Renowned LA Launches ‘Space Jam’ Capsule
John Dean’s streetwear label Renowned LA, which has collaborated with activist Angela Davis, the LeBron James Family Foundation and Chris Brown, among others, is paying homage to the 1996 classic film “Space Jam” with its latest capsule collection launching Friday.
In celebration of its 100th anniversary, Warner Bros. tapped Dean to design the range, which features vintage airbrush T-shirts, mohair sweaters, jerseys, button-downs, hoodies, mechanics jackets, snap pants and more, priced $42 to $200, with Marvin, Lola and Bugs Bunny, Looney Tunes, Tune Squad and Monstars characters.
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“‘Space Jam’ was a generational movie for me and most of my peers,” Dean said via email. “It combined our favorite cartoons with the most celebrated basketball player in the world. Culturally, Michael Jordan was the best basketball player, had the best sneakers and could back up everything he said. We all wanted to be like MJ.”
The capsule arrives during a summer when nostalgia is everywhere, from “Barbie” headed to movie screens, to McDonald’s releasing a retro video game as part of the return of Grimace.
“The nostalgia for ‘Space Jam’ will never fade,” said Dean. “I think the 1990s were a very special time in pop culture for a few reasons — you had these iconic figures who were just as popular as the president. Mega companies like Nike seized the opportunity to make people appear larger than life. What made ‘Space Jam’ a classic is the fact that MJ didn’t do too much outside of basketball so to see him partner with the Looney Tunes was a recipe for success.”
Dean was in high school in Akron, Ohio, when he founded a resale fashion business, which morphed into Renowned. “When I decided to release T-shirts, it was a cool thing,” he told Cleveland.com in 2019 of how the style went viral among his 2011 graduating class. “The high school class picture has 10 to 20 people wearing the shirt.”
After continuing to build the brand through college, he moved to Los Angeles in 2013, gaining celebrity attention after sending a shirt to Chris Brown, who wore it on the cover of Nylon magazine. Since then, Tyga, Nicki Minaj, Jackson Brown and many more have worn Renowned, whose mission is to amplify Black voices. Dean has collaborated with a number of cultural figures, including LeBron James, who went to the same high school in Akron, and with Chris Brown on a metaverse collection.
“We love to speak about our culture through Renowned. Michael Jordan was our culture. He represented us, he was the best to ever do it. Combining that with the nostalgia of Looney Tunes made this an easy choice. I wanted to tell the ‘Space Jam’ story from the Renowned perspective using the characters I’ve been loving since I was a kid.”
The collection will be sold on the Renowned website, at Saks, Nordstrom, Cncpts and Unknwn.
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