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    GREATEST: Kacey Lynch

    The Bricks & Wood founder talks creativity and LA community with Crenshaw Skate Club’s
    Tobey Mcintosh.

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    2020, with all its many challenges, has been especially brutal on small businesses and creatives alike—but Kacey Lynch, founder of LA-based label Bricks & Wood, isn’t hedging his bets. The global pandemic, with the shift in priorities it prompted in so many of us, spurred Lynch to launch a tightly edited offering of lifestyle goods and practical pieces from ashtrays to measuring tapes. It serves as an exercise in continuing to build out the universe that’s earned Bricks & Wood a loyal fanbase. 

    Since its origins in 2014, the line has served as a working ode to Lynch’s LA upbringing; the company’s tagline is, matter of factly, “A South Central Company,” and the designer has previously cast his own grandmother in lookbooks. Strong roots make for authentic foundations. Bricks & Wood marries its streetwear origins with a cut-and-sew sensibility to create meaningful, timeless garments. 

    It’s that ethos that Lynch opened up about with his friend, fellow creative, and the young entrepreneur behind Crenshaw Skate Club, Tobey Mcintosh in an exclusive conversation for GREATEST. Below the two talk about creating in a post-COVID world, collaborations and forging their own paths as Black business owners.

    How would you say this pandemic has affected you as a small business owner?

    It's been a gift and a curse. We've been able to benefit for the most unfortunate reasons. We lost Ahmaud Aubery and George Floyd. We had things go global and the Black Lives Matter movement really took over—it’s still taking over now. In the heat of the moment, all you saw on social media was Black Lives Matter, Black-owned businesses and white people saying, “I want to support Black creatives and Black entrepreneurs.” I think to a certain extent, I was able to kind of capitalize on that moment and not in a way where I wanted to—it was just natural. 

    I'm Black and we’re from South Central, but what I didn't want to do was put it on a t-shirt to go along with the BLM movement. I've [already] been pushing community culture [through Bricks & Wood and] we’ve been known as a Black-owned business. For me, it was a situation where I made myself available and took the window of opportunity for what it was. In this industry and just being Black in America, we don't get the same equal opportunity, which is something that we've always preached. When we don't get the same opportunity to do what we do, we create our own. That's where the culture comes from. 

    It’s definitely helped out in that way. Before, people could just ignore it or they didn't even know much about it. But now, with the Black Lives Matter movement really spreading since the pandemic, [people are] more inclined to want to support Black businesses. 

    Exactly. We didn't want it to happen with this unfortunate situation, but we'll take it for what it is. We'll make lemonade out of lemons. 

    We didn't have to make a specific t-shirt to show our support because we are a Black-owned business. Buying from us is supporting a Black-owned businesses. A big part of creating clothing is finding inspiration. How would you say you've found inspiration during quarantine? 

    That was one of my biggest struggles. Bricks & Wood has always had this outside element. People, nature, lifestyle—just life in general. Conversations I’ve had with homies, friends or strangers or things that I would see traveling. I've always drawn inspiration organically through those elements. It was different for me to have to search to find it rather than the inspiration falling into my lap. 

    This time, I was like, ‘What makes sense right now?’ That's how I came up with this extension of the brand called For Daily Use. The intention behind it was to create objects and things that people could utilize in this moment whether it's a water bottle, ashtray or measuring tape. I was getting inspired by interior design and realized that these tools were things that are useful in the current situation because—people don't really need more clothes right now. 

    Even though I have a clothing brand, I didn't want to feed the beast—just flooding the industry with stuff that people didn't need in this moment. That's where that came from, and that was all inspired by just being in the house, for one, and also seeing people be in their spaces during the pandemic. We're all on social media. We're all shopping online, essentially. For me, it was about finding a purpose within the brand's message through items that fit [where we are] right now.

    Yeah, that just shows that if you're creative, you're going to find ways to see the inspiration from anywhere you are. 

    It separates the real creators from others. Put us in any environment and we're going to adapt. 

    We know where you are now and how far you’ve come. Let's take that back to the origin of Bricks & Wood.  Where did that name originate from? 

    I actually had two brands prior to Bricks & Wood. I had a brand in high school with a bunch of homies. I was playing ball so when that didn't work out, I was like, let's try to figure out this fashion thing. I was trying to do styling while trying to find my way in fashion. I didn’t care how I got there. 

    As things started to develop, I started to get into sampling, making one-off garments. Fear of God hit the streets with a bang. It got to the point where we were kind of making the same [things]. We both got the same element of this religious touch, monochromatic styling, long t-shirts, black, white and grey. It was very similar. 

    Can’t really compete with that.

    Exactly. It was disheartening. Usually, if I was really passionate and I stand behind it, nothing could change my mind. I didn’t need to act like I'm secondary to this, but I also had to be realistic. I was like, ‘Let me create something that is truly defined by me and that’s always going to be organic.’

    No matter how far down the line you hear the name [Bricks & Wood], when you see these products, it still touches a foundational space. In 2016, I jotted down brand names in my phone and one was ‘Bricks & Wood.’ At the time I had no definition for it. It sounded good, but my whole thing is—even to this day—I refuse to put out any type of product, any type of storyline, anything that references Bricks & Wood if I can't tell a story about it. 

    Amen.

    It rolled off the tongue, but what did it mean? Until I could figure out a meaning, I refused to put it out. Maybe a day or two later I was with my pops. It was a gloomy day, and he was saying that the day before that, a leaf fell on top of the hood of his car. That leaf kind of inspired him; what if there was a brand that created these natural elements from Earth and implemented them into fashion? I went to my phone, pulled up ‘Bricks & Wood,’ and said ‘What do you think about that?’ No bull, bro, that day I went home, made a Tumblr, made a Twitter...

    That drive and attention to detail is what I think makes you different, and it’s seen in your products. You actually go out, source these fabrics and you really live that. I think that's what makes you different from all these other streetwear brands out here. 

    I always tell people, I know my process is different, but I still consider us streetwear. It’s the root of where the inspiration comes from and how I got into this game. I always pay homage to streetwear. I never try to make myself seem above it. It's not coming from a place of trendiness or what's popular on social media, it’s really coming from a lifestyle. These are things that I've really experienced, whether it's putting my grandmother or my dad in lookbooks or shooting where I grew up. 

    That's why I think we stand out, because no one can tell my story better than I can. Same for you, no one can tell the Crenshaw Skate Club’s story better than you. As long as you're telling that true story, you're always going to be different no matter if the colorways are similar or you use the same blanks, the same photographer or same location. How you got to this space is different from how somebody else got there. I feel like as long as we're always telling that true narrative to who we are, to what our brand is for, we'll always have a uniqueness to us because we're not following the general concept of what's cool and what's not cool. 

    Nowadays, more than ever, there are brands that just make t-shirts. When we do stuff, I feel like people know our story, they know what we're trying to get across. Speaking of that storytelling, what is the importance of doing that with bigger brands?

    I think I've had the luxury of working on both ends. I've worked in corporate spaces and one thing I remember is that they're always looking for the cool factor, the culture. They don't know about it and they want to get it right now. 

    So I think it's important to understand that they need a story. They still need something to make them money; they need something to pitch to the executives. What I think is important is to keep your DNA and not be confined to their rubric all the time. I think that when you understand these elements, you start to think about what you create when you collaborate with these companies. You’re like, ‘Okay, if I'm going to have an extra five million eyes on my company I want them to know who I am and what the brand really stands for.’ I think it's always important to stand strong in brand morals and foundation, even though there is a lot of money on the table, because it is bigger than just that one moment.

    I always pay homage to streetwear. I never try to make myself
    seem above it.

    Kacey Lynch

    How would you say your family and your community have contributed to the inspiration behind Bricks & Wood? 

    I didn't have the full support of my family up front. I think I can honestly say that. It took dollars for it to make sense, which is understandable. That's a natural protection thing—a condition thing—that they have experienced and went through in their own lives. They think that a certain amount of money has to define success or happiness or nourishment. I don't technically agree with that.

    My goal with Bricks & Wood was, ‘How do I get you to understand and proved you wrong. By proving that I can stay down and true to these elements [of where I came from] and that I'm making money, that would then make you understand it and now you support it. 

    I was making things that were  pushing the envelope, because I knew if I didn't try with these different opportunities I would be stuck creating the same generational [wealth], conditional heritage that my family had. One of the biggest curses in the Black community is that we don't build much that creates opportunity for not just us, but like our grandkids’ grandkids’ grandkids.

    Community-wise, I think for me, I was always inspired by the things that were missing. Even with South Central, that's why I pushed the South Central narrative so hard through the brand: to try and create a different element because I wanted to look and feel different. I wanted people to be like, ‘Oh, wait, that's what South Central is like? For me it was important to change the narrative to my family, to my culture. 

    For me it was important to change the narrative to my family,
    to my culture.

    Kacey Lynch

    How did your parents react to the first big brand you partnered with that they knew about?

    Beats by Dre was the biggest one that happened, this year for February Black History Month. The video was emotional itself. The content was good. The storyline was dope. It was Black History Month. So, of course it’s a celebration for the culture. My grandmother cried when she saw the video, my grandpa was hyped. I think when these moments happen, they’re priceless. It just keeps pushing me to keep going harder every day.

    INTRODUCTION: KRISTIN ANDERSON
    INTERVIEW: TOBEY MCINTOSH
    PHOTOGRAPHY: JERALD JOHNSON

    KACEY LYNCH TOP 10