Words by Christopher Kevin Au
Over the past few seasons, Geedup Co has become omnipresent in Sydney City, marking the streets with their assertive garments and relentless quest for domination.
Influenced by the Golden Era of hip-hop culture, Geedup Co barged into the wardrobes of writers and rhymers, eventually expanding their customer base to include men and women from all facets of youth culture. Wearing their Western Sydney roots with pride, the brand has also fostered an extended family by consistently supporting home-grown creatives and talents. It’s clear that Geedup are here to be the undisputed champions of their league, by any means necessary – and with Sydney firmly in their grasp, they’re looking abroad for a more thorough takeover.
Having seen everyone from Thundamentals to Joey Badass wearing Geedup garments, we had a chat to the boys behind the brand about their vision, their upcoming collections and how they became the stand-up streetwear staples of Sydney:
It’s been six years since the incarnation of Geedup. How would you say the brand has evolved in this time?
Beau Saywell: Man, evolution is a crazy thing. Fundamentally things grow from small to big, but in our case it kind of happened backward. Now, I’m by no means saying from big to small – I just mean we didn’t do it the way most do. You see, typically a brand goes out to get accounts in hopes of ‘getting their name out there’ – we tried all that jazz but figured that route wasn’t exactly cut out for us – people didn’t want to listen. So it took us backing ourselves, who we were, what we wanted to achieve and say – that paved the way for our own form of evolution.
We did it the only way we knew how – to do it on our own terms. In that came a flagship store a mere two years into this journey, with nothing but our own (at times blind) ambitions backing us. Albeit, once we had planted that seed, the brand grew its own legs, started speaking its own language, behaving its own way, and in retrospect we have the people who support Geedup Co. to thank for that. They’re the real ones who have evolved in this.
What was the main reason behind starting Geedup? What existing brands did you look at for motivation?
Beau Saywell: To begin with, in all honesty, it was a lack of direction in different facets of our lives – personally and career wise. We needed a quick fix, so I teamed up with big bro Jake – we shared ideas and visions – and went down a multitude of paths until we landed ourselves deep in this rag trade, with no, and I mean no knowledge whatsoever. We knew we had plenty to say – plenty to offer through garments – we just needed to figure out how to say it!
Art, graffiti, hip-hop and fashion have always been a focus, so it just took its natural discourse I suppose. In the beginning, we looked at all sorts of brands to fuel the fire, but the two that became the most prophetic were 10.Deep and Crooks & Castles. Crooks’ message has always resonated with us, and while 10.Deep is far more tech than what we do, their silhouettes have always been a massive inspiration for us.
Jake Paco: Beau has summed that up really well. Do allow me to reiterate that we had no knowledge of this industry, and for me that challenge made it all the more fulfilling when we see our product sell out – and a big shout to the Crooks boys!
Geedup found a lot of success in Western Sydney before opening another store in Darlinghurst. What do you think it is about this environment that allowed Geedup to thrive?
Benny Pearce: It was the message we were channeling to the public. There’s a lot of places in the greater west that are affected socio-economically, and when we first came onto the scene, we were making garments with designs idolising hip-hop (which was created on the streets) and others blatantly, yet creatively saying “thug shit exists here, this is our take on it.”
There were a lot of young dudes that could relate to that in some way, because they understood the raw and honest nature of it all, and were aware of the circumstances that existed in their neighbourhoods.
How would you describe the Sydney streetwear scene at the moment? How do you think Geedup has hit its niche with such success?
Benny Pearce: We’d say that mostly it’s looking very promising. We have homies with labels like Sydney Romantics and Numb, who are pushing uniqueness in clothing that quite frankly you aren’t seeing anywhere. Well Dressed Vandals also hold it down for the graffiti community, too. The key point to be made here is that we’re homies – the Sydney streetwear scene needs to stick together as a side note. We feel it should be about inspiring each-other, and really turning that streetwear ‘scene’ into a ‘community’. That’s how we’ve managed to stay in stride; by putting ourselves out there for the world to see and telling it like it is – people respond well to that.
You guys seem to have a pretty diverse customer base. How would you describe a typical Geedup customer?
Beau Saywell: I think that’d just be impossible, it’s actually absurd how far apart each end of our customer spectrum sits. On a number of occasions, we’ve sat in awe of the people we have walking through our doors, but that’s the beauty of it. While on a general consensus, outward looking in, most people would assume they’d know our customer base – you know, typical streetwear, sneaker head enthusiast type thing. But how rude of a shock they’d get if they swam through our online orders or spent a day in our Parramatta flagship store three days out of Christmas. There just ain’t no telling, and that’s dope!
From Thundamentals to Turquoise Prince, Geedup has always made a huge point of supporting the local hip-hop scene. Who are some of the emerging emcees you think everyone should be listening to?
Benny Pearce: Well you named one right up there, Turquoise Prince LTC. He’s going to do crazy things. We have money on names like Southbeach, Nooky, Baby Veeno – the list continues. We have friends up north that we’re really banking on too though, in particular our boy I AM D from Brisbane. Lyrically you can’t touch him, and he has style – same goes for cats like Midas Gold and Tides. A lot of these guys have probably been doing their thing for a while behind the curtains, but people just haven’t quite picked up on it until recent times. Time for that to change.
How did the Joey Badass connect come up?
Beau Saywell: This one is thanks to our man J57, our now American Ambassador (Jimmy Heinz) – a producer from New York. J had a mutual friend with us who had actually showed him that collabo track we did with Thundamentals on YouTube, and he said he loved the beat and asked to be put in touch with us. So we linked on the net, and organised for him to roll through to the store when he came out to Australia for a holiday. We got to chatting about all things hip-hop, and we discovered his history in the scene and the people he was rubbing shoulders with – Joey happened to be one of those people, both men being from Brooklyn and such.
Benny Pearce: Joey B was in town for a side show after Falls Festival, and as we ate dinner with Heinz on the night we met him, Joey hit him on Twitter asking him if he knew anybody in Sydney with a studio. We’re good friends with the boys from Signacion Studios in Chippendale, so we made a few calls and organised a time. Joey Badass, CJ Fly and Statik Selektah rocked up. JB and CJ laid down a few verses – Joey spat on the ‘New York Vs Everybody’ joint if I recall – we popped Moet, laced them with threads, ate pizza in the Cross at 4:00am before dropping them back to the hotel, and thus the connection was made.
Aside from hip-hop, you guys say that graffiti in the 80s and crime families in the 70s influenced Geedup. Can you expand on how these cultures influenced the brand’s vision?
Benny Pearce: It’s the attitudes that give these things context. Graffiti has always had that outlandish style to it – spreading creativity in places that society tells you are out of bounds. We obviously took visual cues from graffiti style – the colours, the patterns – but it was about making a statement that others were hesitant to make.
Jake Paco: The whole crime family influence comes from the comradarie we pretty much emulate of the crime families. For real, you wouldn’t believe the half of it! The loyalty, the ‘to die for, to kill for one another’ mentality. If you’re family, you’re family! So we’ve embodied that entirely and not just recently. You know how we mentioned earlier we are from the west? These traits have been instilled in us from a young age.
Geedup has some exciting products in the pipeline, including crucial slides for summer. What else can we expect from the range in the coming months?
Jake Paco: Fire – we are going to just keep bringing the heat! Pushing boundaries and expanding our collections in numerous directions. Do keep an eye out for the towel and the duffel we will be pairing with the slides for a beach pack though… not to give too much away!
What left-field products do you think that Geedup could make in the future? Any chance of a Geedup vuvuzela?
Jake Paco: Nah bruv, we don’t blow whistles ‘round here..
How do you plan to dominate the Australian summer and what’s on the cards for 2017?
Jake Paco: Same way we’ve dominated summers prior – stay in our own lane, create easy to wear, easy to match styles that flow from head to toe. We develop products to wear and suit just the same, and that helps us maintain a one stop shop. 2017 will hopefully see us either expand stores nationally, or open major accounts. We’re hungry.
