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Anyone who spends as much time as I do, absorbed in the ads of the skate and style magazines, may have noticed a trend towards the use of numbers in logo designs. What started in earnest, with folks like Mark Echo of EckoUnlimited using the number 72 omnipresently throughout his line (he was born in 1972), has become epidemic and unoriginal. Even the somewhat mainstream Billabong line is getting into the action- they're now putting the number 73 on their gear! One more than Ecko!

Some companies, like 26Red and One-Fifty-One have numbers in their names. One of the original pioneers in this game was Droors clothing. They started using the number 43 some years ago. Those in the know will be aware that DC once owned both Droors and the snowboarding line called Dub. Here's the encryption in the number 43 idea. The fourth letter in the alphabet is ‘D' and the third is ‘C.' And what does that spell? Somebody at Burton Snowboards noticed that in one of their fonts, the letter ‘B' looked like the number 13. They've been using it a little more sporadically then companies like Droors, but it still pops up here and there. Others have been clever too. There's Ezekiel who substitute backwards 3's for each 'E' and use an upside down number 7 for the 'L.' Clever eh? Skate magazine Slap has a logo that's very similar, only they use all numbers. Check out their web site. You'll probably find that logo in the product section...

Try visualizing Triple 5 Soul. The New York City retail and wholesale operation got their moniker from the 555 that movie companies use for fictitious phone numbers. The gospel straight from the web site: "In 1989 Camella Ehlke opened her original storefront on Ludlow Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side (L.E.S.) The name she and her crew came up with, Triple 5 Soul, was a riff on the 555 party lines that were all the rage at the time that would soon grow into a meaning that was all its own." (triple5soul.com).
But my favorite would have to be Jamie Thomas' company, Zero. So what if the Smashing Pumpkins were at it first! Zero is cool as hell...

Origins of a species:
But why this sudden surge in designers using numbers? First off, many upstarts (and stalwarts for that matter), have limited imaginations and readily borrow from the rest of the flavor of the month companies. Trends are often sub-consciously regurgitated without much thought or reflection from the designers. I believe the roots of the trend were the natural evolution of streetwear companies borrowing from traditional pro sports styles. Numbers are an important element of athletic wear. And most of us probably had a closetful of generic Sears shirts with the football style cut and a large ‘88' across the front with ‘Sports' written across the top. So, we can't discount the effect the department store children's section has had on many young designers these days. How else could we explain the resurgence of ringer t's? The blame must be placed somewhere!