Maddog in luck 13 shirt, tank and pants.
Photo by Davin McBride
They see the bands at clubs and in Rolling Stone and on MTV. Give a band some clothes, and they're likely to thank you on their CD. Or give you 10 or 20 tickets to their next show and backstage passes. Basically, your product gets seen. Most important, it gets seen by your customers, who think they are seeing it totally by coincidence, totally because the band loves your clothes, not because you actually gave the band the clothes so that the customer would see the clothes—on the band, I'm saying—and then want to buy your clothes. That would be wrong. Which is one reason Alfaro doesn't give clothes to an entire band, afraid of a kind of geekifying Partridge Family effect. “The thing that could really kill the concept is to sponsor every member in the band,” he said. “It would look stupid, phony, too staged. Normally, I pick, like, the drummer or the guitarist and give them the clothes. Maybe two out of the four members. That way it comes off more natural and real.” Keeping it real is very important, which means that hooking up with the right band becomes a critical choice.
Hat Hair be Damned! Relish's Laurita Guaico and Volcom hold up a wall.
Photo by Jeanne Rice
“The main thing I look for is originality,” said Ryan Immegart, vice president of Volcom Entertainment, a division of Volcom clothing. Giving bands Volcom clothes turned out to be such a good thing for the brand that they started their own record label, and Immegart, who had been given clothes by the label as a member of his band, the Line, runs it while trying to stay true to Volcom's company line. “We don't want to get a bunch of old geezers. We want young kids,” said Immegart, 23. “This is something that's in your face—you know, it's your bro. This is something you can touch, you can feel it, see it close up. We want people to know that Volcom is not just a clothing company, but that we cater to a lifestyle.” And the bands? “Well, you get the clothes . . . so . . . you're like a model, you know,” said one music-industry vet. “It's like . . . Is this on the record? Because . . . I just got stoned. Can I have you call me tomorrow? I'll drink some coffee.” More Fashion
