Cole and Spencer pose in front of Manifest Skate Shop in February. | Photo taken by Alan Hunt.
Story and visuals by Alan Hunt
Broad Street passersby gathered under a tent in front of Manifest Skate Shop as rain started to fall on a recent Saturday afternoon. Surrounded by clothing racks, Cole and Spencer Barbera greeted them and encouraged them to take a look.
This was the latest in a string of pop-up shops the brothers have used to promote laboosh, their clothing brand. This recent setup included a screen-printing unit and space heater to get freshly printed shirts ready as quickly as possible.
“People love it,” Cole said, referring to the pop-up shops. “We can bust down a whole pop-up setup quick and official, you know what I’m saying?”
The brothers specialize in creating designs to screen print on anything. The Barberas started the brand when Cole was 10 and Spencer was 13. They’re celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
“The idea of having your own shirt has always been so sick to me and Spencer since we were little,” Cole said. “Just seeing skate companies and dudes who’ve been cooking shirts and their team and just everybody all, like, you know, swagged out.”
The Barberas’ brand is closely tied to the skateboarding community. They have printed their designs on boards and often have pieces for sale in Manifest Skate Shop.
“At the end of the day, who’s gonna have our backs is the kids in the community,” Cole said. “So we definitely try and show as much love to them as we can because I mean, that’s the home base, you know?”
After a while on that drizzly Saturday, fellow designer John Vance arrived and started picking out some pieces.
Vance got his start designing clothing during his time at Jordan High School and was inspired by the Barberas, who attended the same high school a few grades below him.
“They were the ones who kind of got me to screen printing and from then on I’ve just kind of explored more and more mediums within clothing,” Vance said.
Over time, he developed his own brand called WalaMob, a name derived from the acronym “We All Look Alike.”
Vance’s clothing pieces are mostly one of a kind, stitched together from various pieces and fabrics he’s found in thrift stores and scrap exchanges in the area. He’s known to add screen printed and airbrushed designs to his unique clothing items.
“That’s the overarching theme to most of the art that I do, is trying to recycle textiles and clothing that have been kind of discarded for whatever reason and finding creative ways to integrate them into new clothing, and give new life to them,” Vance said.
One such offering is a two-piece set he crafted out of a quilt that proved too large for his bed. Another piece is a repurposed Daily Tar Heel sweatshirt with a large bull airbrushed across it.
Like the Barberas, Vance has found success selling at pop-up clothing markets in the area.
“It takes me a while to build up an inventory,” Vance said. “I can’t do, like, three pop-ups in the same week because I’ll run out of clothes.”
The designers also use a combination of online tools such as store pages and Instagram to sell their clothing.
On their YouTube page, the brothers post “Da Boosh Tapez,” a series showing footage of pop-ups, skating and general antics with friends. One showed them giving out shirts during a trip to Puerto Rico.
“Boosh sales have been improving day by day, week by week. It’s just a matter of staying consistent,” Spencer said. “You gotta create the opportunity to get any of the benefits.”
While the trio have cultivated a following through these strategies, they all acknowledged the challenges of online marketing and sales.
Cole said their online sales were low, though he hopes to boost them in the years to come.
Vance said he feels Instagram throttles engagement for promotional posts that haven’t been paid for.
“I don’t really want to take the time to figure out how to maximize my [online] presence because, like, there’s so many other things I could spend my time doing, and it kind of makes me feel really jaded about a lot of things,” Vance said. “But I do sell stuff online pretty quickly.”
Though the brands have different production strategies, their ties as local creatives bring them together. The trio have collaborated on a line of T-shirts and hats dubbed “walaboosh: the collab of champions.”
An NBA draft-themed Instagram campaign showed the trio celebrating in oversized suit jackets, flashing their designs underneath. Another post depicted them on the cover of a billboard and Sports Illustrated with the tagline “WALABOOSH: The Next Super Team?”
The designers have also lent their talents to other community businesses. The Barberas recently printed an order of tote bags for the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh. Vance has been producing merchandise for local bands including Hiding Places and My Sister Mora.
“With the art community, I feel like most people want to work laterally, like you make connections and build strong relationships with people who you want to see succeed,” Vance said.
Vance has also designed and produced merchandising for local businesses such as The Meantime Coffee, a student-run, nonprofit coffee shop on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus.
“Screen printing is a very sustainable form of merchandise, and one of the core values of The Meantime is a sustainable business model,” said Rose Houck, marketing director for The Meantime. “We put a lot of effort into designing some unique hoodies and crewnecks this spring, and those have been selling really well.”
Vance worked at The Meantime during his time as a student and has designed its merchandise for the past three years.
“It’s always great to see the consumers investing in something that has a good heart instead of something that doesn’t,” Houck said.
Both Vance and the Barberas have cultivated a loyal following that values their products.
Tyler Tomasic is a longtime laboosh customer.
“I buy laboosh because I’ve seen these two printing since 2014,” he said. “They were still in high school, and I had just graduated college, so I respected their hustle.”
Samuel Garzon is an owner of several of Vance’s pieces.
“I like buying Wala ‘cause every piece is so special and stylish,” he said. “Every piece is unique. It’s so drippy.”
Vance said he prices his pieces based on the cost of materials, time spent making them and the price of similar pieces on the market. He said he tries to offer items in many price ranges.
“I like the idea of my clothing being accessible to many different types of people,” he said.
All three designers have part-time jobs, but all agreed they’d like to make fashion design a full-time thing.
“I’m just trying to find a way to be happy and fulfilled and also make it pay the bills,” Vance said. “It’s an ongoing thing that I’m figuring out.”
Vance mentioned the idea of opening a workshop space to teach classes in upcycling
and other techniques he uses to design pieces. The Barberas hope to grow their online and professional printing business in the future.
“But really, pop-ups and consistency is how we improve sales, and that’s what we gotta do,” Spencer said.
In the meantime, the trio are focused on their artistic mission.
“We just like making stuff. We have ideas, and we have the tools to make it,” Cole said. “I ain’t never wanna stop making boosh, since Spence ain’t never gonna stop being my brother.”
Alan Hunt is a Carrboro native and lifelong Tar Heel. He is a senior majoring in Journalism with a minor in Data Science. A creative at heart, his love for the arts has inspired him to pursue cultural reporting and graphic design as a contributor to The Daily Tar Heel, WXYC, The Durham Voice and The ONYEN.
