Some experts suggest trying not to put too-high expectations on yourself during self-isolation (the pressures related to that Shakespeare-wrote-King-Lear-under-quar meme are real, to say the least). But Megan Rapinoe, Christen Press, Tobin Health, and Meghan Klingenberg are not your average women. If that wasn’t immediately obvious from their World Cup wins—the United States Women’s National Team, on which they all play, has won the most recent two World Cups and remains the winningest team in women’s soccer—their company Re-Inc will prove it. Established after the 2019 World Cup, the company founded by the four players seeks to combine social advocacy with a fashion collection of streetwear. This weekend the company is releasing a black-and-white capsule—something in the works for a while but happens to mesh perfectly with our new at-home lifestyles.
“Our company is less than a year old, but I feel like it’s something that’s been on our hearts and in our minds for a lot longer than that,” says Press. “The inspiration for starting this company was this feeling that we had, as teammates, as athletes, that our value and our brand that was being kind of represented in a [sports-only way]—we weren’t able to express our full selves. We wanted to start a brand where we could be our authentic selves and remove the barrier between us and our wonderful community.”
Their clothing capsule brings a genderless, function-first mentality to sweatshirts, track pants, tees, and accessories—something largely missing from the streetwear market. “That’s why we’re Re Inc,” Press continues, “short for Re-imagining Incorporated, because we want to bring in a new vision to how everything is done. So we can do that through changing our business model with a huge focus on equity and diversity and inclusion. We do that through our products, which are a symbol of a larger message that we’re trying to share. We’re going to be trading products across all different verticals that are aimed at challenging societal norm, non-binary design for people looking for self-expression. And the third way we do that is by trying to re-invent culture. That’s the big point of this company: to create a movement of changemakers who are with us, alongside us, trying to create a better world. That’s kind of why we’re here.”
This might sound like a lot of work for a hoodie, but as the founders explain, feeling a sense of belonging in one’s own garments is an integral step in belonging in the world at large. “We don’t know how everybody wants to wear their whole clothes. We don’t know what kind of vibe they’re going to be in when they’re choosing the clothes or how they think about masculinity or femininity, so we feel like we want to put out a complete template,” says Rapinoe. “That’s why you see the different lengths and sizes of all of the clothes. We have a t-shirt and we also have a crop. We have a short and we’ve had a bike short in the past. We’ve had sweats, we’ve had crews, we’ve had sweatshirts. We feel like that gives people the opportunity to sort of dress how they want, kind of within this inclusive template. So we’re not just going to say, this is just men’s wear that’s just smaller. The way that we sort of designed everything is really truly meant to be gender-neutral and give the option that even if you’re a guy and you want to wear a crop, we’ve got you. Or if you’re a girl and you want to wear a big t-shirt, we’ve got you.”
The BW Capsule spans from socks to sweatshirts, allowing for maximum WFH style. “If I had to choose one garment, I’d probably say the sweatpants for sure,” says Heath. “I love the way that they can be worn because they really were created to be able to be worn slouched or to be pulled up and cinched high waisted. That was obviously very intentional in the design process.”
As much as you’ll want to try out these clothes—with the hope that they can make you as powerful as these four women—the founders of Re-Inc stress that their message goes beyond color schemes and seams. “As Megan mentioned, it’s not just cool clothes on cool people,” Press says. “It’s actually a symbol of a better future. When I get up and I put on my BW capsule, I’m thinking about how I’m going to try to make the world closer to what it needs to be and how we can be positive change-makers. This is the uniform for that. Yes, it’s comfy and it’s great to work from home, but I hope that in this moment, now more than ever, we can just be a reminder to our community every morning when you get up and you get dressed that we’re here for a reason and all we can do is our best. But if everybody does that, that’s enough, and collectively we will continue to get better and to heal and hopefully the world’s left in a better place.”
Shop Re-Inc’s black-and-white capsule here.
Credit: Vogue – Click here to view the article.
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