Glorifying Mediocrity

In the modern age of whatever the fuck menswear is, dad sneakers, hoodies, and gorpcore, few brands generate as consistent a rumbling as JJJJound. From tonal New Balances to streetwear YouTube’s favorite sweatsuits, to a green bicycle, few brands provide as interesting a case study into fashion’s shift. And, just to spoil things, I hate it.

Started in 2006 as what was basically a Tumblr blog pre-Tumblr. It was a fairly simple moodboard of whatever images the founder, Justin Saunders, found appealing at the time. And this is good, because few things get me as impassioned as criticizing a moodboard. In the last 2-3 years of JJJJound hype, brand histories and interviews have loved to focus on the moodboard’s minimalism. It makes sense because that’s the brand JJJJound has ultimately built but I do feel it’s not an altogether accurate representation. I will admit, a portion of this criticism is based more off the brand’s Instagram because scrolling back on the website, the majority of the images are no longer able to be viewed, sloppy. But my ultimate point is that the minimalism, though prevalent, is by no means exclusive. That minimalism is diluted by things like Apple watches, memes, and early 2000s perversion. What JJJJound, in my opinion, is doing is exhibiting an expert example of the death of moodboards. Moodboards are about inspiration, saying a thousand words with one picture, hosting images of babes in bikinis doesn’t say anything except that you’re horny. Just about every Tumblr on the planet has fallen into this trap, a new generation of Instagram moodboards are going to do it, and JJJJound is right in the middle. I refuse to identify an entity when its imagery is now no different from everyone else’s. At the most base level, my problem is that I look at JJJJound and I feel nothing. Nothing is said, I can discern nothing about Saunders’ taste outside of a penchant for forest green, edgy slogans, and whatever the fuck the millennial aesthetic is.

And now, we get to the reason the mood has suffered so much in the past few years: the product. To some degree, I like what the brand has to offer. I love sweatshirts, I love forest green, and those mesh shorts fucking rocked. I get it, some of the t-shirts are single stitch, and sweatshirt names are based off of the decade fit they’re replicating, but there does seem to be a certain arrogance about it. I get it, devotion to craftsmanship blah blah blah but frankly I think the world has enough grey sweatshirts. And to churn out products of a lighter weight compared to some offerings from Kellsport or Camber but at twice the cost? I’m not so sure about that one. Though let’s be honest, 98% of JJJJound customers aren’t concerned about textile weight or where the product is made or even if the hoodie they bought is replicating the fit or a hoodie from 1970, they just care about that little tag that says “JJJJound.” We’ve built up JJJJound as some tribute to timelessness, despite being the brand run by a guy who still occasionally posts Yeezy 350s on his Instagram. It’s no surprise to see a JJJJound beside an awful Louis Vuitton weekender. The customer doesn’t care about story or quality, they care about hype — precisely why no one cared about made in USA, resoleable sneakers but are happy to spend $600 on Vans or triple up on Reeboks despite neither having much of anything to do with quality. And I really would like to mention that one coaches jacket. It was what? $250? Sure, it was Japanese nylon but made in China. And when one homie dared to question that decision on Instagram, his comment was deleted and he was blocked. I’m not going to push the tired narrative that Chinese manufacturing can’t be great, but whether you’re Visvim or JJJJound, I don’t want to hear that it is anything but a cost-cutting decision. And blocking people for pointing out the fact that cost-cutting is in apposition to an image of no compromise quality is childish.

I love a good basic, I’ve spent far too much on boring black jeans. But can we please stop pretending JJJJound is anything special for their basics? The only reason it’s glorified is because it’s popular amongst hypebeasts who have “outgrown” colorful sneakers and Supreme but are still too dog-brained to actually think for themselves when building a wardrobe. It’s 2015 and Common Projects all over again. It’s without personality.