Lions Den Interview!

I went to Lions Den last weekend and conducted an interview with the amazing people there. As you all know, they are a new sneaker and streetwear store that opened in LA not too long ago. I am really glad to have had the chance talking to people that is so passion of what they are doing. Keep reading, and you may have a chance of getting a FREE cool shirt from Lions Den!

H: HYPEBEAST R: Raymond S: Sun

H: Introduce yourself, and tell us a little bit about your background before opening Lions Den?

R: My name is Raymond Tseng, I was born and raised all over in LA/626. Eastside! Went to school at USC. After school, I worked all my life at random odd jobs, including Earthlink, bartended, and did some photo editing jobs for People Magazine last year. After all, I am one of the store owners of Lions Den.

S: Sun An, and i run a multi-disciplinary studio with the name of Hellobye. We are accomplished in art directing, design, directing live action commercials and animated music videos, branding, consulting and making art all kinds of design works. My clients includes Colette, Arkitip, Nike, Aiwa, Virgin Airlines, JVC/Victor, MTV2, VH1, ubiquity, brutus magazine, Nylon Japan, and Leo Burnett Canada, Wieden Kennedy Tokyo and more. I also produced music for my own album (coming soon!!!) and for singers, and play at some live shows in LA and Tokyo. Lasy year I was working in japan at Wieden Kennedy Tokyo for a while.

Left: Raymond Right: Sun

H: What did the name “Lions Den” comes from? How did you come up with that?

R: We got a lot of flack for the name at first. All our friends were busting on us like hey isn’t that some UFC shit or how it sounded like a 70’s gay club. Rowr. But, really we just want to represent the hell out of LA. All of us grew up here and just feel like we are so misrepresented. When we grew up in the 90’s LA it was like the Lions Den. Every kid was a gangster, every Chinese kid was in WC, every Mexican kid was in 18th Street, every black kid was a Blood or Crip, etc. We want this space to be like our territory you know even though it’s not like that anymore or we’re not even like that anymore. And the Chinese neon light sign means “Money, Power, Respect” that comes from a rap song. Because these things are all about the gangster.

H: What got you interested in starting Lion Dens?

S: When Raymond approached me talking about his plan about the store, Iwas more taken back by his personal story and determination to start it up than anything else. Even to this day I respect his vision because it came from his heart not his wallet. It is a genuine venture, and I was interested because I wanted the concept to be known. Everything makes sense and everything is real about this place and that is what is keeping me interested.

R: This is related to the top question, but I’ll expand a bit. Just how LA gets a bad rap. LA is just a weird city because with a city like NY you got all these people that want to live there and always talk about how much they love NY and how bad they want to live there. For LA, you got that same aspect of mad people from all over moving here, but they all hate LA. You got all these people who just go on and on about how great their hometowns are and how much they hate the Lakers; how fake LA people are, etc. There is no real voice representing LA. Shows like Entourage just piss the hell out of me. Show produced by Marky Mark trying to tell everyone else how fake LA is? I’m like is this dude for reals? Keeping it real Marky Mark!

Also, in LA the majority of the subculture/streetwear scene is run by NY heads. And I love NY scene, but I feel LA is really lacking it’s own voice. I do see some brands here and there that come out of LA too, but it just feels to me that its just parroting NY graphics or extension of that. It’s kind of like East Coast/West Coast rap to me. Rap started over in NY too but West Coast rap was its own thing that nobody paid attention to for a long ass time. It started out on the East, but on the West we made it into our own thing. I feel LA streetwear has its own aesthetic and culture, but they need a voice. Also a lot of the scene is based on the past. I respect all the dudes that put it down like Futura, Stash, etc. They represent what was cool though to them in the 70’s or 80’s the tagging graphics and all that. And I’m trying to do what was cool to me and my friends when we grew up in the 90’s. In LA tagging wasn’t that huge, it is all about gangs, cross colours, party crews, Asians with bang cuts all that scene. I wanna put that stuff out there in a cool way.

And the last thing is, I love hip hop, but it seems to me that all stores here are sucking hip hop dick. It’s like alright already. We get that you guys like rap. Do you really have to put it on everything?

H: Lions Den opening was just about a month ago, and already a big hit on the Internet, how did you feel about it?

S: Actually I didn’t know about that. but I think thats great!

R: That’s really cool because we didn’t even really know. Since we opened up a couple weeks ago I’ve just been straight hitting up the conventions, Magic, Pool, Project, ASR, Agenda, etc. so haven’t really been in touch with the internet. My other partners in this project all have jobs outside of this so they don’t keep up to date with internet stuff either, but that’s awesome to hear cause I’m always up on those cool sites.

H: Why would you pick this place to start your business, not somewhere near Melrose, Undefeated or Supreme?

R: Yeah we hear that a lot too. The shop is in the cut for a lot of reasons. We felt that all the main stores in LA that represent LA streetwear are located in pretty high end areas. We just wanted to bring it more to the people on a level they could related to. In Chinatown, we are kind of bridging the old and the new cultures with our store. Selling streetwear on the street. We’re right next to a fish market and dirty ass bbq place. Being Asian American, we wanted to represent that we’re Asian too, but we made the store real clean because at the same time we’re American. Finally, this is the real LA. Not Hollywood and all that West LA stuffs. An analogy would be like saying Times Square IS NY, but to people that in NY it’s all about Brooklyn or the Bronx or wherever you grew up in, but not that Times Square shit people seen on tv. That’s how we feel about all that stuff in the Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Westside vicinity.

S: Being in Chinatown says a lot already. It stays very true to the concept of the store since its birth.

H: Are you guys having online store selling our favorites?

R: Very very soon. Next week we’ll have a semi-functional website up. By next month we should have a fully functional online store up. We’re not going to put up everything as we can’t, but we’ll try to have a lot of quality products up. It’s weird when you see the guys that represent streetwear websites at shows buying stuffs. You’re like these suit dudes are dictating urban streetwear scene? Fxxking lame.

S: Yes, real soon!

H: Have you guys been inspired by other stores/ store owners of other heads in the game

R: Wendy Yao of http://oogaboogastore.com/. She’s trying to make mad cash from what she is doing, but to really put stuffs out there and expose to her friends. Trying to change the culture in any little way possible. I’m all about that. And of course Nigo. I know everyone hates on Bathing Ape right now, but I just gotta respect everything he had done. People may not like his clothes as much as before, but to the kind of singlehandedly be such a big force in the market in that short amount of time around ten plus years? I think to just the general public he is the biggest figure in Japanese fashion I can think of.

S: On the Design end, no, not really. Only been honing the concept, going with the gut, focusing on our own ideas, ideals and reasons. All the rest like design execution falls into place after.

H: Let’s talk about something you like, list 3 of your favorite sneakers?

S: White Vans, Nike Air Force 1 High, Nike 180’s

R: I hate to admit it, but I’m just a Nike fiend. Jordan IV, Air Max 90’s, and Cortez’s are probably my faves.

H: List 3 of your favorite brands.

S: Bali Barret, Muji, Comme Des Garcons

R: Cross Colours, Dickies, and Comme Des Garcons even though I don’t own any.

List 3 of your favorite artists.

S: “Ranch” (Harsh Patel, Shail Shah, Chaz Windus, Ahmed), Saiman Chow, RGB6.

R: Sun An, Saiman Chow, Neckface

H: What do you think about us, HypeBeast?

R: I love HYPEBEAST. I love how it feels like it’s just some friends putting up a site without having connects. It’s kind of like what I’m going through with the store. HYPEBEAST might get knocked by other sites sometimes for just being all about sneakers/toys, but I love that. There should have been a site like this awhile ago and I feel HYPEBEAST really has a pulse on what people want news about. It might not be cool to some that HYPEBEAST posts all this stuff about Bathing Ape etc. but that’s what the people want. You guys always get the news first and I don’t know how you guys update so much. Keep up the good work.

S: Its great! Really great to meet you guys.

H: Lastly, future plans. What do you or your store want to do in the future?

S: Personally, I would just want to keep doing what I am doing, like music, design, and travelling for work. Focus on all my projects and only output quality work that fits into my standard not anyone elses. 2006 has tons of project coming up and they are all hush right now but you can always keep updated by visiting my site.

R: We want to put out stuffs from more LA artists. No illustrations on shirts. Some real gangster shit. We’re working on a few things right now. Next month party with Vapors magazine, Grnappletree, and Dimmak Records. After that, we will have something to do with Miss Chinatown LA.

That’s it for the interview. I was glad to meet these guys and really appreciate what their doing. If you guys live around the area, please go and have a look.

Lions Den
711 New High St.
Los Angeles, CA, 90012
213.596.0887

Free T-shirt givaway!!

Answer the following questions and send it to hasejun1985@hypebeast.com, you may get a FREE t-shirt from Lions Den!

1. What did the Chinese neon sign in the store means?
2. What do you want to see the most in-store, or online shop?

Please include your name, shipping address, and size (only M and L available)/style (black or red) of the shirt you wish to have in the email. We will review the winners at 1st October. Please send your answer before 30th September with the topic as “Lions Den Giveaway”. Winner will be picked randomly.