Former Will Be Throwing Quite The Party This Weekend

Beep, beep, BEEP. Fumble to find your phone, knock it off your nightstand. No more noise. Roll out of bed. Breathe, look out the window at glistening Sydney cityscape. Another day in paradise. It’s the weekend. What in the good name of Lachlan Macquarie are you going to do? 

You’re going to the Former store in Surry Hills, that’s what. You’re so excited you’ll walk from work, grab some suds at the Cricketers Arms along the way. Wear your best fitting threads and prepare to exalt your consciousness because you’ll be hanging with Craig Anderson, Dane Reynolds and the rest of the gang.

Former’s latest clip (not considering the freshest addition above), starring Craig Anderson.

It should be quite the event, considering how the shockwave created in wake of Former’s conception is still echoing. A company (and they would probably hate you for calling it that) envisioned and actioned in joint with Craig, Dane, skater Austyn Gillette, photographer and filmmaker Warren Smith and Monster Children magazine founder Campbell Milligan with the purpose of existing in that vogue grey area where surf and skate flow together. Former subsists in that realm where creative minds have freedom to make whatever devastatingly attractive tangible they want.

A place far away from conglomerates, KPIs, target demographics, ROIs angrily circled in red ink and seasonal release schedules. Where things aren’t supposed to be taken seriously and look cool as hell while doing so.

Dane, Craig, Austyn.

“I’m really curious as to who’s going to buy Former, because I think that surfers are too cool to buy surf brand shit, and I don’t know where we’ll land,” said Dane initially. “But I’ve been presented with all these brands over the years who’ve done market research and they’ve known their target demographic and how they’re going to coax them into getting traction, and we’ve gone completely backwards and basically just thrown everybody’s likes and dislikes out there and tried to meet in the middle.”

The result? Well, the first line of clothes, which dropped earlier this year, performed well above expectations. Selling out in an exceptionally brief amount of time.

Dane’s latest surfing clip, released alongside Former’s newest boardshorts.

With muted colours and reasonable pricing, it’s one bit lo-fi with a hint of New Order cover art and something inexplicable in-between. A nod to the infamous counterculture movements of the remembered past but with a modern twist. All accompanied with top of the line clips that stop the digital feeds. In short: A brand Craig, Dane, and Austyn (alongside newest addition: Skateboarder Jake Anderson) want to ride for with clothes they want to wear. Everyone called it impossible but they forgot the impossible often has a kind of integrity the merely improbable lacks.

On May 4th and 5th, Former will set up an official pop-up shop in Sydney. Showing off new clothes, old styles, graphics, colourways and exclusive prints. It’ll be an array of enlightened minds in one place, spreading ideas and radiating innovative stimulation. 

Dane modeling off the ‘Vacant hoodie’ in coral.

If you don’t have exciting weekend plans, or do that you should cancel, feel free to roll through; it’s open to the public. Thursday, May 4th from 6 pm to 10 pm and Friday, May 5th from 11 am to 10 pm at 7 Randle Lane, Surry Hills, Sydney.

As Orwell once proclaimed: Atom bombs are piling up in the factories, police are prowling through the cities, lies are streaming from the loudspeakers. But the earth is still going around the sun and Former is tempting the harbour city with a good time, and neither dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it. Drinks on them.

Despite making a move from the lamppost to the Instagram feed, a flyer can still generate excitement.