Every week, we at Highsnobiety take some time to highlight one of our favorite brands through our BOTW (Brand of the Week) series. Last week, we took a walk down memory lane and featured Shepard Fairey's OBEY Clothing. This week, we’ve decided to shine a light on New York skate brand Bronze 56K.
From Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy using old Thrasher graphics to Dior including decks in its collections, it's evident that high fashion has infiltrated skateboard culture in a major way. But relax, we're not here to point the finger and dive into the whole high-fashion-meets-skateboard-culture debacle, but to highlight one of the most authentic skate brands out there right now — Bronze 56K.
Surprisingly, Bronze 56K didn't start out as a legit clothing brand. It was just a group of friends from Queens, New York skating and filming, first under the name of Stick Up Kids, then Flipmode. Peter Sidlauskus, who went on to become one of the brand's co-owners, never liked the name Flipmode. "It's fucking Busta Rhymes' crew [...] can't believe it stuck for as long as it did," he admitted during a 2016 interview with Skateboard Story. As a result, Flipmode became Bronze in 2011, developing from a crew to a brand identity, with Peter Sidlauskus and Pat Murray as co-owners.
Sidlauskus and Murray lived on the same block and met at the age of 6 in Sidlauskus' backyard. "[He] was riding training wheels when I was already on a two-wheeler", said Sidlauskus. While in the same crew, Murray always wanted to create a brand that centered around their skate videos. But starting a brand was not only time-consuming, it also required a fair amount of cash that, at the time, none of them had much of.
As a result, they leveraged social media in place of an actual product. "[We were] a fake company that seemed real because of the internet," said Sidlauskus. "We didn't really have any intention of making real product until we saw the demand on the internet. We would post photoshopped shit on Instagram, and kids would comment like 'Yo, I would buy this shirt!'"
Thanks to the insanely-edited videos, more and more people discovered the brand and gravitated towards newly created apparel. But what really put Bronze on the map was its instantly sold-out collaboration with Palace in 2015. A collab with HUF soon followed, and soon it wasn't just skaters wearing the clothing. Bronze pieces even ended up on resell websites.
While having non-skaters rock the brand was inevitable for fashion-forward designs like theirs, the co-owners of Bronze are still refusing to expand into more stores. Sidlauskus has vocalized his desire not to make the brand too available, with runs of product reaching capacity at around 60 shops worldwide. Staying true to their skateboarding roots, Sidlauskus and Murray also recently founded Jamaica, a sister company of the brand, entirely dedicated to making boards.
Bronze's latest collection proves that the brand is staying true to its boarding routes and keeping up with the latest trends. Below, you'll find some of our favorites available to cop right now, from hoodies, jackets, and tees to caps and other accessories. Scroll down to take a closer look at all our favorites, and add some Bronze 56K to your wardrobe today.
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