One of our favorite street fashion brands, Akomplice Clothing, is already on its tenth season, which is quite an accomplishment in the fashion industry where especially independent labels often come and go, especially in the current economical crisis we’re living in. Although Akomplice is currently enjoying great success, the road to the top has not been royal. The guys at Akomplice have a simple explanation on how they managed to ensure business longevity. "We make what we like, which so far is what the people have liked.  We really work hard on just trying to make an amazing product that people love," says co-founder Patrick Liberty, who sat down with BallerStatus.com to talk about the growth of his clothing label and the current collection.

Akomplice Clothing founders, Mike and Patrick Liberty

The Liberty brothers, Patrick and Mike, founded Akomplice Clothing back in '04, when they were 18 and 20, respectfully. Running their own clothing label was something Mike always wanted to do. When he was a freshman in high school, he started a brand called Kush Quality Clothing, which was a small iron-on operation. Looking back, it's funny how things have turned out.

"It was really funny. As for me, I never thought I would be doing this.  Growing up I would always do something first, and then next thing you know, the rest of the kids would be on it.  Hip-hop, politics, skateboarding, BMX-ing, drugs, movies, girls, art and life are all a big part of everything," Patrick explains.

Fast forward five years and here is Akomplice Clothing, selling their collections at the country's hottest stores, having Snoop D-O Double-G rocking their tees, collaborating with brands on the other side of the pond and attending trade shows across the globe. But it was a long process, the biggest obstacle being based in Colorado, instead of fashion Walhalla's like New York or Los Angeles. But, that's part of their success story, because they had to work even harder to make things pop off.

"It was tough not getting in on the homie hook ups, but it made us work even harder to be hotter, so we would get in even if we weren't homies with someone, simply because they wanted us in because we were so hot we were undeniable.  This ended up making us good money because our stuff killed the competitions, because we had to work harder to get in, but once we got in, then it was on," Patrick explains. "Another big difficulty was getting the pieces made in time."

What we like about Akomplice is that it doesn't jump on trends, instead Patrick and Mike do what they love. This is a trait they both pride themselves on. "We purposely try to not do a lot of what's being done because we pride our company on originality," Patrick explains. "I can't tell you how many things we've designed and had to drop because we saw something similar in the market place.  There have been two times where after we were already selling the product, we found out someone else was simultaneously using the same photo.  Every so often, chance sneaks up on you."

With their shirts, they often take a stand. Social commentary and politics obviously play an important role in the designs. That is a route the brothers feel they had to go. "I want my grandchildren to still be able to swim in our oceans, enjoy this beautiful world we are lucky enough to spend some time in, and enjoy these senses we were given."

Although all shirts from the Akomplice collection have a certain message or theme, some have a story of their own. A shirt from the current collection, called The Realer World, features a child soldier, which sends out a message bringing awareness to things going on in other parts of the world. The brand wanted to bring attention to the intense reality people in Africa, The Middle East, and South America are dealing with on a constant basis, instead of the silly rich kid drama you hear regularly on U.S. reality TV. The brothers put their money where their mouths were and are donating a portion of the tee's sales to the H.O.P.E. Organization, a non-profit dealing with the issue.

"We were looking for a charity to donate 20% of the proceeds to when one of our retailers, Fred Segal Conveyor, mentioned that in the future we should collaborate with this organization, H.O.P.E., that was on some positive sh**," Patrick tells us. "Well, a couple days later, we were at our printers and my brother sees a folder that says H.O.P.E., and we find out our printers have printed H.O.P.E. stuff and donated equipment to H.O.P.E. for an African printing seminar. They told us H.O.P.E. would be there the next day and after that, it was a wrap. We ended up donating 30%. You know the saying that says 'no good deed goes unpunished?' Well, some crazy company started a war towards us because they thought the shirt was just a publicity stunt."

Akomplice's best-seller is the brilliant "Liberty" shirt, which Mike came up with. It's based on the attitude the government lives by: freedom through violence and intimidation. Patrick gave us the story behind the tee.

" Mike designed a version that showed the entire Statue of Liberty holding a gun, and we put it in ad format and ran it in Elemental, maybe my favorite magazine ever," recalls Patrick. " I remember one of the owners emailing us saying it was a sick ad.  When I looked at it, I felt it didn't have the vibe I was looking for.  So I sat down with Mike for a good while searching Statue of Liberty photos for the vision I saw in my head.  We finally found the right angle.  While making it, I got so hyped I was standing up pacing like, 'Yeah boy. Immortal Technique is going to love this one.' Then I was just like, 'Uh America is filled with gangsters, from your neighborhood drug dealer to our government.  It's time to realize and recognize here liberty comes from the gun, from sun up to sun down.' It was so different at the time this huge print that went clear off the bottom of the shirt with this crazy look and intense message. It just sold like crack and still does three years later."

With the Blueprint 3 coming out, the H20V shirt is definitely one to cop. The shirt is collaboration with Tradition and is inspired by the superstar rapper. Patrick and Mike both love the hip-hop genre and how it changed the world in a lot of cool, positive ways, granted there have been some negative as well, but so goes it. "The feeling, the lyrics, the style, the mentality, can all be very inspiring.  And Jay embodies all of those if you really listen to him. Hip-hop definitely changed my life," Patrick says.

Patrick is excited about the upcoming fall collection, which is about to be shipped. It is a clean collection with crazy fresh tees. They are even delving into more cut and sews as well. "I am most excited about is our cut and sew products.  The quality is just ridiculously good," he says.  "We have a four pocket hoodie that's real fresh, a cut diagonal panel hoodie and my favorite right now, a super clean cardigan that is going to clean up when it comes to macking the breezies."

With a perfect balance between consistency and creativity, backed up by straight to the point social/political messages, Akomplice's upcoming 5-year anniversary should be the first of many jubilees. Happy early birthday guys!

For more info on Akomplice, go to Akomplice-Clothing.com.