Community-Driven Design

At the heart of each of our collections is a problem we wish to solve, or a question we want to pose. Traditional apparel concepting often centers around a desired form or function. Ours always begins and ends with our communities. We ask: what are the biggest challenges in our communities today? These conversations inform our final designs, which in turn invite meaningful dialogue and change.

Our first step is discussion and engagement. For “on Education”, we talked to current students to learn about their experiences in today’s classrooms first-hand. In a series of creative design and social justice workshops with our Oakland community partners, we examined the question: “What is Educational Equity?”

In collaboration with students and teachers, we worked to define educational equity and brainstormed creative ways to visualize it. These conversations were driven by young people who shared their passion for learning, and frustrations with learning environments. Their influence can be seen in the topics we chose for this collection, which center on equity, equality, diversity, and representation.

In “Public Schools”, we used edu.gov data to show how much money is spent on schools across the US. Neighboring districts often raise vastly unequal amounts of funding. And while one would expect. And while one might expect schools in low-income communities to receive extra resources, the reverse is often true.

This collection is designed to highlight realities in educational equity and (in)equality in the US. 10% of proceeds on this collection go to support Youth Radio in Oakland, CA.