With the new Franco Shade Spring line coming out, we wanted to sit down and ask Joe Navran what’s new with the company. With a new line coming out and new offices they’ve been keeping busy. Here’s what he had to say..
Tell us about the new line
Our designers are Arlo Eisenberg, Wendy Nguyen, and Thomas Le. Arlo usually sets the theme of each line and decides where he wants to go with it. He then has me look them over, I usually approve most things right away, but other times we argue and throw things at each other for a few weeks until we come to a healthy agreement.
How long do you guys spend working on each line?
Each line usually takes anywhere between 1-2 months to design, but it seems like we are ALWAYS making some sort of adjustment or change to each line daily.
What’s an average day like in the Franco office?
In the morning everyone’s kinda slowly gets going by looking at their favorite websites and checking email. Within half an hour, Tui’s iTunes playlist will drown out everyone elses so we are usually just forced to listen to what he wants. By 11 things really get into gear and we are sometimes frantically working on millions of things at once. It only seems to get busier as of late, and with our new warehouse things are really changing (for the better).
Any changes we should expect with Franco and plans for rest of year?
We’re always trying to change our structure and get more together when it comes to planning and operating. We are making less and less mistakes each season and that is a good thing. Our cut and sew is really changing this fall as we are starting to offer more than just zip hoodies. You will start seeing more new products from shorts to denim along with an increase in our accessory game. Our biggest change you will all start to notice is our pricing drop on all products. You will no longer see the $34-38 t-shirts. We have cut some middle men and are happy to offer more competitive pricing on all our tees.
What are the sizing’s like on the newest line (wider like Noose and Gonzo?)
Noose and gonzo sadly were not a consistency of Franco’s sizing. They were done as a custom dye job, where we literally cut and sewed shirts together and dyed them to their final colors. What we didn’t realize was that when you custom dye a shirt you have to wash and dry it. So what we thought was our perfect fit, became a shrunken wider, pre washed fit. All of our shirts this season should be on par with what you have come to expect in the recent seasons.
What companies do you guys like, besides Franco of course?
Triumvir and Orisue are good friends of ours in the streetwear game and have really grown into solid brands. As for rolling, for sure I’d have to go with Vibralux, B Unique and UCON.
