Lowdtown Friends & Freaks
Lowdtown Friends & Freaks is a clothing company started in early 2009 by Ray Masaki. The line focuses around this fictitious town, and each design aims to flesh out this surreal universe of Lowdtown. Lowdtown Friends & Freaks is inspired by street subculture and provides a unique take on the typical streetwear brand. By offering bright bold colors, and out of the ordinary prints and designs, Lowdtown offers limited edition streetwear that can be enjoyed by anyone with an eye for design.
Background
Lowdtown was started in my freshman year at Parsons School of Design in New York City. In highschool, I used to run a clothing brand called RAWR! Clothing, but after I graduated, I felt that I wanted to push myself to create a more graphic, character-driven line. Therefore, when I came to Parsons, I started pondering a concept that would not only be unique, but also something that could include the characters that I always draw. Since I am always coming up with new characters, I soon realized that the best way to make my characters come to life would be to put them all in a fictitious world, Lowdtown.
The website was launched in January 2009 and I had my first release in March 2009, and I tried to release a new product once a month. However, once school approached, I had too much trouble juggling school work, design work, and Lowdtown, so now I release a new line every season. With upcoming craft shows, new releases and exciting collaborations, I hope to see Lowdtown really mature in the coming years.
Future
If I ever get a large enough following (and a lot of money), I hope to one day have a storefront in some cool city like New York, LA, or Tokyo. I'll keep dreaming! Until then, I'll just be shipping shirts out of my dinky apartment!
Thank You
I know a lot of you guys have supported me and cheered me on from the very beginning, and I really can't thank you guys enough. I've received a lot of really nice e-mails and messages, and I read every single one, and try to reply to all of them. They really mean a lot, and I really appreciate it.
If you have any questions, or just want to chat or something, shoot me an e-mail at: ray@lowdtown.com. And if you want to stay up to date with all things Lowdtown, I recommend you sign-up for the e-mail newsletter and follow me on twitter.