Introduce yourself
What’s up everyone, my name is Ron Lynch. I run a brand called Vengeance Gear alongside three of my other homies George, Dakwon, and Shamar.
When did Vengeance gear come about?
Vengeance came about because of one of my favorite movies of all time, Pulp Fiction. The specific scene is when Samuel L Jackson repeats Ezekiel 25:17 and says Vengeance over and over again. After watching the movie so many times, I felt like vengeance was a good, strong name, and I could use it for something. I ended up writing it down in my notebook, developing a few different logos, and then brought the idea of a clothing brand to life.
Many streetwear brands already exist, why did you want to create your own?
I wanted to create my own because I really feel like I have a message and I feel like I’m super creative. The people that I surround myself with are very creative as well so we can really make an impact. We didn’t start this brand to half-ass it or get the money. Fuck that. We are getting into it because we have a message we want to relay to the people. To expand on just us having a message, our message can also help people who are going through similar situations and can relate. Not only are we putting people in some fly gear, but people really feel us personally.
It’s almost been a year since your first collection Summer In Hell. What are some things you’ve learned in this first year?
As far as the brand collectively, I’m going to speak for everybody. We learned so much shit. We learned about interactions with people and what is going to make an impact and what’s not. As a group, we started this with no help. Through trial and error is how we learned everything. That molded us as a brand. All of the fucks up that happened, man, I’m so thankful for it because it gave us an opportunity to learn and grow. If everybody messed with us from the jump, we would be stagnant as hell. It’s never meant for you to just pop off and if you think it is you’re living in a fantasy.
Over these past 10 months, it seems as if your teams’ creative process has improved tremendously. Have you noticed that?
Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed it. That comes from the naturalness of our customers. I had to learn that sometimes we were overdoing and overthinking designs. We learned the importance of simplicity the hard way. Us going through these different transitions and moments molded us to keep elevating.
What brands do you personally admire/aspire to be like?
This is a very great question. The first person I want to say is Gianni Mora. He’s cold as fuck. A lot of his most recent work with his brand Helder Vices I’ve liked. I also am personally inspired by Shane Gonzales of Midnight Studios. Legends like Pharrell, Nigo, Virgil, all inspire me too.
What has been the most difficult part of creating your own streetwear brand?
The most difficult part is really making our customers and audience really believe that what we’re about is legit. Or this is the legit message we’re trying to give off. We aren’t trying to take anybody’s money or hop on a wave. It’s difficult really proving to people that we are in this for a purpose. Once we were able to hop over that first hump though, things started getting easier. A lot more connections were made and a lot of people started to see how genuine we are.
Rumor is you’re dropping a campaign this week called, The World Needs Healing…
The campaign is going to be three stop-motion films from three different perspectives. It’s going to be very cinematic. Catching to the eye. Not too long. I think this campaign is really going to change the perspective of our brand for people who are skeptical. I’m very excited to drop this shit.
With the first quarter almost coming to an end, what are two big things you want to accomplish in 2018?
#1 – I want to make a lot more connections and get out and genuinely meet people. I’m not talking about famous people or people with clout. I want to get out in these streets and talk to people. If you’re interested in my brand, I want to have a conversation with you. I want to know why are you interested? People take that shit for granted. As a brand, we do not. We always want to make connections and meet people because that’s how shit lasts.
#2 – I want to step up everything in a creative manner. Before, we would post stuff randomly because we needed to get our name out. At times it may have not been the best material or content. But right now we are starting to gain some traction and now we are taking this even more seriously. With that, we are stepping up our creative portion, our visuals, and how we present things.
Chicago Creatives 