Sometimes when you spot a gap in the market you have to take a risk and decide to fill it yourself. You don’t want to be watching TV six months down the line and see someone pitching that exact same idea to a sour faced Deborah Meaden on Dragon’s Den, while you sit there shaking your head repeating in a stunned monotone “that was my idea” as they walk off with sixty grand. Although in reality I can’t imagine anyone pitching a range of design-conscious dancehall t-shirts in “the den”, one time Platform contributor James Nuttall and another Platform favourite, illustrator and all-round great guy Daniel David Freeman, decided to get in there before anyone else with their new clothing brand, Ranks.
A collaborative project between the two, Ranks is a brand created to fill glaring gaps in the market. In James’s words, ‘it started off with us wanting to create the tees that we always wanted to buy, but weren’t available’. Luckily, James’s tastes seem to be pretty spot on as I can imagine quite a few punters wanting to own these ace shirts too.
Although the brand name and this first set of three tees is dancehall inspired - Ranks being a reference to the popular dancehall moniker made famous by Cutty, Gappy and Shabba Ranks, and this first set of tees being reproductions of well known dancehall LP sleeves - Dan and James plan to expand over time, making more tees and plugging gaps where they see fit.
But enough chat, here are some artfully shot photos of the tees.
Pretty good, eh? If you fancy supporting Ranks then head over to their clean and clinical website and pick up one of these tees - or all three if you’re feeling decadent. Just don’t mention that their logo is a rip off of 80s jeans designer of choice, Guess, or they might get mad.