Questlove Opens Hoodie Shop in NYC
I rock a hoodie on the daily. This is dope.
Hoodies have recently become a hot topic of discussion with the death of Trayvon Martin on the national radar, but The Roots’ frontman Questlove has had a thing for the outwear long before it was a statement of political activism.
“I do love a hoodie,” the drummer/music producer told NY Mag. “I have a love affair with hoodies that goes way back. When Tariq [Trotter, the Roots’ M.C.] and I first saw the Tribe Called Quest video for ‘Can I Kick It?’ and they were all wearing hoodies, I was like, ‘Yo, we gotta go to the Gap and get that.’ That’s when I purchased my first bona fide hoodie.”
Now Quest has opened his own hoodie paradise on the Lower East-side of Manhattan for all New Yorkers who love the sweatshirts as much as he does. Ironically, the doors of The Hoodie Shop opened the day before thousands of people gathered in Union Square to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin in the “Million Hoodie March.” Quest says the timing of the two events was pure coincidence. He and his friend/ shop co-owner Peter Shapiro had been working on the venture for years, but that didn’t stop him from freaking out a bit about the public’s perception of their grand opening.
When all was said and done, Quest and his business partner just decided to roll with it because aside from the hoodie revival witnessed in this controversial case, Quest says love for the hoodie has been a long time coming on the fashion scene.
“Fashion-wise, for the skinny-jean generation, we’re undergoing the first significant comeback of the hoodie since those Gap hoodies back in the early nineties. I never even thought about it as something a scary dude wears.”
No one would hardly take Quest for suspicious in the hoodies he’s designed. The DJ found a company in Brooklyn that makes jewelry out of Legos and he says he’s been rocking his nondescript hoodies with a red Lego heart on a regular.
“It’s a great conversation piece, and you know, to the people I meet it’s probably one of the most peaceful-looking hoodies in existence.”
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