Friday, June 29, 2012

Lil' Wayne- Skater with a Clothing Line?

I know I'm behind on the times, but I just found out that rapper Lil' Wayne started a clothing line called TrukFit, which is a skate brand of sorts, specializing in t-shirts and snapbacks (that's simply a baseball cap for you old timers like me, I'll save further discussion of these hats for a later post). This clothing line is only available online from TrukFit's official site, Karmaloop, CCS, and Zumiez (I'm assuming at least some of the items can be found in Zumiez stores nationwide). The design on the shirts are similar to your average skate brand shirt- some featuring the brand name in all caps, a little "mascot" of sorts, some catchy slogans, and etc. There's even this martians shirt with the face of a martian who looks to be high, which would make sense that the slogan on the shirt says "Feelin' Spacey", but who knows if they're actually trying to subliminally reference marijuana in a t-shirt (but I wouldn't be surprised at all if that were the case). Overall, I think the line is alright.

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's because I'm older, but none of the items in the collection really grab my attention. Part of this could be because I'm starting to move away from screen printed t-shirts (blame my evolving sense of style that still isn't that great), but I still like t-shirts. Maybe it's the font style used for the shirts and hats, I don't know. It's just not my thing.

Now, many people have called Weezy (I think that's what he goes by...) a poser for his recent involvement in the skate community, while others have welcomed and embraced him. Whether or not he is a poser is not for me to decide, and honestly I do not care about that fact right now. I'm just trying to figure out how a guy who really just got into skating over the last year has his own clothing line. Well, the fact that he has a clothing line is not the unbelievable part (he is Lil' Wayne after all), it's the whole fact that this clothing line is being clearly marketed towards the skate community. How often does an amateur skater get their own clothing line? I've seen videos of Weezy skating, and he's not bad, but he's nowhere near pro level. It's hard to tell if this is just a phase for him, if he's legit trying to go pro, or if he's just genuinely interested in the skate community and wanting to give back in some way.

In a way, I'm probably making myself sound like a "hater", but believe me when I say that I am not. I honestly would rather see a young skater with a ton of talent start his or her own skate apparel collection. This could be someone who hasn't gotten sponsored yet, but they've got the talent to be pro. It doesn't take too much to start your own t-shirt line (I've seen it a few times by different people from area), but actually getting the attention of a wider audience besides your friends/family is the tough part. Lil' Wayne has a huge advantage because he's already popular in today's culture, and he's also becoming buddies with more and more pro skaters (including some of my faves, such as Paul Rodriguez and Nyjah Huston). He has the connections these young skaters wish they had.

What was the point of this post anyway? Well, I guess it's to see if this clothing line is just a money thing (but who would really openly admit that?), or if Weezy really wanted to start this collection because he believes it's truly that awesome. Or maybe if it were revealed that TrukFit gives a percentage of its profit to skate-related charities, then I would have no problem with this collection (even though I still wouldn't find it appealing to me) since it's not for complete personal gain. Let's just sit back and see how long this collection lasts.

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