By traveling in California, our friend Stanislav visited the GOOD WORTH & CO store in San Diego and spoke with Matt about the most important things: the countercultural 70s, the paramount importance of accessories and a sense of humor you should sometimes be careful with.
INSPIRATION
Matt: I was always a big fan of the underdogs and underground stuff, during ’70s here in US there was a huge clash between the politics and the people, big part of it was counter-culture, the hippie movement. You see it now too. I am really drawn to the imagery and the products from back then.
As for music, I’m mostly into the old ’70s type stuff, anything from Grateful Dead, Sniff ’n’ the Tears, Black Sabbath… Anything old essentially.
I think I was more of an independent spirit and Shawn Stussy is a surfer and I don’t even surf myself but I liked his outlook on it and I recognized the independence, he had his own little store and his own niche. I was very drawn to that as well as the graphics, originality of the brand.
ATTITUDE TO THE BRAND
Every brand that I worked for had accessories designed as the last thing.
The whole idea of GOOD WORTH was to do accessories first and gain a name in that way. That’s where the keys and came into play, that gained an audience and then we introduced soft goods and other things.
I really enjoy taking items that we use every day and putting my own spin and sense of humor in it. It’s something you utilize, like a key but there is almost an artistic approach to the product, I believe most of the times the simpler the better. I try to base the brand around that.
SENSE OF HUMOR
Many times people offended by our products. A few seasons back we did a t-shirt with two cherries and it said “Virginity is curable”, and I thought it was just a funny thing and there’s nothing visually explicit about the picture. I got lit up for that one, I got e-mails and the stores that sold it were harassed, these days with the political correctness you gotta be careful and choose your battle.
I have things that I’ll never use. Main ones would be politics or religion, I’m not interested in that and don’t want to draw it to the brand, there’s already enough things like that. I prefer the comedy aspect, everybody likes to laugh, I don’t want to full on have a brand that offenses everyone.
GOOD WORTH & CO
Special thanks: Stan