Fashion – Fresher Apparel

March 19, 2012 in Fashion

Holding things down in the indie fashion industry we’ve got a brand based out of San Francisco, California & Atlanta, Georgia by the name of Fresher Apparel. Fresher aims to make advancements in street wear while staying rooted and not losing sight of design and lifestyle goals. Now relax as we get to know Fresher Apparel a little more and how they started out in the industry.

Clothing line name: Fresher Apparel (Fresher)
City/State: San Francisco, CA – Atlanta, GA
Established date: July 2011
Website: http://www.FresherApparel.com

Price range for clothing: $15-$50
Where to buy your clothing: http://shop.fresherapparel.com/

So tell us about your brand?

- We are a team of four people: some of us artists and designers, college students and graduates, and people who just love art, hip hop and fashion. Fresher aims to make advancements in street wear while staying rooted and not losing sight of design and lifestyle goals.

Fresher originally began as stencil-based t-shirts made in a garage back in 2005 when I was in high school. During college I played around with stenciling/designing shirts for clubs and organizations but the thought of Fresher had almost disappeared. When I graduated and started working I thought it would be a fun side project to breathe some life back into Fresher and invite some of my friends to be a part of it.

How did you come up with the name?

- The name “Fresher” came from a Mitch Hedberg joke in which he talks about adding “er” to the end words that you would use to describe things. What does a refrigerator do? It keeps shit fresh. Call it a Fresher…Then Fresher Apparel was born. The original design from 2005 was a refrigerator with a shirt hanging inside which we plan on bringing back soon.

What were you doing before launching your brand?

- Before launching Fresher we were all either working our full time jobs or in school. We are still doing what we all did before and the only thing that has changed is that we’re a lot busier after our regular 9-5’s.

When did you begin thinking about launching your own clothing brand?

- After I graduated from college I moved back to the Bay Area and got a job. I had a consistent income now but still had some free time and thought that it would be a perfect time to jumpstart Fresher Apparel again. I figured it would be a fun project on the side and the ultimate goal was to create good quality stuff that people would want to wear.

What best describes your line & who is it targeted to?

- Fresher focuses strongly on good, timeless designs that have mass appeal. Our main target customers are high school and college-aged individuals. Although we see most Fresher customers in that age range, we’re open to anyone who wants to be Fresher fitted.

What influenced you to start this line?

- A passion for fashion, art and creating something that my friends and likeminded individuals could relate and connect with.

How is your brand different from others out there?

- We believe in collaboration. One of our goals is to work with different artists, designers, athletes, musicians, etc. We may have good designs up our sleeves, but we know that there’s a ton of good art already out there. We know that although many of us are talented, it can be hard to get notice, to get heard, to get seen, or get printed. Fresher aims to create a means for those whose style and vision align with ours. So if you want to be seen and heard, let us know!

Are there any challenges you run into while running a business?

- The first big challenge for us is working in a multi-location team. It would be easier and faster if we could meet in person but we make it work with a lot of communication between emails and occasional Skype meetings. The second major challenge for us is working on Fresher as a side project while we work full time jobs and attend school.

Experience is the biggest thing that we have gained so far. There are so many ways that we imagined things happening, and when they didn’t go quite as planned, it made us take a step back and analyze what happened. When we are planning and brainstorming we tend to think big, and sometimes we get ahead of ourselves. We’ve learned that there’s no reason to rush this and if we want this to last that we need to focus on making good products.

What ways did you find promoting your brand worked?

- We have been fortunate to have strong support from our friends and local fans. Recently we have been putting more effort into building our online presence with Twitter, Facebook and our website. We created relationships and promoted our clothing with artists and performers such as Hoodie Allen, Instant Noodles Dance Crew, Starting Six, and Chukwudi Hodge of the Get Back Band. Staying rooted in the hip-hop and dance community is definitely a goal of ours and I think we’ve gotten off to a good start. We hope to support more artists, performers, and athletes who are into our clothing as well.

Are there any future plans for your line?

- We are kicking off this year with more consistent releases. There are already plans for snapbacks, new stickers, of course some tees/tanks coming as we approach summer. We are also planning to bring back some of the popular designs that Fresher debuted with back in 2005. A few collaborations are already in the works, so we’ll see where that leads. We have endless possibilities and we want to see what’s out there and what’s to come from working with all you artists out there.

How did you hear about FKN Famous & what do you think of us?

- We’ve been checking out FKN Famous since we started up. We are constantly looking at what’s trending and trying to get the latest news in the realm of music, fashion and urban lifestyles. FKN Famous is an awesome site where we can get all of that plus more.

Any last shout outs?

- All of our friends who have supported Fresher from the beginning, our fans, and the first big names to get behind Fresher: Instant Noodles Dance Crew, Chukwudi Hodge, Hoodie Allen, and Starting Six.