Turning garments into an ARG
A behind-the-build note on how a question about making streetwear “entertaining” led to The Canis'; an ARG built from characters, factions, artifacts and resistance.
There is something about organic business growth that forces you to think.
I have started this from my own pocket, my own blood, sweat and brain cells.
Recently, I asked the question, how do I make garments entertaining?
A photo of my notes in progress on building an ARG from our range
The question led somewhere stranger
I started by looking at my characters. Things I drew when I was 14, 17.
What I was thinking about hasn’t really changed. It’s evolved. I started mapping alignments.
Characters became artefacts.
Artefacts became factions.
This is also where I decided Artifacts was cooler than Artefacts, sorry England.
Story had already been forming around them; each garment had its own ‘for who’ declaration based on the art.
What if you could “battle” or align in the street? Choose your faction.
Can garments carry allegiance, story and resistance?
Ancient pressures.
Ways of holding your ground.
The Canis emerged.
Recognise The Canis
Two weeks of game mapping, architecture and linguistic gymnastics led to The Canis.
Suddenly, it was alive.
Not just another shop, a small theatre of resistance. Rebellion.
Defiance.
The garments became artefacts in a wider struggle because, in ways both obvious and hidden, this is a battle for our lives.
Has it changed my social media habits?
No. 😆
It’s an exercise I’d recommend to any founder
Not because it will solve your distribution problem. It may solve nothing.
But asking the question led me to unearth the world that has been hiding in plain sight for over 20 years.