Products Clothing
Accessories | ||
Industry Design, Consultancy
Fashion, Retail Founded New York City, U.S. (1997 (1997)) Founder Jeff Ng, aka jeffstaple Headquarters New York City, New York, U.S. Services Branding, Editorial Design, Product Design, Packaging Design, Corporate Identity, Web Design | ||
Staple Design is a visual communications agency based in New York City and founded in 1997. It has three main divisions: a clothing collection, a creative agency and a retail store. Staple is a full lifestyle menswear collection and is distributed globally. Staple mixes street-minded sensibilities with mature sophisticated nods to high-end fashion. Staple Design Studio is a creative consulting firm that has worked with many brands including Nike, Microsoft, Sony, Lotus, Timberland, New Balance, LVMH and others. Staple Design also owns and operates Reed Space in the Lower East Side of New York City. Reed Space is often regarded as one of the world’s best and most innovative boutiques. It also features an art gallery, which has hosted some of our generation’s most celebrated artists.
Contents
History
Staple Design was founded by Jeff Ng, also known as jeffstaple. While in college, Jeff worked as an entry-level data clerk at a design firm. With no prior exposure to the design software programs that were being used such as QuarkXPress, Photoshop and Illustrator, Jeff quickly learned and eventually became a class instructor at the firm in less than 6 months. He then realized his growing passion for graphic design, dropped out of NYU, where he was studying journalism at the time, and enrolled himself at the Parsons School of Design in Fall 1995 to study Communications Design.
Following his calling, Jeff took on an internship with the pioneer streetwear clothing company, PNB Nation, and worked as a graphic designer at c.i.t.e. design. With school, an internship, a part-time job and a strong desire to communicate through design, he managed to materialize his budding idea to establish Staple by silk-screening T-shirts in his spare time. On March 7, 1997, Jeff walked into the Triple Five Soul boutique in SoHo wearing a hand-printed Staple T-shirt. The manager took notice and placed the first ever order of 12 T-shirts from the line. With Staple’s door officially open for business, Jeff successfully turned his one-man T-shirt business into a men's collection as well as a full-service design firm; opening Staple Design that year and his own retail store/art gallery, Reed Space, in 2002.
Since then, Staple has gained itself a considerable following as an underground streetwear company. Perhaps their most famous product were the NYC Pigeon Dunks, a pair of sneakers that they produced in collaboration with Nike. There were only around 200 pairs released and they were exclusively released in NYC. Riots erupted at many of the stores where the shoes were sold, and Staple Pigeons currently sell for over 2000 US dollars. Staple Pigeon has since started out as a self-contained brand with an American site as well as a European site.
Staying very firmly grounded to the values in which the Staple brand was created–sticking to the basic necessities needed in life, Staple Design has also created design work for Burton Snowboards, Converse, The Gap, HBO, Housing Works, Levi’s, LVMH, New Balance, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Nike, NYC&Co., Puma, Timberland, Uniqlo and more. Staple Design describes itself as "a positive social contagion"...
Products
Staple Design produces a globally distributed lifestyle menswear collection. The collection is split into two main lines: Staple, which is mostly graphic and print focused with tees and tops, and STPL, their cut & sew collection.
Staple Design has worked in conjunction with many big name companies in creating unique products which showcase the qualities of both parties involved. In 1999, Staple Design began its ongoing relationship with Nike. Staple worked on the then novel concept of limited-edition shoes and was able to parlay that into off and on graphic design work for Nike. Often time his work appears without even a mention of the Staple name, which only goes to show how well regarded Staple has become as a design firm. They designed the Navigation pack in 2005 and the Nordic pack in 2006; both were considered classic general releases and had no Staple branding attached to them. However, the most renowned product-to-date, did come with the STPL moniker attached to it, in the form of a skateboarding shoe called The Nike Dunk SB Low Pigeon. On February 22, 2005, the sneaker was released exclusively in New York and had a run of 202 pairs, 30 of which were released at Staple's retail store, Reed Space. That morning, a large crowd gathered outside of the store. When the NYPD were called in to control the crowd, a riot ensued. The news made the front page of The New York Post.