Around 9 months ago, Jason and I were contacted by one of our favorite streetwear brands, Mishka, to see if we were interested in doing a collaboration. Of course we said yes. Mishka blends metal, hip hop, comics, video games, horror flicks, sports and New York imagery into a brilliant stew of mayhem. When they pitched the idea of us branding a fictional team based around one of their characters, a horned cyclops skull-headed guy named Cyco Simon, we knew it would be a great project.

How did we become fans of Mishka? Let me count the ways 1) For 5 years I lived 3 blocks from their South-side Williamsburg offices and store, it’s got that home-team feeling to me. 2) I count this tee (Jon Vermilyea’s great design “Some say the World will end in fire some in ice!”) as one of my all-time favorites to ever grace my closet. 3) When Jason and I were thinking about starting The Clink Room we knew that the streetwear community would be an important part of the Clink story. So we walked all over the East Village looking at shops getting inspired by ways we could contribute to the culture. Mishka was a brand that appeared over-and-over as a guiding light even before their Broadway store was open. Yeah, you could say we’re pretty big fans.

If your not familiar with Mishka, become initiated. Here’s their addictive blog, Bloglin. And be sure to check out their great online store. Jason and I are especially into their iconic 59/Fiftys. You can visit one of their 3 stores: Brooklyn, L.A., or Tokyo. Lil John, Weezy, and Rick Ross agree.

The term “family friendly” is thrown around a lot when we brand a sports team. And that’s great, we love trying to make our logos and characters seem tenacious or aggressive without sending kids to bed with nightmares. But with Mishka, the mission was to make it sporty but ditch the family friendly. So we hit the drawing board, taking Greg, Mikhail, and Mike through the same process we take all our clubs through. And that means research with a shotgun style sketch-fest. These are just a few of our favorite images they sent over for inspiration. Gotta love that mascot head!

Then we hit the drawing board. The 80’s, Bo Jackson, Batman, shamanism, baseball’s superstitions, comic book origin stories, and magic were all inspiration.

More sketches tomorrow! Friday you’ll see the final logos. And Monday all the crazy stuff we created together will be available in the Clink store.