Spread Is Berlin’s Answer to Individualized Streetwear
SPREADING OUT: Streetwear gurus can now dream up their own collaborations with Spread, a new unisex brand out of Berlin that gives customers a “creative toolbox” to personalize each garment with graphics, prints, embroideries and exclusive artworks.
It’s the brainchild of Lothar Reiff, who operates a namesake consulting business in Germany and is well known for having been a longtime creative director at Hugo Boss. He’s also the chief product and brand advisor at Spread Group, a Leipzig-based company specializing in customized merch.
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Reiff is extending the firm into fashion and lifestyle territory with Spread’s cropped and oversized hoodies, T-shirts, sweatpants and shorts, which ooze Berlin cool. A launch event Friday night in the German capital will summon 800 select hipsters to a secret location for a dance party.
The initiative is targeted squarely at what Reiff calls “Genzennials,” a portmanteau of Gen Z and Millennials, generations who prize individuality and hence personalization.
Reiff ticked off other important boxes: All the products are produced in Portugal from organic cotton, and the customizations are realized in a jiffy, shipped within two or three days of the order being placed.
According to Spread Group chief executive officer Julian de Grahl, the venture leverages its “proven made-to-order technology in a disruptive way,” offering young consumers what they value most: “personality and consciousness.”
Sold exclusively online at Spreadyourstyle.com, the streetwear will initially ship within Europe “and then spread out globally,” Reiff said.
He enlisted art director Donald Schneider to mastermind the communication plan, which involves social media content and wild postings that resemble magazine covers.
Schneider assembled an edgy “Berlin squad” for the campaign, including actor and musician Aaron Altaras, artist Mago Dovjenko and three musicians and DJs who go by one name: Dania, Lsdxoxo and Vtss.
Up-and-coming photographer Vitali Gelwich teamed with stylist Claudia Hofmann for the images.
Reiff said he and Spread Group executives are assembling a creative studio that will be headquartered in Berlin and turn out several new drops per year and a rotating roster of guest artists.
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