Blackheart Brotherhood Partners With Allyance
New York–based snowboard outerwear brand Allyance has joined forces with Blackheart Brotherhood, a design and marketing firm specializing in surf and skate, to launch a new line of lifestyle apparel. The San Clemente, Calif.–based Brotherhood—which marshals core surf brand MCD, a division of Perry Ellis International, and has designed boardshorts and sportswear for a variety of brands, including Ocean Pacific, Roxy, Redsand, Gotcha, Electric Visual and Rusty as well as retailers 17th Street, Sun Diego and Town & Country Surf Designs—will bring the brand into the fray of the boardsports industry.
Headed up by surf design veterans Johnny Monson, Chris Boland, Jeff McCoy and former Von Zipper marketing chief Jason Arnold, the Brotherhood will launch Allyance’s apparel with T-shirts, boardshorts, hoodies and 20 cut-and-sew styles for men and boys for Spring 2008. “We’re going to make Allyance a viable brand product-wise,” Arnold said. Adding their signature dark and arty style to the brand, the Brotherhood will debut its latest project at the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo in San Diego Sept. 7–9. “It’ll be a limited release—more of a teaser. Fall 2008 will be a full line, including denim,” Arnold said. Tech pieces for water and snow sports will also be part of the line.
Allyance, in its new incarnation, will be heavily branded with lots of pops of bright color and 1980s street style. “It’ll have a retro sport look with a military twist,” Arnold said. The brand’s boardshorts will also be eco-friendly. “Not in a tree-hugger sort of way, though,” Arnold said, “more in a streets and gutters way.” That means shorts made of recycled tires, bottles and other waste. And when the shorts are past their prime, they can be returned for recycling and a voucher for a discount on a new pair of Allyance boardshorts. “It’s our own spin on being green. We’re taking trash and making it useful and cool,” he said.
—Erin Barajas
