ELSEWARES

So Jay Ivcevich is an artist, who is also a DJ (J. Stroke), who also makes killer stripey socks. Can you flesh out the Stroke Socks story for us?

I’ve just always been a DIY creative type. I enjoyed DJing, producing and playing music live. I DJed for about a decade down in Atlanta. I haven’t been spinning as much lately here in NYC but am working on a new mix for abrooklynlife.com so keep checking their site. I’m not sure when I’ll be finished. I am always working on music but don’t have any current material quite ready. (Back to the sock story) One of my old friends I used to play music with on the street in London back in ‘93 had some odd colored striped socks and I thought I would like to have cool striped socks as well. I could never find ones I wanted, though. I finally found a manufacturer through a news story about a small family company that made socks for the NBA. They were able to make the prototypes based on patterns I actually hand painted.

During all the time I was focusing on music, I dabbled in painting. At a house party in 2001, a New York art dealer friend was in Atlanta and brought another gallery owner with him and they flipped out at the stuff in my house. I was offered a solo show and have been making art professionally ever since. The success I’ve had with art is what brought me to NYC in 2004 and what put music making a bit more in the background (for now). I currently have a solo show of paintings up in Chicago.

Has the business of Stroke Socks changed over the years? If so how?

Well, I’m not really the best at running a business. Or I just don’t have the time to truly devote myself to it. My family has been pretty much running the show. We finally have the manufacturer consistently making the quality socks we want. It slowly grows but I know how much people love our socks once they get them on their feet so it seems like we should be HUGE.

What valuable lesson(s) do you want to pass on to artists & designers thinking of launching their own product or apparel line?

I would probably pass them along to friends of mine here in NYC for advice. In fact, I should take my own advice and consult with two particular designer friends of mine that are more fully devoted to their lines. One told me about a great resource/council in the garment district that connects designers, textile people, manufacturers, etc…

I recall a story about a guy riding his bike in New York wearing Stroke Socks - care to retell it? Do you often spot Stroke Socks on the street?

Actually, I was the guy on the bike rocking my right pant leg rolled up with a pair of our “Super Sunset” socks on. At a red light on 14th and 8th avenue, a hip young business man on a Vespa had the same pair on?! I said “you got my socks on!” and he said “No, you got my socks on.” So I said, “You don’t understand, I designed those socks! I am J. Stroke.” He laughed and said he got them online (maybe from you guys) and drove off as the light was green. A jogger ran past me in Atlanta once and said, “Hey, I like your Stroke Socks!” I didn’t have the chance to tell her who I was. I saw a lady with them on at an art benefit once. Turns out she’s in this cool art band. Saw them onstage at a show in Atlanta where Beans was rocking them with a pant leg rolled up. Not a big surprise as I had heard he was a big fan of the socks. Whenever we run into each other here in NYC, that’s how he introduces me. “Yo this is J. Stroke, he makes the dopest socks!”

What’s next? Having conquered feet, do you plan on creating apparel for other body parts? Or other types of products altogether?

Actually, I may not be done with feet yet. It’s hard for me to find the right shoes. I may investigate doing a small line of limited sneakers. People also really dig the wood bow ties I wear at formal events. We may drop some of those in the near future.

If you had a little brother, is there a particular album, book, film, artist or musician you’d be turning him onto right now?

I do have a little brother and we have similar tastes in music. His wife has really good taste as well so I always tell them bands to go see down in DC. I really like the Deerhunter EP “Fluorescent Grey” right now. Amazing because I remember tolerating their sets as a half-assed noise band in Atlanta. They’re like a real band with good songs and are getting hyped everywhere right now. I get books from the NYPL all the time. I read a fun NYC zombie novel called “Monster Island” recently but I’d recommend “Babylon by Bus” about these two Boston slackers who went and got jobs in Bagdad. A funny and heartbreaking tale and a good insider view of how the Bush administration’s incompetence created the sad situation we’re faced with in Iraq. As far as art, the James Turrell show at Pace Wildenstein on 25th is pretty sublime. I think it’s not open much longer.

Clocky started as a prototype when you were in school, right? Can you tell the story of its creation and how it came to be so popular before it was even an actual product?

Yes, When I was a student, I would hit the snooze bar repeatedly, never realizing how late it was getting. I had friends who told me that they would put the alarm clock on the other side of the room, but because they knew where it was, they would just sleep walk to it, turn it off and go right back to bed. Not to mention current alarm clocks are typically boring, only available in black and well, just dull. As a designer, it was obvious that the alarm clock needed to be improved, both in functionality and in personality.

The original prototype took me a couple of weeks. It was put together with materials I had at my disposal while I was a student at the MIT Media Lab, which turned out to be little more than a pair of Lego wheels and motors and a shag covering to hold it together. The concept was posted on the course website. Bloggers found the post and from there the media attention happened almost spontaneously.

Admittedly, I did not anticipate that there would be so much interest surrounding Clocky. In retrospect, I think it makes sense because it is an easy concept for most people to relate to, it is simple to describe, it does more than just make a marginal improvement to alarm clocks, and it has a huge market (i.e. there are a lot of snoozers out there!).

How long have you been designing products? Have you done other things or have you followed a direct path to founding your own product design company?

I have been designing products for a few years now, since I was a student at the MIT Media Lab researching the intersection of design and technology. I wasn’t planning on starting a company after getting my masters degree. But because of all the interest surrounding him, Clocky gave me the drive to start a company. Since graduating, I founded Nanda as a place to find things that are missing from our live and create them. Our ideas come from ordinary questions like ‘Why does my alarm do such a terrible job of getting me up?’ and ‘Why can’t I find a bag that makes it easy to carry my heavy laptop around and can double as a purse?’ Then, from these ordinary questions, we set out to create extraordinary products. Things that are at once both simple and exceptional.

Was it very difficult to find a way to turn your idea for Clocky into a product? Where did you turn for advice about IP protection, manufacturing, distribution and the like? Or did you have to figure everything out on your own?

In a word, yes, it is difficult! But it’s been an amazing learning experience, one I never imagined. As I was a student when I created Clocky, MIT helped me to file for patent protection. After graduating, I turned to others who have done it on their own, entrepreneurs and product developers in the Boston area. I relied on the advice of these people, but a lot of it I had to figure out on my own. I made multiple trips overseas to find viable partners. Mostly I just followed my intuition and common sense

In order to get Clocky ready for commercial sale, I worked with a team of engineers and manufacturers on the design for about a year. We went through about 3 design iterations on the external casing. We didn’t want Clocky to take up too much room on a night-stand so we reduced the size considerably. We also wanted Clocky to be much lighter, since it was to withstand a drop to floor everyday. Through a lot of engineering and testing, we identified the parts of the clock that would endure the most shock when Clocky jumps off of a night-stand. We designed those parts so that the force would be directed away from them. We compared and contrasted various strong and shock absorbing materials. I spent the last 3 months of 2006 in Hong Kong finishing up the design and overseeing the production.

Do you have any advice for designers who are interested in following a similar path?

With limited resources and time, don’t be afraid to get in there and do things yourself. This might not be necessary for all projects. For example, if I was just making an alarm clock, as they are commonly known today, it might not have been necessary for me to spend so much time overseas. But Clocky’s design involved several challenges- like being able to survive a drop to the floor everyday.

That being said, I solicited the help of family and friends (perhaps too much). So don’t be afraid to ask for help!

Also try and find partners that you work well with- everything from manufacturing to warehousing to e-commerce. If any part of this breaks down, the whole operation can become quite messy.

Finally, expect things to take 2-3 times longer than you would like them to!

Thanks Gauri!