About the king of the ring x felicity collab

About the king of the ring x felicity collab

Interview by Christophe Sam

Liam and Benny, the founders of the streetwear brand Felicity share the story behind their collaboration with the streetball tournaments King of the Court. 

How did the idea to collaborate with KOTC come up?

The idea to join forces started years back on an overseas trip to Europe, both King Of The Court founder Mitch Lang and Felicity founder Liam McMahon didn’t know when or how it would happen with both ideas still at their earliest inception. Fast forward a few years and Felicity director Liam McMahon went from running the social media at the events to running the collaboration merchandise for the day. Felicity, a brand that wants to uplift the creatives of the city, saw King Of The Court as an opportunity to support and be involved with passionate basketball players expressing themselves in a creative setting. Once the call was made, we wanted to see how we could create something for the fans and athletes that embodied the style of the day.

What is KOTC? And tell us about their cultural impact in Melbourne

King Of The Court is a 3 on 3 style streetball tournament based in Carlton, Melbourne. With changing locations and teams, the tournament is open to entry to everyone and anyone that loves basketball. With Melbourne being a diverse and very multicultural city, KOTC further exemplified this with the display at its 5th event since it began back in 2019, growing more and more with music, art, ball and good times put together all in one day. King Of The Court serves as a way to bring everyone together with one aim: just having a dope day. Entertaining the event-goers, drinking beers in the sun and watching some super talented ballers come out and have a chance to go home with the prize.

 

Where did the inspiration for the tee come from?

Paying homage to streetball contests in LA and NYC we used our French Terry Knit tees to bring the design to life. Having connected with local talented designer Isaac Hood, he came through and incorporated his style into the design. Given this was KOTC’s first dunk contest since its inception we felt it necessary to highlight this in the design, along with the street style typeface on the concrete courts. We’re super lucky to have our screen printer Saul at Redwood Press –hands down the best printer in Australia, bring his magic with colour choice and adding puff print into the Felicity and King Of The Court designs. The reception for these tees was wild and it was dope to hear the event-goers give some love. The collab tees were sold out in a matter of hours.

How important is the street culture in Melbourne?

Street culture is a huge part of Melbourne’s identity, it continues to drive the city forward given Australia is such a young country in comparison to its overseas counterparts. Melbourne took what we liked overseas such as basketball, graffiti, and street fashion and just ran with it. Seeing Melbourne go from wearing Billabong, Quicksilver and Globe to TNs, Ralph Lauren and Nautica to Supreme, Stone Island and New Balance in the past 20-30 years. It’s crazy watching the culture adapt more and more as technology kind of forces us to catch up with the street trends overseas. The street culture itself has morphed into one of its own and is the critical lifeblood of our city with so many different cultures, ethnicities and interests – when that comes together it’s a really dope thing to see. Street culture helps us keep pushing Melbourne to continue knocking down doors and create our own mark on the map to be proud of.

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