So…I was doing some online shopping tonight on one of my new favorite sites to cop nice shit for the lowsky wowsky and stumbled across this.
Yes, you are reading correctly. There is a clothing line called Matix that has a flannel shirt available in “Crip Plaid.” Not sure if they have the shirt available in “Blood Plaid” or “Latin King Plaid” too.
I ask, do you find this offensive? I mean, this isn’t the first time a clothing company has blatantly used gang culture to push a product. New Era tried to, caught flack for it and eventually they pulled it off the shelf. Now, I’m in no way trying to say that that was cool but at least they might have felt the were catering to a certain demographic that they knew wore their products and went about serving them irresponsibly? No? Ok.
But this Matix company, I don’t know. Before tonight, I never heard of them. Probably because they are a skateboarding company and I don’t follow the sport or lifestyle like that. Every site that I looked the shirt up at has a white dude as the model, so I figured that they aren’t black-owned. When I looked them up I found that the company was started by a couple of skateboarders named Daewon Song and Tim Gavin. Song is Korean, not sure what nationality Gavin is. I found a promo video of them hanging out at their headquarters too…I think I spotted one black person there? Maybe it was his idea to make the “Crip Plaid” shirt?
How do you feel about this? I mean just last month Vogue Italia came under fire for featuring some hoop earrings and calling them “slave earrings.” They later apologized and said that it was just bad case of “mistranslation.” I don’t totally believe that, but, there is space for doubt being that it involves another language. On second though, eh, not really.
I’m not sure if much can be “mistranslated” in the case of “Crip Plaid.” I mean, anybody living in America knows exactly what a Crip is. And unless Matix named the shirt because they were inspired by the gang’s original meaning (Community Revolution In Progress) I don’t see how they thought this was a good idea.
Do you think they are mocking the gang? Or worst, mocking the many lives that have been taken and affected by gang violence? Or did they figure that since Snoop Dogg has damn near commercialized and turned Cripping into a brand ready for mass marketing, that they could do it too?
The reason I’m asking questions and not just going in on this is because I don’t really know how to feel about it. In the New Era case, yeah, something had to be said because the hats were being sold in our neighborhoods and ran the risk of promoting gang violence or getting some kid who didn’t know any better shot for wearing it.
With Matix, I don’t know anybody that wears it. So, saying “lets boycott them” wouldn’t mean anything. Should we write letters to these cats and let them know that this isn’t a cool idea? Or should we just say “fuck ya’ll” and create a shitstorm of controversy over the shirt?
At this point I don’t know what I want to do about it. I really don’t want to stop shopping at the place I saw this at, I really like them! But nah for real, let me know how ya’ll feel.
if they ever have to defend it then they may cite the original meaning of CRIP as their intended message, especially since they are a part of skate culture which has been viewed as an enemy or “gang” of sorts in many cities. In my opinion, the real reason they feel comfy using this is probably as you stated – Snoop.
On another note, would you mind sharing the shopping site that linked you to Matix?