I’ve been sitting on the interview for this 3sixteen feature with founder Andrew Chen for some time. I originally took a trip to New York in the late summer of 2009 in hopes that upon completion, this would be my debut feature. I was under the pretense the site was in the midst of launching just days away following my trip. But of course days turned into weeks, which turned into months… not that it was a big deal really. Nevertheless, the angle and the direction for this piece is still relevant. If you’ve been a follower of 3sixteen, their progression has been incredible. Andrew and I have been good friends for some time and he is undoubtedly one of my longest standing friendships from within the industry; I had met a certain conversation we had awhile ago with much skepticism. From a somewhat prototypical streetwear label marked by graphic tees and relevant Hip-Hop themes to where 3sixteen wanted to go, my suspicion was that they had perhaps pigeon-holed themselves and were incapable of change. Taking things to a new level was something that would take some serious work. After all, who had blazed a trail to provide some examples as to how one would emerge from the land of streetwear as contemporary American men’s label? But fast forward to the present, the change was ultimately extremely successful. In reality, I have a case study of my own that shows that change can be effectuated with the proper implementations. Our editorial direction at Hypebeast is perhaps in many ways similar to 3sixteen. We went from a streetwear-centric media outlet to something that while still maintaining elements of our past, is now a different and well-rounded product that was able to change.
Having now known the backgroind for this upcoming feature, a big reason I wanted to do this was my fascination with how one approaches this level of re-branding. Beyond 3sixteen, Andrew has now saddled in as a cornerstone of the ultra successful denim store Self Edge New York which serves as part purveyor of quality Japanese denim in addition to providing a physical presence for 3sixteen itself. Going down the line, 3sixteen’s well-received denim line looks to be the defining point of the brand going forward and should help provide substantial growth. The brand still keeps it real and maintains an unwavering vision of exactly where they need to be… their progression over the last few years is a testament to that.