Music Festival Rolling Loud Launches Capsule at Urban Outfitters
Music festival Rolling Loud is making its way to Miami for a weekend of shows headlined by Kendrick Lamar, Future and recent addition Kid Cudi — and it’s heading to Urban Outfitters with an exclusive merchandise collection launching Thursday.
Rolling Loud cofounders and co-chief executive officers Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif teamed with B2SS — or Back to School Special, which is a spin-off of brand After School Special — to produce a trippy apparel assortment comprised of T-shirts, hoodies and sweatpants, shirts and shorts and a matching bucket cap with the Rolling Loud name and motifs like a reworked Rolls Royce logo with the words “rolls loud,” UFOs, the Earth and other planets and the year 2049.
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“During the design process we wanted to attach a date to time stamp it like the old band T merch,” explained Zingler. “Instead of targeting the year we produced the garments we decided to go a futuristic approach with the design. This is also based on comments I have made in other interviews. Rolling Loud will be the first festival in space.”
The seven-piece collection ranges in price from $55 to $99 and will be available at all 280 Urban Outfitters locations.
“Urban Outfitters has been a staple for lovers of the intersection of music culture (and more specifically, hip-hop culture) and fashion,” added Cherif. “Our fans already shop there without a doubt, so to release a collection with them is really a 1+1=11 type situation.”
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Zingler and Cherif held the first Rolling Loud festival in Miami in 2015, and it has grown to be one of the bigger U.S. music festivals with acts on par with rival U.S. festivals Coachella and Governors Ball. While those festivals are held once a year in a single city, Rolling Loud traveled to global venues like Oakland and Los Angeles, California; New York City; Sydney, Australia, and recently The Netherlands with Woo Hah! Fest from July 1 through 3 with acts J. Cole, Future, Dave and Roddy Ricch and in Portugal in from July 6 through 8 also with J. Cole and Future but with fellow headliner A$AP Rocky.
“Portugal was amazing,” said Cherif. “It’s hard to beat a festival on the beach. Fans were literally moshing in the sand. It was incredible and beautiful. To see this idea that Matt and I scribbled on a piece of paper grow to be what it is today, a worldwide rap superpower, is nothing short of a blessing”
They also revealed Rolling Loud Toronto for Sept. 9 through 11 with Dave, Future and Nigerian artist Wizkid.
Though concerts are their main draw, Zingler and Cherif consider Rolling Loud to be a lifestyle brand with merchandise as an important piece of the puzzle.
“When we first started Rolling Loud, we would struggle to sell any merch,” Zingler said. “The fans would focus on artist merch. As the brand grew, we saw a shift where Rolling Loud-branded merch was outselling all artists including the headliners. Once we had the support of our fans, we were able to spend more money and time on merchandise, taking it to the next level.”
They enhanced their digital presence to offer merchandise prior to their events, which “helped increase the annual revenue for us in merchandise,” said Zingler, adding that fan support has made merchandise a major revenue stream.
For Rolling Loud Miami this weekend, the festival organizers replaced Ye with Kid Cudi due to Ye dropping out of the event. Cudi was named as his replacement to close the first night of the festival at Hard Rock Stadium. The organizers also built a boutique shopping experience for their VIP attendees. “It will feel like you walked into a popular streetwear store on Fairfax in L.A. or the Design District in Miami,” Cherif said.
The collection at Urban Outfitters is their first capsule to be offered nationwide, and Rolling Loud is discussing their next collection for the retailer.
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