Sprayground – the New-York born rebellious and artistically designed backpack and influential streetwear brand, has launched a very special edition collection – African Intelligence 2.0 (Ai), celebrating the birthplace of humanity and bridging the gap between New York City and Ghana.
For Ai 2.0 – the second collaboration between Sprayground and artist, musician and creator Sandflower the popular urban streetwear brand honors the energy of the lion and what it represents with this collection – inclusivity and empowerment. Lions are loyal and fierce, yet they work together within their communities to survive and thrive.
The collection includes two backpack styles, the Ai CEO Lion Backpack and the Ai Lions Are Forever Backpack. Both styles are inspired by the warrior spirit inside of us – one style includes a lion’s face on a vibrant and colorful palette and the other is a lion image on a metallic-like facade.
In addition to the backpacks, this year Sprayground also created masks with Just Glay – a Female founded Ghanaian African/Ankara shop. Each bag sold will come with a gift of a mask made in Ghana.
Sprayground has been collaborating with a number of artists of color over the years and Ai collection is a celebration of that. The seed of Ai is planted in Sandflower’s pride in being a Black American and then seeded into the world, Sprayground is leading the way and giving a platform of creativity and ownership, for not only a Black female artist like Sandflower, but for really achieving a new way to connect these artists – through entrepreneurship and collaboration.
Sandflower said: “We are a powerful people. Each of us. Connected by our human history like the branches of a tree. There is nothing artificial about this – built on nature, spirit, heart and mind we are united beyond or differences. This Ai Collection is a celebration of what brings us together honoring the past, present, and future. Inspired by the many countries and cultures of the birthplace of humanity… Africa! It’s been amazing to be able to co-create this with David Ben David, it’s very close to my heart and I am thrilled to share it with the world.”
David Ben David said: “Since Sprayground’s inception I continue to work with artists based on their talent, not based on how they look or where they are from. I want to share my platform with other like-minded artists because when I was grinding it out starting the brand, I wish I had a support system that brought artists’ creations into fruition. It is exciting to work with an artist like Sandflower because she tapped into that platform and now speaks a global collection to multiple countries, cultures and languages but all connected through that same creative core.”
Royalty and community are exemplified by NFL’s Jarvis Landry and Alvin Kamara, two champion athletes who have partnered with Sprayground for this release.
The collection retailing at $100 is available from today at www.sprayground.com. A portion of the proceeds will go to charitable organizations whose focus is uplifting the community. In addition, Sandflower’s new genre-fluid pop album, “Quatum Seed”, will be released on September 28th capturing the full spectrum of her avant-garde design, dynamic culture & hypersonic aesthetic.
SOURCE Sprayground
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Rod is a blogger, writer, filmmaker, photographer, daydreamer who likes to cook. Rod produces and directs the web series, CUPIC: Diary of an Investigator. He is also the editor, producer and administrator of STM Daily News, a part of the TNC Network.
