Simple design. Let the swagger do the talking.

Simple Swagg was started in January 2012 by Ristell Guarin, a dancer from Cebu who wanted a brand that looked like the crews he grew up with.

It launched with an event, not a lookbook: Battle at the Streets, Cebu’s first hip-hop dance showdown, held at SM City Cebu with an inter-school and an open category. Part of the proceeds went to iLearners Inc. The tees on sale that night were the first run.

Within a year the flagship moved to Raintree Mall on F. Ramos Street, a stall opened at V. Mapa in Manila, and Battle at the Streets came back for a second edition with Loonie and Ron Henley flying in for the Cebuano crowd.

The idea has stayed the same since. Keep the design simple. Print it heavy. Make it for people who show up: the dancers, the rappers, the kids at the back of the cinema who came for the battle and left with a shirt.

Today we make graphic tees and embroidered caps in small runs out of Cebu City, Philippines. Everything is designed here, printed and stitched by people we know, and shipped anywhere in the Philippines.