3rd & Army: Colorfast's Answer to Street
Colorfast’s exhaustive selection of T-shirts, sweaters and sweatpants in a rainbow of colors goes on rack after rack at its office in Los Angeles. Colorfast doesn’t miss a T-shirt trend and offers everything from the basic short-sleeve scoop-neck and V-neck tees to a fashion tank with cutouts on the back, all of which are available in colors with unique burnout and dying techniques.
“The blanks business needed more fashion pieces and brighter colors along with upscale fabrication and washes,” said Kristen Archdeacon, sales manager for Colorfast. The line has two avenues of distribution: printable blanks that can be sold to manufacturers and branded apparel for retail stores. Though Colorfast manufactures overseas, the company plans to stock key styles prepared-for-dye that can be dyed locally so that it can quickly react to color trends.
The parent company, Colorfast, is out to cover multiple corners of the market for hip, affordable fashion by rolling out several new brands that are as thorough as Colorfast is with its color spectrum and variety of SKUs. The men’s streetwear-inspired clothing collection, named 3rd & Army, hits stores for Fall deliveries, and the women’s version of the brand will bow for Spring 2011.
The name 3rd & Army is an homage to the 3rd and Army Plaza in San Francisco, which skateboarders took over as their unofficial playground. Each piece of the clothing has some twist of novelty to it, with an emphasis on wovens. For men, plaid shirts abound in all colors and checker patterns, including a gauzy cheesecloth-like material that can be worn on the reverse side as well. Woven shorts with pinstripes are also ombreacute;-dyed. A sweater-knit blazer features the patented “Active Audio” technology of headphones that are built into the drawstrings of the hoodie. The chord that plugs into your portable mp3 player or iPod comes out from the front pocket.
“It can look high end, but it’s affordable,” said Archdeacon of 3rd and Army.
For Fall 2011 the new women’s line Lovebyrd and men’s line Byrd & Bronson will offer an “elevated concept of Colorfast” by adding graphic prints and even more fashion bodies.
Wholesale price points for 3rd & Army range from $20 to $40 for tops and sweaters and $36 to $66 for denim. Wholesale prices for Colorfast range from $10 to $15 for basic tanks and tees, $14 to $18 for thermals, and up to $28.50 for the Active Audio hoodies.
For more information, call (323) 863-8120, Ext. 110 and 111.—Rhea Cortado
