DEEPCOVER – Today were here talking with Christopher Donnelly (Owner) and Sjors Bos (International Strategic Manager) for Gio-Goi clothing.
DEEPCOVER – When did you guys first start the brand and why?
Christopher – I started the company with my brother 21 years ago, it was born out of the Acid House era in Manchester and we used throw all the illegal rave parties in Manchester. At the time there were a lot of corporate companies trying to capitalize on the scene that didn’t really know what the scene was about and they were producing clothes saying this is what the scene was supposed to be, so we started making clothing to right a few wrongs.
DEEPCOVER – Do you guys Dj at all?
Christopher – I used to play music, I sometimes still do, right now I make music for our website and I play the guitar.
DEEPCOVER – How long did it take you to start making clothing from the time you guys were throwing all the raves?
Christopher- Not too long after, we first started making bootleg tee’s for The Happy Mondays and that took a natural progression on to people liking the t-shirts that we were doing and we decided to put the clothing line together.
DEEPCOVER – How old were you when you started throwing the parties?
Christopher – I was 18 or 19 and within a year the company was probably doing 8 million pounds, we opened our own nightclub called Parliament, which held 1000 capacity, and then we started doing video and various other projects.
DEEPCOVER – Wow impressive, and that was all before the Internet word of mouth type marketing.
Christopher – Yeah definitely, back in the day the warehouse parties were illegal, so what we would do is distribute a mobile phone number so you would have to go to a phone box, call the number and there would be someone on the other end of the phone telling you the address of the party. Eventually police caught on to that and then we had to have several different numbers to call for directions for the parties.
DEEPCOVER – To this day there is still that demand to find the most legit party, that exclusitivity factor and once you find it there like a sense of accomplishment, like thank god I found it, that was a mission.
Christopher- Yeah some people could be driving around all night and never find the party ha-ah there might be some people still looking for the party 20 years later.
DEEPCOVER – Who does that artwork and graphics for the tees?
Christopher – Neither my brother or I are schooled in fashion, my dad was a scrap metal dealer so we were brought up around that, but we just liked clothes. At the time Fila was a big thing. We would travel around Europe with our football team and buy different clothes from different places, back in the day if you needed to get lacoste or a Fila tracksuit you would have to go to Italy, so we would travel around with our football team and that’s how we got started.
DEEPCOVER – Did you get support from your parents when you told them you wanted to start a clothing line, Im sure they didn’t take you seriously and thought you just wanted to party.
Christopher – Well we did and they were right ha-ha. Our parents are very open-minded people, so Im sure they had their discussion about it, but they definitely did support us and they still support us today.
DEEPCOVER – Who was the first Artist you worked with that wore you clothing?
Christopher – The first person that appeared publicly in a garment was Peter Hook from New Order on the front cover of NME.
DEEPCOVER – Did he approach you, how did that work out?
Christopher – I was brought up around factory records, my sister worked there. I was always like the younger person in the crowd at the Smiths concerts and New Order shows, so I basically grew up around that culture and that’s how that came about.
DEEPCOVER – Were you listening to primarily Electronic and Acid House.
Christopher – Well it was everything from like The Smiths, to New Order, and then we had Happy Mondays, there were a hand full of DJ’s playing Acid House like Mike Piker, he was the main DJ for the Hacienda, he would go to Chicago or wherever and bring all the House shows back. And it became a really big scene in the U.K.
DEEPCOVER – As in for branching out, how long did you stay in Manchester and then decide to branch out internationally, and how did it grow?
Christopher – We never thought on a local basis, anything we do, its always been done on an internationally level because the bands that wore our clothing were international, so right away we started supplying independent boutiques in New York, Japan and places like that, so we never thought on a smaller scale.
DEEPCOVER – When you started making the clothes did you start giving out clothes to different Artists and DJs and having them wear it?
Christopher – We did, in the very beginning we made around 200 t-shirts, for the first 6 or 8 months we never actually had any other clothes than the t-shirts. We would just give the T-shirts to the right people who had a good vibe about them. The press started taking notice and questioning what is this thing that all these celebrities are wearing and that’s how it spread.
DEEPCOVER – What do you think about America fashion as opposed to the European markets.
Christopher – There’s some really cool American brands out there, ive seen some nice stuff. I think we have a unique angle. We have heritage, there’s already a lot of U.K brands in America and they’ve got heritage, but what a lot of them don’t have is heritage and relevance. We’ve got all of that, were relevant today and we have heritage and history that come with it.
DEEPCOVER – That’s very true, if you don’t have the lifestyle to backup your brand, then your brand has no substance and eventually it will bottom out.
Sjors Bos – I think the other thing is the U.S street wear is kind of bland, I think it lacks color and design. When I speak to other retailers and industry leaders in the market I get the impression that they need something new. With the ingredients of lifestyle first and product second, Gio-Goi has a huge potential in the U.S Market, but also gives the U.S market something that isn’t there. You don’t have to wait for something that isn’t there, you can actually bring something in that people didn’t expect.
Sjors Bos – Let’s be honest there are more brands on the market that started with product and then figured out later how to connect it to what’s cool. And it’s very simple, you can’t buy coolness or create it, it’s just something that should happen to you and that’s because the right people wear it and start to define it. A lot of brands want to use big PR firms and big advertising firms to create coolness, I’m a firm believer that you can’t buy coolness, it’s so superficial. The real consumer will pinch through it.
Christopher – We all want to make a living, but you have to be doing it for the right reasons. Like what Sjors said, there’s a lot of companies out there that create a brand and it will be slick and edgy, but they’re doing it because they want to make big bucks. When we started, we just wanted to make clothes for like-minded people.
DEEPCOVER – Yeah we can definitely relate to that. Is your brother still involved with the brand?
Christopher – Yeah he’s in the U.K, he’s busy down there doing business.
DEEPCOVER – Where is your store located?
Christopher – Our store will be open the back end of this year in the U.K
DEEPCOVER – Are you guys picky on what stores carry your brand?
Sjors Bos – Yes definitely, it’s like what we’re doing in every single market, we build slowly. It’s very easy to go into market, make a shit load of money, and then basically your brand is dead the first year. That’s not who we are. We want to be in the right key independent store. If people like Bloomingdales comes in and want to pick up the brand, that’s fine for recognition, but then you have a lot of underground independent stores that we fit right into.
Christopher – Were not pitching one genre we cross all genres.
DEEPCOVER – Do you guys still go out partying raves and what not?
Christopher – Yeah we still put parties on.
DEEPCOVER – How do you think the scene has changed since you guys first started, musically?
Christopher – Things have changed a lot, today’s music is great, we still work with relevant artist at the moment like Deadmau5 and a few others. It’s different now because DJ’s would have to carry crates and boxes full of their albums and now it’s just a computer.
Sjors Bos – DJ’s today call themselves producers because it’s not about spinning vinyl anymore, its about combining a lot of elements together to make music.
DEEPCOVER- Are you guys sponsoring any other events?
Christopher – We don’t sponsor anyone, we work with people, we don’t like using the word sponsor because then it makes you look like you paid someone to do something. We don’t pay for anything like that, and that’s what I was saying earlier, if we all vibe off each other then we could be partners. Whoever we decide to do something with, we have to vibe off them and they have to vibe off what we do. Working with the right partner in whatever, whether it’s acting, music, sports.
Sjors Bos – A good example of that are 2 the guys from “CREAM” our DJ collective. They are residents of a party we throw once a week in Ibiza, Spain. It’s about working together to create that incredible dance scene.
Christopher – We do a night in Ibiza every Thursday night with “CREAM” at Amnesia. There are usually around eight or nine thousand people there every week.
DEEPCOVER – Are you guys are working with anyone else in the U.S event wise?
Christopher – We do have some things lined up but it’s not something we want to talk about before it’s actually confirmed.
Sjors Bos – We can confirm that we will be doing something at the Miami Music Conference with Tour Of Nights, and were also looking into SXSW and all that stuff, but we just need to get that complete, it will just be a matter of time and that information should be available shortly.
Christopher – If you boys have got your finger on the pulse which its seems like you have, you guys will be pleasantly surprised when you see what we have in store for the U.S.
DEEPCOVER – Yeah we will definitely see it or find out about it if you’re going to do something like that in the U.S.
Sjors Bos – Check our new website for any updates, Monday morning we will release the new website for the U.S.
Christopher – Yeah you’ll see a picture of me with hair ha-ha.
DEEPCOVER – HAHA ok were looking forward to it, well thanks for talking to us guys it’s been a pleasure.
Christopher – Thank you
Sjors Bos – Thanks
www.gio-goi.com