Michael Lau: Gardener 10th Anniversary | Hypebeast

Interview with Michael Lau

Hey Michael, first off congratulations on Gardener’s 10th Anniversary. For those unaware, what exactly is Gardener and how did Gardener begin?

Thanks a lot… Gardener began back in 1998. I had a friend at Touch Magazine who asked me if I would be interested in having my own comic column at the magazine. At the time, I found the whole realm of street culture pretty fascinating and I was inspired by the likes of LMF (popular now defunct Hip-Hop group from Hong Kong), tattoo culture and skateboarders. This essentially formed the basis of Gardener.

What does the 10th Anniversary of Gardener mean to you?

The 10th Anniversary is ultimately very important and meaningful to me. I don’t think its that easy for any toy franchise to make it to 10 years these days, given that the whole designer toy market is relatively saturated and many toys out there aren’t doing all that well. On a personal level, I think it brought light to the vinyl toy scene. Gardener really helped launch me to that next level, if it wasn’t for Gardner, I wouldn’t be here today. This 10th anniversary is something important to me as I can help educate the younger generation regarding what Gardener represents as a lot of my first fans have now grown older.

What have you got planned for the 10th anniversary of Gardener?

For Gardener’s 10th Anniversary, we have a series of things planned. They include a limited edition shoe with Nike SB, a skateboard, limited edition figures with entities like The Hundreds, De La Barracuda and Slam X Hype and a book which includes sketches, layouts and the whole design process behind Gardener. The book goes into detail about many of my projects such as the conceptualization of toys as well as photography of my previous releases. The Nike collaboration involves Nike SB and the Zoom Janoski signature model. If you recall, I did a previous wood-inspired Nike SB Dunk Low back in 2006 but this time around I went with a lighter tone and a stronger wood texture. The concept of the trim was based on that of a skatedeck with the different wood tones. All in all, the Janoski model is a nice simple shoe, which was a pleasure to work with.