane amounts of fun (its ok to laugh at yourself)
- Put some thought into how we live in our environment
The goal here isn't to attack any of the major brands. We have mad respect for them and how they began. Whether it was to promote youth against establishment or just to have more comfortable gear to ride in, their motivation was pure. Kook Wear is here because we had our own ideas about how to be creative; we want to remind people of the fun and simple pleasures these sports bring to our lives, they evolved out of pure recreation, after all. Then, of course, the human machine took over and had to make ‘em a business. Recreation quickly gave way to exclusivity, the need for perfection, and stress. Kook Wear is an attempt to re-establish that recreational and stoked center of balance.
The other reason we exist is to try and promote some environmental conscious in the choices people make. Clothes, especially t-shirts, have always been an effective way to send a message. What better way than to design clothes that are as close to 100% organic and environmentally friendly as possible? Right now we have the technology to create clothes that are 100% organic and sustainable. We can make board shorts out of recycled plastic, shirts of bamboo and pesticide free cotton. Hell, shoes can be made that start to biodegrade after 90 days of being buried. Technology that we bust our balls to create has unlocked these abilities, yet money is very much in the way. We give credit to the big players for starting, but can't help ask why they aren't being more aggressive? Since going public, fear of disappointing shareholders, and a lot of other kooks that couldn't care less about the messages of old have gotten in the way.
We know the numbers game, and organics don't provide profits that are as attractive as the old-fashioned pesticide-laden way. Believe us, when we started this venture that message became all too clear. But just think what industry heavyweights could make happen if they put their full force behind an organic movement. Margins would increase as more companies utilized their buying power; while technology, quality, and style would surpass even today's standards. This is too important to just be some fad that major brands play with, it has to stick and become viable. So no, we don't want to stomp on the big guys' toes. We just want to be in the forefront of the organic clothing movement. Truthfully, ‘movement' is probably too strong a word for the stage its in now. But we do want to be part of the force that pushes it to that status. Kook Wear's ultimate goal is to continue designing responsible clothes with a feel-good vibe, but also to offer the organic styles like no other action sports brand out there.
We'd like to become a living symbol of the purity that athletes in our realm talk about. A one stop shop for the culture and any environmentally responsible product worth having. “Reckless Living, Responsible Life” it kind of makes sense, huh?
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