Hivemind
- Hunter McNeeley
- Feb 18, 2020
- 7 min read
Updated: Feb 19, 2020
Hivemind, a brand run by three high schools students from the suburbs of Chicago. Dylan (17), Diego (16), and Geoffrey (16), the owners of the recently launched brand focused a lot of the last year on building a brand with a message that the community they hope to create can get behind. Hivemind is to be seen as much more than just another clothing brand.
HM : How did all of you meet? Hivemind : "We met initially through school. We've been school friends since middle school."
HM : How did Hivemind start?
Hivemind : "We've always wanted to do something with clothing, we've always been into clothing ever since we were younger. We really wanted to start something for ourselves and make what we liked. All three of us shared this ideology and noticed at school, our day to day environment people really live their lives not really according to what they really want. They go to school based on what their parents want, what their teachers want. I'd say a lot of people just end up taking the safer route in life even though there's nothing wrong with that.
Completely sticking by that ideology isn't healthy for yourself and that's why it's a Hivemind. Living for yourself or doing what you want to some extent is essential.
You can still be a normal functioning civilian but still have that mentality of separating yourself from normal people. It's like a bit cynical to look at it like this but when death is the only guarantee you have, you might as well take risks and invest, it doesn't make sense to invest in the future when you could invest right now."
HM : How did you guys settle on the name Hivemind? Hivemind : "We were just brainstorming and we had the idea of the philosophy before we had the name for it. We thought about hivemind and it just fits really well for the whole idea. The whole explanation is like bees and their hive. They are solely dependent on their hive, and have to obey the queen bee. They're working bees and they don't do anything for themselves necessarily. Everything they do is to progress the hive as a collective. If a bee were to leave the hive then it would likely die because it's not strong enough to survive by itself.
The whole idea of Hivemind is that we form our own hive where we're working to progress ourselves and make that something we're willing to die for. Something that we're willing to get behind instead of just taking the safe route because we're scared of change. It took a while to choose a name for us, we really wanted to get something that fit, with a good meaning, something people could get behind.
HM : How long did it take from the creation or the idea of creating this clothing brand to actually getting the first drop? Hivemind : "It took us that whole year because we were going through a few names and nothing really fit as well until we came up with Hivemind. Once we did that we started drawing on shirts, doing a bunch of random stuff, really figuring out what we wanted to do, how we wanted to run with it.
Once we really got that rolling we just executed the first drop. Within that year there was a ton of planning for things but it would get scrapped at the last second. A brainstorming and back to the drawing board kind of thing."
HM : What is the process for you guys in designing a piece? Since there is 3 of you, how does that work?
Hivemind : "We take inspiration from takes that we see, whether it'd be day to day life or other designers. Sitting down drawing usually everyday after school, we all meet up at Dylan's house, then we'll just fucking grind. Every day we just like build on concepts, until we settle and we've all agreed on a design. All the other concepts we do we basically just keep for ourselves cause we like it to wear our own shit."
On seeing people you don't know wearing your brand Hivemind : "Stuff like this shows you how great technology is. It makes the world look so much smaller. None of this would have been ever possible. You would never know who would be wearing your shit, you'd never be able to pinpoint your progress if it wasn't for social media."
HM : Who has creatively influenced your work? Dylan : I would say Kanye for sure. Travis Scott as well. Kanye's earlier work more rather than what he's been doing recently, like 2010 up to 2017 for me was really big. Travis Scott I got introduced to in 2015 and he's really just been a big part of what I wanted to go for. Another person who is really killing it right now is T-Rex Global. He works with Sicko and the art he does for them is really fire.
Diego : I would definitely say Tyler the Creator even though I don't own any of his clothes, I just fuck with Tyler because he was basically himself and that's why he's so successful now because people would find him weird and he has so much energy.
Geoffry : Tyler found success by kind of banding together misfits. When you take a step back and you look at it, he found people who really didn't fit in. He knew that that was his people, his demographic and he targeted them. Obviously that's smart as hell but that's also who he is internally, which is really fucking cool.
Dylan : "One of the biggest inspirations for all of us is the 2012/2013 New York Tumbler kids. For example, Mike the Ruler, and Asspizza. Ian (Connor) really started the shit and ASAP they were all just really doing it in New York and I think that's what we really push for as in I feel like being from the suburbs, everyone just lives the same way.
Kids take their parents job and all of that. Seeing those New York kids and what they were doing, just all getting together and doing their fashion shit everyday. I feel like that really pushes us to do the same thing and go a different route."
Geoffry : "There was no security behind pursuing that kind of path or career choice. Where as if you decide to major in something you can always find jobs here or another place. It just depends on how much you want to pay for it. They did it independently. Their ambition is really inspiring."
HM : When can we expect the next drop? Hivemind : "There's an event at our school funding money for cancer research. So we are going to drop $10 shirts and donate all the money that people spend on our shirts towards cancer research. That's the next little drop we have. We have some ideas for another drop not too long after that. Really the big idea is getting into cut and sow and not necessarily using blanks for everything. That's the bigger project in the back of our minds that we're slowly striving for."
HM : What would like Hivemind to accomplish in 2020? Hivemind : Growing the brand and networking through events. Also getting a few drops out. Really we want more people to find out about us, what we're about and really stick with us, create a good group of people that are behind the brand. Ideally, what we hope for is an impact beyond clothing. We want to have people identify with us, people are always looking for a belonging, a place of like-minded individuals that they find comfort in knowing that there's a group of people just like them.
More community, it's really cool seeing people wear our shit. When people will tell us that it really means something to them or that they really resonate with the message, that really does mean a lot that people are like feeling what we are trying to get across.
HM : If you could choose a brand to make collaboration piece with, who would you want to work with? Diego : "Definitely collab with lyrical lemonade. Cole Bennett has done a shit ton for the city. He came up from a suburban town as well and I'm pretty sure it's everyone's dream from Chicago."
Dylan : "I really want to be able to put on for the city. So working with lyrical lemonade would be huge."
HM : If you could have anyone wear your brand, who would it be? Hivemind : "Ian Connor because he's young and resonates with the message of what we're going for. Being able to get him a piece would be crazy. He is a big inspiration along with Rocky as well."
HM : Warm or Cold weather pieces? Hivemind : Cold weather. There's a lot more to do with cold weather pieces. More opportunities than just shorts or t-shirts.
Final Thoughts Hivemind : "We just really want to be able to inspire the younger generation, we to be a big motivator for people to do what they want. We're just three suburban kids. A lot of kids will think that nothing can come from the suburbs, they have to follow a certain path. When in reality you could really do whatever you want. Reality kind of strikes and if you try to do things independently, if you try to create something, we feel as you grow up it becomes more and more realistic. People are accustomed to being content with a comfortable life. There's nothing wrong with that. Only a certain amount of people will be like I'll fucking drop it out. I'm doing this and I'm going to stick with it. It takes a lot of willpower. It takes a lot of self-confidence, where you trust an idea so much that like you're willing to put everything behind it.
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