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Joy Apparel
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by Emma Renda
August 14-20, 2008 |
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Dozens of people wearing the same t–shirt usually just means
American Apparel was having a blow–out sale. But when each t–
shirt bears its own original design and a story to go along with
it, something special is going on.
This was the scene at Guelph’s Hillside Festival two weeks
ago, where what seemed like every other solid t–shirt bore a
different illustrated face in the upper left quadrant. The
merchant responsible is called Joy Apparel, and its name was
tossed about so fervently throughout the weekend that their
stock had been nearly cleaned out by Sunday afternoon.
And if Hillside is a contained example of the massive
sprawl Joy Apparel can create in only three days, imagine the
sort of business two years and seven continents can drum up.
It all started in Japan, where founder Jeff Woodrow, 29, met
a character so vivacious he was compelled to print an image of
the man (named Megumu) directly onto a t–shirt and put it into
his regular wardrobe rotation. When strangers commented on
Woodrow’s t–shirt, the wheels in his creative mind began to whir.
Trapped in a movie studio editing special effects –
effectively outputting his creative energy for someone else’s
ends – he dropped the 9–to–5 and turned to the government for
an entrepreneurial boost.
Hence Joy Apparel came to fruition in the reaches of a
small studio in Toronto, and spawned a full–fledged retail
website.
“It’s been really positive, but I’m pretty much in a little
studio all by myself all day. Occasionally people come in, but I
kind of have doubts sometimes, like did I do the right thing
here? I mean, my friends have equity and are buying homes and
I’ve invested all my money in blank t–shirts,” Woodrow laughs.
At first, there were only 12 faces involved, friends of
Woodrow’s he knew or had met traveling. He redrew each face
and screened them onto white, pink, green, yellow and blue
American Apparel shirts, and launched a website to offer each
character’s profile: Name, place, passion.
When the project began to expand and Woodrow’s inbox
filled up with photos, profiles and orders, he saw the first
glimmers of magic behind his one–man show.
“I have this magical insight to people all over the world,
their photos and passions. One guy is a shoe salesman and he
loves women’s shoes. Someone else is passionate about cheese,
someone else loves reading the morning paper. And it’s amazing
because they are all different,” Woodrow says.
Right from the get–go, this wasn’t your average silkscreen
operation. The whole philosophy of Joy Apparel is wearing
someone on your heart. Every shirt bears the image of an
average citizen – race and gender notwithstanding –strategically
placed close to the heart. Woodrow fondly refers to the concept
as “wearing each other.”
“No matter where you come from or what you believe in,
we’re all people,” Woodrow explains. “We really need to stop
thinking of ourselves and think of others. It’s symbolic that
maybe you’re wearing your shirt and are thinking of someone
else, and you will be courteous to someone, like open the door
for them.”
Another angle Woodrow explains is the idea of wearing the
ordinary person, not a brand name or a celebrity. When he was
asked to design shirts bearing celebrities for the Toronto
International Film Festival, Woodrow says he just couldn’t do it.
“It’s not about celebrities, it’s not a gimmick, it’s about
promoting peace and equality,” Woodrow says. “I wasn’t willing
to sacrifice my integrity. It might have been amazing media
exposure to have some major celebrity wearing my shirt but
that’s not what I’m about.”
Woodrow is even selective with the retail stores he now
distributes to, those being three stores in London, Barrie and
Toronto. He said he has no interest in Urban Outfitters, Target
or any other major retail location, insisting the beliefs of the
store have to coincide with his own, and he does whatever he
can to stay local – even switching from American Apparel to a
Canadian certified organic bamboo t–shirt company.
If the company does expand enough overseas to warrant a
store, he will outsource his fabrics from whichever country he
happens to be in or will be made on sight as a contribution to
sustainable development.
Woodrow also participates often in festivals, most recently
Cambridge’s Rock the Mill, where the traffic is concentrated and
diverse. His tent at the Hillside Festival revealed a whole new
avenue of Joy Apparel that Woodrow says he had never expected
to encounter.
“I had never experienced this before but somebody came
up and had previously participated in the project and found
themselves on a shirt I was selling at Hillside. And later on
throughout the weekend, someone had purchased that shirt and
was walking around wearing it.”
Woodrow never found out if the two met up, but when he
imagines the scenario of seeing a complete stranger wearing
your image across their chest, he trips over the words to
describe the thrill.
“If the shirts keep selling, somehow this is bound to keep
happening.”
“When you explain the concept, it’s just ordinary people
wearing each other. But the second half is that you then become
a participant and someone wears you, and people really connect
with that.”
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