What is OC?
Original Crackage designs combine inspirations of modern technology with organic influences, creating exclusive collections of urban casual wear and accessories. The founder and designer, Wes Woods, has always been attracted to stark lines, stripes, and high contrast colors. The iconic Original Crackage style features complex geometric patterns on simple pieces like the standard T-shirt. This gives an innovative twist to the meaning of modern, while mixing simple with complex. Each design is manufactured in limited quantities, and once it’s made, that same design is never made again, so OC customers can be sure they’re getting something exclusive, original, and unique. The OC crew, like the OC customers, are the trendsetters — the innovators– the coolest and the weirdest of any bunch. And that’s crack.
How did OC start?
First conceptualized fall 2012 in Bowie, Maryland, Wes Woods, the designer and owner, was constantly drawing sketches of T-shirts with bold lines and stripes. Several sketches turned into several manufactured shirts, custom orders for Wes and his closest friends. Those several custom shirts soon turned into a growing demand and a viral buzz for OC apparel that spread through the DMV all the way to New York and even North Carolina, where Wes studied Textiles and Apparel at North Carolina Central University. Through word-of-mouth and appearances at events like New York’s Sneaker Con, DC’s Sneak Attack, and many local fashion shows, OC was on the rise. Fashion freaks of all kinds sought out Wes to be a part of the OC movement in any way possible: from models and makeup artists, to photographers, and trend-setting customers, it seemed everyone wanted to be a part of this fashion movement that was taking the DMV by storm and spreading quickly. Wes sold shirts through the OC Instagram account and shipped them off one-by-one, as fast as he could. As demand grew at such a rapid speed, the need for a website and organized e-commerce grew just as quickly. OriginalCrackage.com was finally launched in 2014.
Why Original Crackage?
At the core of every work of art, your favorite pairs of shoes, and every design, there are lines, shapes, and angels. Most designers use stripes in moderation and obey a repetition that won’t stray from your average horizontally striped shirt. OC designs feature lines, shapes, and angles that go any direction they want to go, take up as much space as they want to take, and are any color they want to be, as if the design elements have minds of their own. This is where the word original comes in. Before there were words like tight, like that, or even cool, there was crack. Especially in the DMV, urban trendsetters use crack to describe something as appealing or stylish. As Wes sees it, lines are the original crackage of design; so it’s only right to chose one of the original words for cool to describe this unique take on fashion.