Anti Social Social Club Will Never Die
Once the most provocative name in streetwear, Anti Social Social Club has become, of all things, an institution. The peers it brushed up against a decade ago have devolved and evolved, dropping out of the biz or mutating amidst a new age of splintered streetwear abutted by luxury contenders and indie upstarts.
All while Anti Social Social Club is thriving. After 10 years of punkish industry disruption, it's exactly where it's always been: Instantly selling out of brash hoodies coveted by its still-loyal, still-young fanbase.
If you aren't already plugged in or are even one of the jaded Anti Social Social Club haters, well, these new drops will not sway your taste. But that's just fine. ASSC still does not care what you think.
"People will be fans or cynics of everything. It’s not that serious," says Ian Coates, ASSC's co-founder and head of design. "At the end of the day ASSC is forever in motion. That's the best part about this space, there is no right or wrong answer."
And to the dismissive streetwear elitists, Coates' message is simple.
"Continue to be a snob, continue to love or hate whatever you want."
ASSC was founded almost incidentally in 2015 by Neek Lurk, a Stüssy marketing manager turned hoodie entrepreneur. What began as a casual in-joke — ASSC's name was always knowingly redundant, while its press release describes its origin as an "accidental art project" — morphed into an accidental and abrupt rise to infamy.
Was it Lurk's eye for inimitable branding — the wavy, all-caps Anti Social Social Club logo is arguably the single most recognizable streetwear logo of the 2010s, up there with Virgil Abloh's Pyrex Vision and Off-White™ branding — or his celebrity stylist pals, who got ASSC hoodies on the backs of Kim Kardashian, Pharrell, and Travis Scott?
Honestly, it was probably both, coming together to guarantee ASSC near-instant cultural omnipresence as it become a word-of-mouth phenom.
Lurk wasn't ready. ASSC's infrequent digital drops were perpetually mobbed by kids desperate to buy, selling so swiftly that the ramshackle operation was plagued by perpetual production hiccups.
Shipping delays were legendary. ASSC's belated fulfilment inspired much mockery, including the famous "Anti Shipping Shipping Club" refrain, popular among even true believers.
Lurk would often return the sentiment in kind, printing impish references to customer complaints in subsequent ASSC drops.
That's all in the past. Lurk (and his much-loathed fleet of luxury cars) left ASSC many years ago, seemingly vanishing off the face of the earth.
Even the shipping qualms are mostly wrapped up with ASSC instituting made-to-order collections and professional logistics programs by 2023.
That was around the time that a cleaned-up ASSC was acquired by Marquee Brands, a holding company that also owns the licenses for Bruno Magli, BCBGMAXAZRIA, and Martha Stewart, an amusing turn of fate directly acknowledged by an ASSC T-shirt.
Though ASSC has a new parent company, the company is still overseen by three of the original cofounders, including Coates. And that's really all that's changed. The management may be new but the hoodies are wholly intact. And wholly coveted.
Because the Marquee acquisition had nothing to do with "saving" a floundering ASSC. On the contrary, ASSC is thriving in a niche of its own making. The deep-pocketed ownership is solely a sign of its own canniness.
"ASSC, 10 years later, is as strong as ever and continues to earn its place in the world that it helped to build and influence," Coates says. "Regardless of what 'era' we are in, ASSC is one of the more iconic and resilient brands out there due to our day-one supporters who have stuck with us through the multiple so-called 'eras.'"
Coates asserts that the brand's following is key, pointing to the "strong, authentic, and organic" fanbase that he says has remained with ASSC since the early days.
When asked, though, Coates didn't provide specifics on the ASSC consumer base — "Our customers come from all walks of life." — but it's clear that though the brand is now particularly popular among younger shoppers, with strong success coming from Asia in particular.
This is reflected in local celebrity adoption, like when BLACKPINK singer Lisa wore ASSC as recently as late 2023.
To Coates' point, it matters less who's buying it and that, simply, people are buying it. Because they really are.
Streetwear has never been more fractured. As even streetwear institutions struggle to move product and remain relevant, ASSC's strategy remains effectively unchanged. In 2015, every Supreme drop was picked clean and Stüssy was a mall brand.
But, both today and 10 years ago, ASSC product is red-hot.
ASSC is still selling out of the same black hoodies, same logo, same accompanying branding accessories that endeared it to kids a decade ago.
This is a phenomenon so remarkable that it's inspired case studies.
ASSC's only major update came by way of its presentation, with that familiar product now displayed in ambitiously styled campaigns, almost as ambitious as its collaborations
Coates underscores the importance of "exclusive product," the need to create ASSC newness for an audience still hungry for it. "That has always been the beauty of the brand; that it can live in any circle or scene that our supporters see fit."
The ASSC approach is almost an inversion of streetwear convention. Instead of patiently dribbling out collaborative projects, ASSC unleashes an almost constant array of impressively far-flung team-ups
There are disparate team-ups as established as BAPE, and UNDEFEATED, a 22-year-old member of the streetwear old guard and one of ASSC's eldest partners. But then there are franchises like My Hero Academia and Hatsune Miku, sporting imprints like UFC and Lost Surfboards, and the occasional left-field link-up, like erectile dysfunction subscription service BlueChew. Cash-in?
Intentional fan trolling? Genuine bond? Don't worry about it.
Collaborations are so key to the ASSC oeuvre that its 10th anniversary fare will release "Coachella-style over two weekends" on November 16 and 23 via the Anti Social Social Club website.
Partners include old friends like Alpinestars, Hello Kitty, Playboy and the US Postal Service — a classic ASSC shipping gag turned legit collab in 2018. There are ASSC Uno cards, referential merch printed with typically sullen ASSC slogans like "Sick & Tired," and an Xbox-inspired ASSC LiveWire S2 Del Mar motorcycle (!). It's ridiculous. And it'll sell out in mere minutes
A while back, I proposed that it was "too late for ASSC to pull a Stüssy." That is, it's not realistic for ASSC to rebrand itself as a "cool-guy" streetwear brand in the vein of Stüssy or Aimé Leon Dore.
I still think that statement is accurate. However, I also believer that it's besides the point.
ASSC was never an IYKYK downtown flex. It's a puckish revisionist, usurping the streetwear crown from established "serious" peers by doing nothing but selling product. By that metric, you could argue that ASSC is pure streetwear.
10 years on, its peers have changed. ASSC has not. It hasn't needed to. It never will.
