Addict Clothing, lil history for you below and some thoughts on the brand
What initially started with 1 logo, 4 tee shirt prints and a dream in 1994 of creating a British Streetwear brand that could stand shoulder to shoulder with its US counterparts, has slowly but surely become reality over the last 11 years…Addict ®. With its direct approach, it has built its reputation on solid foundations through the consistent production of clean, minimally branded, functional men’s and women’s clothing with fine attention to detail attracting the support of some of the finest stores across the UK and the continent.
Now approaching the start of its 11th year the one thing that becomes apparent under closer scrutiny is the quality of high profile collaborative projects that the brand already has under its belt. Limited Vans X Addict shoes, Camouflage Addict X G-Shock watches, Sympatex ® performance outerwear, SPY Optic Snowboard Goggles, and an impressive set of Addict camouflage snowboards with Endeavor Snowboard design in Canada.
Next season sees the Addict ® X One True Saxon ® collaboration project. An idea that came about through the mutual respect between two English home-grown brands and the common goal of wanting to produce decent quality product. Dual limited edition tees, one sold by Addict ® and one sold by One True Saxon ® featuring the OTS Dog and Knight logos blended with a bespoke variation of Addict ® Swift Camo™.
Addict ® remains an independently designer owned and led company producing all its clothing and patterns in-house, focusing on product development and letting the brand evolve naturally rather than bending to fit in with fashion. Outside assistance comes from a handful of the UK’s most influential designers, typographers and artists. Swifty, She One, Mr Jago, C-Law are all regular contributors and have supplied the brands past and present bespoke camouflage patterns as well as graphics for tees. Next seasons premiere Addict ® piece is the fully technical She Camo III™ SOFTswitch™ Jacket. A fully taped seamed waterproof shell jacket with a SOFTswitch™ on the left sleeve that can operate an enabled I-POD within an MP3 device inside pocket.
Since the summer of 2004 the artist series of boxed tees regularly features the works of Mode 2, Mitch, Will Barras, Guy Featherstone, Steff and Ben Swift and has spurned spin off collectors sets such as AW06/07 SYD MEAD Series. A set of 4 tees featuring definitive illustrations by the extraordinary talent that is Syd Mead, the ‘visual futurist’ and concept artist responsible for the iconic designs of cult movies like TRON and BLADERUNNER.
Music remains a strong influence within the brand and ‘ABC’ or The Addict Beats Collective arm of the company embraces a cross section of musical genres with high level support from the likes of The Nextmen, Rodney P and Skitz, London Electricity/Hospital records, Stanton warriors, LSK, Big Bud, Genna G, Maxi Jazz/Faithless and Part-Time Heroes as well as sponsoring nights at Rukus in Bristol, New Bohemia in Leeds, Hospitality at Herbal and Spectrum in Nottingham. Last years Addict ® mix CD ‘Playing The Game’ by The Nextmen has gained global legendary status with an eclectic sequel ABC Mix by the Part-Time Heroes following up late last November.
“High end streetwear, manufactured to a very high standard using top quality fabric and trims at highly competitive price points… built from the outside in”
We have carried
Addict clothing sine we opened in 06, was our main brand at the time, the product was fresh, good pricing, great graphics and the forward ranges looked really strong.
Now you look at
Addict and it seems a bit stuck in a timewarp, seems to be trying to hard to copy Carhartt, and not doing a good job at it,
Addict see themselves as big as
MHI or Stussy.
They had the potential a few years ago to be there but they have stuck their prices up to quickly and by to much, no regard for who their customer is just now, just to focussed on who they want their customer to be in a few years.
For start
Addict used to do a great denim retailing at £50, now the similar jean is £75, and the prices go all the way to £125, for an addict jean, you must be having a laugh.
Base jackets that were £75 are now £100, basic T's were £20 now £25 and the list goes on.
Sheone produes great piees of work and his own t/shirt label was great,addict have grabbed him and bastardising his work, Sheone on thongs for Christ-sake, i have a Sheone print and always been an admirer of his stuff, but
Addict have become to reliant on using his allover print on every conceivable garment.
Sheone referred to by Refill Magazine as “a leading cultural Artist”, a world renowned artist who has been painting and making graphics for twenty years, exhibiting in Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, Berlin and Milan. Al this means that it was an east choice for Addict Clothing when they approached SheOne to design camo form them. “My initial intention to create a metropolitan defence pattern, a camouflage that positively positioned the wearer in the culture heavy landscape. The fabric should function as a protective layer while simultaneously emitting its silent graphic signal and feeding right back into the current social climate.” SheOne what more can we say camo summed up in two sentences.
They have shown a lack of imagination and vision, without a Jago, Sheone Sterling camouflage the range does not stand up, looks dull, boring & tired.
From a retailer point of view i hate it when brands let retailers build it up and then start doing product only available on their website, direct to customer, customer service does not exist, except for James, hes the dude at
Addict, man about town, hes got his own blog and used to regularly phone us and chase re-orders, but this season, 1 Call.
For next season, what do we have, more sheone camo and an overpriced range, the one startling thing in the range is the luggage, absolutely fantastic, some of the best bags i have seen in ages, for sure i am going to grab myself a few.
For next summer,
Addict are going back to basics, which is good news, less of the ego driven technial fabrics at £250 a pop and bak to basics, thats a lesson
Addict need to take, back to the start, and keep it simple.
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First up we have the Cannibal Funfair minis from TADO released on the 28th of August. Here is the official blurb:
The awesomeness doesn't stop there folks because the enigmatic Mr Jon Burgerman has his own mini figure blind-boxed series coming soon too!! Jon's Heroes of Burgertown minis are due to drop on September 25th and are based on the lively doodles that come flooding from Jon's brain fueled by Tea dreams and the aroma of Posca pens. 
The Hard Rock Cafe in London relies on tips from customers to lift earnings to the legal level of £5.52.
