To approach things authentically, Unless tapped streetwear veteran, creator and storyteller Frank Cooke - who counts among his past roles sneaker designer for Jordan Brand - to curate the PDX drop. “The idea is the cities give us inspiration and communities to tap into, and our job is to be honest about those cultural insights and represent them in an undistorted way,” Liedtke said. After Portland, Unless will take its sustainable streetwear show on the road, following up with city drop collabs in Atlanta and Los Angeles and on after that. This first Unless drop (which follows a soft launch earlier this month), lending to its “street by street, block by block, city by city” approach to brand building, features in-line product, including a canvas jacket and three new Ts, as well as Ts and jackets done in collaboration with Portland creatives. “It’s just trying to do some of those little things that add a lot of value.”
“Every order, I send out a personal note with it saying how much we appreciate their support in doing things a better way,” said Liedtke, Zooming in from a conference room table in the brand’s Northwest Portland office covered in Ts set for sale. (Its website reads: “Every drop is created from the elements, for the elements, and designed to harmlessly return to the elements.”) And because streetwear is about culture, subculture and counterculture, community and collabs are intertwined with the Unless business model, which is why the brand is keeping things small and local in promoting its products made from things like cotton, Tencel, corozo nuts for buttons, and all with a promise of zero plastic waste. The approach is to put the style before the sustainability because that’s still what consumers connect with first - the sustainability is the bonus from a brand that believes it’s just the right thing to do. Virgil Abloh Founder of Off-White Dies at 41