Unkommon Kolor
To contact: Unkommonkolor@gmail.com
Despite the universe of gear out there, your idiosyncratic needs might still not be met -- sure, you can find a Galaga tee, but what about a tee honoring its far superior successor, Gaplus? Customizing gear to your unreasonable specifications, Unkommon Kolor.
UK's a streetwear collective of mostly UT Arlington alums who paint custom designs and photo-based reproductions on everything from shirts, shoes, and pants to skateboard decks and hat bills, spreading word of their work partly through unsolicited giveaways to hip-hop stars like Lupe Fiasco and Trey Songz, who's very popular despite his exceedingly short concerts. While any request is honored, UK's $20/hour artists won't repeat designs (Jay-Z's Black Album pose? Done); past work includes the Sistine Chapel on a Yankees cap, a tee sporting a star-eyed face whose lolling tongue drips with slobber, and kicks featuring everything from Thriller-era Michael Jackson to the graffiti-inspired Saved By The Bell logo, though wear those, and no bell will save you. Other one-off works included deck tributes to N.E.R.D., KRS-One, and President Obama (one was even turned into a clock), and Kidrobot figurines molded and painted to look like the Joker and Andre 3000 -- a design best not put on shoes, 'cause they'd inevitably step in poo poo poo.
UK also screenprints their own designs on tees in super-limited lots of 24; just-dropped examples include a video-game-ish boxing glove punching through the UK logo, and a greenback-flush Pac-Man clearly ready to make it rain -- galling, since all your poor, under-appreciated Gaplus can do is cry.
