Freelance designer turned entrepreneur, and all-around good-guy Benny Gold is someone I’ve been following online for almost a year now and someone I really want to share with all of you loyal readers out there. (I’m looking at you Jeffrey Smith!) Benny started out as a freelance designer working for design firms and ad agencies out of college, but has really blown up over the past couple of months. Just earlier this week, Benny opened up his first flagship store in San Francisco with his own signature clothing line. Already, Benny has a solid (and growing) fan base online.
This is of course not without reason. There really is a lot to appreciate about Benny's clothing line, Benny’s brand, and Benny himself – each of which I’d like to take a look at little more closely (some in more detail than others).
Benny’s Clothing Line
Benny, first and foremost, is not only passionate about what he does, but he’s also good at it. There are a ton of “designers” and streetwear label owners out there that aren't actually trained in the discipline of design and it really shows in their clothing lines. In fact, most of the biggest labels in the “underground” streetwear scene such as Supreme and The Hundreds are so poorly designed, that they would never be able to sell 90% of the items that they put out if it weren’t for the hype and mindless consumerism surrounding them. To see what I mean, let’s take a look at some specific pieces that Benny’s competitors have put out recently:
There’s really nothing negative I can objectively say about the item above in terms of design. I mean… It’s a plain black anorak jacket, how can anyone hate on that? Some might even say that Supreme did a good job designing this piece. The thing is, Supreme didn’t actually design anything. All Supreme did was add a red patch that says, “Supreme” to an existing black North Face Jacket and doubled the price. You know what the crazy thing is? They sold like hotcakes! They attracted lines outside their stores on the day of their release (less than a month ago) and were sold out within hours. If that’s not brand-whoring
The Hundreds has a great bomb logo working for them. The problem is… they do a really poor job incorporating it into their clothing designs. The first t-shirt has a scanned sketch of The Hundreds logo on a crumpled piece of notebook paper prominently placed on it. But that’s it. There’s no sense of movement, variation, or overall sense of unity with the t-shirt itself nor is there anything aesthetically pleasing to look at or interpret. The second t-shirt has a little more going on, but the concept and execution is terrible. The typeface is awkwardly placed, the effects are cheesy, and again there’s no overall sense of unity between the design and the t-shirt itself. Curiously, The Hundreds has managed to remain one of the top streetwear labels in the industry.
The thing that sets Benny apart from his competitors is that he actually went to an art school, has a good eye for design, and puts it to use in his clothing line. Let’s take a look at one of his upcoming pieces below to see what I mean:
As Benny’s first pair of raw denim that he’s about to release, I’d say that Benny has done a pretty good job here. Elements of Benny’s logo (a paper plane), mantra (Stay Gold), and other design elements are very well incorporated into the product itself; the jeans have gold hardware, gold selvage stitching, a gold standard screenprint, and even paper plane trail stitching on the back pocket. Unlike Supreme and The Hundreds, Benny clearly has put a lot of work designing this pair of denim and made sure that his design decisions contributed to an overall sense of movement, variation, and unity to create a highly detailed product that is also aesthetically pleasing to look at. You know what the best part is? They sell for less than the raw denim pieces offered by Supreme and The Hundreds.
Benny’s Brand
Like Benny’s clothing line, Benny’s brand and what it stands for is pretty well thought out. In a video highlight with Hypebeast, Benny explains that his paper plane logo is a symbol of youth, but when in motion, is also a symbol of growth. Benny’s mantra, Stay Gold serves as a reminder for us to “stay youthful and make time for the things (we) enjoy in life.” In an interview with SFstation, Benny reiterates this point further by explaining, “our youth mentality and the things we hold dear are the real gold inside all of us.” Cheesy? Maybe, but it's much more inspiring than "The Hundreds is Huge," or Supreme's motto of "IDGAF.” To clarify, “The Hundreds is Huge,” means… well, the Hundreds is pretty big; IDGAF stands for “I Don’t Give A Fuck,” which is pretty self-explanatory. Personally, I like Stay Gold better, but that’s just my opinion.
Benny Himself
If you can’t appreciate good design and don’t care for what Benny's brand stands for, you have to at least be able to appreciate the fact that Benny is a self-starter and a genuinely nice person. To Supreme and The Hundreds’ credit, the people behind those brands are self-starters too, but they and the people that operate their stores aren’t very nice. This isn’t just my opinion; it’s the general consensus on every online forum dedicated to these brands (see here, here, and here). Benny on the other hand stays grounded, keeps in touch with his growing fan base, and continues to be an active participant in the online communities that support him.
Before ending this post, and opening it up for discussion, I want to clarify that my goal in writing this post was not to make a strong argument against Supreme and The Hundreds or a strong argument for Benny Gold. Clearly, Supreme and The Hundreds have some well-designed pieces and Benny Gold, some not so well-designed pieces; I happen to own pieces of clothing from all three labels. My goal was to share my overall opinion, based on my own experiences as well as the experiences/opinions of others, that Benny is highly deserving of the attention that he has been getting as well as do my part to contribute to his continued success.
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