The Tastemakers Society

Brothers are a wonderful thing, a connection I’m envious about and will never have because I have a sister. In history there has been some great brotherly duo’s, the Mannings, Cohen’s, Wright’s, and Bush’s, well maybe not the Bush’s but you get my point, brother’s can go on to do some great things. And on their way to becoming another great brother combo is Chad and Evan Birenbaum founders and designers of new shoe brand 100 Styles and Running. They have clean designs and make a comfortable fit using high quality material, like walking on air. Chad (pictured above), the oldest had a chance to answer a few questions for me, read up on what he had to say about brotherly fights, favorite movies, being a cops son and his connection to the show The Wire.

You’re brothers, so what was the Birenbaum childhood experience like growing up?  Who is older and who won most of the fights?

Chad - It was good, we were close and we were great friends despite our age difference.  I am four and a half years older than Evan, but his friends growing up were my friends younger brothers so we’d always be around each other.  We had a lot of creative ideas when we were young.  Anything from making music videos as kids to music production and spinning as we got older, we still did things together.

As far as fights, I was always bigger.  Evan was quick and had a mean jab, but when if went fisticuffs, I usually won.  A few times it got real heated, but it was all tough love.  Let’s just say Evan was a big advocate of the “I’m calling Mom” theory, and our Mom was a big, wait until your father gets home advocate.  I used to sweat bullets from the anxiety of waiting for my dad to get home to deal with me.  Our dad was a cop so he had some serious interrogation skills.

Evan was also crafty, one time he put make-up around his eye and told our Mom I punched him and gave him a black eye.  I think I caught a beat down and was grounded for at least a week with no Nintendo.  He still laughs about it till this day, but karmas a bitch and Evan got his later.  Let’s just say it involved an Oreo cookie and a Nolan Ryan heater. 

What were you both doing individually before you hooked up on 100 Styles?

Chad-I work as an Art Director for a graphic design firm in Baltimore.

Evan was pretty much trying to be the next Liam Howlett from The Prodigy.  He enjoyed hacking computers, spinning and producing music, I think he had an epiphany after a late night session with his Nord Lead, the next morning he said, can you still draw shoes and well, now we have a footwear brand. 

What is Dublin Classic?

Chad-Dublin Classic is the name of our holding company.  100 Styles and Running is under the Dublin Classic umbrella.  The name comes from when Evan and I decided to start some sort of business together when I was done design school.  We were at a pub in London, having a pitcher or two of Grolsch.  We wanted to go to Dublin, Ireland but we couldn’t get there for some reason or another.  We said, one day we’ll get to Dublin, just like one day we’d have our own brand.  So now we have a brand so I guess we need to start looking into trips to Dublin.

What is each of your strong suits?  How do you build off your differences and when it comes down to crunch time who is handling what?

Chad-I handle the designs/creative and work on the production end.  I also serve as Evan’s  Dr. Phil when he needs advice on women or if he is on the verge of a meltdown.  Evan does PR, marketing, works with our sales guys, receiving, general bullshitting and occasionally does our custodial work.  We have a good yin and yang with our skill sets.  If it came to a crunch, we just work together and try to see who can do what to get things done.  We’re not afraid to delegate work either, I think Evan has our Mom working for us on an unpaid internship. 

Do you all have any plans on launching anything else under Dublin Classic?

We plan to do a number of things and diversify ourselves, but you have to crawl before you walk.  so for now we are concentrating on making great footwear and building up the brand. And who knows, our mom makes pretty damn good, meat balls, meat loaf and burgers, maybe one day frozen meat products will fall under the Dublin Classic umbrella.  That would be some serious diversifying. 

Everyone has some cool, well thought out aesthetic answer when you ask them about the shoes and their designs, I just want the flat out truth of why you think your designs are nice and why your shoe is better then others on the market.  Think of it as a grade school, “my shoe is better than your shoe” argument.

We spent a lot of time trying to select high quality components and materials to create a great product.  We also spent a lot of time developing the overall comfort of the shoes.  This was actually part of our inspiration for creating the brand itself.  We had seen and worn a lot of shoes that looked great but were uncomfortable or shoes that were high-end priced and made from crappy low-end materials.  We are really about giving the consumer bang for the buck and giving the consumer a well designed premium product.  We don’t believe in charging a lot of money because we did a collab with so and so, or this designer did this, or you know who just wore our kicks on stage.

What’s your favorite movie and how would you design a shoe that would match that movie?

Evan and I both share the same favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption.  Vans did a great job with the prison issue shoe.  So something like that.  All velcro, no laces so the inmates can’t hang themselves  or strangle each other with the laces.  I would have a stash pocket somewhere.  Andy, the main character used a small rock hammer to escape Shawshank prison so a stash pocket would be perfect for hiding rock hammers or any other contraband.

With your dad being a cop, did he save you and your brother from getting arrested or in trouble growing up?

Fortunately for Evan and I we were never actually caught fracturing any laws.  We never did anything too illegal, just typical kid stuff.  He did have some sort of intimidation factor on teachers though.  He bailed us out of school problems on a number of occasions.  Specifically me.  In my senior year of high school, my art teacher tried to suspend me and not have me walk across the graduation stage because I put a big ball of yarn in my shorts.  He took me to the principle’s office and said I want him suspended now, and I don’t think he should walk across the stage to graduate.  He then asked me to put the yarn down my shorts again in front of the principle, who was a woman.  I did and while he thought it was the biggest deal in the world, she didn’t.  She said I haven’t had a problem with Chad in four years and I’m surely not going to suspend him with two weeks left to graduation.  Outraged by this, he said Chad, I’m calling your father later tonight to tell my dad he was going to fail me for my actions.  So I tell my dad what’s up, my teacher calls my house and my dad says I just talked to your teacher, I’m meeting him in the morning.  My dad meets the teacher and scares the shit out of him.  I pass the class and graduate on stage.  I don’t really know what went down for sure, but it’s probably better that I don’t know. 

Out of the designs you have now for 100 Styles which one is your favorite and I know they might be like your kids to you but every parent has a favorite child they just lie to protect feelings?

I’d say the Chase, it’s due out this Fall.  It’s got a lot of great buzz around it now.  We did two other shoes based off the Chase platform that are due out for winter.  It was actually a shoe that our developer nailed on the first shot.  I didn’t have to do a single modification.

Being based in Baltimore, how big a fan are you of The Wire?

Huge, it was one of my favorite shows.  I was upset when they decided to end it.  What was funny is that in the final episode they did a montage at the end.  Our parents old check cahsing store was in the final montage.  It was acually on an episode in season one.  My friend called me up and said, “did you see your parent’s store on The Wire?”  I said hell yes, I was just about to call you!