We hope you guys enjoyed FILA Week on The Source.com!
It was an honor to celebrate the iconic sportswear brand as they reintroduced a throwback silhouette from the archives, the FILA Mindblower, while simultaneously presenting an updated version of the shoe as the Mindbreaker 2.0. Both shoes dropped in a massive 47-way collaboration that saw a host of dope brands and sneaker influencers design their own version of either silhouette.
While our previous features on Regina’s Grocery and rapper Maino chose the classic Mindblower, our final interview in the #FILAWeek rollout, L.E.S. by-way-of-Japan streetwear and lifestyle imprint PRIVILEGE NYC, chose the Mindbreaker 2.0 — a silhouette that the brand definitely did proper justice.
Adriel Ortiz, director of marketing and lifestyle for PRIVILEGE NYC, at the brand’s flagship store on Clinton Street in New York.
Image: Peter Pabon
Along with its parent company Lafayette New York, PRIVILEGE is bringing innovative ideas from both a global and urban perspective, meshing the two worlds together for the sake of fly fashion that anyone taking their personal style seriously can appreciate. In our talk with Adriel Ortiz — the coolest marketing exec you’ll ever meet — we talk about how their FILA collab came about and the historic inspiration behind the shoe’s art print, and even gives us information on upcoming collabs that include a collaborative tee with NYC rap icon Jadakiss. More on that later though.
Keep reading to see the Lafayette x FILA Mindbreaker 2.0 in all its regal glory:
Image: Peter Pabon
Let’s take a quick second to talk about the brand for a bit, and just how you came to launch PRIVILEGE.
Adriel Ortiz: I work with PRIVILEGE New York and Lafayette NYC. Those are two Japan-based New York streetwear brands. That’s the best way I can break it down [Laughs]. Both brands pay homage to Hip-Hop and NYC street culture in general. I do cultural, lifestyle and strategic partnerships — pretty much that type of marketing. That’s how we even got to do the FILA shoe. Both companies started in Japan, with Lafayette starting in 2003 and PRIVILEGE starting in 2010. Lafayette’s been around longer, so it’s a bit more developed. PRIVILEGE is still a little younger, so we’re working to get both on the same level.
Both brands have multiple shops in Japan, so when they took me out there with DJ GETLIVE! — he was DJing some events kind of like the ones we do out here — [I realized] there’s a whole streetwear scene in Japan. They’re throwing parties, starting their own brands and building their own version of the culture. They pretty much pay homage to everything we’re doing out here [in NYC]. We found that synergy between clothes and music, because GETLIVE was the DJ, so we began working with them more. He was always working and doing shows, so I had more time to do the marketing stuff and signed on with the company full-time. Within two years of us going out there, we opened the store [here in New York]. The site had been going since 2013, with PRIVILEGE and Lafayette offering exclusive stuff online. It’s crazy to think how we took a trip out there just to throw a party, and liked the clothes so much that I started working with them full-time [Laughs]. We’re just doing more of the same now on a more established platform.
We just had Jadakiss in our backyard a month ago to perform for the one-year anniversary of the store, and decided to a collaborative T-Shirt. Between both brands we have a lot of stuff that we’re building on.
Image: Peter Pabon
Especially with FILA. How did you come around to creating that collab?
That design was inspired by the brand’s name, Lafayette. We found out there was a famous general named Marquis de Lafayette from France, so we used a famous painting of his as the print inspiration. A lot of people think it’s George Washington because it kind of looks like him [Laughs], but it’s a French guy! We even used that design in a lot of pieces from the collections. We had a coat in the winter with it, too — full-on bubble goose coat with a laser-printed, screen print of the painting. That did really well, and then [we did] an embroidered hoodie. Now we have the full-printed shorts, I believe. Those are just basketball shorts that go with the sneakers.
There’s a whole backstory to General Marquis de Lafayette, a leader of two worlds supposedly. We tied that story into all these different pieces to show the quality of what we can do with laser-printing and art. It was a full-on print on a hoodie, bubble coat, and on a sneaker — all these different fabrics used without compromising quality once. We were glad to share this masterpiece again.
Image: Peter Pabon
Image: Peter Pabon
Image: Peter Pabon
It even goes back to that ‘two worlds’ notion: you guys link history, music and even style into a series of uniform collections. What’s the key to always doing these dope collabs, anyway?
Keep it simple. That’s literally the only thing I can even say. The minute you try to do anything that’s too complex, it can go over people’s heads really easily.
Image: Peter Pabon
Image: Peter Pabon
Image: Peter Pabon
Image: Peter Pabon
Shop the latest collection from Lafayette and PRIVILEGE, including the FILA Mindbreaker 2.0 collaboration, over in their online shop right now
PRIVILEGE New York
84 Clinton St
New York, NY 10002
