Anti Social Social Club : How ASSC became too big for its britches
How ASSC became too big for its britches
The wavy Anti Social Social Club logo has become a streetwear staple in the past 5 years, embodying a darker message that continues to resonate with youth around the globe. The brand keys in on expressing less attractive emotions such as depression and anxiety, a trend that mirrors the current popularity of emo-rap in hiphop. Neek Lurk (born Andrew Buenaflor) is the internet guru behind ASSC & it’s lonely message.
Neek was born and raised in Las Vegas, where he developed as a prominent figure in the early internet-era streetwear scene, eventually working as social media and brand manager at Stussy, Supreme and The Hundreds. It was in 2014 though, that Neek would go through a jagged breakup with his girlfriend and create the first ASSC T-Shirt that read “I miss you” along with the iconic logo. Originally only 12 people bought the photo-shopped t-shirt, though Neek admired expressing his cynicism and decided to create a hoodie and several other pieces for leisure, while moving to LA. With no significant intent to create a fashion label, ASSC was launched in 2015 and would miraculously find its way to underground style-tycoon Kanye West within weeks. Once the likes of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian sported the brand (the latter of whom wore an ASSC hat through the entirety of NY Fashion week), Neek & ASSC were cashing a one way ticket to the top.
Unfortunately though, where ASSC is quite strong in many creativity aspects, it lacks entirely in physical infrastructure. The company is solely operated by Neek Lurk to this day, selling and shipping clothes through his website. As one may expect, this type of business model isn’t very congruent with the popularity of Kanye West and Neek was overwhelmed with orders within weeks. To this day, ASSC & Lurk are public enemy #1 in many aspects of street wear fashion, failing to ship orders in a timely fashion if at all to customers. A report by Fupping revealed that due to ASSC’s poor customer service, 35% of its income in 2018 was absorbed by the counterfeit market.
