Spread love, it's the Brooklyn way! Ever since its launch in '04, New York-based Methods has featured cutting edge art work from some of the most well known street artists and designers from around the world. Dave Gee and his crew has been extremely involved in the music world since its inception and collaborated on projects with Smiff-N-Wessun and Jeru The Damaja, among others.

We have featured their Bucktown collection in our January Shopping Guide, and now BallerStatus met up with the great people over at Methods NYC to hear all about their international working method, their Bucktown-based Flagship Store and new collection of dope tees.

BallerStatus.com: Where does the brand name, Methods NYC, come from? And how would you describe your company philosophy?

Dave Gee: Our name comes from the different methods that an individual uses to make it on their own without giving into the 9-5 life. Our brand is all about supporting the people that have so much faith in their abilities that they have chosen to put everything they have into their art and skills. They have chosen to spend their savings on their mixtape, art supplies, or studio time, instead of working in an office everyday hoping that one day they would have time to work on their dream.

BallerStatus.com: How would you define Methods' signature style and unique selling points? In what way do you differ from other brands out there?

Dave Gee: We never wanted to be a couple of guys sitting around pumping out just our own designs. We really wanted to put the spotlight on artists that we felt were making a lot of noise. Methods is simply a vehicle that artists are able to use to elevate their game to the next level. We go out of our way to find dope original artwork from underground artists all over the world. Although we do create some of the designs in-house, most of our designs come from our roster of artists that we've built up over the last five years. We've got artists in Germany, France, Spain, the UK, US and several other countries.

We basically just put out what we are feeling. We're very careful about jumping on trends. You won't see us putting out Jay-Z designs or naked chicks and kicks. We love Jay-Z, kicks, and especially naked chicks; we're just not putting out designs like that because it's been done and it's played out. Another unique thing about us is that we are 100% independent. We are self-owned and operated. Our employees, interns, and affiliates are all good friends of ours.

BallerStatus.com: You have an international team of designers. It must be quite difficult to put together a collection with matching styles, since each local fashion scene is very different from the other. Also, not everyone is based in the US, so it must be hard to get together with the team and discuss designs. What does the design and communication process look like when you're working on a new line?

Dave Gee: There has definitely been a learning curve over the years with the design process. Combining all of our artist's styles on a line is really the beauty of what we do. We felt this was really the only way to present our culture to the masses. The majority of communication between us and our artists is through the internet. We haven't even met some of our artists in person, yet it feels like we're friends after working together for years. Once we decide on a theme for a line, we send out an email to all of our artists explaining the theme and the type of pieces that we're looking for. From that point on, we deal with each artist on an individual basis. They'll usually submit a sketch of what they want to do and we'll discuss it from there. We've been working with some of them for four or five years now, so they have a good idea of what we're into and what we will and won't put out there. If two artists and working on something similar, we let them know to switch it up some, so there is enough diversity on each line we release.

BallerStatus.com: Could you tell us about your new collection called "Dreams & Nightmares" and what are some of the features?

Dave Gee: A lot of our designers are usually on the dark side as it is. So, we decide to give them a theme where they could all just go crazy. The line was filled with all kinds of monsters and weird little characters that they conjured up. It ended up being a really cool line. There are some dream-like surreal pieces as well as straight evil ones. This was basically a chance for our artists to release their demons and let loose.

BallerStatus.com: Love the Bucktown x Methods NYC collection, especially the "Welcome to Bucktown" and "Planet Bucktown" tees, which both contain outstanding artwork. How did that collection come about?

Dave Gee: We're good friends with Steele from Smiff-N-Wessun. Over the summer, our friend Fubz came up with the idea to do a collabo tee with Steele's company, Bucktown USA Entertainment. Once we sat down with Steele, the ideas just started flowing and we realized that this project was going to have to be more than just one tee, so we put out a mini-line. The "Welcome to Bucktown" line is all about Brooklyn and its culture. It's basically just an ode to where we live and conduct our business. The clothing line was also released with the exclusive "Welcome to Bucktown" album, which featured just about everybody from Boot Camp Clik. Each shirt from the line comes with a download card, which enables the customer to download the album for free on-line. Bodie Chewning and Amier Inks are the Methods artists responsible for the two designs you mentioned.

BallerStatus.com: The Methods flagship store recently opened in doors in Brooklyn, which is a great milestone for the brand. Tell me more about the launch of the store and its location.

Dave Gee: We opened our flagship store in June of '08, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We had been running the company out of our homes and warehouses in the area for the first couple years. It just got to a point where we really needed one office that we could all work out of everyday. So we started looking around the area for office spaces and realized that we might as well have a storefront in the front of the house to sell our gear at retail. It's been great so far. We have all kinds of art shows, record release parties, live podcasts, and other events here. We're located in Greenpoint, which is the neighborhood that we've all lived in for years. It's a nice little neighborhood, a little off the cut. This makes our store somewhat of a destination location, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We were lucky to open up shop here first, the neighborhood is blowing up now and new shops are opening up all over the place. Come check us out, we're at 162 Huron Street off the Greenpoint Avenue stop on the G Train.

BallerStatus.com: Ever since Methods' birth, the brand has been heavily intertwined in the hip-hop culture. Tell me more about your affinity with the music genre, and how you established relationships with artists such as Jeru and Smif-N-Wessum.

Dave Gee: It's just our roots. All of us have been into hip-hop since we were little kids. Jeru was and still is my favorite MC of all-time. These are the guys that we grew up listening to. They had a huge influence on us as people and with our brand. It's great that now they see what we're doing and want to be a part of it. It feels like everything has come full circle when you find yourself working with artists like that. It's not just hip-hop though, we're heavily involved with music in general. We have done a lot of work in the hardcore, drum and bass, and dancehall scenes as well. We've recently been getting very into dubstep. We deal with these artists the same way that we deal with our visual artists and help them progress their game any way that we are able to.

BallerStatus.com: Artists are a great medium to get your brand out there. Imagine, a very successful rapper walking into your store with the request to make him a signature tee, but you don't like his music. What would you do?

Dave Gee: It really depends on the artist and the reason that we didn't like his or her music. There's a lot of music out there that I don't like that I know our market does like. If I felt it was an artist that was talented in some way and our market liked them, I would probably do the shirt. If they were a total asshole that me and my people aren't down with, then I wouldn't.

BallerStatus.com: Which design is Methods' best-seller? Elaborate on the message behind the design and how it came about.

Dave Gee: Over the years we've had a good amount of hits. I really can't say that one single design was our best seller. We did the math the other day and realized that we've produced about 50,000 t-shirts since we started the company in 2004. We've produced hundreds of styles in that time period. We've never been quite sure as to why the best-sellers did the best. We make our bets on designs before we release a line, but nobody ever really knows.

BallerStatus.com: What's next for Methods?

Dave Gee: We've been ready to drop our cut and sew line for a minute. However, the last year has been crazy with the economy and market in the US. We're seeing a lot of companies our size going under because they spent all their working capitol on large stocks of cut and sew that they end up sitting on. We can't wait to break into the cut and sew market, but we have to wait until just the right time. Most likely, you'll see Methods jackets, jeans, hoodies and more in the fall of '09. In the mean time, check out our "Pressure" line dropping in March!

For more info on Methods NYC, visit MethodsNYC.com.