Modern Perspectives: Matthew Garrett of Ethik Clothing
As we dive into deep into our various interview series, we've strayed away from featuring individuals who play the back and make plays behind the scenes for the ones who receive shine. One of New York emerging streetwear, Ethik Clothing has made their imprint in the industry with their varied collections and stylish lookbooks, and one of the large reasons for their success is the marketing tactics and social media schemes of their event coordinator/public relations person, Matthew Garrett. Bringing a defined a culture to their brand with pop-up shops, concerts, SXSW events, and more, Matthew gave us some insight on his job with Ethik, the start of the brand, their flagship stores, and more.
Read The Interview Below
How’s your Modern Life?
My modern life is wavy, constantly on the move, plotting, connecting dots, I like it, I like where I am.
Explain the name “Ethik,” what influenced you to choose this name?
Work Ethik, we base the name on strong work ethic, out here, hard working work ethik, get it ?
How did the company start?
We started in a college dorm at PACE University, hustled parties, shirts, clothing. People started to catch the vibe and we worked our way to pop-up shops, continued to work with screen printing in the dorm room.
There’s a million different clothing companies, what advertising methods do you use to differentiate Ethik's perception to it's consumer?
Honestly word of mouth the events we setup, we try to be selective as possible, this helps keep our target demographic to where we want it to be. Events and artist relation definitely help, I run a booking/consulting agency on the side Matthew Garrett Booking, and this helps a bunch.
You guys have stores in Toronto, New York, Philly, and Boston, where do you plan to open future stores?
Who knows the world is our oyster. Stay tuned though.
Before moving into the area for your flagship stores, how did you tap into these markets before setting up shop there?
EVENTS/EVENTS/EVENTS and as I mentioned earlier pop-up shops, pop up’s determine if we really should stay in that designated area or may need to find another location before we stay permanent.
Being a marketer for the brand, what source of inspiration do you pull from with each collection?
Our designer Travis really has transformed our brand in the past few years, with each collection comes different aesthetic when curating events.
How does your role plays an important as far as the infrastructure for Ethik?
You could consider me almost an A&R for the brand, we tend to work with up and coming artists which you often find larger brand’s losing opportunity on. We target both but still stay true to the underground, I think this plays and important role as for as infrastructure to the brand, loyal fans, loyal customers.
When did you realize you had joined something special and unique in the fashion industry?
EH lol
For the upcoming season's capsule, who are some of the people who hope to see rocking your pieces in the future?
Just fuck with the brand, wholeheartedly. That’s who I hope to see rocking our pieces, brand loyalty. We are here to stay.
You guys also have a skate and BMX team, how does that help the brand grow?
Exponentially, POW skateboard’s Owner Nolan Lee really helps push the brand, both the BMX and SKATE scene are large markets which definitely builds our brand enormously.
What is the future of Ethik? Should I buy a boatload of product now, and sit on it as an investment?
Buy Up we have some cool news coming Holiday Season