Jeff Staple Talks Rizzoli Book, 25 Years of Staple
● The fashion and graphic designer is rounding out his brand's 25th year with a new book that gives insight into his career and the streetwear market.
Jeff Staple is closing out the 25th anniversary year of his Staple streetwear brand with the release of a new Rizzoli book.
Titled “Jeff Staple: Not Just Sneakers,” the book gives insight into Staple’s storied career in the streetwear industry, starting off from the fashion and graphic designer’s childhood and focusing on many of the highlights and major collaborations he’s embarked on since founding Staple in 1997.
“In the beginning, it was very painful because it is essentially taking my life and figuring out how to compartmentalize it, which is weird because life isn’t meant to be compartmentalized,” Staple said about the process of putting the book together. “Everyone’s journey is unique and intertwined. It’s kind of like a spiderweb, right? And now you’re asked to take that spiderweb and chop it up into digestible chapters. That’s kind of a challenging thing to do.”
While Staple’s book is coming out during his brand’s 25th anniversary year, he said the release date is a coincidence. He stated he started conversations with Rizzoli three years ago after writing the forward for his friend, designer Hiroshi Fujiwara’s Rizzoli book, and ultimately started working on his own book during the beginning of the pandemic.
Staple, who enlisted Brent Rollins to art direct the book, started the process by looking over his archive of illustrations and notes from his childhood through his career. The book contains many of these sketches, showing insight into Staple’s thought process and how he established his successful ventures in the streetwear market.
“Thankfully, I am a packrat and I have everything saved,” he said. “Like every sketchbook and notepad that I ever drew in, so I had all of this incredible artefact. I even found the notebook that had the line where I said, ‘What if I name the brand something like Staple?’ Going back to all of those archives was really cool.”
Staple stated the book is broken up into four sections. The first spans from his childhood to right before he founded Staple, featuring sketches and notes from his childhood journals. Section two then delves into the business and section three focuses on Reed Space, the Lower East Side boutique Staple opened in 2001. The last section dives into all of the many collaborations Staple has embarked on in its 25 years, including with the likes of Virgil Alboh, Futura, Jerry Lorenzo, Andre 3000 and many others.
When asked what it was like going over his archives, Staple described the experience as “bittersweet.”
“One of the reasons why I never seriously tried to get a book is because I feel like making a book is almost like a retirement thing to do,” he said. “It’s almost like, ‘I’m done, here’s my book.’ And I’m not done, but I think Rizzoli was always one of the dream places and publisher partners that if I were to ever put out a book, man it would be awesome to have a Rizzoli book.”
In addition to the Rizzoli book — which releases on Tuesday and retails for $55 — Staple worked with the publisher to create a merchandise collection that consists of a hoodie, T-shirt and book bag.
Looking forward to the next 25 years of the brand, Staple plans on staying true, consistent and on the pulse of what’s happening in the streetwear market.
“I think one of the secrets to how I’ve been able to build what I’ve built is staying consistent since 1997,” Staple said.
“The one stroke of luck, the one big bang moment that I had was understanding exactly what I wanted to do and my brand’s vision and direction in 1997. That’s a very fortunate thing because I have friends who are in their 40s now who are still trying to find the thing they love to do, so I was fortunate that I found that thing, but once I found it, I was ultra consistent on it.”