Finale is a two man company from Vancouver, BC, Canada started by myself, Matthew Miyagawa and Vince Chan. Foy my day job I work as an environmental biologist for the Canadian Government. Finale was born as a creative outlet for me, I wanted something completely different than my day job and Finale was the answer. I then approached Vince about starting Finale. We sat down, developed our first season (Spring 2006) and managed to get the product into about nine stores.

Arize: Along with the hot shirts you got goin on you also had a few celebrities give a big ups to ya by wearing some of em…Tell us about that.
We would love to have celebrities and rappers sponsored by Finale but we are a small company and we do not have the coin to put them on our payroll. Being located in Canada, we also don’t have the population of rappers to connect with like they do in cities like New York or LA. Getting rappers and celebrities to wear your product is where the hustle starts.

I used to host and program an underground Hip Hop radio show in Vancouver for nine years and now I am using all my contacts at the record labels to try get in touch with these rappers to get them some gear. Sometimes, I am sure it ends up on the bodyguard or the hypeman’s friend but sometimes the artists are really feeling the design and they rock it at their next show. We were hyped to see Malice from the Clipse rocking the “Dreams” tee at the Rock The Bells tour. It feels so good when you have people you admire wearing your gear.

Arize: What was the concept behind the “GOTTA HAVE FAITH (DREAMS)” T-shirt…And did you piss off any females with that one??
Just Playing (Dreams) is my favorite Biggy track ever. The track was fairly obscure because it wasn’t released on any his albums until the Ready to Die Remastered Album but I remember hearing it back in the day on mixtapes and on college radio.

Arize: Cool, where exactly are you guys located?
Just Playing (Dreams) is my favorite Biggy track ever. The track was fairly obscure because it wasn’t released on any his albums until the Ready to Die Remastered Album but I remember hearing it back in the day on mixtapes and on college radio.

So when I told Vince about this concept he got really stoked to do this tee. We followed the layout from the Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders album cover and just stacked all the girls in there.

“Imagine the nine year old Cosby girl’s grill mixed up with the rest of those faces, it just wouldn’t look right. lol “

Arize: Is that Chaka Kahn on the bottom right? Lol You pretty much got em all on that shirt. Lol
Yeah that’s Chaka in the bottom right. We wanted to put all the girls from Biggie’s song on the shirt and add all the current R&B girls that we love. We took out Raven Simone cause her picture just didn’t fit in. Imagine the nine year old Cosby girl’s grill mixed up with the rest of those faces, it just wouldn’t look right. lol

No one has yelled at us yet.

Arize: What goes into the design of your shirts? They seem to have a grungy and uh hmm sexual innuendo goin on. Lol
Our designs are extensions of ourselves. However, both Vince and myself are quite different people and sometimes we get into some serious disagreements about what graphics we put out. But this difference between us ensures that the final outcome is a product that we are both happy with and takes into account both of our loves and passions. You should see the stuff that gets thrown out, some of it is too crazy.

Arize: So we take it you guys like the shirts that get a laugh?
We want to make a product that has appeal. We want the design to be funny, or visually amazing or both. The problem with being funny is that if you are too funny you can end up being cheesy. Dave Chappelle is one thing, but Leslie Neilson is a different thing completely.

Arize: With the custom sneaker game blowin’ up how has that helped you sell shirts? And do you plan to do any custom FINALE kicks?
We love sneakers, and we are both sneaker heads. Before Finale, I was part of a crew that created a sneaker tour in Canada called Sole Searching – A Tour Dedicated to the sneaker. We showcased rare and vintage shoes in themed display cases in cities across Canada. We worked with all the major shoe brands and for a few shows teamed up with Sneakers Pimps. You may still be able to find images of our show on the web, we showed some serious heat.

We have a ton of respect for the custom sneaker game but I think we going to stay clear of that market.

“It feels so good when you have people you admire wearing your gear.”

Arize: What shirt do you guys sell the most of? And why do you think it sells so much?
The “Gotta Have Faith (Dreams)” and the “Come Clean” shirts have done really well for us. The “Gotta Have Faith” shirt is iconic of the golden age of Hip Hop. It represents one of the best rappers ever, plays tribute to Tribes Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders album and has all the R&B gals that we all love. “Come Clean” combine sneakers with half asian porn stars, two of everyones favorites.

Arize: Can we get a hint of what your next shirt will be?
We got lots in the works prepared for the next two seasons but if we give too much of a hint someone may take the idea. You can expect a few collaborations shirts from us. One that we are excited about is a collaboration T Shirt and Mix CD with the Urban Renewal Project radio show and podcast. You can check their website and podcast at www.urpradio.podomatic.com

Arize: How can we get an official FINALE shirt?
We have our gear in shops across Canada and America in shops such as Grey One in LA, Reed Space in NY and Digital Gravel Online. Links:
www.finaledesign.com