KANDY: TASTE THE FLAVA

The KANDY Flava brand was first created in 2019, as our founder Winston had drawn the logo on a few blank shirts for himself. Winston then proceeded to print the first KANDY shirts, which is when the brand was really born. When people ask what KANDY is, it’s basically just a cool skateboarding brand. Like that’s it. KANDY owner Winston states that the word KANDY has literally no sentimental value to him, rather its just a cool name he thought of because he used many different colors on his shirts, which he described looking like “a bag of candy.” The K was added just to make the brand name stand out. But yeah. Nothing crazy with the name. The brand was also inspired by Pharrell and Tyler The Creator, which Winston states both artists and their works help inspired the creation for the brand. Winston states that A Bathing Ape founder, Nigo, was also a major inspiration towards the creation of KANDY. Winston used to watch the Nigo: Japanorama episode every night before bed, and watched Teriyaki Boyz music videos before bed for inspiration. Winston states: “The Heartbreaker music video by TB is one of my biggest inspirations for the creation of Kandy. Not only is the song dope, but when the Teriyaki Boyz are dancing in front of Nigo’s Bape wrapped Rolls Royce, I was just like damn this so cool, and so many ideas began rushing through my head for Kandy.”

“To me, KANDY is just a wild idea I’ve always wanted to pursue. Ive always loved bright colors and mixing colors in my outfits, and I just had this vision of what I wanted my clothes to look like. So I brought those ideas to life. When I brainstorm ideas for making KANDY products, I’ll usually sit at my desk, with all my previous KANDY shirts piled around my feet, and I like to listen to music when creating. I’ll usually listen to some Lil Wayne, Odd Future, Clipse, N.E.R.D, Kanye West and a bunch of other amazing artists who inspire my work. Im not a very big sketch-on-paper guy, as my creative process usually takes place within my head, instead of on paper. I usually just like to design color ways that I think I’ll look cool in. If I can do this in life, so can you.”

-Winston, Creator and Commissioner of KANDY