Interview: Shun Kinoshita of MMVIII – “Survival of The Fittest”

When it comes building a brand and creating a fan base, marketing and execution play key roles in helping you get your brand off the ground. In the world of street wear it’s very competitive and risky to start a clothing brand, especially during a time when the demand for street wear isn’t that high. Everyday there is a kid in the world somewhere who is inspired with big dreams to start a clothing company. Today there are few brands on the map that are controlled by young individuals with sights on making it big. MMVIII is a Japanese inspired brand out of Canada headlined by a young designer by the name of Shun Kinoshita, he started his brand as a teen in high school. He has faced legal issues, helped with disaster reliefs and has done collaborations with some big names in the music industry. In this interview he let’s us know what it’s like starting up and trying to make it big.

Words by Logan Jean

JGM: Why the name MMVIII and what does it mean?

Shun: MMVIII is the year 2008. It was a significant year for me since it was the year when I started to take it more seriously; GOLD MMVIII was launched in 2008. I used to run 3 other brands before MMVIII.

JGM: We understand that GOLD MMVIII was your brand name before MMVIII. Can you fill us in on what happened?

Shun: Unfortunately GOLD MMVIII had to be shut down due to legal issues. It was pretty sad to see my brand go, GOLD MMVIII was my baby! It’s hard to see something you put a lot of effort and time into just disappear like that…I was definitely upset for a while. It was a brand that progressed to something more than just clothes, I was able to meet and make cool connections I would’ve never been able to without it.

JGM: Did the name change affect your sales, designs or motivation?

Shun: It definitely affected the sales at first, even though MMVIII was launched only 2 months after GOLD MMVIII had to be shut down. It was the first time I’ve felt the momentum of business; once you’re on a wave, you definitely don’t wanna fall behind. I was motivated enough to start a new brand, but it was hard for the first couple of months when it just felt like I was putting in a lot of effort but wasn’t getting much back. I took it as a good experience though, not a lot of people get into legal issues when you’re that young.

JGM: What inspired you to design clothes?

Shun: It all started when I was 16, when my friend Neil (@lil_nill) and I were getting blog-famous for mashing music. We used to mash electro/house with rap acapellas, and surprisingly we were getting a lot of love on the Internet, haha. And yea, one day I designed a shirt for it, 12 shirts.

JGM: Your line is famous for limited edition clothing collabs, which is your favorite and why?

Shun: I like all of them. As for clothing, I’ve collaborated with a boutique Complex (@C_o_m_p_l_e_x) from Victoria/Vancouver, also artists Mike G (@MikeGKTA), Jaykin (@jay_kin) and Brandun DeShay (@brandunXdeshay). Collab with Complex was special because it was my first collab, and they also sold out quickly; first collab with Mike G sold out in a couple hours, saw it on eBay for $99.99; collab with Jaykin was never released because the brand had to be shut down right before the drop which sucked; and it was nice to see the 2^nd collaboration with Mike G and Brook Bobbins on Hypebeast.

JGM: Who else would you like to work with?

Shun: ASAP Rocky. I was exchanging emails with the ASAP crew before Rocky signed that $3 million contract. It was crazy to know they knew about my brand, and they asked to send gear for the whole crew. Same goes for Curren$y, I still met him at his show up here, he asked for a box full of gear big enough that he could live in, haha. As for artists, I would like to work with Pac Div. I’ve always been a big fan. I exchange emails and tweets with them now, and I also send them gear, but I would like to do a collab

I also want to do a collab with other brands, particularly ILLAMERICA and Death Precision Inc. Kobi (DPI) and I have been exchanging emails. I still haven’t gotten the chance to talk to Mike Waxx, though.

JGM: What influence does music have on your clothes?

Shun: I love rap. I listen to all different kinds of music though. But yea, I think it influences the whole vibe of the brand. I don’t listen to Drake though, haha.

JGM: What’s it like getting your clothes out to people in different regions in the world coming from Canada?

Shun : It’s super cool. Thinking there are people all over North America, Europe, Asia, Australia are wearing MMVIII…I couldn’t ask for anything better. I appreciate every customer and I try to do my best at getting back to emails, tweets, etc. Some people don’t understand that up here in Canada everything is more expensive compared to the US, so is the shipping cost, and we use Canadian dollars, not US dollars. T-shirts up here cost around $35-40, a lot of people don’t know that. I’ve made the MMVIII shirts $25-30 to match the US prices though.

JGM:  Do you see your MMVIII as one of the top up coming brands in Canada or in the U.S.?

Shun: Well I design what I think is cool, and I don’t care what other brands are doing. For a brand that’s run by a single university student who barely has time for anything but studies, I think my brand is damn good. But I do this because it’s fun, I’m a 3^rd year commerce student and I’ll be going for a job after I graduate. This is a passion project that I love doing, but you can’t really compare brands that people are doing as their career. If this project were my job, it would be a completely different story.

JGM: You made our top 10 brands to look out for in 2012 list, what can we expect this year?

Shun: Doing what I’ve been doing, but always improving my designs and concepts. I’m appreciative that people like what I create; I want to keep going forward for the dedicated MMVIII fans! Look out for sneak peeks that I will be posting up. Thank you all.