VIP designer at Brand Center: “The stuff you produce makes changes”

Mechelle Hankerson
Staff Writer

It’s hard to imagine that a high-end clothing line began with a college student breaking into his school to make t-shirts, but Jeff Ng, owner of Staple Design and Reedspace retail store in New York, used to do exactly that.

Ng visited the VCU Brandcenter on Sept. 13 to discuss his career and his path to being the visionary entrepreneur he is today.

Staple Design currently entails four main departments: apparel, design, retail and curation. Originally, Staple design began as a hobby while Ng was in college at Parson’s School for Design as a Product Design Major.

Ng began making shirts in Parson’s silk-screening lab after hours as a hobby and fell into producing the shirts for profit by wearing a shirt into a store in the New York City neighborhood, SoHo. The store owner took notice of his shirt and asked for 12 to sell in the store.

After the first 12 shirts sold, the orders continued, increasing in size and eventually, other stores in the New York City area began asking for shirt orders.

Ng’s popularity grew quickly, and thanks to his practice of putting his home phone number on the tags of the shirts, the shirts were able to go far beyond the New York community.

Ng received a call from Japan one day, from a store owner in Tokyo asking for an order of 1000 shirts. Still working secretly out of the Parson’s lab, Ng delivered the hefty order.

While still building his shirt business that would eventually take up permanent residence in Staple Design’s retail store, Reedspace, Ng was also doing freelance design work on the side, focusing on work for an indie record label, Rawkus Records. Ng designed for artists such as Mos Def, Talib Kweli and even compilations featuring Eminem. From there, Ng went on to art direct for The Fader magazine, before working with the Nike shoe company on what was, at the time, a new concept.

“In 1998, Nike Japan was making shoes in limited quantities,” Ng told the group of VCU students gathered in the Brandcenter. “That sounds really boring today, but back then in 1998, to make products in limited quantities was really weird.”

Ng was able to travel to Japan to interview the head of limited products at Nike, who was unaware of the demand for the limited edition shoes.

“They didn’t really know people were … reselling in on eBay,” said Ng. “So they were at the cusp of this new industry called ‘sneaker culture,’ and they didn’t even know what they were sitting on.”

Staple Design has worked with Nike shoe company on several projects, but one of the more memorable ones for Ng was when Nike asked Ng to design a special edition Nike dunk for the 25th anniversary of the shoe. Specifically, Nike wanted the shoe to represent New York City.

“To me, pigeons were this thing that embodied what it meant to be New York,” said Ng.  The dunk was designed with grey, black, and red, with a small embroidered pigeon on the heel. When they were released at Reedspace in 2001, the shoes went for $300, but now can sell for upwards of $2000.

In addition to building the apparel, design, and retail sides of Staple Design, Ng also began a gallery aspect of Reedspace to display up-and-coming graphic artists, like Kenji Hirata, who designed an ad for Absolut vodka.

The gallery section of Reedspace is also used as a space for companies to launch products, including a new line of phones for Boost Mobile and a Nike shoe launch with Kobe Bryant.

While speaking to VCU students at the Brand Center, Ng emphasized the importance of being aware of what pieces of work stand for, or the potential for art and other mediums to create change.

“Staple Design is much bigger than a clothing line or any single product,” said Ng. “The stuff you produce makes changes. It’s an incredibly powerful position.”