3NINE kickstarted in August 2010
Influenced by both the rising urban street culture from self-taught techniques to homegrown hobbies; we've taken inspiration from freestyle sports such as flatland skateboarding, streetball and garage grunge. The first pair of ‘three-nines’ were a pair of white brandless stock slip-ons from thrift-like stores in the land of Ampang. They were affordable and it felt
like buying a massive textbook with it's blank pahes for us to fill up and doodle on. On the very day I wore my first custom pair ‘different’ coloured in orange and green of similar strokes but unequal visual elements, It embraced the philosophy of 'going with the flow', intuition, imperfection like 'wabsabi' and boldness. Wearing them for the first day in Maths Class, One of my buddies; Ian, asked me to make a pair for him too! So I took the opoortunity to kinda ask him what his interests were and what his ‘style’ or preferences was. So technically, I felt like a tattoo artist or a bespoke suit tailor! I got to customise the first official pair of 3niners for a friend/customer (‘Tribal Twins’) a week later incorporating tribal flame-like patterns in only black on white with swirls and curls that you'd often seen tattooed on chests and arms. Friends, family and mutual connections have noticed the sneakers with inquires coming in hot! spiced up enough to pay for my daily lunch at college, which was both gratifying and empowering. Within weeks I received multiple requests to custom personalised designs on sneakers. I have also received orders for other various design projects such as murals and reviving older items from friends, bringing the funk to your funk! I have given the thought of officially forming the company 3NINE two years later in hopes of releasing a whole range of designs from shirts and shoes to accessories and stickers. It didn’t turn out too well having lost almost a grand from purchasing bamboo phone covers for a phone that went outdated just the following season after.
3NINE has completed close to 50 unique pairs of sneakers since, plus a couple of customized accessories including caps, pouches and belts and various other graphic design jobs under here and there. Many of which were requests from mutual friends/word of mouth. It has provided me with a new angle to what was initially just a hobby and a learning experience from a solo-preneur perspective to both the art and business world. 3NINE is not just some homegrown trend-trailing fashion line but a living proof to for many other friends and family members following that a simple skill or craft can branch out to many other fields and open many exciting opportunities to meet and learn about each and every unique individual and to be able to adapt and adopt a range of thoughts, ideas and interests and transform it into a wearable piece of art; Artwear. Why the name '3NINE' ? Based on a truly special number me and my family share. the number nine and three has not only been a reoccurring number in moments of epiphany but It has been a number that evoked serendipity, synchronicity and the element and change and unpredictability amidst the cyclical system and the mundane.
