Created by David Ben David (DBD) in 2010, Sprayground exploded into the scene and was at the forefront of the backpack movement. Growing up in the Bronx painting, skating and surfing, DBD was always on the go and would pack his whole life in his backpack. It only made sense years later to start an art-inspired backpack line. Most recently, Sprayground has collaborated with Chris Brown, Christina Milian, Spike Lee, Iman Shumpert and Coco and Breezy. All of Sprayground products are made in limited quantities and never produced again.
The Source has gotten the chance to speak with David during his Pop Up Shop titled “House of Villians” in the middle of Times Square.
The Source: Tell me about “Sprayground”. How did that happen? How did you create sprayground?
David: I was always into fashion and I didn’t want to start a traditional T-shirt company and my current bag was just black. In the market there was just black, blue, yellow, red. That’s fine but what if like we could really turn up on the bag and make it like this new accessory. That was just a dream so I did it with one bag, and then it started. We got into top boutiques and we started to collaborate and we were just like “Holy Sh*t this is something real”.
The Source: Whats your inspiration behind the creation of each bag?
David: I took the word “Spray” from graffiti and the word “Ground” from underground street art. That’s kind of what inspired me to just put your expression onto a product. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it feels good that it’s out. It looks good.
The Source: Do you have a background in fashion? Did you go to school?
David: I was raised by 3 sisters and a mom so it started there. Then I went to a school of visual arts. Then I was just always inspired looking at Vogue, looking at Cosmopolitan, looking at all my sisters magazines that inspired me to be in design.
The Source: What did you do between school and Sprayground?
David: I went straight. It was ballsy. I applied to 100 jobs, and no one took me so I just started to do my own thing.
The Source: Who have you collaborated with?
David: It started with Chris Brown, and then trickled into The Game, Young Thug, Odell Beckham Jr, Spike Lee, and then bigger corporations reached out to me to collaborate from Viacom, to Warner Bros., NBA, NFL, Marvel, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, all those cool exciting things and taking their products, and making it edgy, and rebellious.
The Source: How heavy is Hip Hop when it comes to fashion?
David: I think Hip Hop is kind of fearless to fashion. They just wear whatever represents them and that’s what I appreciate about that culture. That’s why i’m influenced by that culture. I’ve traveled the world and I haven’t really seen it that much when people are just being themselves. Maybe in Japan, but they’re inspired by the Hip Hop community. So it’s really just the Hip Hop community. It’s just a train of thought just to be free. While i’m designing i’m listening to music so it’s all just coming from that place.
The Source: Were you brought up in New York?
David: Yes I was born in the Bronx, then when I was younger I moved to Florida. Then I moved back to New York to go to art school.
The Source: Was it scary to get into fashion? Did people try to persuade you not to do it or to get into something else that’s more safe?
David: Yes that’s the normal thing when someone has an idea then everybody kind of shuts it down so you just have to ignore that and know to ignore that. 9/10 people listen to the people around them and I would say listen to nobody but your gut because that’s the only thing giving you direction.
The Source: What is the future of Sprayground? What do you see in a year?
David: To challenge creatively. You can’t be too comfortable with where things are at. Analyze, pretend like it’s bad, and then try to figure out how to motivate yourself to get to the next level because everyone’s trying to climb this mountain but I see it as trying to go farther and farther. Just like creating music to enhance their senses, to create an environment like a hotel. It’s going to be nuts.
The Source: What’s going on with the Pop-Up shop?
David: It’s called House of Villains. I stole artifacts from around the world from other museums. These museums classify these pieces of art as like “It’s worth $14 million”, it’s bullsh*t. So i’m saying out with the old, in with the new. Welcome to new, welcome to exciting, welcome to bold, welcome to fun, welcome to color. Cause the history involved with the history of that weren’t in good times. It’s good to have culture and history, but we’re only grabbing and creating the story of what we were able to find.
