Our Story
Born from reggae.
Built for dub.
Our Story
Born from reggae.
Built for dub.
Dubwear was born from a lifelong love for reggae, dub music and sound-system culture.
Not from a boardroom. Not from a trend report. Not because reggae suddenly became fashionable.
The story began long before the first Dubwear shirt was printed.
It began with reggae records playing around the house. Bob Marley and The Wailers. Burning Spear. Eek-A-Mouse. The Gladiators. Israel Vibration. The great voices, musicians and storytellers who created the foundation of the culture.
The music was always there.
And slowly, it became part of everything.
It started at home
Reggae first entered the story through family.
It started at home
Reggae first entered the story through family.
Reggae first entered the story through family.
Growing up, the music was constantly playing around the house. It formed the soundtrack to everyday life, long before there was any thought of creating a clothing brand.
One of the earliest clear memories goes back to a beach party in Spain, around the age of twelve. Music, warm air, people together and the unmistakable rhythm of reggae moving through the evening.
During the high-school years, reggae became more than music inherited from a parent. It became a personal discovery.
The lyrics began to mean more. The rhythms felt deeper. Artists that had always been playing in the background became part of a growing identity.
What started at home became a lifelong connection.
Reggae opened the door.
Dub changed everything.
Reggae opened the door.
Dub changed everything.
During the 2000s, festivals and sessions became an important part of life. Events such as 7 Sevens Splash, Reggae Lake, Summerjam, This Is Ska Festival in Roßlau and reggae festivals in Paris and Rotterdam created memories that went far beyond the performances themselves.
Most sessions took place around Amsterdam and Utrecht, but the search for the music travelled further whenever possible.
Then came King Shiloh.
At a King Shiloh session around the period before the pandemic, during Reggae Lake, everything came together.
The sound. The crowd. The kindness. The shared energy.
It was not simply a performance happening on a stage while an audience watched from a distance. The selecta, the sound system and the people became part of one experience.
Channel One had already helped introduce the power of sound-system culture, but King Shiloh made the connection feel complete.
More recently, that story came full circle by attending King Shiloh again with family at De Helling in Utrecht.
The music that once filled the house was now being experienced together in front of a sound system.
When you feel the music
A proper sound system does not allow you to simply listen.
When you feel the music
A proper sound system does not allow you to simply listen.
A proper sound system does not allow you to simply listen, you feel it.
The bass moves through the floor, into your feet and through your entire body. The weight of every note becomes physical. Echoes appear, disappear and return. The rhythm creates a space where daily noise begins to fade.
For a few hours, there are no deadlines, no pressure and no rush.
Only the music, the people and the vibration.
Those vibrations can feel like medicine for the mind.
That physical and emotional experience is at the heart of Dubwear. It is why so many of the designs are about bass, delay, echo, selectors, speaker stacks and the feeling of standing in front of a sound system when the right record drops.
Some hear music, some feel it.
More than a party
Sound-system culture is not only about loud speakers and heavy basslines.
More than a party
Sound-system culture is not only about loud speakers and heavy basslines.
It is about connection.
At the best sessions, strangers look after one another. People share food, drinks, stories and space. Conversations happen without hurry. There is respect between the crowd and the selecta, and between people from completely different walks of life.
Black, white, young, old, experienced or attending a first session. Different backgrounds, nationalities, religions and beliefs come together around the same sound.
There is no need to be the same.
The music creates unity without taking away individuality.
That spirit is what Dubwear wants to represent.
No rush. No stress. No division.
Just people coming together through sound.
Respect the Selecta
The selecta has a unique relationship with the crowd.
Respect the Selecta
The selecta has a unique relationship with the crowd.
A dub session is not a playlist being played in the background. Every record is selected for a reason. The order, timing, versions, dubplates, transitions and use of the sound system shape the entire night.
There is an ongoing conversation between the person behind the decks and the people standing in front of the speakers.
The selecta reads the crowd.
The crowd answers.
That connection inspired the first real Dubwear design:
Respect the Selecta.
It became the starting point for the brand and captured exactly what Dubwear needed to be: clothing that people within the culture recognise, understand and feel connected to.
Not generic reggae merchandise.
Not random tropical colours and borrowed symbols.
Designs created around the language, rituals and shared experiences of dub and sound-system culture.
From sketchbooks to shirts
Creativity has always been part of the story.
From sketchbooks to shirts
Creativity has always been part of the story.
Drawing started around the age of ten, beginning with cartoons, graffiti-style lettering and endless sketches. That early love for creating eventually developed into more than twenty years of professional experience in design and web development at creative agencies.
Visual ideas became websites, digital experiences, identities and campaigns.
But during sound-system sessions, another idea kept returning:
What would happen if all these creative worlds came together?
Reggae. Dub. Drawing. Graphic design. Fashion. Digital creativity.
Dubwear became the answer.
The name was partly inspired by the phrase dub style, heard so often from selectors and vocalists during dub records and sessions.
Dubwear would not simply place reggae references on clothing. It would create a visual identity for people who see dub as part of their lifestyle.
A way to carry the feeling of a session into everyday life.
Designed from within the culture
Every Dubwear design begins with something recognisable.
Designed from within the culture
Every Dubwear design begins with something recognisable.
A phrase heard during a session.
The movement of a turntable tonearm.
A tower of speaker boxes.
The endless repetition of tape delay.
A bassline that seems to take control of the room.
The small nod between two people when they both recognise the record.
The influences come from vintage sound-system flyers, record sleeves, speaker stacks, analogue equipment, hand-painted lettering, old print techniques and the bold graphic language surrounding reggae and dub.
But inspiration is only the beginning.
A design has to feel like something people would genuinely want to wear, both inside and outside a session. It needs enough personality to stand on its own without losing its connection to the culture that inspired it.
The result is a growing collection of shirts, sweaters, jackets and accessories made for selectors, dancers, collectors, sound-system builders, festival crews and everyone else who lives for the low frequencies.