Patta x Stüssy Is a Family Affair & Beyond (EXCLUSIVE)
Patta and Stüssy go way back, sharing a relationship founded on mutual respect. If ever two brands were united by cultural crossover, a shared love of music, community and Nike sneakers, well, these would be them.
As such, Patta and Stüssy are the perfect pair for a project centered around the thing otherwise best canonized by Aretha Franklin.
As they were only last seen together in 2019, it was about time that Patta and Stüssy reunited but, first, before the main course, a thoughtful appetizer.
The Patta x Stüssy "Respect Tee" is exactly what it sounds like.
Comprising a single printed design, the collaborative T-shirt commemorates Humprey Rietfeld Schmidt, the late father of Patta co-founder Guillaume "Gee" Schmidt.
"With the Respect Tee we are not only paying homage to the past but also empowering present and future generations to carry forward the spirit of resilience and progress," Patta said in a statement.
Indeed, this tribute, which releases at Patta's website and stores on June 3, is as conscious of the past as it is of the present and beyond.
While paying homage to a man "who positively impacted many lives," again, as the statement puts it, Patta and Stüssy are putting their money where their mouths are.
All the money generated from this shirt will benefit Project Bigi Pondo, a new charitable effort that's spearheading "community uplift and sustainable development" in Suriname, a country located in the northern tip of South America.
Specifically, this is a project will create an art piece out of a large boat that's no longer seaworthy, located near the village of Afobaka. This boat, left in disuse over 60 years ago, was once an essential transportation method for residents like the Surinamese Maroons.
Members of the African diaspora, the Maroons were introduced to Suriname through Dutch colonialism.
Their ancestors escaped slavery and set up local communities that still at least partially speak Dutch. Indeed, the website for the Saamaka Marron Museum, located in the village of Pikin Slee, is written entirely in Dutch.
Here Patta, itself a Dutch company with roots in the African diaspora, itself uses history as a springboard into the next generation, utilizing the funds generated from this Stüssy collaboration to create a work of cultural weight, symbolic of respect for those who came before and those who come next.
