4A x Fingercroxx Eric Kot and Wallace Interview | Hypebeast

With a name that resonates throughout Hong Kong’s creative community, Eric Kot is a man who has held many different hats over his career. His involvement has spanned the movie and music industry as well as radio and design with this most recent project seeing him serve as a designer behind this upcoming collaboration collection involving his brand 4A with fellow Hong Kong entity Fingercroxx. We caught up with both Eric Kot and Fingercroxx’s Wallace as they speak regarding this partnership. The whole collection will be available starting October 31st at select Double Park, Exit and Fingercroxx locations.

Interview with ERIC KOT (4A)

Hey Eric, how are things going? For those not familiar with 4A, could you provide some insight into what 4A represents?

4A to me is sort of a creative movement. I wouldn’t want to consider it entirely a fashion label. It’s really more like a chance for me to do projects and products that I truly enjoy and appreciate. We started to gain traction when I began sponsoring events and would subsequently see the commemorative products I designed being re-sold. But it got to the point where I didn’t want to see people spending thousands of HK dollars on my products so I decided to start producing my own line which eventually led to the opening of a store in 2007.

How did this 4A and Fingercroxx collaboration come about?
I’ve been long time friends with Wallace and his brother Junkie. Together we have a ton of mutual friends and contacts so we’ve always maintained close ties. For quite awhile we were in discussion about teaming up and collaborating on something but nothing really materialized until the proper platform came about with Fingercroxx.

With this collaboration with Fingercroxx, what sort of worries if any did you have partnering with a relatively big commercial brand like Fingercroxx?
I really approached this partnership with a sense of confidence. For me a collaborative platform is a chance to showcase something new. Together 4A and Fingercroxx share different demographics. Fingercroxx’s core audience resides somewhere around the 15-25 age group while 4A’s target demographic is a little more mature between the ages of 25-30. It was an interesting parallel when we came together, Fingercroxx is known more for wide-scale (in Hong Kong) releases while we focus on keeping the distribution much tighter with 4A. However nevertheless this chance brought on the opportunity to test out different angles including how my products would be received at a lower-price point and hitting different markets… we definitely had to meet at the middle or make compromises on both ends but ultimately I pushed to ensure quality was exercised for certain pieces such as the windbreaker and messenger bag.

What was the design language behind this collection?
I wanted to go a relatively conservative route in my designs with outdoor inspirations. The subtle approach isn’t too far off what I usually do. I usually want to evoke a certain sense of timelessness in my designs cause it’s a little reflective of my personality but due to the collaborative nature, I wanted to preserve the essence of Fingercroxx as well. I did want to focus a lot on the quality in both the product itself as well as the packaging.

Overall, how was your experience participating in this collaboration?
Yeh it was a really good experience. I think both Fingercroxx and myself came away with some newly developed skills and as always, when things aren’t always on the business-tip, it does become a bit more fun. When you’re in a perpetual state of repetition, things do get boring… so looking forward this has sort of piqued my interest in planning out my next move, my next goals and new directions.

What’s your favorite item in the collection?
I’d have to say the windbreaker. It also made me think how am I going to design my next one… we’ll see how it goes since there’s always room for improvement.

Any upcoming plans? Maybe something else with Fingercroxx?
I guess it depends on the feedback of this project… hopefully if things work out we can come together for a second part and so on…