Lane Seven Apparel Looks to Bring Artist Designs to Life with L7 X
Lane Seven Apparel, a blank apparel manufacturer, announces the launch of L7 X — a project focused on building community. The ongoing collaborative series brings printers and artists together to create limited-edition capsule collections.
The project — which resulted from a collaboration with Charlotte, North Carolina-based screen-printing company MacFly Fresh Printing Co. — celebrates artists. In its partnership with MacFly, Lane Seven helped bring the work of seven North Carolina creatives to Art Basel 2022. The result was a uniquely designed and hand-printed collection of T-shirts, hoodies, and joggers.
T-Shirt Printing at Art Basel
Eric Ndelo, co-founder of MacFly, tells Apparelist his team had the idea to go to Art Basel in early November 2022 despite it being set for later that month. “We were on a tight deadline,” Ndelo notes. So the team reached out to seven artists they thought would fit the vision and come through with designs in mere weeks. “We were asking a lot,” he explains, “but that was the only way it was going to happen.”
Having been a long-time customer of the apparel manufacturer, MacFly reached out to Lane Seven for help with the vision and the result was something magical, Ndelo says. Once Lane Seven jumped on board, he knew “it was going to be something special.”
“When MacFly approached us to partner with them on the artist collaboration at Art Basel, we couldn’t say yes fast enough,” says Lane Seven’s Marketing Manager Alexis Shubin. The blanks manufacturer served as the garment expert, helping MacFly pick the right apparel for the project and then supplying them with the needed blanks, including hoodies, joggers, and T-shirts.
Soon after, the team at MacFly had the artists print their pieces before heading to Miami three weeks later. “It was a lot of late nights, but each artist was dedicated to making it happen and having the FRESHEST look possible,” Ndelo writes. Once they made it to Miami, MacFly set up a live screen-printing activation where they helped attendees print items until 4 a.m. the next day.
“It was a great night,” Ndelo recalls. “The patrons had the opportunity to print their own “On the Fly” posters and tees. We made a lot of connections and turned a lot of people on to the Lane Seven brand that never heard of them.”
From a renowned muralist and a multidisciplinary artist to a graphic designer and illustrator, the artists featured in the collection had the opportunity to bring their visions to life on Lane Seven blanks. | Credit: Lane Seven Apparel
L7 X Collaboration
“We were so excited by how the partnership went that we thought, ‘How cool would it be to maintain this platform, name it L7 X (to acknowledge it being collaborative)?'” says Shubin. “The launch of L7 X gives our brand the opportunity to continue to seek and celebrate these types of partnerships, and gives those partners the platform to share their creativity and work with a much wider audience.”
Looking at the future of L7 X, Shubin says Lane Seven hopes to work with as many artists as possible and cultivate relationships between print shops and artists of all communities.
“It could be for fun, for education, for a cause, for community — we are all on board,” she notes. “We plan to visit and work with as many printers and artists across as many mediums as possible, the more the merrier. We just love the idea of bringing people together in the spirit of building community. And of course, if and when the opportunity presents itself to work with MacFly again, we are more than eager to do so.”
View the full L7 X MacFly collection here, and be sure to check out the artists on Instagram:
