Speed kills. Or, 'More chi!' Or, 'What do hundreds of man hours look like when compressed into 43 seconds?' How much willpower does one need to run a small independent business in today's globally networked industry? Adventures in renegade filmmaking. Kawajiri. Scott. The long-term effects of Métal Hurlant on pre-teen minds. Jet-lag. Cultural cross-pollination. Adverse reactions to marketing. Punk Rock. Wendy O. Williams. DIY. Entry level consumer electronics platforms as creative enablers. Kung-fu. Pre-90's metal typographics. Science fiction urbanism. FPS. BPM. Killer bees. Conviction.


Your pieces all tell a story – about the technology, their functionality, the details – and you tell a story with your clothing. What's the plot?

The plot is your decision, actually. It all comes down to the fact that each of us has to decide, as an individual, what the plot is going to be. What will you do? Why? Where will you go? Who will you meet? We have no idea... But Acronym would like to help, and that's why we build everything the way we do. That's why we seek out the best materials. Why we partner with technology leaders like W.L. Gore and Associates. Why we spend time perfecting fit and mechanics. Ease and order of operation. Technique. Style. We want you to enable you to do whatever you want. Even if that's an impossible ideal – we're still going to give it a shot. Acronym aims to never underestimate the people that wear it.


How important is storytelling for a brand like Acronym?

It's paramount. Beyond its formal and functional properties, every single product is also an anchor for history, associations, influences, culture... It's all code and context. As a designer, one has to be aware of this when working. Even attempting to have no narrative will result in a narrative. And narrative is, in the end, also a tool in the performance toolbox. Style is also a function. If you want to understand telling this kind of story, may we suggest reading another? William Gibson's novel Zero History does a far better job of examining this than we ever could.


You followed up on your first 'story' the ACR KIT 001, which was developed over ten years ago, with four new SETS. What was the concept then, what is the concept now?

Both KIT-001 and SET-1 > 4 are about concentration. Fillerlessness. When we began we had limited resources. There simply wasn't enough money to finance an entire collection the way we had envisioned it. To get around this roadblock we switched the ratios. Instead of one idea spread over many products, we took many ideas and fused them into a single unit. Years later, it's kind of the same situation. With the difference that we've put everything that we've learned in the interim into the new items (the retail prices of the new sets are, for example, all *less* than the wholesale price of the original Kit).

In both cases we are/were also pushing limits. Not simply 'packaging' things together, but looking at the format of a set as an enabler to do things that can't be done with traditional stand alone products. Things as mundane as packing and readiness for travel. Or entirely new ways to construct and 'operate' pockets (as with the swing-wing 3A-MF1 in SET-3). We're always trying to do things that haven't been done before. Learning and exploring being some of our primary motivators.


How would you describe the different characters that the four different sets were developed for?

They're not so much different characters as they are different tools a myriad of individuals might use. We aimed to get as much diversity and variation out of as few items as possible. The sets have also been designed to combine and work together. If there's a central characteristic common to all of them, it's speed, and therefore also lightness.


Acronym apparel and accessories work as a system. With these kits you are emphasizing this concept even further. What would be the next step, what other technologies could you see working with your systems?

Conceptually it's very easy for us to come up with an Acronym version of just about anything. Practically however, realizing these ideas can be very difficult. It's for this reason that we're very pragmatic in our approach to developing things. We're not interested in concepts for concepts sake. We want real world relevance. Feedback. Objectivity. In-field use and abuse. We want to push the envelope, but we also want to be able to fold it, stamp it, and mail it out into the world so people can wear it and use it. Any new technologies we adopt will have to pass through this filter of expediency.


And finally, back to the videos... In 'Sarnai' we saw a girl as the main character in the Acronym story. Can we expect more from that direction?

Let's just say that 'the girls' have all been hard at work on new and interesting things... Keep this frequency clear.