This Former NIKE Designer Is Behind Foodbeast’s Foray Into Streetwear [INTERVIEW]

Recently, Foodbeast unveiled some rad t-shirts in collaboration with CHOMP Brand. From the clean, bold designs, you clearly see the food innuendo and trademark Foodbeast swagger. Well, with the help of talented designer and man behind CHOMP, Joshua Ariza, this whole collabo would have never happened. Having designed for established brands like Nike and Stance Socks, Ariza is an expert on flipping a fresh graphic to make a statement. This time around, he lent his personal touch to the realm of food.

We spoke to Joshua about the slick imagery on these dope tees, revealing his reason for linking up with the champion peddlers of food porn. Needless to say, it was a match made in foodie heaven.

Reach: Tell us a little about CHOMP Brand.

Joshua: So CHOMP is basically playfully irreverent, neo-type fashion. It bridges the gap between entertainment and apparel. I just started it as something that was reactionary to a lot of things that were happening in the marketplace. There were these brands that I felt weren’t a good representative of who I was, or people like me that either surf and skate. I really looked to brands like Stussy and Freshjive, so I wanted to start something out that was sort of a cult-like following like that. It doesn’t really react so much to trends. Mostly, we cover the topics of surf, skate, and food — just general silliness — it’s really meant to be a good time.

Reach: What’s the story behind the name CHOMP?

Joshua: I was looking for an onomatopoeia. Something that was easy to spell, something that people could easily remember. I already knew that we were going to do a lot of tees centered around food, so I wanted to make sure that it was relevant. Actually, my wife picked the name. We wanted something that we really could brand. The word ‘chomp’ isn’t a word that we really use all that much, but it’s a word that we’re all familiar with. It’s easy to spell and also kids can remember it.

Reach: How did this collaboration with Foodbeast come about?

Joshua: I love Foodbeast! My friend put me on to you guys and I like the tone of your content. I think it’s really, really funny. I think your audience would really relate to my audience. My audience really likes food, they like Foodbeast’s voice. They react to your guys’ irreverence. Overall, it just speaks straight to our consumer, except that Foodbeast covers food. I wanted to do something along the subject matter with food, so doing a collaboration with Foodbeast was a perfect way to do that.

Reach: What was your particular mindset going into designing this collection of tees with Foodbeast?

Joshua: With everything involving CHOMP, I want everything to feel like, ‘Why haven’t I seen this before?’ Something like, you get the idea right away, but are sort of puzzled as to why this hasn’t already existed. And I also wanted to cover the tone of voice that CHOMP and Foodbeast both have — it’s playful, it’s funny, you want to tag all of your friends in it, but it’s kind of weird and niche at the same time. So the mind state I went in with was with the question, ‘How would surf and skate relate to food culture?’ Skulls, lightening bolts, sharks — those kinds of things relate to skate stuff.

Reach: Can you give us the details behind some of these designs you came up with for the collection?

Joshua: For the shark design, I had seen on Pinterest someone peel open a banana and carve the front end of it into a dolphin. I thought this was hilarious! Now I thought, ‘What if I did it with a shark?’ It’s also innuendo, man. So it’s funny in that way. The commentary of ‘Stay Slippery’ sort of relates to being a greaseball, being a troublemaker. We animated these designs because they’re primed to be funny and sort of be an extra step towards entertainment. For the pizza lightening bolt, pizza has sort of been the staple of just stuff that we comment on. Lightening bolts are relevant to surf culture — there’s a brand called Lightening Bolt —  and lightening bolts are just rad imagery, we wanted to make something that had that look to it and was also in the genre of food. It kind of just popped into my mind when I was looking at a friend’s pizza thinking, ‘What other shapes can I make this into?’ I drew it in like 30 minutes and ever since then, it’s been my favorite piece out of all of them.

Reach: Who’s the ideal person to rock this CHOMP x Foodbeast collaboration?

Joshua: Whether you surf, you skate, or you just don’t really care about what fashion trends are out there, you’re just out there to have fun, that’s the guy we’re aiming at. Besides that, I think that what we want for people to get out of the brand is that — we want to start sort of a cult behind this. So it’s like we have a relationship with our audience and they’re in on this joke. They get it right away, it doesn’t need much explaining. It’s a simple inside joke between us.

You can now cop the CHOMP Brand x Foodbeast tees HERE and be the flyest dressed foodie worthy of a proper #OOTD post.