The inspiration for the capsule collection is concrete. As skaters use the city as their concrete playground, a shop like X21 is shaped by its urban concrete environment. Much like New York, Rotterdam has a reputation as a concrete jungle: rough, tough and in-your-face, but also a never-give-up fighting spirit.

I was inspired by 2Pac’s  poem bundle  “The rose that grew from concrete” and took that as a metaphor for people growing up in Rotterdam; fighting the status quo and finding their way to develop and succeed in life.

We asked poet Dean Bowen  to write a poem based on the artwork which we printed on the front.
The artwork on the back consist of the HUF logo as a concrete foundation where the roses struggle to develop and grow around the established structures to blossom at their peak. Unfortunately, not all the flowers blossom; the fallen leaves at the bottom represent the fallen warriors we have lost along the way.

We’ve asked our dear friend, Rotterdam’s finest photographer Stacii Samidin, to translate our vision into a short movie. Dean Bowen recites his own poem as the backdrop for scenically imagery mixed with some of the beautiful souls of our beloved city.