RYU announces “Respect” collaboration featuring designs from local artists

NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 /CNW/ – RYU Apparel Inc. (TSXV:RYU.V, OTCQB:RYPPF), creators of urban athletic apparel, celebrates its flagship opening in Williamsburg with a capsule collection highlighting four local New York artists. Curated by NYC graffiti legend, Stash, the collaboration includes four graphic tees and sweatshirts featuring the word “Respect,” designed by Futura, CES, WANE, and Stash in each artist’s signature aesthetic.

The project kicks off a larger series featuring local artists and reinforces RYU’s dedication to its local community and building relationships with consumers.

Following the Williamsburg launch, RYU will roll out additional artist series in other US locations. The next iteration will drop exclusively at the RYU Venice Beach location designed by LA based artists, Eklipse, Push, Trav, and Rime.

“Each of these artists bring something different to their community and we couldn’t be happier to be partnering with them. We are looking forward to continuing this project as we expand within the US.” says CEO, Marcello Leone.

“Respect is a word that is very important to me. I’m thrilled to be working with RYU on this project and am excited that they are embracing local creatives as part of their community,” says Stash.

Hypebeast recently featured the collection in their “Best of art drops” story. 
Link: https://hypebeast.com/2018/11/best-art-for-sale-online-november-2018-week-2-james-jean-joya-arsham-studio

Hypebeast is the leading online destination for men’s contemporary fashion and streetwear, with over 6 Million monthly unique visitors.

About the Artists

FUTURA 
Futura is a contemporary American graffiti artist. Over the course of his career, he transitioned from making New York-based subway graffiti in the early 1970s, to exhibiting at Fun Gallery in the 1980s alongside major artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf. Born Leonard McGurr on November 17, 1955 in New York, NY, he went on to collaborate with the punk band The Clash, designing their album art and performing live graffiti during their concerts. McGurr’s major contribution to graffiti art was his use of abstraction, adopting a style of painting characterized by its blending of text and imagery. Today, McGurr’s work can be found in the collections of the Museo de Arte Moderna di Bologna, the Musée de Vire in France, and the Museum of the City of New York. No longer working in graffiti, McGurr lives and works as a graphic designer in Brooklyn, NY.

CES 
Born Robert Michael Provenzano in 1970 in the Bronx (NY) to a middle class family, Ces began writing graffiti in the early 80s. He’s part of the second wave of writers, those that innovated in letters. Influenced by the dynamics of the pioneers: large images on trains, subways and walls, Ces helped develop the writing commonly known as wildstyle. The NY wildstyle that Ces was instrumental in developing employed more jagged, aggressive, and hard edge letters as opposed in the rounded script of classical graffiti.

Ces, also known as Wish, has produced large aerosol murals in various countries and continents. Ces’s work is well documented in many videos, like FX, a video about New York-based graffiti writers.

WANE 
In 1983, Wayne became ‘Wane One’ when he painted his first train. This was the beginning of a lifelong love for graffiti and the culture that surrounded it. Subway cars and train walls were his favorite canvases. He had an unquenchable thirst for painting his pieces onto these metal surfaces, thus transforming them into mobile works of art. In 1988, Wane started experimenting and exploring other medias, such as painting with acrylic on canvas, denim jackets and jeans. He then began airbrushing onto t-shirts, which became popular in his neighborhood and gave Wane his first taste of being an entrepreneur. Wane was also one of the first writers to make the transition into Graphic Design and has designed logos for hip-hop groups like Gangstarr, Jeru the Damager and Group Home. Presently, Wane divides his time between painting, running his company Writers Bench, designing for Sean John Menswear, Nike, and Reebok and traveling around the world. Wane still resides in the Bronx.

STASH 
Stash – real name Josh Franklin, was born in Long Island, New York in 1967. He is considered one of New York’s graffiti legends, pivotal to the East Village scene of the early 1980’s.

Stash exhibited his first canvases alongside pop art pioneers, Keith Haring and Jean-Michael Basquiat when he was only 17. While his contemporaries turned to Pop Art, Stash stayed true to the subway, working on trains until 1987 when he created his last underground piece alongside Zephyr.

Stash’s early works on canvas demonstrate a loyalty to his early career in the use of subway map-collages and signature bold outlines and clean shapes. By the late 1990’s, Stash had pioneered the use of graphic elements of graffiti on streetwear through high-profile collaborations with companies such as Nike and Bathing Ape. The move ensured his work reached a much wider audience than the gallery visitor and played a key role in the widespread understanding of graffiti, which in turn led to its public acceptance.

Stash is now firmly established as an innovator and influencer in the world of urban design, and his fascination with the urban environment is also evident in his perfectly executed photographic work, which features a combination of city motifs alongside the latest lighting and printing techniques.

About RYU

Respect Your Universe is an award-winning urban athletic apparel and accessories brand engineered for the fitness, performance and lifestyle of the athletic man and woman. Designed without compromise for fit, comfort, and durability, RYU exists to facilitate human performance. For more information, visit: http://ryu.com

On Behalf of the Board

RYU APPAREL INC.

“Marcello Leone” 
Marcello Leone, CEO, President and Chairman of the Board 
Tel: 604-235-2880

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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SOURCE RYU Apparel Inc.

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