Patta // Amsterdam

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PATTA A M STeR D A M M o V eS oN AND oN

Patta X Kangaroos “WoodholloW” 40/10 edition streetwear today 3 | 2012

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We had been to Amsterdam already a while ago, actually. February —and it was cold. Still it is always fun to visit Amsterdam: the stores, the people, the food and the atmosphere are just worth a visit every now and then, especially if you love the different elements. This time it was a special one, because I was ready for a meeting with Marco and PhiIipp of the Kangaroos Brand and the Patta Masterminds Gee and Edson. Theme “Woodhollow”. Meeting Point “Patta Store”. Reason “Same Obsession”. Footwear. The Kangaroos “Woodhollow”. A Black with a little white edition. Maybe cognac leather, how many, streetwear today 40/10 edition, logo placement, packaging, else... Interview... oh traffic jam. Still in time.

It is always a pleasure to enter the tiny building where the Patta Base is situated, Skatestore Ben G on the groundfloor, step up in the first floor and see the Patta store and even some stairs later the Patta Office. Edson and Gee, our film team, the Kangaroos boys and me filling up the space left surrounded by footwear and Patta goods. We had a chat about what the collaboration between streetwear today x Patta x Kangaroos x 40/10 edition should look like.

Shoefetishism and product skills at its best. After finalizing some details it was the time to have dinner, after that I took the chance to grab the mic and asked Gee some questions so you all know more about his background and the Patta Story.

Martin : Hey Gee, we celebrate 10 years stw2d magazine. A bit of a small history as a magazine. Well, what is your history in Amsterdam?

Gee : My history in Amsterdam, I started out working for a record store. I worked for Fat Beats records, that’s where I met my friends from back then but they are still my friends … Edson, Wix, Kim, Pieter “Parra”, almost all those people that I still work with right know. Yes I was just working there.

Martin : How was Amsterdam at that time? Hip Hop, Breakdance, Graffiti all over the place, drugs?

Gee : Looking through my eyes, I was very much into Hip Hop and I guess that Amsterdam in all interest for me was a perfekt place where I could find all types of ways to find this expression, mostly in bars, in clubs, little events and all this type of stuff. My friends Edson and Wix also a couple of other guys were also DJ’s and I was doing MC and then hosting a lot. From that we startet organizing partys and I always have been very very very much involved in organization - just doing creative stuff whenever and whatever way we could. Pieter Parra was just starting with his own stuff, a start doing graphic design and illustration stuff. Then he had his first jobs, his first gigs and he just grew into what he is known for now and I guess that time was a starting point for a lot of us.

Martin: Combining Fat Beats for the music and Parra for the clothing? Or was it just luck by tying things together?

Gee: Fat Beats, it was just a record store, so you should purely look at it like that. It was just a meeting point, you know. Records and underground NY hip hop stuff that we had on 12inch but we also had more records an more regular releases like that Eazy-E stuff that came out at that time. As it grew but Fat Beats was basically a place as Patta is right now, where you knew that a certain group of people were or have been hanging around. For example a guy like Pieter. He was not working there but he just came by and we became friends and he was showing what he was doing and of course he was just developing his style in his way of looking at things and I guess that’s so original and so his own that it found its way to a very big and worldwide audience and I still don’t think you can really pin point his artwork to Hip Hop music or what ever because we just grew into loving music in a very general way but for sure Pieters and his love for art and his involvement in graphic design and illustration obviously set a bar for doing stuff with expositions and all this type of stuff. Because this city always has a big legacy and you have people like Delta and you have a guy like Shoe, you have oldschool helds like Angel, you got the machine guys, so much and this goes on and on and this is the city that never really stops with that.

Martin : I remember me running around in Amsterdam chasing for a new Delta piece just because this 3D lettering made me sick when I fist saw it. If we look to that Amsterdam, like as a town of creation, a town of innovation in music, graphic an d street art or street design whatever. What was the key to open “Patta”?

Gee : The key to open “Patta” was just ...

Martin : Actually when did you open it ?

Gee : Patta? 2004. When I stopped working at Fat Beats because if you work and you feel like, ok I want to grow into other stuff, you want to try some new stuff – I started working for a record company, so I started working for Sony music and there I did a lot of marketing

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80 work together to do an expo or hey let’s get together and making a t-shirt or if I see a tracksuit in the street and its a tracksuit company that has been around for years, but I think that it should be shown in a different life or get more light for me it’s the opportunity to say “hey lets do something with this specific brand” or if I want do a party and I want to invite a certain DJ or support a party with new music that I like, then I can hang the name in and I can attract certain people to come and and say “hey check this out ...” so for me Patta is a platform to do actually everything I like in my interests and that’s not always the easiest way but it is the way of our heart.

from left to right: Philipp, Gee, Marco, Edson for, well let’s call it just “black music”. I did a lot of marketing and strategy for those projects, sold those CDs. I worked their for two years and I really learned a lot of stuff, saw all these cities, but after two years I was just like, ok this is not really my feel, thats not really my surrounding that I really feel comfortable with. I’m more of a grass roots guy, I like to be around my friends, I like to be around people that motivate me. Creativity. – And that is not all about having sales, sales, sales. So I stopped working at Sony music at that point. When I stopped, I went to New York for a little while, chilled around there for a couple of weeks and when I got back, I just talked to Edson and he was still working at “Fat Beats” and I talked to him like... “Hey man, we have all these connections over there in New York, also things like our Fat Beats roots and we just know a lot of people over their and over here, what we should do is – start importing sneakers that we like and just open a store and sell ‘em. Its not being done in that specific way over here in Holland.” And Edson was like: “Yo I’ve been walking around with that idea for years.” Just because he’s always been a real real real sneaker-head so than we just sat together, started thinking, how, try to get money, it was hustle and bustle but just trying to get to our goal. And a year after we had the idea, with some help from some friends, we had the first opportunity to open up the shop and that was 2004 and we are still around.

Martin : Did Ben-G already exist at that time?

Gee : Ben-G came in the year after. So first it was Patta on the first floor and the ground floor was actually the exposition room where we just had hanging stuff from friends. Actually when you came into Patta in the first year when it opened up, you just came into an empty gallery type space and when you walked up the stairs you came into the Patta store.

Martin : And the 3rd floor was Pieter’s studio right?

Gee : The 3rd floor was our studio, together with Pete so we had everything we wanted in one building, which was great.

Martin : So still you stick to your music from your past, means you tie together clothing music artwork and patta is the theme? Parra Soundsystem, Patta Soundsystem, a lot of DJs involved. All this is getting world recognition and still if you come to Amsterdam its a tiny little store.

Gee: But thats how it is, it’s more a meeting point and also it is a platform to do what ever you wish to do. If I want to do something creatively with a graphic designer or an artist that I like “Patta” gives me the opportunity to talk to these people and say “hey lets

Martin: So that working thing is extended to 24/7 and not from 9 to 5, right? It is just about your personal interests and things you like. So how do you see this, or if you look at younger generations, is Patta something which is easy to copy and paste? No it is not ...

Gee : You should not copy it at all, it’s an organic thing, it’s natural, but I hope Patta is something to look at and be like “hey you know what, these guys are doing that, they are doing it great. First of all it is about what interest they have” and I hope it sparks younger generations to also do what they like, to chase their interest, and make there own love and interest, their own work! I think that is the best thing you can have. Do your own thing. You have to find the balance between making enough money and doing what we want to do in a puristic and good way. martin : but is it running well or ...

Gee: It is ever evolving....

Martin: I mean my question is about the future. Is it a project you do for another 5 years and then whatever or do you have a plan?

Gee : No no “Patta” is like a part of my body so I could never leave it in this specific way. But of cause you see in the things that we do it has evolved into opening up a shop like Precinct5 which is situated in an old police station. At Precinct5 we sell different types of Brands over there, which are their and have a different focus. And also with “Patta” itself we are focussing more on the name and the brand and we involved another really good friend, an inspirational guy around us. Fancine, he does a lot of the graphic designs and we work on “Patta” collection together with the rest of the team and actually what we wanna build into is to make “Patta” a solid Brand, that can grow on, that can exist for 20, 30, 50, 60, 100 years to what ever. It has to be a name, that people when they see it, they put in connection with consistency, creativity and it should just be a Brand that means quality. That is what I want. It shouldn’t necessarily have to be quality clothing or quality this or quality that it just, if you see the name “Patta” you should immediately think of the word “quality”. In what ever we do.

Martin: Yeah, right! Done.

Check what came out of the collaboration project Patta XXX Kangaroos “woodhollow” 40/10 edition, next page or at streetwear today 40/10 live edition.

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