About Us
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Japan is a country with a class-free and category-free society. It is the land of Gucci or Prada-bag-toting high school girls and convenience stores equipped with every product essential to survival in this intense, urban arena. The t-shirt is, without exception, one of the bountiful fashion items readily discovered.
In the early 90s, many museum and popular art design t- shirts began to be displayed in fashion boutiques in Japan. Playing upon this fashion movement, we were prompted to travel to research museums throughout the world. This, in turn, led us to a trip to the U.S. in 1995 to visit various museum stores in order to export and distribute their t- shirts in Japan. At that time, our favorite design was The Gilbert and George t-shirt from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It soon became readily apparent that the majority of museum t-shirts were too mainstream for our liking as the task of finding contemporary, cutting- edge designs would prove itself difficult. Needless to say, frustration mounted as we could find only a few new images that we really liked. Meanwhile, we felt that the genre of contemporary art and the phenomena of sub-culture were merging. These feelings brought us to start working with a variety of "new" artists and design sources to produce 2K's own art and sub-culture image t-shirt line. Since 1998, our travels to find interesting artworks and images throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan have preoccupied more than one third of those years. By working with various artists and designers there was newfound respect for our emerging t-shirt line and it had created a "buzz". At that time, availability had been limited to Japan but inquiries as to where the 2K t-shirt line was available began pouring in from all over the world. In the latter part of 2000, to expand availability with respect to this demand, we set up another headquarters in Southern California to start production and distribute the 2K line here in the United States. The ensuing positive reaction felt worldwide has encouraged us to also export to Europe. Now, 2K is not only being seen at stores in Japan, but around the globe. 2K, a small company whose name was bestowed by Experimental Jetset, is stridently anti-mass marketing. Instead of spreading the name 2K, we aim to gain recognition through our vision of presenting the unique work of the artists we represent. Also, we carefully research garment fabrics, cuts, and details to create our own custom merchandise. We are extremely excited to introduce our new woman’s line in the spring of 2010. Special thanks to all the artists and people we work with for making 2K possible. We express our gratitude and respect to each artist we represent and who entrust us to maintain the integrity of their work. As always, 2K strives to convey the artist's vision without weakening it. Hope you enjoy wearing or even just browsing 2K. |
