Birth of The Teenager: The Brainchild of Teito & Tokyo

Teito is a Tokyo based graphic designer, artist, and creative who is pushing his brand, Birth of The Teenager, to go global, through a purist’s simple philosophy of “making cool stuff”.

At age 20, Teito bought a MacBook and taught himself graphic design, building upon this skillset at home and eventually working with a couple of clients and friends. One year later, Teito began working on his previous brand, which saw streetwear stores globally and had great success. Since then he’s departed the brand to produce his own brainchild, something more polished and fitting of his style; Birth of The Teenager.

BoTT manufactures garments with a youthful charm to them; workwear-inspired jackets with cartoonish, oversized pockets, hoodies and crewnecks featuring psychedelic, colorful prints, and even an all-over printed pyjama set. These products are the physical realization of his laid back, low key personality, while being the exact reason that BoTT stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of young streetwear labels in this era of oversaturation - it is the brand’s authenticity and personality that is the driving force for its success.

Sabukaru sat down with Teito to chat about his brand, how he came into the space, and his plans for the future.

Please introduce yourself and your brand.

My name is TEITO, I am a designer/ director for a street style label called BoTT, standing for “Birth of The Teenager”. I am also a graphic designer and artist.

How important is Tokyo for your work and your inspiration, what does this city mean to you?

Tokyo is massive, and each place in it gives me a different feel. I was in Shinjuku all the time ever since I had finished my studies until I started my brand, and I like its multiculturalism. But also, I like Harajuku or Shibuya where many young people are chasing their dreams – I can feel their young energy.

I left my hometown when I finished middle school so everyone that I hang out with is in Tokyo.

What made you become a designer, and who were your role models along the way?

The reason I became a designer is that I carried on what I started when I was 20. It feels like what I am doing is an extension of what I have started. BoTT is my 2nd brand. When I started my first brand it was also just me trying something new. Someone close to me suggested that I do something with the graphics I have created.

I like SK8THING’s graphics and I think I get inspired. However, I don’t have any role models, I don’t think I can be anyone else, I just want to stay who I am.

HBX EXCLUSIVE LOGO COLLECTION

Can you please, tell us a little bit about your work and hustle as an artist, and how much of your art do we find in BoTT?

These days, I feel more comfortable doing client work than doing mine, because once you get what the client wants as a goal, you can just work towards that. Client work is all about listening to what they want and just adjusting yourself to that.

As for my works for BoTT and my things, I will be the one who decides to wrap it up or carry on. I am being hard on myself these days so I cannot finish easily. In that situation, I amend a lot or revise what I created after a few days.

Since my creations are getting more and more chances to be out in the public, I get more anxious and it becomes difficult for me to be satisfied.

You already worked with bigger and very local brands, and your old brand has seen the world and different streetwear stores already. What did you learn through your time at your past label?

When I started my former brand, I was only 21 years old, and I barely knew anything. I even started off with just making 15 hand-printed silkscreen T-shirts. However, that was where everything kicked off, and I did everything all by myself so there were a lot of learning opportunities.

Gradually I have got distributors, although it’s still not big, I could see my brand’s growth, so I learned a lot about what to do and how to manage my brand.

Through my brand, I made friends overseas and worked with them which are very precious experiences to me.

In a loud world of streetwear and social media, you always “keep it low-key”. What makes you feel comfortable to choose to make less noise, and how much freedom do you get not being a part of this crazy hype-driven streetwear circus?

I don’t particularly want to be famous, and I don’t necessarily want to be a billionaire. I think doing my best is always important, but I don’t want to be hated or humiliated after all my hard work. Caring too much about my social media might change what I want to do with all my heart, so I always keep a good enough distance from it. I just consider social media to be one of my tools for work.

I have lots of ups and downs, so I don’t do anything when I don’t feel like it. I don’t even go out of my house when I don’t want to be bothered.

I like to work on my creations when my condition is well, so I always follow what my gut tells me, so that I can always stay in a good state.

There are many cool projects in your brand portfolio already; from your collaborations with Creative Drugstore to the three-way collab with Applebutterstore & STOCK NO:. Can you please tell us more about the collaborations you have done so far, and what were the products you are most proud of?

I am proud of all the collaborations I have done. All the creators or brands that I collaborate with are my friends or friends of my friends that I trust a lot. It should be the other way around so I would like to keep my brand as something that other people would want to work with.

Where can we buy BoTT?

For now, you can go to our online shop, and at our distributors in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Please see more on our website, as the stockist list is growing.

What is next for BoTT? What are your plans for the coming years?

The creations I have done for BoTT are my path, and every collection I have gone one step forward. I would like to keep this mentality, and challenge myself more.

I don’t want it to stay an independent brand and I want it to grow bigger. I just want to keep making cool stuff as I do now.　

Thank you so much for your time!

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Words by Samuel Le Roy & Casey Omori
Interview by Adrian Bianco
Images from BoTT

Birth of The Teenager: The Brainchild of Teito & Tokyo

Please introduce yourself and your brand.

How important is Tokyo for your work and your inspiration, what does this city mean to you?

What made you become a designer, and who were your role models along the way?

Can you please, tell us a little bit about your work and hustle as an artist, and how much of your art do we find in BoTT?

You already worked with bigger and very local brands, and your old brand has seen the world and different streetwear stores already. What did you learn through your time at your past label?

In a loud world of streetwear and social media, you always “keep it low-key”. What makes you feel comfortable to choose to make less noise, and how much freedom do you get not being a part of this crazy hype-driven streetwear circus?

There are many cool projects in your brand portfolio already; from your collaborations with Creative Drugstore to the three-way collab with Applebutterstore & STOCK NO:. Can you please tell us more about the collaborations you have done so far, and what were the products you are most proud of?

Where can we buy BoTT?

What is next for BoTT? What are your plans for the coming years?

Thank you so much for your time!

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