GREATEST: Mateo Berry
Skating since the age of 12, Mateo Berry used to design his own tees and come up with his colorway designs for his favorite Nikes and Jordans.
Mateo Berry walks in for his shoot with an oversized Hermés weekender and his yellow BMX bike in tow. The independent business brand owner has remained active all his life. Skating since the age of 12, Berry used to design his own tees and come up with his own colorway designs for his favorite Nikes and Jordans. Heavily influenced by the street and fashion culture derived from skating, Berry would start his first brand, DYNT INTL, complete with a 1,100 sq. ft. storefront in Ontario, California. A chance encounter with Mega, co-owner of Black Scale, would lead to a photography gig for Berry shooting visuals for Black Scale, which would then lead to his 2012 landmark moment as a photographer: shooting A$AP Rocky for a Black Scale ODB-photo inspired collaboration, which would also be used for Rocky’s solo tour flyer and poster. Working as a consultant and content creator, Berry sits down to tell us about his new brand project RESERVED, his first pair of sneakers, and why he always prefers skating in Jordan 1s.
Adidas versus Nike marketing has been fun to watch and the end result is that we get some of the best product from brands at the top of their game.
Mateo Berry
Mateo, how was Europe? What did you do out in Barcelona and London?
Europe was great. Definitely needed a change of environment to gain some inspiration and continue to refine myself.
I skated as much as I could in London; the terrain in London isn’t exactly the best. I’m somewhat spoiled coming from an L.A. skate scene where there’s a lot of smooth surfaces. There’s a good amount of skateparks in London town. I got a chance to skate the Nike Bay 66 Skatepark in London, and I also got a chance to skate Barcelona, a skate mecca. Spent a whole day at MACBA in Barcelona with the locals, made some good friends.
Since we first met in 2014, you have since started your own individual brand known as RESERVED while still maintaining DYNT INTL. How did the idea to start a second brand come about?
RESERVED is a project I started at the end of 2016. It’s a bounce off of DYNT but it is its own entity and is completely separate. It’s something I wanted to do on my own. The name RESERVED came from the fact that I had my own reservations about doing my own brand. So there’s a double meaning behind it. It is also in reference to “All Rights Reserved" and my reservations about certain things that were going on in the industry and my own reservations within myself, you know. Like taking a leap and doing another solo brand with both brands having no investments whatsoever. Yellow, the color of RESERVED, has also been the color I have been gravitating towards even from when I was younger. My mom would tell me I always liked the Steelers colors [black and yellow] and how I only wanted the yellow hat, not the black one, so I went with that.
How would you say RESERVED is different from DYNT?
The focus for RESERVED is driven more by a cultural lifestyle aesthetic. I also wanted more focus on accessories, goods, and home essentials.
What do you want to see more of this year, and consequently, what do you want to see less of?
I want to see more authentic grassroots wins this year. Like I said before, it is a different world being independent. Some people either inherit or have backing to steal from those types of people and make things happen easier. I also like what these bigger companies are doing with competitive marketing. Adidas versus Nike marketing has been fun to watch and the end result is that we get some of the best product from brands at the top of their game. [I want to see] less IKEA bootlegs. I’m not a fan of the viral trends. No diss to it, but it’s in and then out in a week.
Shifting gears to sneakers, how many pairs do you currently own, and at any other given time, what was the most number of pairs you had?
Honestly, I don’t know how many shoes I have right now. They are spread around four different locations. These days I’m picking up the shoes I like and will wear, but had it been four to five years ago, I was picking up everything. I had upwards of about 300 pairs at one time. I eventually sold, gave away, or wore out a good amount of those.
What’s your take on footwear right now? Are you partial to any of the big brands like Nike or Adidas?
Footwear has been great this year. The competition going on between Nike and Adidas right now for the culture is great. I really like both brands, but I’m definitely rocking with the Nike/Jumpman gang.
For you, who is the most innovative right now?
Nike is unmatched. They have always been ahead of the game. They do bring back a lot of retros and classics, but if you really look at their futuristic innovation, they still have the upper hand, in my opinion.
You’ve been skating since what age, 12? Do you skate in any particular shoes?
When I first started skating, I saw a lot of people skating in the Jordan 1s. This was before there was a lot of hype around them and I couldn’t understand why. You know, most skate shoes are a little bulkier. I couldn’t understand why the skate shoe was bulkier besides the fact that it eventually tears. But for some reason, we throw on a Jordan 1 or even a Dunk – and it’s skate-ready. And that’s my personal preference. I don’t have to break them in. I can skate in them just fresh out of the box. With some other skate shoes, you really have to break them in and get used to them. I have no time for that if I’m trying to go and get this trick. Now it feels like I have a whole brand new setup. It feels kind of wonky to me. That’s why I started skating in Nikes.
When I first started skating, it really wasn’t cool for black kids to skate like that. So I was trying to find my happy medium and keep my “street" vibe and my “skate” vibe together. At the time, Nike was the best balance for me because I like playing basketball and I like skating. Why not mix the two, to where it’s something I’m comfortable in too?
First pair of sneakers you owned that meant something to you?
I was 13 and I wanted these éS Chad Muskas. They had this little zipper pocket in the tongue, and you were supposed to stash whatever you wanted in there. I really wanted them but at the time, it was the first skate shoe that broke $100 and my mom was not having it. But she finally caved in. We drove all the way to Redondo Beach to find the size and color I wanted and that was the first shoe that had a lot of nostalgic value to me because I wanted the shoe so bad. I ended up skating in it, and my mom killed me because skate shoes get torn up and she was like, I paid all this money for that? So that was the first pair, but when I got into sneaker-sneakers, my first Nike SB was the ‘Bison– it had the little red tip with the black and brown suede. That was the first shoe that got me into the SBs and from there... I needed them all.
How does it feel looking back on the image you shot of A$AP Rocky for Black Scale in that remake of that ODB photo?
It’s cool. Man, that was a pinnacle moment for my photography back in 2012. It was a magazine cover, ad, shirt, billboard, and Rocky’s first solo tour poster. We had no idea it would be that appreciated but it was – and to me, that era of Rocky is still one of the best.
Interview and Photography: Diane Abapo