After yet another record turnout at this year’s edition of Sole Superior, Singapore has successfully cemented itself as a country to watch for sneakerheads and streetwear fans. With international fashion media outlets such as MTV Asia and Highsnobiety paying close attention to the scene in Singapore, one cannot help but wonder what lies ahead for local streetwear culture.
Perhaps one of the most qualified persons to answer this is Jonathan Fong, co-founder of the annual Sole Superior convention. He observed how streetwear evolved from being a counter-culture movement in the 90’s to massive hype surrounding the latest, highly anticipated high fashion-streetwear collaboration pieces. While streetwear is definitely starting to attract the attention of fashionable locals, he believes that sneakers have reached mainstream popularity in Singapore, where everyone from office ladies to students sport kicks by international brands such as Adidas and Vans. When it comes to fashion sense, Jonathan feels that we look to Korean media personalities, hip-hop artists and Japanese styling for inspiration.
Locals may know much about the latest sneakers and streetwear collections by international labels, but the same cannot be said when it comes to local, independent brands. This is why Sole Superior prides itself in engaging a trademark curation of vendors – local retailers selling their work alongside global brands. This arrangement is rarely implemented in other sneaker and streetwear conventions. “Fans and local retailers can see that a lot of Singaporeans are producing great work, so when a participant comes to Sole Superior thinking of getting a $400 Off-White t-shirt, he just might get an equally amazing quality tee which is more uniquely designed at only $40 instead”, said Jonathan. When it comes to supporting local talent, Sole Superior’s founders are playing their part to help local designs achieve recognition on a wider scale.
We spoke with 2 local vendors in this year’s Sole Superior event, and they shared their thoughts on the future of local streetwear. Freshly Pressed Socks makes specially crafted socks which are inspired by their love for art, culture, design. Humanity’s tees are statement pieces which strive to spread the message of truth in art. Clearly, both brands are popular among streetwear fans as Freshly Pressed Socks managed to score a collaboration with Sole Superior this year and Humanity’s latest collection sold out in the event.
Why participate in Sole Superior? How is it unique from other streetwear conventions (if you have participated in other conventions before)?
Freshly Pressed Socks: It seems intuitively a good fit and a great opportunity to work with Jonathan and Dexter (organisers of Sole Superior). You can’t have a good shoe game without a great sock game and we wanted to put our brand’s spin on what would make a great pair of streetwear socks. And the best part is that it would be something that all of us would want for ourselves to wear with our sneakers too!
Humanity: I been to quite a number of local flea market in the past. Sole Superior is definitely a huge platform for local brands like us to gain more exposure. Dexter and John have my respect for setting up a sneakerhead event in Singapore as compare to other local organisers. (To date, Sole Superior is still the only sneaker and streetwear convention in Singapore.)
How would you describe the local streetwear scene currently? Would more Singaporeans be interested in this type of fashion in the future?
Freshly Pressed Socks: Mostly weather dependent. Our hot climate and the humidity doesn’t allow for layering and limits the type of style or fits so a lot of people just dress comfortably. That said, you can see that Singaporeans are now taking more risks when it comes to fashion and spending the time and money just to look fly.
When it comes to socks, we do see customers getting more adventurous in the styles and colours they choose to rock. And once they start moving away from the usual black/grey/white colour socks, the colours they select start getting bolder. In general, you can see that there is a growing adoption of people wearing colourful/patterned socks.
Humanity: To be frank, Singapore still does not have its own streetwear culture. They just like to follow and wear what they think is the hype stuff now. To me, Singaporeans do not even understand the culture behind streetwear, namely the politics which was involved when streetwear first started out. Youngsters now are just paying tons of money on some nonsense designs which have no meaning behind them and they think it’s dope just for being on trend.
Indeed, in recent times, the lines are blurred to what people consider to be streetwear – it no longer has a distinct identity. This is very much different from the politically charged tees of yesteryear. Freshly Pressed Socks and Humanity’s individual missions of helping people reveal their hidden personalities subtly and bringing original streetwear to the game respectively shows just how ambitious and creative Singaporean fashion designers are. The ball in in our court now, as the future of local streetwear is only as bright as the support we show for them.
With Christmas approaching, you might want to purchase these local gems to not only dress the part for the party, but support local brands as well.
by Darryl Goh
