User:Davystone12/sandbox

Michael Cherman

Michael Cherman is an American streetwear designer born in New York City while being raised in both New York and San Diego, CA. He sought to create designer streetwear to depict his New York roots. He started off at a young age making t-shirts out of his parent’s garage, soon after slinging those t-shirts on his high school campus out of the trunk of his car he realized this was going to be his life path. He then proceeded to make big accomplishments within the streetwear fashion industry.

Social Media/Website

Personal Media: https://www.instagram.com/mikecherman/

Business Media: https://www.instagram.com/chinatownmarket/ https://www.instagram.com/icnysport/

Website: https://marketmarketmarket.com/ https://icnysport.com/

Life and Education

Cherman spent many afternoons with his dad as a kid – think of it as taking the most in-demand references and viral moments in popular culture and mashing them together. Having dropped out of Parsons, via landing a job at the Nike customization store, Cherman got his start with a batch of bootleg shirts as he couldn’t afford the stuff he wanted to wear. Sampling some of Canal Street’s finest, including “Fuck you you fucking fuck” and “Thank you have a nice day,” among the merch was also the now infamous Frank Ocean/Nike Swoosh mash-up T-shirt, (a reference to the Frank Ocean song “Nikes”) all of which were displayed in a booth during the ComplexCon trade show.

Career

Chinatown Market is far from Cherman’s first foray into fashion. His first venture was Newcastle clothing where he just made his own brand and designs. In 2014, at the young age of 24, Cherman had already made a name for himself with his previous endeavour, ICNY, and even managed to secure himself a spot in that year’s HYPEBEAST 100. Surprisingly that was just the tip of the iceberg as far as Cherman’s early fashion contributions are concerned, with most of his work and influence going down in secret behind the scenes – although we have Cherman to thank for much of KITH’s branding, including the box logo and ‘Just Us’ designs, to name a few. Still, while ICNY was, without question, a streetwear success born from a need for innovation, it didn’t have a happy ending, at least for Cherman. Put simply, in Cherman’s words, he got ‘fucked’ by an investor and ultimately lost control of the brand he had started from scratch. With such a bitter ending to, what seemed like, a fashion-industry fairytale, it’s no wonder Cherman went looking for a reason to smile when he returned to the market with his next venture: Chinatown Market. The brand launch in late 2016 and was pitched as seeking to capture the charm of New York’s famous – or, depending on your perspective, infamous – Canal Street shopping district. The brand’s debut collection comprised of bootleg pop culture references, along with nods to its NYC inspiration and consumer culture, including the brand’s now signature use of the classic trademark Smiley face logo, as inspired by its use on shopping bags throughout the city. Now he has a team of 16 based out of our office in DTLA and continuing to grow and look for ways now to weather this coronavirus storm.

Notable Collaborations

Boths Cherman's companies ICNY and Chinatown Market have had huge collaborations with many companies, influencers, athletes, ETC. These are some of his most notable collaborations and has many more in the works.


 * 1) Crocs
 * 2) Chief Keef
 * 3) Erykah Badu
 * 4) Cole Haan
 * 5) Lacoste
 * 6) Converse
 * 7) Adidas
 * 1) Lacoste
 * 2) Converse
 * 3) Adidas
 * 1) Converse
 * 2) Adidas
 * 1) Adidas