With Chad’s t shirts, we feel it’s important to obiviously, convey and collaborate the two main themes of the game; The era: 80’s and the leisure: Skateboarding. Personally, I’ve always enjoyed and connected emotionally to products and material that holds a sense of authenticity. Familiar, solid and authentic ideas can be implied to both the era and the leisure of our t shirts in our case, as we are able to replicate the genuine apparel of consumers of the products of the two themes within the era.
However, when first coming up with ideas for the garments, an colour scheme plagued my creative outlook on it immediately and that was the idea of a tie dye wash on the shirts, in the colours of our game’s background. I belive that the idea was influenced not only by the free spirit of the energy filled Chad, which shared connotations of youth, which somehow lead me to the energies of the 60’s (lets dismiss for a moment that this game is in no other way related to such an era) but also the recent image displayed by modern, west coast skaters, who, despite wandering in a drug infused ecstasy that utterly contradicts our game’s ratings and morals, perform similar activities as our iconic main character and whilst doing so, sport such psychedlic t shirts. I pitched this vision to my colleagues who, after intially warming to the idea, reminded me that such clothing holds represents the antics of the 1960’s rather than those of the 1980’s.
Wandering into the new wave of the 80’s, I took a look at the sportswear of our game’s iconic era and setting.
I couldn’t find any significant styles for 80’s skatewear because really, the sport had only just been pioneered. Some american collegiate gear with an “Old Skool” vibe caught my attention, and the idea of printing some retro Chad basketball vests developed in my head, in dark green and pink, and this idea has stayed with me.
I then branched off into the more casual, lesiurely sportswear of the era, looking at some classic addidas t shirts, with the white piping. I understood that by using this design as inspiration and incorperating our own colour scheme and logos, we could satisfy both casual and more hardcore fans by making the tees both more fashionable appealing as well as loyal to their title.
Finally, I realised that many skaters of today were hats such as beanies, but more commonly, snapbacks. Discovering the potential of appealing with apparell to an actual skating audience, I developed the idea of producing some headwear designs too.
Designs
The Chilled B-Ball Vest
Despite not being a basketball game, the vest will capture the laid back vibe of the bright, urban landscape, heat and hangouts of 1980’s Miami. These vests could be baggier to provide an even more laid back approach and feel or in tighter designs that sport a more prominant crew neck that matches the smart designs of the 80’s.
The Classic Tee”
Taking a page out of Adidas and Puma’s books with the use of bold shoulder and neck piping, these T shirts ooze retro and really add depth to the game. No pictures of our main man will be present on this one. However, there will be a rather distinctive font used, to add a sense of effectively simplicity and even branding.
And a few snapback designs……
Matthews Media Blog 