I grew up on the internet. The hobbies and interests I have as well as the people I surround myself with are all products of having spent too much time online over the last decade, for better or for worse. When I entered high school I found myself immersed in online spaces dedicated to fashion and streetwear. Having survived three years of middle school with a dress code, my friend Nik and I decided to express our individuality by dedicating much of our time to keeping up with trends in sneakers and clothes. It took a while to develop my own sense of style but I’d attribute much of what it’s become to people like Nik and the dedicated communities of people showing off their outfits online.

The Instagram streetwear startup has a certain connotation to it, usually based on trend riding and generally being kind of ugly. But out of every thousand or so, one stands out. I first found out about tooplatonic in 2020 when Nik sent our friend Sam and I a $1 bracelet he was selling. The three of us all placed orders for them at once and were promptly messaged by him asking if we all knew each other. A further connection was created when he forgot to ship our orders and offered us free goodies. A $1 bracelet became four bracelets, a beanie, and a plethora of stickers. This was the first time I began to understand the tooplatonic brand. In the years following, I’d chat with Carson every so often. Usually about streetwear and the trials of running a brand, but then eventually about life and other shared interests. What struck me most about Carson’s brand model was his dedication to standing out. One of the first pieces I bought from him was an oversized t-shirt with a hand embroidered pattern of his broken heart logo. Not only was the craftsmanship and care put into each item commendable, but each shirt had a different color blocking for the logos.

Meeting up with Carson in real life was something we’d talked about since 2021 but finally came to fruition over the summer. He came and stayed with Sam and I for the first few days in July at our apartment in the Bay Area. Before meeting Carson I was nervous, what if he wasn’t like what we thought, what if he didn’t like us? Carson is one of the warmest people I’ve ever met. He finds comfort in the balance of holding a warehouse job and running a brand. Playing video games and watching anime with friends online at night while going to school during the day. He’s easily honest and kindly outgoing. Multiple times in his visit to San Francisco he’d strike up a conversation with someone on the street about his outfit and brand, offering to follow people back and even told one woman he’d talk with her son about making his own clothes. We had conversations about everything from relationships to media and growing up in the age of the internet. In conceptualizing this magazine, an interview with Carson was one of the first things I knew I wanted to capture. He was kind enough to sit down with me at Golden Gate Park on his last day in the city.

You want to start by introducing yourself, who you are, what you do?

Yes, so my name is Carson. I make clothes under tooplatonic – clothes and all kinds of stuff. I've been doing that for five years now.

How did tooplatonic get its start?

So the brand Get Some Sleep was the first time I realized that people could make clothes – like anybody – and it's not something that just appears out of black magic. That must have been in 2018 or 2019, I was in college and I wanted to make clothes. The name itself came from when I was in high school. I flirted with a bunch of people and it was just a wild ride. I think a lot of people in high school are like that and then when you exit it's like, okay, well that was silly. But anyway, I had a bunch of friends where they were people that I was romantically interested in, so it was like, we're tooplatonic – and now it's just like a namesake. I mean, I like it, it gave me a nice logo, a heartbroken logo, I love that. But if you try to make all the clothes come back around to that, it just gets kind of corny. It gets a little ham-fisted.

Carson eating Escape From New York Pizza in Golden Gate Park

So did a lot of the original stuff that you were making tie back to that theme?

I think so. The “i remember that night” was sort of in that vein. The first t-shirt I made said, "Where did I go wrong?" It was all vaguely angsty and I still like that, I still like that phrase. But I guess it didn't have to do with love really, I just thought that name went hard. And I know the first edition of the Hawaiian shirt said, "Let's do this again sometime." That's a little movie quote that you hear in romances and shit. So that's where that came from. I took that off the new one just because there was too much going on.

Would you say you’re a romantic?

Haha, I guess, just like anybody else is really, unless you're aromantic, and then it's like, okay well, I guess you're not.

That's true, shout out my aro people!

Yeah! But yeah, I guess so. I pretty easily am attached to people. So yeah, I would say probably more than the average person, but not that much.

So you and I, we’ve bonded over our shared love of Toradora, which is a romcom, high school anime. And I know you incorporate a lot of elements of pop culture, but also very specific pop culture into your work. Obviously, the Kik logo, you have your custom Toradora jacket, you've got… Gumby!

Yeah, haha!

How could I forget?! Gumby is kind of the biggest motif in your brand. What was your idea going into using all of these references as pretty central parts of the brand?

So Get Some Sleep was the reason I wanted to make clothes but back then I didn't exactly know what my favorite style was. Then I found Asspizza – and he used the Carl Jr. logo – and that unlocked a part of my brain where I was like, “Oh, you can do that!” I didn't even consider it. But I think Gumby had shown up before that. So it wasn't just like I was bouncing from thing to thing ripping it off. When I was in high school, the Gumby costume was something I found at a flea market. Gumby is a relatable character in that outside of his actual media where it's kind of just a kid's thing, he's a media underdog. Just like Carl's Jr., if Asspizza had used McDonald's or something, it's like, well, that already has an identity – like you can't separate it from the brand – where Carl's Jr. was at this perfect spot where it's like, oh, it's just a cool logo and it's taking on a new meaning. That was Gumby for me. He's an underdog, he's a cool looking dude. I think he deserves a new life, a new legacy of something else, ‘cuz he got shut down. He was very popular and then Mickey Mouse and Mario and Spongebob and all of them came in. I think there's an alternate universe where he is like that. So I really appreciate him.

You’re at the forefront of the Gumby movement, I don't know anyone who's crazier about Gumby than you.

Yeah, there's a couple, it’s a cult following thing, but yeah. The Kik logo was directly – pretty much all that stuff is sourced directly from what I like that I feel hasn't gotten proper appreciation – I think Kik was awesome. I mean, for what it was, I think it's dead now. But that's where I met all these people online and they have these niche interests and it allowed me to kind of develop what I'm interested in and grow as a person. So I love Kik. I have the Kik logo that says TP on it. The Toradora jacket, yeah that was my favorite anime of all time. And I could get into that but I won't. And then the new Cave Story shirt, that was the first game I ever played ever – well, that's a lie. Okay so I played stuff with my parents, they gave me an Xbox and I played like, Spongebob. Cave Story was the first game where my parents didn't know what it was. I found it and I was like, “Oh, let me download this, it's free.” That was when I was pretty young, probably middle school. And I think it's a great game and not a lot of people know what it is but the people that do appreciate it. So, yeah, that's kind of where all the pop culture references come from. I think streetwear is quickly becoming way more “let's just steal other things,” and I mean, I can't really hate on it. But there's got to be a balance. I don't think about it too much because then I'll drive myself crazy. I just do what I do, I do what I like, and that's all I know how to do.

So the tooplatonic logo is handwritten, that's just your handwriting. Do you remember the first time that you wrote it out? Was this the first iteration – did you write it out and say, “this is the logo?”

Carson in tooplatonic 5 Year Anniversary Hawaiian Shirt, customized by Asspizza

Yeah, and same for the heart as well. It was in a journal in my dorm in my freshman year of college and I was just trying to come up with stuff. So I had sketched the logo and the heart and I said, “Okay, let me try and make this on the computer.” And eventually I got fed up with it and I said, “what if the literal thing I just wrote like that is the logo – like I just took a picture of it.” So I took a picture of it and then I brought it onto my laptop and I liked the way it looked. I think if I had to credit anything as an inspiration it would be holiday brand by Nick Holiday. He used to have a handwritten logo and that was my favorite, I loved that. Now he switched it to like an arial something or other. But that original one was my favorite. Now I guess I'm the only example I can think of who has the handwritten logo because now that Nick stopped – I guess Asspizza kind of does – but I really am happy with it. So that was just in a journal with lines, and I had to take the lines out on the computer because I wasn't even smart enough to go think maybe I could do this on blank paper. So, yeah, I love it a lot, I don't think I'll ever see myself changing. I just got a tatted you know, so at least not for a while.

Do you have a favorite color?

Yeah, lavender. And that's why the shirt was the very first thing I made. I was really into Hawaiian shirts so I said, “I want to make a Hawaiian shirt in that awesome color.” There's actually a story for my favorite color too – I think I've talked to somebody about it here – but Monstercat, that's an EDM label off of YouTube – I don't listen to a lot of EDM anymore but back then I was into it – and they have a color for each genre. There’s a genre called future base and that was the color they used. I thought it was a very pretty color and a very pretty sound. My favorite color was blue when I was a kid but now it's this specific one.

Would you say that tooplatonic has a specific genre name? Or if you had to give a name to what type of clothing you make what would it be?

Oh, you know what, yeah, I guess I would say like, there was this big movement, in the EDM scene as well, where people started going, “I don't make this genre,” and then the streetwear people were like, “I don't make streetwear.” And for me it's like, fuck you why are you trying to be special? Yeah, I make streetwear, that's it, that's what I do. I don't feel the need to be like, “I can't be defined,” like yeah I can, I definitely can. But also instead of doing just the t-shirts and stuff – because that feels like a lot of what streetwear has become – it is kind of less defined now. The ice cube trays, the table, the body pillow, all of that is what engages me. That's what I feel like I could point to and say, “that's what makes it different.” You’ve got these big labels – I won't name any names – people that have come up off of this startup movement that just stick to clothes. And I mean if you're good at it and that's what you like, well that's what you like – but you could be doing so much more with it. So I said I'm going to do more with it before I'm successful. I want to do just whatever weird shit I can think of.

And how's that how's that been? Because obviously anyone can go out and screen print a t-shirt – there's a million places that will do that for you – but how's it been venturing into things that are more based like multimedia in the realm of streetwear, like what are some things that you've learned?

Carson showing off Gumby bag customized with pieces from his collection

Well, I feel bad because seeing all that you’d think, I’ve got a big skill set, but not really. The skill set is I get money, I go to someone and I'm like, “can you do this?” But I am trying to get more into my own handmade stuff like the Gumby bag. I do want to learn more, but some of it's just impractical to learn if you’ve got somebody that can do it already. For example, I made mugs at one point, coffee mugs, and in theory you could learn to sculpt a mug from the ground up – I think that'd be cool, I don't think that's a waste of time necessarily – but if you're not a mug maker and you just want to make the one, why would you learn it just for this one thing? So, I've learned there's no pretension with it – and I hate when people get a big ego because I'm just a designer at heart, if you can even say that. I guess another thing I've learned is that you need to be very communicative and very clear. That's the hardest part – a lot of people will just show them a picture of something and just say, “can you do this?” But it's like when I do a blueprint for something, I give them all the measurements, I give it in centimeters and inches. I let them know what type of fabric, I let them know the color of the stitching. And that applies to anything you can think of like socks or the body pillows. You have to let them know because they don't care like you do. So that's one thing I've learned with anything, even the ice cube trays – the dimension of the ice cube, the width, the thickness, the packaging. You have to be very crystal clear, because they have no reason to care like you do. If they can cut corners, they will – and more power to them, but that's not what I'm here for. And a lot of it is easier than you think. That's what I learned is like, don't shoot down your idea before you go for it because it. Like the inflatable; at first glance it's like, “oh wow that's really impressive.” Honestly I'll take the compliment but, I didn't really do a whole lot other than find the right person and they did it – and I had the idea, that's what I'll take credit for is the idea. Nobody else is – like I said – they got all this money and they're not getting weird. That's what you got to do, you got to get weird, that's my favorite type of stuff like Imran Potato did inflatables, Slumpykev did an inflatable, but their brands were a little bit bigger and more successful. I like the idea of maybe I'm not entirely original but I'm the first one to do it at such a size.

If you had to put our readers onto any cool creators, artists, designers, whatever – just give me a list, give me as many as you want.

Pelumi Ogunro (@ptogunro). That's my friend that I met through r/streetwearstartup like five years ago. He does all his stuff by hand, he's awesome, I love his work. Second, Nishad Panchal (@nishadpanchal). He's a musician, he makes very nice music. He's done a couple different genres, I don't want to put a label on it but just go listen to him, he's very sweet. I want to include you guys – a lot of the work isn't publicly available – but like sam j (@samjarus) shows – I wish I could go, I keep missing them! Nik Varga man, NIK_ (@nik_mmusic). I don't think there's a ton of music public but if they decide to do that check it out. You of course, put yourself in there please (@cutiewithapopstarmindset) [thank you Carson, I love you]. My friend Gia Kornfield (@ohgeeia) is a great artist. My friend Ezra Crist (@ezra.loves.you) who directed the inflatable video. And (@_dm5k_). If I gave you any more than that, then like the tightest group of people it would go on forever.

If you had to give anyone, if you had to give someone a piece of advice, on a way to live, not even on how to start a brand what would you tell them?

Well, there's a couple that I think are mildly controversial. I'm not always very public about the way I read the Bible, I think everyone should give it a shot. But that's just me being a little selfish, a lot of people aren't keen on that, they don't like hearing about it so I try not to shove it down their throats. So now that I got that out of the way if you want something that's applicable to everybody. I would say don't overthink it. My biggest mistake was searching for perfection for too long, really stressing myself over the fine details. It's good to keep them in mind. It's good to really want perfection but perfect is the enemy of good. It's better to put something out that's good and move on then stress yourself out, it's no way to live.

Thanks again to Carson for letting me interview him. You can keep up with him and tooplatonic the brand on Instagram @tooplatonic and at tooplatonic.com

this man is… tooplatonic

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this man is… tooplatonic

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