The Issue: The ultimate falsehood and perpetrators, along with their support of the creation and distribution of counterfeit streetwear.
The Verifiable Solution: Dashot.shop — real, authentic streetwear clothing.
Part I: The True Definition and Origins of Streetwear
Let's talk about the sweatshirt. A garment chosen not for a trend, but for its lightweight armor of thickness, durability, and versatility.
In 1982, I — the owner of Das Hot!, a.k.a. Oz Rock — chose the sweatshirt for breakdance routines to protect my school clothes during backspins and various groundwork which required elbows to the ground, yourself, and your clothing. The sweatshirt always guaranteed a few more rotations during your backspin. The sweatshirt also kept you warm during your covert graffiti missions at night.
West Coast breakdancers did not favor the hoodie unless you had mastered the headspin. That hood on the hoodie was a lifesaver. It always gave us a little cushion from those head bumps and scrapes. It also allowed us to get a few extra head rotations because that cloth between the floor and your hair provided that lack of friction, which brought in that extra spin or two, making you the top dog.
T-shirts were the showpiece, but we often did not attempt to do anything to damage that lightweight material — whether it was overspray from the paint or destroying the shirt from groundwork during our dance routines.
The 1990s and the year 2000 brought in a new era of street clothes. They were much nicer and felt like luxury. Brands like Karl Kani, Johnny Blaze (from rapper Method Man of the Wu-Tang Clan), Snoop Dogg, and a few other notable rappers started releasing true, authentic streetwear. Everything was authentic. Going to Las Vegas clothing expositions allowed you to walk through and see all the new, hot street clothing brands and prototype clothing. This kept streetwear at its highest authentic level.
What is the philosophy behind that statement? We are the streets — the breakdancers, the rappers, and the graffiti artists. And unfortunately, the bad elements, but we are the streets. Authenticity! Streetwear should come from those who are of the streets.
- Question: Is Chinese food authentic if it comes from an African or Caucasian who knows how to cook Chinese food very well?
- Is soul food — like barbecue ribs, hot water cornbread, and collard greens — authentic if it comes from a Chinese man?
The problem arises when one of those individuals has enough money to throw at search engines for expensive keywords or hire someone to maximize their SEO. The corporate culture vultures, who had nothing to do with true authentic streetwear or its origins, have swooped in to steal money out of the hands of streetwear creators. Ask any of those corporate counterfeiters of streetwear who Kool Herc or Coke La Rock are. They are the founders of hip-hop music. It is a massive problem.
Part II: The Support of Counterfeit Streetwear
The Euro and the Dollar are massively popular. If there were no written laws to stop people from mass-producing Euros or Dollars, and counterfeiters went to search engines like Google and Bing to acquire keywords to sell their counterfeit Euros or Dollars, those same search engines would put a stop to it. They would not allow counterfeiters to sell merchandise that competes against governments in the same way that corporations compete against true streetwear creators. Why the double standard?
Let's dive deeper.
Somalia, Eritrea, and East Timor are nations without domestic patent laws or IP frameworks. Can anyone start the production of Levi's, Gap, Coca-Cola, or currency legally?
Would Google or any search engine allow someone to legally buy keywords and start selling through sponsored listings? No!
If someone had the spending power for the ultimate SEO from one of those nations and ranked number one for keywords to sell counterfeit items or currency, would they be indexed for that number one spot on the search engines? No! Even without legal protection, Google and other search engines would step in and do what they considered to be the right thing — yet they pick and choose when to turn their heads for other counterfeit or false items.
There are many true examples of products, tangible or intangible, that do not have written laws to preserve their erosion and deterioration, but they are protected from the search engines.
Why do search engines not step in to protect authentic streetwear? It is a $200 billion-a-year industry, so it is certainly big enough to protect from the larger culture vultures.
If Louis Vuitton or Levi's has automatic protection regardless of where they have legal paperwork, because it is the right thing to do, then so should streetwear brands such as Das Hot! — the authentic streetwear brand sold only through dashot.shop.
Part III: What is Das Hot! and Why It Is the Global Solution
The Brain
The owner, Myron a.k.a. Mighty.Alta — formerly the breakdancer Oz Rock — was born and raised on the street. No father and a horrific relationship with his mother resulted in him living on the streets by age fourteen. A child traversing back and forth from San Diego to Los Angeles, Tijuana, and many other places alone, and before the age of 16.
He became a DJ, mastering the art of scratching and mixing on turntables. Being the first to play things like Run-D.M.C.'s "It's Like That" and Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" in 1983. Memorizing "Rapper's Delight" from the Sugarhill Gang at age thirteen. Kurtis Blow, and all others that gave the birth and rise to what we call rap and hip-hop. One of the original pop lockers before breakdancing. Breakdancer, graffiti artist, rapper.
In his own words:
I am streetwear by definition. I would not wish my life's journey upon anyone, nonetheless I am proud of it and lucky. Finally I have direction, and that direction is becoming the global retailer for streetwear from A to Z. I would love to speak about Dashot.shop's goals, milestones, and our next moves, but the streets have taught me to keep my mouth closed and just do it. You can get a little glimpse of our direction by visiting the website at dashot.shop.
Our Mission
We are on the street, so it only makes sense to have cities, states, and nations on T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies. All cities are important. And we shall represent them and give our customers a chance to be proud of where they come from and where they're going. Streetwear is about emotions. It's about compassion, empathy, competition, and ultimately, survival.
Take a look at the Thousand Eyes Dragon sweatshirt on the Das Hot! website. The designer of that sweatshirt said people who are visually impaired or blind need to have a different set of eyes. The sweatshirt has an all-over print of peacock feathers, which represent a thousand eyes, and a metal dragon that protects the individual who wears it. The message is simple: a 1,000 eyes are watching you, and the dragon represents that I am not to be messed with.
The Passion Playground hoodie is simply that. The next time you are intimate, close your eyes and see if you do not see something similar or the exact same colors you see on the Passion Playground hoodie.
The embroidered Truth and Love hoodie speaks for itself. A tribal red heart weaved to perfection surrounding the word "love." The heavy contrast of the colors — red embroidered heart and white embroidered letters that spell the word "love" on an all-black hoodie — that's enough right there, but it was not enough for Das Hot! The word "truth" is embroidered around the heart, sending out the clear message that truth borders and protects love.
We do not copy; we create. We are here to achieve our place in pop culture. To be a part of this zeitgeist, and the next. Songs give you memories of certain moments in your life. Well, we will make the clothes that go with those songs and those times that are special and memorable in your life.
Part IV: Comfort, Style, and Core Principles
When we select a city to create clothing for, one of our first questions is: what are the weather patterns? We never worry about the styles because we create them. It's about comfort then feel. If it's a hot climate, we create less reflective designs. DTG printing is not the latest, greatest printing technique when it comes to color brightness, but it is more breathable. A 300 GSM tee is going to have a more luxurious feel, but it's also going to be stifling hot. I could be wrong, but I don't believe that corporate companies mass-producing copied Los Angeles shirts because it's the trend think about comfort.
Streetwear From Top to Bottom
The name DAS HOT! derives from the streets. From California to New York, when speaking it's natural to replace the letter "T" with the letter "D". Water becomes wader. Give me that becomes give me dat. "That's hot" becomes "das hot."
Street rules define our core principles:
- Every designer must wear the clothes he or she designs regularly.
- We took that a step further: all management and the owner must wear Das Hot! clothes regularly.
You may regularly see Das Hot! hoodies and tees worn by employees on our social media and not be able to find those items on the website for several months. We test our products. We want to see how long the "wow" factor lasts for many of our products.
We could go on forever, but the bottom line circles back to authenticity. Help us help you fight the war on what you believe you're paying for. Real authenticity, real streetwear.
Shop the full Desert Hype™ collection and the premium heavyweight hoodie collection at dashot.shop.
0 comments