Along with an overhauled industrial sector, the occupying American GI's brought over their blue collar workwear clothes and more specifically, their denim. Many Japanese took note, leading to traditional Americana clothes becoming a staple among Japanese youth at the time. The textile wave was born, a movement today called Ametora which translates literally to "American Traditional"

Kapital's Toshikiyo Hirata caught this swell in the mid 80's combining this Ametora with centuries old Japanese peasant traditions for making and mending clothes like Shashkio And Boro patchwork. His work feels well worn and lived in, raw in all the right ways.

In a way the beat up and battle scarred pieces that Kapital produces are a perfect match for the worn in by necessity skate clothes, and their laid back and playful energy was a great match for Chris Chann. We decided we wanted to pair them up for a feature, and talk to Chris a little about what he does.  

Coincidentally after the shoot, we discovered that Japan is going through somewhat of a skateboarding renaissance, Not only hosting the first olympic skate competition with Japan's Yuto Horigome, Sakura Yosozumi and Momiji Nishiya taking home gold medals, but Japanese kids all over are beginning to make their own waves.

Along with an overhauled industrial sector, the occupying American GI's brought over their blue collar workwear clothes and more specifically, their denim. Many Japanese took note, leading to traditional Americana clothes becoming a staple among Japanese youth at the time. The textile wave was born, a movement today called Ametora which translates literally to "American Traditional"

Kapital's Toshikiyo Hirata caught this swell in the mid 80's combining this Ametora with centuries old Japanese peasant traditions for making and mending clothes like Shashkio And Boro patchwork. His work feels well worn and lived in, raw in all the right ways.

In a way the beat up and battle scarred pieces that Kapital produces are a perfect match for the worn in by necessity skate clothes, and their laid back and playful energy was a great match for Chris Chann. We decided we wanted to pair them up for a feature, and talk to Chris a little about what he does.  

Coincidentally after the shoot, we discovered that Japan is going through somewhat of a skateboarding renaissance, Not only hosting the first olympic skate competition with Japan's Yuto Horigome, Sakura Yosozumi and Momiji Nishiya taking home gold medals, but Japanese kids all over are beginning to make their own waves.

First off tell me a little about yourself

I grew up in Echo Park, LA. I went to school for kinesiology - I've been skating since I was 5 years old... I started focusing on the social media stuff about halfway through college. When I was in high school I used to try to do like... funny skits with my friends, and then I started focusing on the skateboarding side of content when I was in college.

At the end of college I was applying to grad school, that's when a lot of the skating video stuff started really taking off, and I decided I have to go one way or the other... because either way is a huge time commitment. I pretty much went with skating and I've been doing that since.

Would you consider yourself more of a skateboarder who youtubes or a youtuber who skateboards?

I think since the start i've been a skater that makes content, over time it's definitely shifted though. As i've gotten older and gotten more into the creative space. When I was younger I just skated and filmed skating- I didn't really care to be creative or anything, I didn't really grow up as a "creative" person... I just wanted to skate. I guess i liked making funny videos when I was younger,

What does skate culture in LA mean to you?

Growing up in LA it feels like there's two different scenes here, there's the scene that I grew up with just like my local friends skating, and then as I got better and older and more into skating it became more of a like international hub of skating, and I've met so many friends here from like, Japan, Brazil, places all over Europe, and I realized wow, all these people are coming here to LA just to skate, so it is a huge hub of skate culture.

What is your favorite place you've skated outside of LA? 

Definitely Barcelona, It blew my mind away.... I was so like, skateboardingly culture shocked. I always thought growing up that LA was like the best place for skating... and then when I went to Europe I went to Barcelona and I realized Oh my God.. the architecture here is sick and there's a skate spot at, like, every single train station. I remember finding all these little spots, we were cruising around I remember thinking... "are we not gonna stop here? This would be like the best spot in LA" and everyone would be like.... "oh no that's just like.... on the way to the spot" ... but that's just like heaven to me- if I could do something all the time it would be to just travel and skate, that's the dream.

First off tell me a little about yourself

I grew up in Echo Park, LA. I went to school for kinesiology - I've been skating since I was 5 years old... I started focusing on the social media stuff about halfway through college. When I was in high school I used to try to do like... funny skits with my friends, and then I started focusing on the skateboarding side of content when I was in college.

At the end of college I was applying to grad school, that's when a lot of the skating video stuff started really taking off, and I decided I have to go one way or the other... because either way is a huge time commitment. I pretty much went with skating and I've been doing that since.

Would you consider yourself more of a skateboarder who youtubes or a youtuber who skateboards?

I think since the start i've been a skater that makes content, Over time it's definitely shifted though. As i've gotten older and gotten more into the creative space. When I was younger I just skated and filmed skating- I didn't really care to be creative or anything, I didn't really grow up as a "creative" person... I just wanted to skate. I guess i liked making funny videos when I was younger,

What does skate culture in LA mean to you?

Growing up in LA it feels like there's two different scenes here, there's the scene that I grew up with just like my local friends skating, and then as I got better and older and more into skating it became more of a like international hub of skating, and I've met so many friends here from like, Japan, Brazil, places all over Europe, and I realized wow, all these people are coming here to LA just to skate, so it is a huge hub of skate culture.

What is your favorite place you've skated outside of LA? 

Definitely Barcelona, It blew my mind away.... I was so like, skateboardingly culture shocked. I always thought growing up that LA was like the best place for skating... and then when I went to Europe I went to Barcelona and I realized Oh my God.. the architecture here is sick and there's a skate spot at, like, every single train station. I remember finding all these little spots, we were cruising around I remember thinking... "are we not gonna stop here? This would be like the best spot in LA" and everyone would be like.... "oh no that's just like.... on the way to the spot" ... but that's just like heaven to me- if I could do something all the time it would be to just travel and skate, that's the dream.