Zero to 100: Step Into the Ring with White Claw™ 0% Alcohol and Overthrow Boxing
“Nobody is getting in tonight unless you all clear this pathway! It doesn’t matter if you’re on the guest list or in VIP! We are at MAX capacity,” roared a bouncer at the door of the Bowery Ballroom in the Lower East Side. An ambulance blared on the street while Downtown’s glitterati, decked out in their Sunday best—heavy on Rick Owens and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy—inched closer to the promised gates of Overthrow’s unofficial pre-NYFW party, “Don’t Punk Out!”
Hosted by Overthrow Boxing in partnership with Everlast and powered by White Claw™ 0% Alcohol, the event celebrated the revival of an icon: Punk Magazine. Except it wasn’t a revival in the traditional sense. Though the storied, anti-establishment zine of yesteryear will not be releasing any print editions (as of yet), its image, instead, is rekindled in an exclusive capsule collection available at Dover Street Market, bustling with all the punk iconography that made its name a mainstay for those in the know—but back to the fight!
“Left hook, right hook,” shouted a tall brunette clad in a beanie and graffiti-laden hoodie toting White Claw™'s 0% Alcohol luminescent blue and gold can like an Alexander McQueen skull clutch. “Finish her,” yelled another. “It’s like ballet at this point! Straight dancin'!" With a weave here, a swing there, and the occasional duck, boxers went head-to-head in a neon-doused ring at the core of the Bowery Ballroom. The wind-up of a windmill punch generated quite the buzz from the crowd—until it was nipped in the bud promptly by the referee, eliciting shrills of disappointment.
Amplifying the rage an octave higher, Oxymorrons took the stage. No, not the rhetorical device; the genre-bending, rap rock band. Opening with “Enemy,” the Queens-born band plunged into the night with hard-hitting riffs and pummeling drums. Bouncing throughout the venue’s walls, the sheer anger and pulsing energy from their set was met with razor-trimmed bangs bouncing to their acerbic tunes.
Following Oxymorrons, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black stormed the stage, its leading, Crimson-skinned ladies as the event’s cherry on top—or shall we say three? Charging full force into a diabolically delicious number, melding punk, and glam rock, the act, led by Kembra Pfahler, whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Heads banged, vocals were screeched, and wigs were thrown. It was truly punk rock in every sense of the word.
Elemental to any sport—be it boxing or "raving it up"—is hydration. Attendees were wise to replenish ringside to keep the party going strong as New York’s resident DJ; Vashtie soundtracked the night. Much like the Dover Street X Punk Magazine capsule collection, (carefully sprawled out across a decked-out merch table), White Claw™ 0% Alcohol too, made its debut at the rumble. The bold new beverage that packs a punch, without the actual punch, was quite literally on the lips of everyone. And so, boxers, rockstars, and models alike opted to indulge in the refreshingly complex-flavored fizz of the seltzer drink. Even the aspiring mob wives, sporting floor-length fur coats, sipped not on martinis but White Claw’s radically new beverage.
Taking notice of the hit White Claw™ 0% Alcohol was with this eclectic crowd, White Claw™'s Head of Brand and Communications, Lena Lewis shared "[It's] a breakthrough in flavor technology, a drink that's made non-alcoholic from the start with a delicious depth of refreshing flavor that tastes and feels like a real drink."
When heading out for a night on the town, performers slathered in red paint are likely the last thing you’d expect (much less a boxing ring at the center of the dance floor). Culture, despite the divisions drawn in the sand between its cliques, knows no bounds. Fashion, sports, and music, while separate realms, collectively merged that evening to embrace authenticity and audacity. I guess Hell hath actually frozen over.
