Rick Klotz is the owner and designer of Fresh Jive. Established in 1989, Fresh Jive has been influential in the rise of street wear and urban culture, bringing the lifestyle to the forefront over the past couple of years. However, as the streetwear climate changes today, Klotz has become rather 'disenchanted' by the pressence of branding within his company, and has made an unprecedented move to omit all branding and logos from Fresh Jive products. In an interview with Bobby Hundreds, Klotz speaks on the change in presentation, and his reasoning behind the move. A really fascinating move on the part of Klotz as his decision forces consumers to attach themselves to the ideology of the brand rather than a visual acknowledgement. It will be interesting to see if other brands adopt this change in the months to come.
on the thoughts and motives behind the decision: Throughout the years I’ve become uncomfortable with this business of branding and brand identity. I’m not the type of person that buys something for the brand name. I’ve also never done a very good job at creating a captivating identity to our own brand logo. Also, within the streetwear culture, the promotion of a company’s brand has become downright silly to me. What’s amusing is I still really enjoy designing gear, graphics, and even logos. But when I see kids wearing company logos it reminds of people who are trying to be a part of a “tribe” or “gang”, as if they need to be part of something, which seems to go against the idea of individualism in style.on taking on a new name: Well, let’s be practical. The company is still Freshjive. It’s just that none of our product will have any of our logos or even our name AT ALL. Not even in the labels. And after the turn of the year, no promotional material, nor our website will have any logos. It’s really invigorating to approach designing a line WITHOUT the constrictions of how the logo is gonna be placed or used on the garments.
was dropping the name the only way to solve the problem? Well this was the only way to solve the problem without just closing down and starting a new brand. But that would be TOO easy in a sense. It’s WAY more punk to have this company running for 20 years and then dropping the name brand. I’m punk.Interview conducted by Bobby Hundreds
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