Danny Reyes of The Lovewright Co.

Created in 2006, The Lovewright Co. was born as Danny Reyes’ answer to modern streetwear. Taking a different approach from usual streetwear lines that tend to lean toward the dramatic, Danny wanted a more lowbrow clothing line that featured simple and classic designs that depict witty descriptions of everyday life. Possessing an independent spirit that is unrefined and unapologetic, the Lovewright Co. infuses vintage style with a modern twist all wrapped up in a So. Cal attitude that never fits conventional trends.

How did the inspiration for the clothing line come about?
Most of it comes from vintage Americana. I’ve been a huge history buff my whole life, so a lot of it comes from my favorite part of history, which is the World War II era. Aside from that, I draw a ton of inspiration from skateboarding and car culture that I grew up with in San Diego.

How long did it take you to get the Lovewright Co. started?
Pretty quick. I just started saving up extra dollars where I could and jumped in with about two grand. I’ve never run a business, so I had to make it as simple as I could. I’d design the shirts, sell them off a line sheet, make what I sold and keep going; that went on for three years. Then about a year ago I met my business partner, SB. He came from a sales and banking background but wanted to leave the corporate world behind. The guy is 100% hustle, and he’s a big reason why Lovewright has grown so much this past year.

What’s up with the name?
The name itself came from me and my wife hanging out one night, having a random discussion about how people don’t really know how to love right anymore. It sounds pretty hippie, and at the moment it probably was. (There were a few drinks involved.) When the brand started, I still had “love right” floating around in my head. But, I didn’t want to beat people over the head with my philosophy, and I felt like it needed to have a classic name: The Lovewright Company. Later on, as the brand evolved, the name became an interesting contrast to the images and messages that accompanied it.

So what’s the overall style of the brand?
I’d say purpose. It’s simple and to the point. I think that’s why people have been drawn to it. There are no tricks involved. We put messages on shirts that we’d like to put out there and have people think about. There’s a certain kind of honesty that comes with the brand and that’s definitely what we want to portray to people. There are a lot of brands out right now that have just a bunch of money behind them and there isn’t a whole lot of substance or purpose to it. For us, purpose is all we have at the moment.

What makes Lovewright relevant?
We are who we are. Skateboarding, cars, and motorcycles—that’s all stuff that is “trendy” right now. But for us, we grew up with it, and we’ll be doing it even when the fashion world decides to get down with another subculture. I think we’re relevant because we don’t think about being relevant.

How are you holding up with this “F’d” up economy?
We just keep the business and the brand as honest as we can. We work close with our retailers and try to build a really good relationship with them. We’re all trying to keep the lights on and it helps when everyone can be on the same page.

When you first sought out to make a line, what type of person did you envision wearing your items? How about now?
I tried to just make sh*t that my friends or myself would want to wear. I never tried to change that too much. So far it has paid off. The brand will always evolve of course, but we will always stick to that idea. I think that’s why we have such an eclectic consumer. Something about the brand speaks to a ton of different people.

There’re so many streetwear companies out there, how does Lovewright stand out on its own?
Well, we definitely have a lot of different topics we touch on. I mean, for the most part, I’m sort of a smart ass so that’s where a lot of the humor comes from. We definitely make a few social comments here and there, and have a certain affinity for government conspiracy theories…just things that get you thinking. It’s about not taking things at face value and always asking questions. We’ll speak on that, but we still have fun with it too.

Besides the typical tees, what other items do you offer, or are trying to include in the line?
This year we jumped into doing mesh trucker hats and coaches jackets. Simple things that are generally easy for most people to get into. We like it simple. Next year we’ll be releasing our first cut-and-sew apparel pieces. We’re all pretty excited to see that part of the line grow. I saw the first samples recently and put some sneak peaks up on the blog.

On your blog, you had a post that commented on Nike SB’s commercial with Cube, stating, “I wish it wasn’t that easy to buy cool?” Why has it gotten so easy to buy cool now in your view?
You read the blog? Nike has been trying to get into skateboarding forever, and finally figured out how to really buy their way in. They did a couple of good shoes and they bought the right riders. Instant cool! Nothing against those guys for getting paid, but there’s so many smaller skateboard companies that are struggling right now that really do care about skateboarding. But because big companies like Nike come in and take up a bunch of the market share, it’s rougher than it should be for a lot of those core companies. It just goes back to that whole honesty thing. If roller blading became cool tomorrow, Nike would have a team within the next month and buy there way in one more time. Its just too easy, and we should not let them off the hook that easy.

What do you ultimately want to do with the brand?
I’d love to have an actual store. I think that’s one way you can really get your point across and really show people what the brand is about. You have your own space and can do product just for that space. It’s a little rough right now, starting up a retail store in this economic state, but I can’t say it won’t happen. We’re definitely growing at a time when not a lot of people are not.

Photos: Garvin Ha