SUICIDE:LABEL website Launch

SUICIDE:LABEL has just launched their website on 4 May 2002 at www.suicidelabel.com. Not knowing much about it, i hopped onto #Art_or_rollin on Galaxynet IRC and found Lucius Young. Him being one of the bold individuals who started this skater owned setup, i was hoping to find out a little bit more from him.

Hi Lucius, SUICIDE:LABEL's website just launched, so did the website take long to complete?

erm.. not really. First we had to go out and take a few photos for the website cause we wanted the website to be totaly ours no reused graphics etc.

so you mean the hip-hoppy fellow on the main page is a Singaporean?

of course, thats Linus. haha...

haha... i thought thats a real black hip-hopper. So whats the deal behind SUICIDE:LABEL?

SUICIDE:LABEL is made up of Linus, Daniel and myself.

Do all of you skate?

Of course! It was skating that brought it out.

Darn! That was a silly question. So how long did this project from idea to reality take?

hmmm around last Nov, we we're just talking about how nice it would be to do something like that its kinda amazing that we actually made it this far.

It definitely needs some commitment to bring it this far, don't you guys have a full-time thing to do? I mean like was it a lot of work?

yup yup, from designing the shirts, finding the shirt quality which we wanted to finding the printers.

aren't you people in school or something?

Of course its Singapore! We have to be schooling at this age. haha

Yeah I know what you mean, but every kid that goes to school at some time or another might have weird ideas, but never seem to carry them out, does doing all these clash with your school commitments?

Linus and Daniel are in secondary school while I'm in Poly 1st year. I think the reason why we actually managed to get this far is because each of us wanted to do it and pushed each other to not give up the idea and the support we had from the community and friends helped alot also.

Do you think you ppl will lose money or are you all very confident?

We have kinda tried to calculate if we're gonna make a lost etc. and each of us knows that its going to be hard to actually get a profit. We're just hoping to breakeven. I think the reason why we still continued is that we just wanted to prove that we could do it. I think that SUICIDE:LABEL can help the skating industry in Singapore grow, because ppl like u and me start to realise that ideas can be turned into reality and are actually possible so we will not give up.

wow, i think no business ppl will actually put themselves in this position.

haha i know.

So, how many designs are out now and how many Tees did you people print in this first batch?

There are currently 4 designs in this batch. We printed 80 shirts, 20 of each design.

Talking about designs, would you like to share with us the concept behind each of them?

hmm... we'll start with the "Everything is worth fighting for" tee. The concept behind this design is that we understand everyone of us have different beliefs in our lives and sometimes people who do not understand these beliefs just question us and oppose us. Be it skating of what ever you're into, your passion. We want people to not give up just because the majority of the people around you oppose what you do, be proud of your beliefs, fight for it and understand that you are not everyone, you are yourself.

The "Tag" design... every person carries a tag of his/her own that tells people about their identity and ideals. As you can see on this tag it only has the words "SUICIDE:LABEL" on it, it is therefore up to the person to fill in the rest of their details of their tag they carry in their everyday life.

The "Scale" design features the word "suicide" that is measured and scrutinised, fonts etc. It speaks of how in this world people go around measuring everyone on their looks, dressing, actions, beliefs etc. and encourages people to look beyond that, There is more to life then just scrutinising people.

So there are deeper meanings behind what seems to be just nice looking Tees. So why "SUICIDE:LABEL" don't you think thats morbid?

haha yea most people think of it in that morbid way, but by using the word "suicide", we're trying to express that the way we live our lives or at least hope to. Living life on the edge, taking risks, tasting the bittersweet which life gives. We want to not just live life as it is, we want to also experience life and make a statement, a positive one.

okay... so where can i get the Tees?

hmmm first you'll have to email us at suicidel@suicidelabel.com with your name, contact number, design and size. then we'll get back to you on where to meet etc. we're not available in shops yet, but today we've approached a store at Queenstown called DA'CAVE and left a few samples with them. Hopefully we'll manage to get our stuff in there. As for online transactions... haha we're working on that. So if you know anyone who owns a store it'll be cool if you could mention us :p

Sure thing. Have you approached the skate shops?

We've told Faz about approaching Go Sports and he agreed to help us with that, but currently he's in Taiwan doing the country proud so Go Sports will have to wait for a while.

If can't see it in shops yet, where can i have a look at the designs?

You can check out the designs on www.SUICIDElabel.com. We're also making stickers and that should be out by monday so we can give it out.

Very cool i love freebies. Is there anything else the skating community should know?

Just skate hard, be proud and represent your culture and if you buy a SUICIDE:LABEL product, wear it with pride because it represents something that is true and is our pride, sweat and joy.

Any shout outs?

Firstly i would like to thank God for making me, my family for being there, the Squad, Daniel, Linus, Ian, Ryner. My friends Suresh, Sonia, Vincent, Alfie, Nat, Khairul, Lou etc. People from the skating community like Faz who has been providing us with ideas and help, his gf Nadia for being his gf ( haha!), Kean for those deep thoughts about skating and friendship, Deyna for helping us look on the bad side and the good side of starting up this company. Raihan for the article he wrote on UP and the support he has given. You for the interview and the great work you have done on UP, giving us Singapore skaters a place on the internet to get together (unselfish love. hahah).

No problems man, its all for the skate scene.

Amri for irritating me everytime i skate with him. wKen, Nigel and bro, Andy, Kynslee and gang, Whillly ( i hope thats how you spell your name :p), Rezal, Dillian and friends, Arm pit hair John and Big John, Eylane, Lilian, Didi, P, Aaron, Mark, Chong li, Jin, Nicky, Ibrahim and gang, Nizam and his bro and iron man, Zam for being the first to show me how to nut yourself on a handrail, Shafiq Kecik and gang, Ben, Joel, Tony for being the abc he is, and to everyone i missed out sorry i tried my best to remeber and put your names on here. Oh i almost forgot my sch friends Cedric, Gayle, Ling, and Charmaine. Mad love to everyone. thanks :]

thanks for your time lucius, I'll see you around.

thanks again.

haha, thats a long shout. ;D Good luck on SUICIDE:LABEL ;D