Obey

If fashion and propaganda could intertwine and fuse together, Obey would be the result of that clothing brand. It all started in 1989 with Shepard Fairey. Shepard created an absurd sticker of the WWF wrestler Andre The Giant, which caught a lot of attention and helped spread his vision.  Obey simply started as street art, promoting on the walls with graffiti, massive stickers, art and propaganda posters. In 2001, Shepard decided to take it a step further and create Obey Clothing. As Shepard describes, the Obey campaign is influenced

and rooted in the “do it yourself” counterculture of punk rock, hip-hop, and skateboarding, while also taking cues form popular culture, commercial marketing and political propaganda messaging.

  

Shepard talks about how Obey is about variety and experience, thinking about your surroundings and questioning the purpose. Obey currently has flagship stores located all over the globe including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and New York. After the creation of flagship stores, Shepard and his crew decided to focus on growing with the retailers available in the United States.  They use big chain stores such as Nordstrom, Urban outfitters, Zumiez, and Buckle while also using specialized shops such as skate shop, a shop where DJ’s find their music and equipment and other themed mom and pop shops. Shepard and his crew also use top online retailers such as Turntable Lab, Zappos, 80’s purple, MLTD, Blue Hawaii Surf, The Giant Peach, East West Worldwide and my favorite KarmaLoop.

In Shepard’s eyes, it is all about the message. Obey is about a brand that has some content in it. Obey, is a message driven company, driven by Shepard's graphics and ideas, the t-shirt is the perfect vehicle to spread the Obey message. To the Obey Clothing Company, someone wearing a t-shirt with an Obey graphic is like having a mobile message board.

Shepard also created Obey Awareness, to support the causes he believed in, and uses the clothing brand as a way to share ideas and messages. He support causes such as Jail guitar doors, Urban Roots, Adopt-A-Pet, and Keep a breast foundation.