Fred Griffin, founder and creative director of the clothing brand Swish, was recently able to collaborate with sportswear company, Under Armour, to give local American Amateur Union (AAU) teams in Memphis, shoes for their summer season.
Under Armour Next Basketball has a few teams in Memphis, such as P7 Elite and Team Stark, housed under their UA Rise complementary circuit. According to Under Armour, “the league consists of 48 teams at each age group: 17U, 16U, and 15U. Each team plays a 12-game regular season leading into a single-elimination championship bracket to crown the UA Rise Champion.”
Griffin partnered with the P7 Sports Academy, located at 237 Woodland Lake Drive in Cordova, where he explained that many kids come after school to train for sports such as volleyball and basketball.
“They’re already in the Under Armour circuit with one of their teams,” said Griffin. “They have three teams that were getting ready to start the AAU season this past week. They literally had uniforms and everything, but they didn’t have shoes.”
Griffin said that the AAU league played a major role in his formative years, as he and his brother grew up loving and playing basketball.
“I’m happy that my brand Swish was able to take part in that,” said Griffin. “Being someone who played sports my entire life, it is a goal for my brand to have a sports identity as well through what I call my ‘Swish Athletics,’ my branch that makes athletic clothing and different athletic materials. So Under Armour basketball] being able to collab with me on that and being able to provide them with that was really cool.”
According to Griffin, the logistics of the event were organized by Chuck Lawson of 901Prepscoop.
This was Griffin’s first major project with Swish Athletics. However, in the past few months, the Memphis Flyer 20 < 30 honoree has been able to work with The North Face and with outdoor and sporting goods company, Merrell.
“I’ve just been taking advantage as a creator to work with these different brands and really explore that,” said Griffin.
With The North Face, the company did a Black History Month collection and collaborated with Memphis Rox, located at 879 East McLemore Ave. According to Griffin, the company uses rock climbing to help kids in the community to discover the activity as an outlet. For Black History Month, the brand built a collection that was based off of Memphis Rox and their colors.
“Kids of the Black and brown community don’t usually get to see something like rock climbing, or even interact with it, and a brand like North Face doesn’t really get to touch them,” said Griffin. “It was a really dope experience, and I was able to come out and connect with them and document that process and be there with them and build that relationship with North Face.”
He also had the opportunity to work with Merrell to help “build a relationship with their streetwear side of things.” The brand sent Griffin a few items and he was able to do some concept content for Merrell on his Instagram page
“It’s really been a blessing, that’s the best way to put it,”said Griffin. “I feel like when you do things with good intent and from a good space, things will naturally put themselves in play. The best thing about my brand is that, of course, I’m not the biggest brand in the world yet, but I’ve been blessed to have these opportunities.