Iron fist is an innovative and distinctive brand of clothing and footwear. It is was founded by two friends who were both bored with the existing clothing and footwear that was already on the market for skateboarding and action and adventure sports. They thought they could do better than the existing brands already out there in the stores. Brands like the once cutting edge No Fear and Swag had become commercial over time and as they became more popular they just seemed to be getting more commercial. Mike and Travis, the two friends who coincidentally are both from South Africa too, longed for return to the bygone days of punk and skate being closely linked. They wanted clothing and footwear with an attitude, clothes that could make a statement and shout look at me, “I am rebellious”.
They were founded in San Diego, California, initially out of the boot of a car, that’s the trunk if you are American. They quickly gained a small but loyal following and went onto establish Iron Fist as a brand to be reckoned with, a brand that could be associated with street cool and the attitude and style they believed was missing. Within five years, Iron Fist Clothing had expanded from being sold out of the boot of a car by creators Travis Anderson and Mike van Senus to becoming a globally recognised brand with a huge range of individually designed and distinctive products. And despite being a worldwide success Iron Fist has retained it’s connection to the skate and alternative music scenes that led to it’s conception.
From an initial smallscale start up, the brand grew rapidly gained and gained a reputation first in the United States, then Europe and is now an internationally recognised clothing and footwear company with a reputation for edgy and off beat design along with quality construction, demonstrating that the brand is not simply style over substance. This was all achieved within a timespan of eight years, far exceeding the two South African friends initial expectations.
Iron Fist is a favourite brand of celebrities due to the design graphics and offbeat alternative styles. National exposure and publicity in numerous magazines helped to raise the brand’s profile with the Zebracorn and the Zombie Stomper heavily featured in style magazines.
Iron fist heels, flats and bags are rapidly becoming must have items for the glamorous grunge fans out there with shoes sporting such fierce names as the Ruff rider ballerina and the Sugar Witch range. Booze cruise peep toe platform shoes and the Digiskull platform court shoes are two more examples of the outrageous names from the Iron Fist range. The companies own blog describes itself as a brand as both impulsive and raw and states that they never want to be perceived as mainstream regardless of the exposure and success the brand has rapidly achieved. I think Iron Fist will always remain an extremely niche brand though, the two founders are determined to remain true to the original ethos of the brand, founded to make clothing and footwear purely because they wanted to and not really interested whether you buy it or not, it’s your choice, I don’t think the guys at Iron Fist really care.They just make the clothes they want to make.