A brand we love: New York Sunshine

Words by Ali Klinkenberg

Ah New York, the vast mix of glam and grime; a melting pot of the truest decree!  Madison Square Garden, Canal Street. The Knicks, The Jets, creeds and colours from every crevice of the globe. New York’s a nation in itself, more tolerant than the rest of the world, in a strange way. Littleness gets swallowed, and, just because it doesn’t make sense to you, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work perfectly in NYC!

“We’re not a surf brand,” says John ‘Sunshine’ Margaritis, head of New York Sunshine. “We love to surf, and surfing is definitely a part of New York Sunshine. But we don’t want to get boxed into the surf brand category. We’re looking to fill in the gaps between surfing, basketball, fashion, and street culture. That’s what New York is to us.”

You don’t get much more authentic than a team of buddies creating a brand that represents exactly what they do on a daily basis. Surfing, basketball, and art may seem completely unrelated from the outside, but, New York! “The connection between basketball, New York, and surfing is so bizarre to most people,” says Sunshine, “but growing up, I got the same rush walking into Madison Square Garden with my dad for a Knick game as I did dropping into a chest-high wave.”

“I draw influence from all things New York: fashion in SoHo, fans screaming at the Garden, streetball pickup games, the Ice King of Corona (Italian ices, for the unenlightened), even taking the A train out to Rockaway.”

Sunshine HQ, the ‘Surf Club,’ is situated in Southampton (Yes, one of the Hamptons), and the boys redecorate every season to complement their latest line. “This summer it’s beach vibes. Sand on the floor, wavy shelves, beach grass in the planter out front, and a video of waves breaking on the back wall at night,” says Sunshine.  This is the brand’s fourth collection, with simple and consistent prints, clean lines, and just the right amount of NY branding. The NYS lookbook’s an ode to the aesthetic of the brand, and Sunshine places premium importance on its ability to communicate his visions, stating, “I’ve always looked to high fashion brands for inspiration. The way that images used in some high fashion campaigns can stick in your mind is so integral to brand development. I strive to create powerful images that can stand alone.”

The NYS crew recently created an art installation that involved them constructing a b’ball hoop that could be set up in the shore break of their beloved local surf. “First we put an old beat up backboard in the shorebreak, but it didn’t really produce as powerful of an image as I wanted. I realized we needed to put an entire fucking hoop in the ocean! The images and video that came from that day sums up what we’re all about.“ The boys from NYS are definitely doing it their way, just like Sinatra. Don’t be mad because they doing them better than you’re doing you.

www.newyorksunshine.com
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