ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

One of the things I love about the San Diego Comic Con, and no it’s not all the guys dressed up as Storm Troopers (although that is a close second) is the unparalleled access you have to so many of the artists, designers and toy producers, all in one crazy, cramped and chaotic place. At this years’ con I was able to pull a very busy Keith Poon, the owner of ToyQube, designer of Kanser and Sharky and proud new father of the clothing line Artist Proof, away from his booth to discuss his new offspring, his newest sea creature and the proper price of a hoodie.

Toycyte: First off, what is Artist Proof?

Keith Poon: I teamed up with Ocean Star Apparel Inc. to create a clothing line that has my characters in it. I also wanted each season to be unique, so we would feature one artist as a collaboration. I envisioned a brand that would mix artwork with urban styles.

Toycyte: Who’s you’re the first artist you’ll be featuring?

Poon: Filth. He was originally based in Brooklyn, New York, but he’s since moved to Portland. We’ve been working together for about two or three years and we did a collaboration on one of my toys for my Kanser line (available here). When I started working on my clothing line I thought “ you know what, I would like to work with some friends” and I really like Filth’s stuff. And I did notice …that Asian influence art is really popular even in Asia and especially in the United States. And it’s a bonus to me, since I know Filth, we’re good friends, and his art and my clothing line, mixed together is definitely a good mix. That’s why he’s the first featured artist. In Artist Proof, I try to mix in everything. ToyQube is a toy company based in New York and my clothing line will try to mix those two together. When I came up with the line, I didn’t want to call it ToyQube. I wanted to mix it with the art scene. The first season we have Filth with a Holiday delivery in November. We’ll have T-shirt, long sleeve shirts, hoodies, jeans… after Filth we have Sour Kids from the Netherlands and a collaboration on the Sharky line.

Toycyte: Will you be going to the big clothing shows like MAGIC.

Poon: On August 15th, ToyQube will have a big party with a customs Sharky show with fifty artists and their custom Skarkys. So we can ‘t do MAGIC. Then the first delivery will be in the market, so we’ll be doing the promotion for it. And for our clothing line, every single product, no matter if it’s a t-shirt or a hoodie or a polo, I’ll attach one of my mini-Sharkys. And they will be in all different colors. And at the same time, ToyQube will be running a blind box series and it will be all different designs on the mini-Sharkys. It doesn’t have a key chain or attachment but on the clothing line there will be a key chain that you can attach to your key or attach onto your bag.

Toycyte: Do you feel like the fashion line is taking away from your duties at ToyQube?

Poon: Artist Proof is so close to ToyQube. Each season I will have some kind of toy of my design. If I stop promoting myself as a designer than I’ll just be a toy store owner. After I established the toy store, I was like “okay, you know what, I can go back to my old thing and work on my designs”, so people know I’m not just a toy store owner. My first toy was called Kanser. And the second is called Sharky, When I do my designs, my art, my concepts, I take from what I like and I really like oceans, aquatic themes. I’m not like “oh, what’s hot out there” and then do a similar thing. So I spend time working on my designs…. and now when I put my design on a t-shirt, people will say “oh that’s a Poon”. But I don’t think the clothing line with take away from ToyQube, like I said, we’ll have the mini-toy on the shirts, etc.

Toycyte: So you’ll have your “signature” (the Sharky) on the Artist Proof items?

Poon: Yes. And for our toy line, we’ll try to push out more toy characters. Like the Hammerhead shark that’ll be out at Christmas. And next summer, the major character on the shirts will be the Hammerhead. One character isn’t good enough for a year run, this year, the major characters will be Kanser and Sharky. The next year, 09, I’ll work on the Hammerhead and some other characters. I definitely believe the toys will compliment my clothing line.

Toycyte: Do you give the artist totally free reign?

Poon: Well like with Filth, I asked him to do two t-shirt using my charaters like Kanser or Sharky. But they’ll be a total of twenty designs for one season.

Toycyte: Why did you decide to move from toys to clothing?

Poon: I always wanted to do clothing. I picked toys first because that’s my path to the world, a toy is easier, it’s easier than a shirt. Still now, toys are a hot topic for customers. I picked toys, and worked with artists and did some myself and I spent four years on the toy market. Now it’s the time I can work on something bigger. Four years ago, nobody knew of Keith Poon and ToyQube, and now more people know who I am and a lot of people know of ToyQube. So it’ll make it easier, people will know Keith Poon who does Artist Proof is from Toyqube.

Toycyte: What will the prices be for your stuff?

Poon: For the hoodie, it’ll be $80 to $85, I’m trying to do things more affordable to customers. Like affordable art. And we do pick really good fabric, they’re really soft, nicely done. As a designer, I wanted to do something really nice. If I don’t like it myself, I won’t show it to my customer. I want my customer to feel the same way I do. That’s why we spent a lot of time on development on the “how”. Our price range will be affordable to everybody. A T-shirt will retail for about $40 dollars. And the jeans will be about $110.

Toycyte: What’s next up with toys?

Poon: Next up is the Hammerhead. I’m getting a lot of good feedback on him. I’m really trying to get him out by Christmas. I’m one of the only guys in the market playing on aquatic themes so when they see the shark, they’ll know “oh that’s from Keith”. The clothing line has a lot of my toy influence on it. I’ll have to keep on making toys to keep up with my clothing line. The mini Sharky, the hammerhead, the artist proof, and will try to make another shark by the summer.