In 2018, Darryl Brown worked as a railroad engineer. By 2019, he was the proud founder of an eponymous clothing brand. But Brown’s jump from rail jobs to runways wasn’t a sudden 180. His penchant for workwear followed, and he’s aiming to be the next Carhartt or Dickies or even Levi’s — but with a twist; like “if Dries [Van Noten] and Carhartt had a baby,” he’s said before.
He wants to reclaim workwear, retrieving it from TikTok brands that make crazy money on ugly, boxy hoodies and cheap-ass double knee pants.
“For me, I sat back and watched workwear become a trend. But none of these designers have ever worked a blue-collar, nine-to-five job a day in their life, you know what I’m saying?” he told GP in an interview from 2020. “They don’t always hit the mark and connect with people because it’s not them, it’s just a trend that they tried to capitalize on… So when the fashion conversation turned to workwear and [people started asking] ‘Who should be making workwear?’ It should be me. I kind of took offense, and then I took it as a challenge. I want to own this workwear space, especially as a Black man.”
His next few releases caught the industry’s attention. The Darryl Brown brand was an instant success in J.Crew’s Brands We Love store, an online-first shop that comprises products from other brands hand-picked by a team of buyers. Then Brown hit it off with a footwear giant. Adidas enlisted him for the the 2022 NBA All-Star Game’s “Made Possible” campaign, which highlighted heroes behind the scenes, including those working in Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (where the game was hosted).
He designed uniforms and a set of Adidas Campus 80s. They were teased that weekend, Brown showed them off on Instagram and then they were gone. Things came up, and Brown was left waiting. Now, though, his collaborative sneakers are officially out, and available at a number of well-known retailers. But he seems to be wondering, why? And, how did these get out?
“This moment is supposed to feel amazing after originally planning to launch in February for ASW [All-Star Weekend in] Cleveland and having it pushed back to July and then again to September and again to October 7 and ultimately being told that we were finally all set for an official release on October 27th,” Brown wrote on Instagram. “However, what I feel right now is frustration, heartbreak, embarrassment.”
He says there’s an entire release plan Adidas allegedly ignored: a co-branded pop-up, seeding pairs, samples and the publishing of campaign assets he coordinated. Instead, pairs trickled out to retail partners with outdated descriptions, weeks ahead of the date Adidas initially agreed to.
