Storm Freerun Clothing

Here at Farang HQ we care about a great many things. One of those things is fashion. We love to look at styles and trends in the world that help to carve out an identity for different groups, particularly in our very own discipline. However we feel it’s ironic that a sport that prides itself on personal expression and creativity in it’s movement, doesn’t have nearly the same depth and diversity when it comes to a sense of fashion for itself. Quite the contrary, we seem to be coming up with increasingly unoriginal ways to put the same unaltered logos on the same boring cuts in the same over the top colors. How many times have you rocked up to a jam to witness a bunch of guys dressed like a group of Teletubbies (or whatever Saturday morning kids special you grew up watching)?

We believe that the best way forward for Freerunners is to progress in multiple facets. In our movement, in our thinking, and in the way we present ourselves. Everything that tells the world who we are. This section is where we’ll share with you what WE think deserves recognition. As a place to spotlight our favorite gear in the world of Freerun fashion.

Our first pick is none other then Storm Freerun. These guys first exploded on to the scene in August of 2010, releasing a teaser entitled “Storm Freerun – The Calm Before”. Invidually all members had been around in the freerun world for many years, but this video introduced the group as an elite team of some of UK’s finest freerunners in a cinematic way that had never been demonstrated before. After much anticipation, on the 17th of November 2010 Storm released their first video Storm Freerun vol.1 and quickly became a viral hit.

Apart from the amazing tricks and beautiful cinematography, it wasn’t hard to notice the slightly unorthodox, if not deliberate, fashion style that was displayed by the guys. In particular from team members Jan Barcikowski and Tim “Livewire” Shieff.

Jan wearing short cut jeans and a ridiculously sized tank top which once you get over the initial shock it’s not that unpleasant.

Tim changing it up from the typical loose fit tracky’s and choosing tighter more fashionable pants, and we think it lookes DOPE! It takes a real man to shop for pants out of the women’s section.

For years the typical freerun fashion has always been the generic black or grey track pants and a black T-shirt or tank top, and it’s not hard to understand why. The first generation of Parkour and Freerunning atheletes rocked that dark and dirty look and made that shit look cool! The look became part of the myth of what a real practitioner was suppose dress like. We were (and still are) hugely influenced by David Belle and many others, who wore this style of clothing in some of the original videos released on the internet. Naturally people wanted to copy his style which led to what most of us wear today. And in twenty year almost nothing has challenged this dominant style. Not really, or at least not in a significant way.

Enter Storm Clothing

Storm are bringing it up a notch now. Not content with just decking themselves out, but they are now also producing clothing for their recently announced online store. So far there are only a couple of items available, but rumour has it that Jan is currently working hard on some new designs. There is one shirt they annouced with their first season of clothing that really hits the spot we us. The Dame De’Luck T-Shirt.

We can all relate to the signifcance of Lisses in our sport and we all had those dreams of climbing to the top of the great Dame and we beleive this T-Shirt was perfectly designed to capture some of that spirit.

So then we are left with the question: Can we change the fashion of Freerunning and do we want too?
Can we have a unique style, which is universally recognized as freerunning fashion? A sense of fashion that we’d be proud to hold onto even after we are done with training for the day?

Of course we can, and we think Storm Clothing is a step in the right direction.

Have a look at what the guys are up to here and tell us what you think about Freerunning Fashion in the comments:
www.stormfreerunlondon.com

Tags: clothing, fashion, freerunning, livewire, parkour, team farang, tf