“Once you purchase our products, we own you as the consumer. We are in your brain.” Believe it or not (and you better believe it because it’s true), these are the terms of service for an apparel line. As in t-shirts. But then again, when you’re one of the first guys at Yelp and the brains of the popular rating site’s branding, you probably have a pretty good idea of how to make things fun. In this case, a clothing label called Rich Kid Cool. Their website has one page with no options to actually purchase any Rich Kid Cool merchandise; instead it’s paragraph after paragraph of Terms of Service, which you may want to read carefully, as it’s not just a t-shirt you’re committing to but a way of life...

SCOUT: This is some of the most in-depth “concepting” for a clothing label we’ve ever seen!
NISH: My Rich Kid Cool partner, Michael Ernst, and I made t-shirts and other promo items for all things Yelp way back when, and we had a gas with it, so when we moved on to other things, it was still something we wanted to experiment with. Rich Kid Cool really is an experiment itself, an experiment in branding. The label is all about the preposterous and the pretentious, but only so much as everyone’s included. As one example, the logo that’s printed on our first edition t-shirts is actually backward so you have to be standing in front of a mirror (checking yourself out of course) to read it. We only have one men’s shirt and one women’s right now, both different designs. The line is mainly an exploration in what it means to have a brand. Michael does the designs, and I get the hype going.

SCOUT: It’s totally like a thesis in branding, it seems like every little detail is so thought out.
NISH: Definitely. Even our launch party had really unique elements. We held it at The Common, Bustin Jieber performed a three part song about us, we had RKC-themed food and drinks from Deli Board and Rye, and we held the event in the morning as a point of saying that with Rich Kid Cool, there’s no limits on when a party should happen. It happens when it happens.

SCOUT: Your Terms of Service are quite unique.
NISH: A good analogy for what we want to do with Rich Kid Cool is like what George Lucas did with Star Wars or Tarrantino does with his films; everyone and everything has a little back story. It’s little bits of the knick and knack, the details, that build up to the essence of someone. The TOS is there to give you a sense of what’s at stake in being Rich Kid Cool.

SCOUT: So if I can’t buy Rich Kid Cool merch on the site, how do I get a hold of it?
NISH: Rich Kid Cool is practicing what we call Reverse Retail Arbitrage. It’s basically a losing proposition, where it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make the garments but we’ve made it almost hard to purchase them. That said, we’re doing a little bit of the Milan thing: Earlier this week at Yelp’s Holiday Hangover Party, Rich Kid Cool was involved in a runway show, so we had shirts and concepts there. We also recently started stocking a few of the men’s and women’s t-shirts at both locations of the Candystore Collective. I would like to say that we give one shirt to some charity like Tom’s but that simply wouldn’t be true.

SCOUT: And what do the shirts look like?
NISH: The men’s shirt is sort of a Rivers Cuomo/Buddy Holly looking guy with thick horn-rimmed glasses, and the women’s shirt is a print of a giant comb. It’s a nod to the mid 80’s and on plain old striped shirts. Our plan is that we only do limited runs of all the designs, between 200 to 300, so once they’re gone they’re gone. Michael and I are not fashion guys by any means; our next item could be velour sweatpants or shoelaces, for all we know. If I was reading this, I’d sign up for our mailing list to not be left out. Just saying.

SCOUT: All right, let’s talk about the city. Where are your favorite spots to hang out?
NISH: The Common has strangely become my hang-out spot, since they do Four Barrel Coffee in the morning and have shows and art openings at night. I even bring over my Deli Board sandwiches from time to time and eat them there. I also dig Terroir for wine, consider Rye my savior, and tend to be at Foreign Cinema and Oola quite a bit, sometimes even to eat.

SCOUT: Is there anyone in the city that inspires you?
NISH: Aaron Vinson (our male model for Rich Kid Cool). His dedication to the craft and nuances of modeling make Tyrese look like Emmanuel Lewis.

SCOUT: Do you have any "curious finds?"
NISH: If by that you mean curious places that I consider special, I'd say The Other Shop on D-Street is kinda wack (I think the kids think that means good, which is how I intended it), and The Perish Trust. I also love the visual “stories” to be found at Lost Art Salon.