Luke Meier
Luke Meier interviewed by Chris Gibbs
Portrait photo by Shaniqwa Jarvis
Stills from Vans Syndicate film directed by Kahlil Joseph
Graphic work by Ill Studio in collaboration with Luke Meier
You may not have heard the name Luke Meier, but we’re sure you’re familiar with his work. Formerly the head designer at Supreme in New York City, Luke has recently launched his own signature shoe with Vans Syndicate. Chris Gibbs of Union LA asked him a few questions about what else he’s been up to …
Chris Gibbs: Let’s start with a little background. Where’re you from? Where do you live? What do you do?
Luke Meier: Originally I’m from Vancouver, Canada, but I’ve lived abroad for a while. I’ve bounced around Seattle, Washington DC, New York, and Paris, but now NYC and Paris are kind of a dual base. I’m a designer.
CG: Designer of what? Suits? Hand Bags? What?
LM: Mostly clothes and accessories, with a little bit of graphic design here and there. But now, I’m getting more and more into shoes. I’m interested in projects that are outside of what I have done before and shoes have become that recently. It’s fun to try to make something without the proper training. I mean, I was trained as a tailor in Italy, so making clothes is what I am supposed to do. I still love designing clothes, but it’s cool to try to make something when you don’t know the rules. Sometimes knowing the rules makes you follow them too much, and it’s often when people break the rules that something new comes along.
CG: Ok, so where would you say feels the most like home? Where do you find the most inspiration?
LM: Home is Vancouver, but in a childhood memory sense of home. Now, NYC is home. I’ve lived here for over 13 years. Paris is also turning into an adopted home, but I’ll never really feel French. Paris is very French. New York is more international. And even native New Yorkers have all kinds of different identities, so it’s easy to blend in and feel at home.
As far as inspiration goes, that’s a tough one to answer. Paris has a certain feel that you can’t get anywhere else. The place is just incredibly aesthetically inspiring everywhere you look. The people really make the effort to keep the city beautiful; even down to the subway station signs. I mean, you can walk around Paris and look at every building and there is some type of customized metal railing or stonework, even the most plain and nondescript buildings have some sort of interesting detailing. On the other hand, the energy of NYC is also tremendously inspiring. The people there make you believe that anything is possible. New York is tough, but it’s a great place to dream.
But inspiration can come from the simple daily as well…
CG: Tough life, you live in the two best cities on Earth and you we raised in the best country (big ups Canada!) LM: Yeah, I’ve definitely been fortunate.
CG: No doubt. What was Vancouver like?
LM: Vancouver was a great city to grow up in. It’s sort of sleepy, but it’s cool. I really got into skating growing up and Vancouver had a really good scene then. There’s been a good scene there since the late 1970s. I guess it’s the strong connection to California. Maybe a West Coast thing? Anyway, there were a lot of guys around who were really good skaters and there were good parks and shops; it was a strong scene. In 1986, the World’s Exposition came to town and they held a skate contest at Seylynn Bowl, a concrete park that was in my neighborhood. Seeing the 80s pros in person at my local park made a strong impression on me when I was a little kid. It was something that I never could have imagined happening back then.
Vancouver also wasn’t a typical North American city regarding sports; for example, my high school didn’t have much of a football team so there weren’t any stereotypical jocks. I guess people were more into individual sports and skating was something that kids were into. I never felt like an outcast being a skater in Vancouver, but maybe that was the good fortune of having pretty laid back friends and family. Who knows?
CG: We both met in NYC and we both worked for James Jebbia. What was the Supreme experience like for you?
LM: Yeah, we were both there back in the day! I have worked with Supreme since 1999. I was a full time designer there for about 8 years, and have continued to work with them on a freelance basis for the past 3 years. It was, and continues to be, a great experience. Fortunately, I share a similar aesthetic with James, so it’s pretty easy to get to a point in the design process where we both agree on what’s relevant. As with anything that you try to make though, most of the work begins once the design is done.
People always ask me what Supreme’s secret is. Why is it so successful? I think that the answer to that, beyond the obvious fact that James is very good at what he does and that he has a tremendous ability to understand what people want, is that there are talented, hard-working people there and it’s a company that doesn’t ever compromise. If something isn’t right, it doesn’t reach the customer. Simple as that.
CG: So what work are you into right now?
LM: Well, like I said, I’m trying to do things that are new for me. I just finished a Vans Syndicate project, which was something new for me. I’d never designed a shoe from the ground up before and it was an interesting experience. I’ve been involved with a lot of shoe design for Supreme, but this was different because it wasn’t an interpretation of a previous model. Coincidentally and almost simultaneously, I went through the same process with a Supreme project that will be coming out this fall.
Shoe design is a lot different than clothing design, but the end result needs to be just as strong. However, I feel that shoes can be a lot more personal to people because they really represent the style that they’re into at the time. A pair of shoes can define a time period in your life.
CG: For the record, a lot of people (myself included, ha!) consider “designing” a shoe to be just taking an existing style and giving it some new colors and fabrics. But you actually made the whole shoe from ground up, right?
LM: Yeah, it was a completely new model.
CG: So how exactly did this Vans thing come about? “Destroy Luxury” is the story right? I love that. Very “fuck the system” in an age where everything is PC. Where and how did you draw inspiration?
LM: The idea for the shoe was basically to make something I like. The guys at Vans approached me to make a new model and I was excited because I’d never be good enough to be a pro skater and have my own shoe! The Syndicate guys trusted me to make something that worked with their philosophy, so I jumped at the chance. The rough idea is “destroy luxury” which is a little dig at kids keeping their shoes new and clean. I want people to use these shoes and to really wear them down. I put the best materials in the places where they’ll be worn out the fastest.
CG: You doing anything else besides product design?
LM: I will in the near future. I’m just getting into other media such as photography and film. Since I’m still a total amateur, I love to look over the shoulder of the pros. Like, recently I was fortunate enough to work with an incredible director named Kahlil Joseph for my project with Vans and it inspired me to get busy. I mean, the technology around is so powerful and while it’s so advanced, it feels more and more accessible. Sort of a no excuses thing as far as final product is concerned. Sure, you can’t make Avatar, but you can make stuff that looks really amazing.
As a person, Kahlil is very inspiring and to see his process was eye-opening. The guy doesn’t use visual references when he works with his team; he’s all about explaining his vision and then translating it to a piece of work. I feel this kind of approach helps get you to somewhere new. With products, people always want to understand what you’re trying to make in relation to something that they’re already familiar with, which is extremely limiting at times. I understand that it’s the easier way to go, but at one point there wasn’t an M-65 jacket, right?
I’ve also been trying to learn photography from the beginning by shooting film, but as circumstances have it, I am more often packing a digital camera. It’s tough for me to decide which I prefer, but in the end everything is just a tool. I love the idea of developing my own negatives, but the satisfaction and instantaneousness of a good digital shot is rewarding too, although in a different way.
CG: Cool. What’s your whole take on the Internet and blogs?
LM: From my experience, it seems that recently people are feeling a certain saturation. A lot of people I speak with in the design world seem “over” a lot of stuff and they complain about how things used to be so much better. I think that this kind of perspective is misplaced, and that more than ever there are opportunities. Information is so easy to distribute and specific audiences are so easy to reach that there are really no excuses anymore.
More importantly, it’s really the responsibility of the people that are “over it” to contribute. My generation (I don’t really know the colloquial name, but those of us that came up skating, listening to the great music of the 80s and 90s, etc.) has been spoiled because, culturally speaking, we were given so much during our formative years. Sure, we had to make the effort to gather the information, to find the skate shop, to get to the record store, to find the party, etc., but once that effort was made, we were given really great shit. Now, people aren’t making the effort and they’re bitching that stuff sucks. That’s bullshit to me because it’s up to them (read “us”) to make the new, inspiring, genre defining, game changing, contemporarily relevant culture that we have been supplied with for all these years.
A good friend of mine reluctantly admitted to me that he now writes a blog. He assumed that I would think it’s a stupid idea, and that he’s some kind of a sellout or something. But I told him that it isn’t ever the medium that sucks; it’s the content. As long as he did it in a way that was clever, intelligent, and of a high quality, it didn’t matter what medium he was using.
People need to stop getting so caught up on whether or not the vehicles are good or bad and just need to start putting quality shit out there by any means. They can’t complain if they don’t contribute; particularly those people who were fortunate enough to experience all the amazing stuff that happened over the past three decades. It’s their turn to inspire the younger generations in the same way we were inspired by those before us.
CG: I agree with the fact that people need to get good stuff out there. It’s the same in my business: I feel that I’m in a position where I have a certain responsibility to provide people with a superior option, and support the creative and interesting independents that continue to produce good, clever product. In some ways, I hope that Union provides an option that can inspire people to create as well. Of course I know that my livelihood depends on my selection, but I try to continuously support what I believe in.
LM: Yeah, I understand that and I think that’s why Union continues to have a certain level of respect in the business. Your store is one of the few truly independent businesses that supports the creatives within the independent clothing business. Union has always been a place where people look for the new, the next. It’s tough to compete against the Internet, but to me it’s still always exciting to see things inthe flesh.
CG: That’s pretty much why we’re still relevant. At the end of the day, we offer tangible goods.
LM: What’s most impressive to me is that you’ve managed to stay independent and successful. I mean, it’s not easy anymore to be an independent business of any kind. Never mind the recession, but just the fact that so many bigger companies are competing with you and with the types of products that you offer.
I find it interesting that within the last 10 years, a store like Union went from a place people went to discover something new to a place where people go to see the products that they’ve already seen online. I hope this changes. It’s really disappointing to visit a store or a gallery when they only show or offer things that have been marketed or blogged heavily; there are no surprises left! Fortunately, I believe that the people who are the creative and independent thinkers will want to search and discover things that they don’t already know about.
CG: That’s tough to offer with the ease of information transmission. What you are talking about is a whole different type of store and retail experience. Something like that requires a loyal following of people who trust and support their retailer. I am actually working on a side project with a similar idea. Right now it’s just in “idea stage”, but with the right support it could be something really cool.
LM: So let’s get the right support together, there’s always room for good shit …
CG: True… Any last words?
LM: I hope that I can continue to put out work that I’m proud of and that people will like what I do. And hopefully, you’ll see more big personal projects from me in the future. Keep on doing your thing too.