Here at Skinnydip HQ we love nothing more than a bold, colourful and eye catching design! 

So when we found British tshirt brand Hero & Cape over on Instagram we were instantly in love! Their designs are cool, fun, tongue in cheek and super duper sassy - all things Skinnydip are too! 

We had a chat with founder Nik all about the amazing London brand! 

Hero&Cape started back in 2011. I had graduated with a degree in Automotive Design and worked at studios and freelance in the car design world. After a couple of years I figured it just wasn’t for me and it just wasn’t as creative or stimulating as I thought it would be! Which is a shame as its all I ever wanted to do growing up! So I set my sights on something more dynamic and exciting, and Hero&Cape seemed like the perfect way for me to be creative!

 The name reflects that relationship between the customer and the unique print they are wearing, like a superhero and their cape, once that cape goes on it feels special and is unique to them!

Our inspiration comes from everywhere and anywhere! Mainly the 90’s, being a child growing up in the maddest decade ever! I try to take inspiration from that era but think of ways to make it work in a contemporary way so it doesn’t feel retro.

Food and drink is another big inspiration as well, as its so relatable and so fun to work with. Its so fun to take a food or drink product and try to put that Hero&Cape twist on it to some up with an illustration or a print. As a proud British brand, we also try to use that British cheekiness as inspiration as well!

Brand highlight so far would have to be seeing Zayn Malik wearing our Smiley Print T-shirt! Being contacted by the 1D stylist, Caroline Watson and her team was exciting enough (there was a lot of OMGing in the office that afternoon!) but to actually see Zayn in the T-shirt was a totally awesome but pretty surreal moment!

The whole process from idea to product is done by hand as ethically as possible. All our prints started life in pen and paper in a little brown sketchbook! I’m pretty old school when it comes to designing so the process always starts on paper! From there its developed before being digitised and the printing process is again, all done by hand. So each colour on the T-shirts is pulled manually and there is no machinery involved in the process other than a computer and a scanner! We are really proud of that, and its something that we think sets us apart. All our garments are sourced from Fair Wear Foundation approved vendors and we use organic cotton wherever possible. The inks we use are also environmentally friendly waterbed inks.

At Hero&Cape we’re trying to do our bit to save the planet! 

Creative, Fun and Cheeky!

We’re going to keep going and keep trying to think outside the box and produce great prints! We’ll continue to grow the business organically and keep the Hero&cape spirit alive in all the prints we produce. This year we collaborated with Lucky Dip Club and a young British designer called Freya Moses and we’d love to continue with the collabs, as we want to try and to our bit to highlight the awesome British talent that's out there!

Thanks for that Nik! We can't wait to see what other amazing tees Hero&Cape bring out over the next few months! 

Want to see more of Hero&Cape's amazing designs? All their links are below! 

xoxo