THE START OF NEFF
Can you introduce yourself and your role at Neff?
My name is Shaun Neff and I started the brand Neff over 10 years ago. I am currently the CEO of the company and I have fun everyday.
How did you originally start the brand?
Growing up as a SoCal kid it was a dream of mine to have a cool lifestyle company one day like the ones I supported as a teenager. When I moved to Utah for college I just went for it; printing T-shirts with my last name on it and selling them out of my backpack. After creating a slight buzz in my college town Shreddin, I supported a number of illustrious snowboarders and learned that there was a niche in headwear. It started with some self-made headbands, then shortly after, we established ourselves as Neff Headwear.
How would you describe your sense of branding and visual language?
At a young age, I was always very intrigued with branding and product. At Neff, one of our brand slogans is “Forever Fun” and that’s how we try to communicate our brand message. A lot of brands get so caught up with what type of brand they want people to believe they are. I just want to make products and let the public decide on the end result. I’ve heard Neff being described as an electronic band (via our support from Steve Aoki and deadmau5), a hip-hop clothing label (via collaborations with 2 Chainz, Mac Miller and Snoop Dogg) and our collaboration with Jean-Michel Basquiat sees us mingling with the art world. Limiting oneself as a type of label is only limiting your future and your following, so we try to stay as open as possible in regards to ideas and motifs.
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