Interview With Brian Siswojo Of Know1edge

May 21st, 2008 Posted in Interviews

Brian Siswojo is the undisputed king of the Hong Kong street scene. With his shop 8FIVE2, 8FIVE2 Distribution, Know1edge brand and running numerous events, he has a hold on Hong Kong and takes his influence to the world. Robust Flavor had the pleasure of interviewing him and getting to the bottom of what makes Brian tick. (Know1edge products are now available in the Robust Flavor store here)

RF: You have an interesting story about coming to live in Hong Kong. Tell us about how it all got started?
Brian: I was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. Growing up Chinese in Indonesia and carrying an Indonesian passport, we were not able to study in English schools. With the increase of discriminatory laws against Chinese people, my parents were forced to relocate me at the age of 11, to Hong Kong where my sister and I alone could find some kind of refuge. We lived in a small apartment with my Aunt, Uncle, and my three cousins.

RF: When did you first get into skating and how did it transition into a skateshop (852) and then Knowledge?
Brian: I started when I was 14 (around 87 - 88), it’s became my life. To this day, I’m really addicted to it to a point. I sleep, eat, breath skateboarding. That’s what I did pretty much on a daily basis. I was sponsored by a local skateboard shop called Now N Later in 1991 and later on with Airwalk through BFD in 1994, I remember it was NTS, the hardest skateboard shoes to skate on, there’s always a reason why a company closes down. As so many aspire to do, I started working many jobs in the hopes of saving enough to open my own business. In 1998, I filmed and edited Hong Kong’s very first skateboarding/urban culture video called Hollieday with not only Hong Kong’s finest skateboarders but also, LMF (Hong Kong’s first and most original Hip Hop group), Michael Lau, DJ Tommy, etc. The video premiered along with an LMF performance and a good 1,000 people showed up to support the event.
I met Alyasha Owerka Moore in 1999 at a skateboard spot, this is when skateboarding gave back to me. Aly handed me his business card and the moment I saw the logo, I decided to put in all of my savings to invest in my very own company, 8FIVE2 Distribution. I started out of the living room of my apartment out of boxes for those of you who still remember. I remember asking Aly if he would support me 110% if I started my own company and distribute Alphanumeric. He said YES and since then he has, THANK YOU Aly!!
We started selling Alphanumeric on consignment basis from just 2 stores to 12 stores within a ten-month span in Hong Kong. It became the best selling brand of that time; no other can even come close. It was then that the owners created a position for me as Sales & marketing Director for the Asia region where I opened the doors of South East Asian countries (including South Korea).
I’ve always felt that Asia in general lacked some kind of authenticity in the origins of street art, skateboarding, and music. Although a niche market that has not been widely accepted by the mass, I opened a skate/street fashion shop that could properly merchandise a full collection while being informative on the brand history to the customers. 8FIVE2SHOP opened its doors in 2001 and has been apart of the transformation in Hong Kong’s street fashion/skate scene.
I started Know1edge, in 2004 from wanting to do special collaborations with friends. What started off as a small line of t-shirt collaborations quickly grew to a full line of menswear/accessories; premium denim, leather garments, knitted apparel, Swiss movement watches, etc.

RF: What was your first set-up?
Brian: My very very first set up was a cheap skateboard with a Samurai on it. It was a super heavy skateboard and it doesn’t count. I still vividly remember how heavy that thing was when I did boneless. Until one day when I was in the public bus I saw a bunch of skateboarders, they came to us and told us to buy a real skateboard at Bicycle World, the first skateboard shop in Hong Kong. I remember we were trying to find that shop for days, finally when we did, we were in awe at all the amazing graphics Powell & Peralta had back then (props to VCJ) and Santa Cruz. After saving months of lunch money, I was able to buy Tony Hawk in purple, super amazing with Tracker Trucks and OJ wheels. It was so precious. The craziest shit was, I remember, washing my wheels after I went skateboarding and wiping the skateboard. I almost slept with it. Dayeem, back in the day was dope. We really appreciated the little things we had!

RF: What was the scene like back then?
Brian: Back then the scene was divided into 2; the local and the Western kids. Being an English and Chinese speaking kid myself, I skated with both worlds. The 2 groups competed in a healthy rivalry, pushing and motivating their skateboarding skills in good ways. We had Miguel Rosales, Andy Lee, Paul, DRI on the Western side and A Shing, Pierre, Chu Chai, and Joe Lam on the local side. At the end of the day, both sides were down with each other. Back in the day there were a lot of skate spots before it back before it became harder to just skate on the streets. We founded All Hong Kong Skateboards Association and the Hong Kong Federation of Extreme sports to negotiate contracts with the Hong Kong government to make 6 skate parks in a short span of 1 year’s time to push the growth of the skateboarding community in Hong Kong.

RF: What city, if any, matches the energy and pace of Hong Kong.
Brian: No other city, that’s for sure. I’ve never been to New York City but, I’m finally planning a long overdue trip this July. Everyone I talk to tell me I’m going to love it!

RF: Where in the world has your skating and design taken you?
Brian: Dayeem, I have to really thank GOD and skateboarding because I’ve been pretty much all around the world with skateboarding and design. Traveling is a blessing and I’ve definitely been blessed to travel to USA, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Spain, France and the UK. I appreciate each and every moment of it.

RF: Most memorable traveling memories?
Brian: I have so many. Every travel experience is different but, one of the times that sticks out in my mind would be San Diego when the Alphanumeric office was still there. Having dinner with Iron Mike, Mark Cruz, Aly, Mirko, Sal (Masakela), Alfred Hawkins and the whole A# crew was one of the funniest times ever. That was one of the funniest groups of people you can put together and it was definitely some good ab toning going on! I really miss the crew.

RF: What music are you listening to these days?
Brian: 24Herbs and this amazing mix by Clinton Sparks that I heard when I was in Penang (Malaysia), I’ll always love Hip Hop and R&B music.

RF: Favorite movies?
Brian: Shawshank Redemption is fuckin the best, God Of Gambler, The Village, Sixth Sense, so many because we’re movie fanatics. If Arrested Development were to make a movie, that would be my favorite. But we just saw Iron Man and that’s definitely one of the best movies right now.

RF: Tell me a little about 24 Herbs
Brian: 24HERBS consists of 6 like-minded individuals that are from very different backgrounds. Conroy Chan aka Drunk, Brandon Ho aka GhostStyle, Eddie Chung aka Dor Yuk, Fei aka Phat and Kit. It’s Hong Kong’s very own Hip Hop group rapping in Cantonese, English and Mandarin about issues that locals can relate to. We try to bring some diversity to the mainstream majority of canto-pop influence in Hong Kong’s music scene.

RF: Describe a typical day:
Brian: We wake up at around 10:00am (we normally go to sleep well after 4am), Wifey makes some good breakfast with coffee of course. Coffee is a must! Do a whole bunch of follow-ups, work on anything and everything crazy that involves running a business for 8FIVE2SHOP, 8FIVE2 Distribution, Know1edge, events, 24HERBS, art exhibitions, and skate events. All this is handled and run by two people so we’re usually pretty busy to say the least. We’re working on SS2009 right now so we’re really trying to get that done. I usually have a lot of meetings during the day and at least once during the day I try to check up on the shop (I don’t feel right if I don’t see it at least once a day). It’s pretty much like that until about 4am. I always wish there was a lot more time in the day. Oh I’ve been skateboarding as much as I can these days with my Forever31 Crew. We decided we wanted to do as much as we can before it’s too late. From 12-3am are usually international follow-ups and sometimes a movie is squeezed in there. It’s really hard to say how our day is going to go because everyday is so completely different with shows and friends coming into town you never know what you’re going to be doing.

RF: What is next for 2008?
Brian: Everyday there’s something new so for 2008, I expect a lot of good things are going to happen. We’re currently organizing the Haze art Exhibition in mid June together with 55DSL and 24HERBS. We will be hosting a lot of skateboarding events as usual. We’re in the midst of putting together a skateboard DVD from Hong Kong called Forever31. It’s going to be all the OG Hong Kong skateboarders age 31+ of course (Andy Lee, Warren Stuart, Lee Hawk, Daryll Griggs, Riz Farooqi, Ryan Hui, myself and more). A couple of shows with 24Herbs, a TV cooking show with 24Herbs. We’re expanding our distribution company, bringing in some new brands to our distribution company roster and pushing all the brands we believe in while maintaining their integrity. Watch out for our newly revamped website coming soon. There will be some really good collaborations coming out very soon to watch out for. Ah so many more that I’m probably forgetting.

RF: Shout outs?
Brian: Definitely to my wifey Annie Lee, this all wouldn’t happen without her in my life, my family and wifey’s family, they have mad support for us, and that’s a blessing. I definitely have to thank GOD for all of this. All the homies that had/have helped me out along the way, you know who you are. All the distributors that believe in Know1edge products, we won’t let you down. I really really thank you all for this, you guys are dope as fuck. And of course, thank Robust Flavor and Mirko Mangum for this interview. Check out Robust Flavor daily!

To see all the latest goods from Know1edge, please visit the Robust Flavor store here.