The Thousands

It’s been two years since China Heights co-founder and curator, Mark Drew, bailed Sydney for Japan. And in that time he’s noticed a few things: neon play structures, octopus enclosures, grand entrances, Rafael Rozendaal, The Boss, purple snow, single gloves (everywhere), true verts and of course, sadly, a tsunami inundation zone.

He also noticed that Japan’s Tower Records slogan ‘No Music, No Life’ has been re-appropriated over and over again, by smaller companies (‘No Ramen, No Life‘ etc), so much that he started rendering his own version ‘No Money, No Wife’ internally. When New Era approached him with a collab project, the message was automatic.

He attacked the classic 950 snap-back silhouette (because his head is too small for anything without a snap-back), and put a reverse Raiders colourway in place (symptomatic of his life-long NWA obsession) and a clean black and gold colourway for the primary release – limited to a run of 200. The result is a simple design that mirrors his bold and immaculate graphic art work. What’s next for New Era Australia’s collab project? They’ve hooked Steve Duck and Mark Gale from Saint Side. Fah-resh.