Q. Ben Warwick
A. Tactical Urban Gears

1. Please introduce Tactical Urban Gears to our readership. What does the brand stand for? Who is Hiro? How did the brand start?

First and foremost, thank you so much for having us here on Unequalled Magazine.

Tactical Urban Gears is a young, urban online clothing label based in Singapore. We pride ourselves on the quality of our products and aim to remain current and relevant in our designs by deriving inspiration from art, comics, manga, movies, music and the streets.

We pour a little piece of our soul into everything we produce and hope that people are able to see the passion we infuse into our work. We believe that little things make all the difference, thus we make it a point to pay close attention to the details in everything we do, whether it is the design or the packaging or the labels or the printing or the website.  Possibly the most extreme thing we’ve done to this end is to contract separate manufacturers for the labels, printing and the t-shirts because no one single vendor was able to fulfil the requirements we wanted.

Hiro is our mascot. He’s a ninja-in-training and stands three heads shorter than his peers. Because of his size, he often has to work harder than everyone else. He is the personification of the underdog, not unlike Tactical Urban Gears, who is a small label sharing the world with bigger, more established brands. Hiro is someone whom we hope people would be able to identify with and root for.

We started the brand because we are big fans of Hello Kitty, the Powerpuff Girls and other Japanese-inspired characters. We thought it would be really exciting to introduce characters of our own and see how far we could push them.

2. The brand is described as design driven, could you expand on this description. Is the apparel simply a canvas for the brands artwork or is fashion fundamental to the brands future?

We describe ourselves as design-driven as opposed to slogan-driven typo tees. Our designers are playful and very visually oriented people, so we naturally gravitate towards bold graphics and colours and geometric shapes. It is our goal to continue to produce exciting and visually stimulating t-shirts.

Right now, the apparel is a canvas for our artwork, but in time and with an established fan base and a bigger budget, we hope to be more innovative and play with the fashion aspect.

3. Browsing the fantastically well executed TUG online store, the team clearly have a passion for design and understand what the public want when it comes to online purchasing  (information wise). What is the inspiration behind the push into streetwear and what do you believe TUG brings to what is often considered a saturated market?

When we first started, we were basically looking for a medium to showcase both Hiro and Ono. We ultimately decided on streetwear because we love the idea of people as walking canvasses for our art. There’s something inherently intimate about wearable art as it’s a personal testament as to who the wearer is and we consider that the ultimate validation. No doubt the market is saturated, but like everything else, we believe that there’s always room for fresh new designs and points of views delivered with consistent quality.

4. The photographs on the TUG website present a collection of T-shirts, which are graphically impressive and printed with a high degree of professionalism. Could you describe both the quality of material and printing techniques used that produce such bold and pleasing products for under $30?

We chose screen-printing because this technique tends to produce longer lasting prints as well as more vivid, vibrant colours. The t-shirts themselves are made of premium quality 100% fully combed cotton. To put it simply, the shirts won’t stretch or fuzz or lose their shape with repeated washings. With the correct care, you can be wearing the t-shirts for a long time to come.

5. The store currently appears to only sell a range of T-Shirts, Vouchers and Stickers. What other merchandise can we expect to see in the near future? Is the current collection exclusive to the official online store?

We would love to experiment with the apparel line, expanding our range to include pants, long-sleeved shirts, jackets, etc in the future. We are also keen to introduce more ambitious items like trendy totes and functional bags, toys and a plush line while at the same time offering small, fun mementos like postcard sets and other trinkets. Our collection is currently exclusive to our official online store though we are looking to explore the possibility of bringing our merchandize into retail outlets.

From now until the 28th of February 2010, you can save 20% on all Tactical Urban Gears merchandise (except for gift vouchers) by entering this (UEM141109) coupon code at the check out. T-U-G Facebook & Twitter.

Read part two here.

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