ART x CRAFT
Every matttma design comes from our own pen. In addition to the ideas, the craftsmanship also plays a major role. Most often we work analog with pencil and paper, linocut or also on the PC and tablet or with a combination of these. If you would like to take a look behind the scenes, we have captured an entire 3-week design process in 3 minutes:
A PARKOUR
BRAND?
Because of our background, matttma is mainly worn in the parkour scene. Despite the occasional reference to it in some motifs, we don't see matttma explicitly as a parkour brand, because we are primarily concerned with the art, not who wears it. That's why we don't tie ourselves to a theme in terms of design, but to what inspires us - and that can be anything.
Similar to skating, for example, parkour is practiced in normal streetwear instead of sport-specific functional clothing, so it is suitable for everyone.
OUR HISTORY
matttma was born out of a spontaneous idea to make a gimmick for the bachelor thesis presentation. In a last-minute action, Mat had an illustration from his thesis printed on a few white T-shirts at the copy store around the corner - and so the first matttma product was born in 2018: the tree shirt!
These first 18 pieces were sold immediately, so he had the T-shirts reproduced in decent quality and then started selling them privately and via Instagram in the parkour scene. It was at this point that Lisa's interest in graphic design was sparked and she created her first ever design for the second release! Since then, matttma has slowly but steadily grown into an established brand, which is spread internationally in parkour, but is now also seeping more and more beyond the parkour borders. Thank you! <3
THE NAME
Over the years we made a small name for ourselves in the scene as a parkour clothing brand and we had already gotten used to the "working title" ourselves, and apart from that we found (and still find) the sequence of letters very nice in some way. So we left it at that. To solve the personal affiliation, Mat changed his Instagram name and matttma officially became a brand name. In fact, it wasn't until 2021 that the word first appeared as legible lettering on a product - the Stadt sweater.
"matttma" was Matthias' old Instagram name. For the first few years, there was no serious intention to establish a real brand - but since the T-shirts still needed a front for design reasons, the “sales channel” served as a logo - but only in the form of an indecipherable letter logo.
OUR PHILOSOPHY?
Admittedly, brand identity and company philosophy sound a bit too tie-like for us. We have tried time and again to formulate one for ourselves, but all attempts have come to nothing. Looking back, however, one has crystallized on its own: matttma behaves kinda like a parkour training session. We move in the direction that inspires us and experiment there, and then something emerges that surprises us. Accordingly, matttma has continuously transformed itself - and will probably remain flexible enough in the future to take an unanticipated direction - keeping it in the freestyle manner.
