Special Thanks to Harputs Market and the Fillmore district of San Francisco for welcoming The Brooklyn Circus SF into their lives this past year. It’s not exactly a year, but all the work made every day feel like two squeezed in one. If you then broke it down into time, effort and success it would amount to something close to a year. This monumental weekend The Brooklyn Circus SF will be celebrating it’s “Independence” away from the Pop-Up/Temporary shop environment. We are very grateful to be blessed with the opportunity to continue to grow in the Bay area. To the entire team in San Francisco (no name credit yet in fear of leaving someone out) THANK YOU and see you at the opening event. GabetheGreat will do the honors and The Bearded Man isn’t missing this one. Yep! The Brooklyn Circus SF LAUNCH THIS SATURDAY, JULY 5TH // 1521 Fillmore Stree // San Francisco CA 94115

Another early day here at The Brooklyn Circus. It’s the end or the first of the month (depends on where and when you are reading this) and we had to move out the warehouse. Since we’ve been blessed with additional space at our showroom and our new space, we decided to consolidate, cut back and save some bread. So today was pretty much the last day to get everything out before our good ol’ friends at the warehouse asked for another check for the month. Special thanks to Sergio and Bob at the warehouse for showing us so much support the last few years at the warehouse. Bob (building owner and rich garment guy) has been in the clothing business for over 40 years and still makes it to work by 10am. He said to me today, “I am glad to see someone doing well in this clothing industry, these days”. He’s told us many stories about how sweet the clothing industry use to be. His secret for success is honesty and not sweating the small unnecessary stuff, thanks for the words of wisdom BoB. Eji our former fit model joined in the fun and helped Bev and Dj Kohey with the move. The Bearded man behind the camera, shot the footage for your viewing pleasure. Warehouse work is the part of this glamour filled life some folks forget that cannot be ignored. Later on that day: Back at 150 Nevins to supervise and get a feel of whether or not we will meet our opening deadline. Found the dudes there eating tacos and listening to LA MEGA 97.9 Nahh all jokes. The fellas were hard at work finishing up the windows and moving the ish pipe mentioned a few posts earlier. While those guys were getting dirty, Silky, Bev and Marlon were talking dirty, not lifting a hammer. Talking about chicas in their catalogue and annoying the older white women (our new lovely neighbor). Yep! The Brooklyn Circus, Eastcoast, Westcoast and Worldwide . . .

We The Brooklyn Circus stand behind our design team at Onetwenty Six

As many of you read yesterday on our blog, we claimed that the clothing brand Johnny Cupcakes stole pieces of our illustrations for use on a new t-shirt in their current lineup. After many phone calls and discussions between Onetwentysix and Johnny Cupcakes, we’ve finally figured out what happened. Since Johnny Cupcakes the brand has become increasingly popular over the years, its founder (Johnny Cupcakes the man) has of course had to hire people and start doling out responsibilities to other individuals. Unfortunately there are times when something falls through the cracks and it isn’t picked up on until it’s too late. This is one of those scenarios.

While speaking with Johnny Earle, the founder of JC, he let us know that he had no idea that the pieces were stolen from any original artwork produced here at Onetwentysix. The artist who created this piece is a friend and freelance designer of Johnny’s, named Danny Jones, also known as “YASLY” or “You Are So Last Year.” Even though the artist claims to not have used Onetwentysix’s artwork as reference, Johnny has decided to take steps to resolve any doubts, instead of letting the situation be.

Johnny has been nothing short of incredible towards us and this situation though. He obviously understands how it feels to be ripped off (Billabong, Urban Outfitters, Pastry, etc) and he knows that this goes way beyond the issue of monetary gain. Johnny stated, “I pride my brand off homegrown creative originality. I strive to keep our designs fresh and unique. I always want JC fans to be looking forward to what comes next.  So you can imagine my surprise and dismay in the current situation.  This is really the last thing i expected to happen. Although the outsourced designer, Danny, stands by his design 110% the similarities between the two works do remain. As a result of this, I no longer feel comfortable selling the Freshly Inked t-shirt. Effective immediately, we will be pulling it from out shelves and online shop.”  Throughout this whole mess Johnny has been totally sincere and genuine. He’s a stand up individual and deserves credit for trying to iron this out as soon as possible.

After our long discussions, we decided that the best way to handle this situation would be to acknowledge it. We don’t want Johnny to lose any money on this as we know how hard it is to run a business and how production costs can get scary at times, so we agreed on a solution. The shirts are going to be pulled from stock and permanently removed. A portion of the remaining stock of the design in question will be donated to a handful of charities chosen by Johnny Cupcakes and Onetwentysix. Though the situation is disappointing, Johnny Cupcakes and Onetwentysix feel that only positives will come from this agreement.

We thank all of you that helped get our cause in the public eye and we thank Johnny Earle for working so hard to remedy the situation.

Jon Cantino one of our favorite Illustrators had an interesting blog post on his site. Well Matt sent us an email late last night about Jon’s work being copied by Johny Cupcakes. Well the story behind the type is that we requested that they design a series of shirts that reflects all the places we traveled to and doing city series shirts to pay homage to these places. We’ll we decided to use the type he designed for us on the series ” When The BKc attacks”. At any rate the copied type created some serious opinions on www.emptees.com

From Jon’s Blog
Remember a few years ago when Johnny Cupcakes got ripped off by Urban Outfitters? So do we. That’s why it was a surprise (and a disappointment) to see such a respectable brand fall to the dark side.

As designers, we sometimes argue where the line is drawn between inspiration and theft. After the jump, you’ll see a small example of just where that line is drawn. Last year in 2007, Onetwentysix’ own Jon Contino drew a series of lettering-based illustrations. (A link to his Flickr page where they reside.) This was nothing out of the ordinary as most people recognize him for doing just that. On June 26 of this year (2008), Johnny Cupcakes made a blog post announcing the sale of their new summer line which included a shirt that seemed oddly familiar to a number of Jon’s fans. Thanks for all the emails, everyone. We appreciate it very much!

Take a look and judge for yourself.

Check out www.mikescrazylife.com it’ll explain why Mike in the picture above is always dapped out.

As we worked on installing the new windows and the door in The New Brooklyn Circus this weekend, Yung Bev and Shay showed up on the site. May we add that they were both in the cleanest shirt, shoes and pants, looking to examine the place they will be calling home very soon. My advice is they stay in the clean comfort of 258 until the store is complete and the ribbon is ready to be cut. Caught Shay trying to climb ladders and Bev reviewing plans, all foreign language to both of them. I do give them a ton of credit for even trying, see you in July for the opening party boys. Yep! The New Brooklyn Circus, Eastcoast, Westcoast and Worldwide . . .

GabetheGreat here… Its been a couple weeks since you last heard from me, well their is plenty reason for that. As Ouigi-The Bearded Man has always told me… “you will have to wear different hats in this game, and juggling is a necessary talent.” Boy was that understated! It’s been non-stop; from attending events, finalizing artwork, monitoring construction, meetings, checking on production, ALL to make sure we are up-and-ready for business on 4th of July Weekend. Well, Ill just let the PEEP SHOW below speak… The Brooklyn Circus SF, Experience is Everything… OPENING SOON! Stay tuned for more…

Mos Def rockin the Bay with his first performance of 3

Fathers Day BBQ

Cali Classic Car show, Fathers Day Weekend.

BLACKSTAR!

Spreading Love is the Brooklyn Way!

Mos & GabetheGreat… From BK to the BAY in the flesh!

Rubix, Talib, & Mos. “Too much Brooklyn for 1 frame” -Mos def

New “FILLMORE Tent” tees, paying homage to our New Block… 1521 Fillmore Street

NEW The Brooklyn Circus SF tees dropping on 4th of July Weekend!

Friends Birthday party

Installing the new glass for store front.

The Brooklyn Circus San Francisco New store front!

These are the projects that make you wonder, why did I take this on right now? I could have waited later. But when it’s done, you are ready for another challenge. Waking up at 6am for the last few months to design, meet with the project manager, contractor, architect, get construction permits, meet with the demolition team and a ton more is actually paying off. Visually paying off that is, the place is shaping out. We are pretty excited about a recent approval. Approval to remove a sewage line that sat in the middle of the space, it’s costing us more but worth every penny. The thought of having two ish lines down the middle of the new store did not sit (no pun intended) well with us. Every contractor we meet with before deciding to go with the current team said they would not be able to move the pipes. Glad we went with the current team, nothing but a blessing in this crazy build out process.  So keep us in your prayers as we push to meet our deadline and bring you more updates on the opening date, new product and an opening in store event of course. Yep! The New Brooklyn Circus Nyc, experience is everything . . .

Check out Stoked Mentoring’ interview with Ouigi The Bearded man. Stoked has done a tremendous job bringing inner city kids together with mentors and role models to brighten their future. They are truly an inspiration for younger and older individuals looking for a light in this sometimes dark world. Therefore it’s always an honor to sit with Steve Larosiliere, Executive Director of Stoked and share some thoughts on building a grassroots business, giving back, life and the pursuit of happiness. Read the interview and be sure to browse, donate and participate in what Stoked Mentoring is doing here in NYc and across the world. Yep! The Brooklyn Circus + Stoked, experience is everything . . .

Article: Ouigi Theodore is a boutique owner + brand designer who has one of the most underground stores in New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago that’s become an internationally sought-after shopping destination. Ouigi also launched a unique clothing line called BKc for the traveled, streetwise fashion individual. In addition, Ouigi was a mentor with Stoked in 2005 (Skate & Surf Mentor) and recently made us his charity partner through his work with Toyota Matrix’s 5th Door Project-which donated $5,000 to Stoked. Read More