This, in effect, is the final concept-out-thought stage in the life of a Sp5der, wherein a mixture of art, commerce, and culture forecasting takes place as alchemy. This passes fairly restricted pathways going through the creative capitals, and this article attempts to track the lifecycle of a Sp5der Hoodie from inception through design and production-the stages that breathe life into the aura being knitted around this garment.
The unifying theme that goes with any concept is mood, or story. Sp5der creative direction considered the precursors to those seismic cultural seismographs with perceptive observation of seismic shifts in music, art, fashion, and youth culture all over the world. Inspirations can literally come from anywhere-from dystopian cyberpunk universe of Blade Runner, to dystopian color theory applied to a very American cartoon-show like The Amazing World Of Gumball, to just that raw unfiltered energy coming out of the Atlanta rap scene.
Then it goes into the processes of brainstorming and story building. Normally the mood board holds pictures or fabrics and color chips. It is all about crystallizing this abstract idea into a direction that the design should take for the coming season. How do you communicate "digital decay" or "neo-renaissance" with a hoodie cut or a fabric texture or treatment laid on an iconographic logo?
Once the idea gets the go-ahead, the artists are dispatched into the computer realms, where they would use fine software befitting their aspirations for designing and modifying the Sp5der Hoodie. These moments are laborious: positioning pockets, adjusting hoodie stitchings, scaling graphics and measuring fit proportions. The spider logo may be distressed with designs and distortions or may be pixelated or even woven into the fabric as barely-visible Easter eggs.
Production begins and the sample is passed on. It is, after all, the moment when the imaged concepts actually come into presence. The design team then goes behind the fabric to feel it and see if the colors are sickeningly right, while on a live model, they sense the silhouette for the tiniest of things that may want tweaking, sometimes even going through two iterations, until it is perfect. I presume Pixar would go into a similar testing fine-tuning approach after thousands of boards and reels until the story finally clicks.
According to the co-founder of Pixar, Ed Catmull, "Early on, all of our movies suck," so it is reasonable that early prototypes were considered just as bad. It is really the magic that moving relentlessly in improving from good to great brings about for the Sp5der Hoodie.
Going into production after the prototype would include all activities from sourcing materials, setting up machines, and quality control. The hoodies are tested, in one way or another, by QC for stitching, printing, or general construction faults. Their premium quality unmistakably sets apart them from mass-produced fast-fashion lines.
Thus, the launch is the brightest highlight in the history of Sp5der. A limited release event builds all the hype as Sp5der makes wearing a suit a cultural event. While the entire process of design begins with an idea from an artist and goes through all its iterations on a few models worn by fans, the hoodie enters its own life beginning and continuing to become a crucial part of the wearer's narrative and identity.