Friday April 03, 2020
2/3 So...once again, the branding. Having grown up in the mountains of Northern California and having spent a great deal of time with my aunt & uncle and my cousins, I saw NO shortage of Grateful Dead branding. I come from a family of hippies. My dad introduced me to Jimi Hendrix at a VERY young age. My uncle has a tattoo of the Grateful Dead bear on his ankle. My cousins - huge SF Giants fans - all own at least one piece of SF Giants x Grateful Dead gear. And my aunt and my mom and everyone in between love bright colors and tie dye.
At the show, I spent a great deal of time just admiring the branding and the style. It’s so bananas and unique and so...distinct. We’ve seen plenty of Nikes - Dunks in particular - that use music as a springboard of inspiration. We all know of the @travisscott dunks...and...my god if that sh*t isn’t hyped to death...but what about the @dinosaurjr s and the @wearedelasoul and the @mfdoom and the @u2 and the @gunsnroses ? What about the @hyperstoic branding? Did you also know that the @unkleofficial dunk is actually based on a music group? That one actually shocked me...
So there are countless musicians and music groups out there that have played an important role in sneaker culture (shoutout to @sankofaw - listen to ‘Deadstock’ if you haven’t yet), but why haven’t we seen anything from those with the best branding - the Grateful Dead ?
BTW - if you’re interested in some Grateful Dead fan art - that pic in the top left - that’s my aunt’s painting of Jerry Garcia.