Ripndip
April 12, 2023
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By Oliver Baudach
The now probably worldwide known mascot cat has the stylish name Lord Nermal. O'Connor started with his own T-shirt designs and had his first small breakthrough when he participated in a skateboard camp in Pennsylvania and other participants there took notice of his shirts. It was so successful that, according to O'Connor, he had to leave the camp because he sold more than the campers and their designs.
With the momentum from the camp experience, O'Connor bought his own printer and started in a very classic way his textile production in his parents' garage. The first pieces were simple jackets and sweatshirts with Ripndip lettering. All profits were invested again and again in production and in 2011 the move to Los Angeles followed.
There he had the gigantic luck to meet Keith Hufnagel from HUF and he taught him some technical textile skills and passed on some producer contacts which didn't bring the big success at first. The ultimate step came in 2014 when he had the idea to have Lord Nermal with Fuck Finger drawn out of a t-shirt breast pocket.
As simple as the design was, the idea and design became a hot seller and has remained so to this day ! Since then, the brand has exploded in the most positive way and creates, in addition to clothing, a lot of accessories as well as boards and snowboard functional clothing.
Of course, the stickers for each collection are also an absolute delicacy...
By the way... the name Ripndip is slang composed of RIP for 'skate a spot', N for 'and' and DIP for 'leave before the cops come'.