Pop-culture references have become a social norm this generation when it comes to wearable apparel. People mark their individuality by wearing jackets, shirts, and accessories of various fandoms they support such as their favorite anime, movies, and video games.
While the Super Smash Bros. series has been lacking such merchandise, a certain company has been trying to change that.
After achieving success at their first national event at Clutch City Clash, apparel company SPIF Space set off to travel the country from event to event to sell their merchandise. They have traveled to various events in the past year, catering to the Smash community merchandise that they can proudly wear. Events they have gone to sell their merchandise include Super Smash Con 2016, various 2GG Sagas, and Genesis 4.
Smashboards recently had the opportunity to speak with SPIF Space's founder, Alex Nguyen, and talk about their travels, his motivation, the Smash community, and how much of an impact their merchandise resonated with the community.
1PC: How were you guys introduced to Smash?
SPIF Space: I remember the commercial for smash64, where the mascots were strolling in the field and then randomly start beating each other up. So I got Smash64 when it first came out and played the living hell out of it. I didn't even know who all the characters were back then.
When did you start taking the game to the competitive level or found out about the competitive scene?
I always kind of knew about competitive smash but I didn't really get super immersed in the culture until after college (so around 2014). I was working at a video game store with my friend and we'd put on streams and tournaments in the background. I was also doing a lot of paintings, artwork, and t shirts for the shop, and that's when it kind of clicked to make stuff specifically catered to the Smash community.
Original art by SPIF Space
Original art by SPIF Space
Was Smash apparel your first kind of special apparel that you started with?
I've been making t shirt designs since high school. I always was commissioned to do shirt designs for the class or various school clubs/teams. When I first made video game themed shirts for the shop, the original four were Hyrule knights, Koopa fire, isle delfino sprites, and hill zone hedgehogs. So they weren't specifically smash, but definitely flirted with or around certain characters in the Smash games.
SPIF Space's original designs
I hosted some really, really small local tournaments in my hometown and gave away a lot of merch at these events. I guess word got around and not too long after that, I started getting introduced to the guys over at Smash United and some of the big TOs in Houston (shout outs to HTX!). People like Remo and Xyro really gave me the opportunity to showcase my product at events like Battlegrounds and TGC. So it's really thanks to them and to the Houston community for being so welcoming toward my products that I got the confidence to start going to more smash events.
So after seeing all this positive feedback towards your Smash apparel, when did you decided to travel to events and sell them?
After a couple Houston events, SU | Remo asked me to help make some artwork to promote Clutch City Clash, HTX's big national. I did, and we went to promote it at LTC4 in Dallas. I went halfsies on a booth with SU because I felt like it'd be a good way to test the waters outside HTX while still playing it pretty safe. But if I'm being honest, I low-key wanted to meet a lot of pro players and personal heroes of mine in the scene. I got to meet Mang0, Hbox, Lucky, Wobbles, Wizzy, Lunchables, Nairo, and more! Shout outs to Brentos for introducing me!
Before we move on the whole traveling aspect of your brand. Where do you draw inspiration from? Because it seems you've reached a place where people can resonate with modern pop culture.
Inspiration comes from everywhere, often unexpected places, and I try to combine smash characters with real-world brands or entities in unexpected ways. So far, I've been on a mission to make a shirt for each character in the game by combining a particular aspect of that character with the general aesthetic of an existing brand I like (ex: No Sympathy Ike shirt, PUF shirt). Sports teams are brands too, and a lot of my shirts draw from the strength of those existing designs (ie: Corneria Falcos, Racers). I've even gotten inspiration from music (hoo-hah, 99 Problems), movies (save wolf is actually based on the "Save Ferris" shirt) and DARE, an anti-drug program I grew up with in school. I think there's something very novel about taking something that is really recognizable and altering it in clever ways to bring it into the realm of smash bros. In this way, it kind of bridges this gap between the "real world" and the "smash bros" world. There's an element of subtlety and surrealism, and I can't tell you how many times I've gotten double-takes from people not realizing it's a Smash Bros shirt at first. There's a real "epiphany" moment - which is what I want.
It's truly mind blowing when an artist or anyone with a passion shares their motivations. Really inspiring. Now getting back on the whole travel aspect. How has it been since you began to travel to events such as Super Smash Con, Genesis, etc. to share your apparel with the community on a national scale?
The overwhelming majority has been awesome. I've been able to meet a lot of players and a ton of cool people from all over the world. I consider myself blessed because being a vendor gives me the means and the excuse to travel to all these events because each one has paid for itself and then some. Networking has been the #1 benefit from traveling OOS. Got a lot of cool collabs in the works!
SPIF Space booth at a 2GGC event
At STR2016, they had 24hr venue. Unfortunately for us, while we were sleeping, someone snuck behind our booth and stole one of our display "sheik illuminati" shirts in a custom colorway. We knew for a fact we hadn't sold a single one, and I was ready to accept the fact that it was gone forever. As soon as I thought that, the dude comes walking into the venue wearing the shirt. I was pissed and spent like half an hour tracking him down. Long story short, I got it back! Moral of the story: don't steal from me.
It's insane how low people can go when it comes to obtaining goods. But aside from that certain individual, how does it feel seeing people wear your shirts at events, see it pop up on twitter, and see popular players with popular twitch streams wearing your shirts?
There's honestly no greater satisfaction. There's this sense of validation that's so important to artists and motivates them to keep going with their craft. It lets me know that the stuff I make actually means something to someone, and that's really cool. It still weirds me out a little when I'm randomly browsing twitch and a commentator or audience member is wearing a shirt I made. It's extremely surreal and humbling, for sure.
Juan "HungryBox" Debiedma wearing SPIF Space's Apparel
I really hope so. I feel that at the very least I've created a unique alternative space for members of the smash community. Not everyone wants a shirt that has a full blown-up image of a smash character, some people want to dress down with a more subtle piece that fits seamlessly with their existing wardrobe while still expressing their love for the game.
What's next for Spif Space? You spoke about future collaborations earlier. Could you share some?
This year my goal for SPIF is growth and exposure. I'll be going to almost every supermajor and a good handful of majors as well. In addition, I'll be attending every 2GGC this year for Sm4sh, so the schedule is quite booked! Other than that, I'm planning on doing a lot more artwork (I wanna have hella more posters and more artistic-style shirts) and expanding our product offering to include stuff like stickers and keychains and other dope items. As far as collaborations go, nothing is really finalized so unfortunately I can't say much. All I can say is that I think you're going to like it!
SPIF Space's new line of stickers
Sounds exciting! Can't wait! Well, thank you so much for doing this small interview. By any chance you have any shout outs you would like to give?
Yeah sure, shout outs to my boys who travel with me, none of this is possible without your help. Shout outs to HTX, shout outs to Nairo for the partnership, shout outs to members of the community helping us spread the word - in particular TKbreezy, Hungrybox, 2GG, and do many more. Thank you smash community for giving us a chance, and thank you One PC for this interview!
If you'd like to see more pictures of us at events, please check out 2GG | Lakitu on twitter, or his flickr.
Where can people find you on social media? Also, do you have an online store?
We're on pretty much everything, @SPIFspace. Twitter is what we mainly use and that's where we announce new drops and what events we're at, so definitely give us a hot follow on there. Our site is http://www.spifspace.com, and our Etsy shop!
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Author's Note: I would like to thank Alex from SPIF Space for taking time out of his busy schedule to do the interview with us. I believe that his brand has impacted the Smash community immensely and has given us something to wear proudly. If you would like to get an depth look into SPIF Space, feel free to check out this video interview that was taken place at 2GGC: Midwest Mayhem Saga.
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