What comes to mind when someone asks you about the state of North Carolina? More than likely it’s something along the lines of “Tobacco Road”, consisting of the UNC Tarheels, Duke Blue Devils, and the NC State Wolfpack. Well if not sports, then there’s another high probability that it’s something along the lines of farming and agricultural issues. That’s no longer the case in the ‘Tar Heel’ state. There’s some buzz going on on the fashion scene in North Carolina and ARIZE Magazine has the first out of state interview and introduction to one of the newest and hottest urban fashion brands, LiKuid Nation.

LiKuid Nation was created in the summer on 2008 by 25 yr. old Cameron Bennerman. Cam attended N.C. State University where he played basketball from 2002-2006 and is currently playing professionally in Europe. If you ask Cam why he decided to become an entreprenuer in the fashion industry, he’d tell you that wasn’t what he was trying to do. “I’ve been blessed with the gift to play basketball as well as play it for a living”, says Cam. “One thing about me is that im a multi-dimensional person. There’s more to me than just the basketball player and I want LiKuid Nation to be my way of giving back, providing opportunities to others as well as give North Carolina some kind of identity by combining hip-hop, design, art, skateboarding, & fashion”. Surprisingly enough, a lack in identity is the case with many places and individuals, and the goal of LiKuid Nation is to go to those places and capture those idividuals, giving them more than just a clothing line, but a entire culture.

Exclusive Interview with Cam, Founder of LiKuid Nation:

Since the launch of LiKuid Nation, the vision has done nothing but continue to grow and become even more contageous. As of recently, LiKuid Nation has been on a launch tour with their newest line under the LiKuid Nation umbrella and it’s called PiNC. Standing for People In North Carolina, that’s exactly who it’s for and what it means. “LiKuid Nation is based out of North Carolina and this brand was built with the vision of being exclusive and unique to N.C. so that’s where ‘PiNC.’ came in. We felt like LiKuid Nation should be for the world, but PiNC. should be exclusive to N.C.” says Cam. To help capture the imagery best, LiKuid Nation has teammed up with another N.C. native, designer J.Sol out of Salisbury, N.C. Together they form LKDN//PiNC. and the collaboration has been right on time.

LKDN//PiNC acutually has a voice, and that’s N.C. based, Kooley High. Kooley High is a hip-hop group (Rapsody, Tab-One, Charlie Smarts, producers Tom Foolery & Sinopsis) and have put out multiple mixtapes as well as their latest in house release, The Summer Sessions EP. The EP consists of all original beats from producers Foolery & Sinopsis with 2 collaborations with Grammy Award Winnder, 9th Wonder. The Summer Sessions can be found on itunes as well as on likuidnation.com

One of the most fascinating and admiring aspects to LiKuid Nation is what they are planning on doing to give back. One thing that we have failed to acknowledge so far is the fact that Cam, J.Sol, and all of Kooley High, attended N.C. State University. In the years they attended N.C.S.U. Kay Yow, the N.C. State womens’s basketball head coach, was very active and even then had been diagnosed with cancer but showed no let up. As we all should know, coach Kay Yow died of cancer this past year. Because of coach Yow’s impact, LiKuid Nation is to start donating a % of all PiNC. sales of merchandise to the Kay Yow Cancer Foundation. “The original idea when we were coming up with ideas fo PiNC., we wanted the color to go hand in hand and have it be about people in north carolina and our influences”, says J.Sol. “This is a great cause and with the combination of the color and the meaning of PiNC.it makes sense. We all can relate a personal story to breast cancer.”

After scrolling throught www.likuidnation.com, it ain’t hard to tell that something interesting and cool is going on there. LiKuid Nation has made huge strides in an incredibly short amount of time and it can be exciting watching this brand grow. Their purple “Drink PiNC.” tee is one of the hottest items for the summer and has really generated a buzz amongst online mags and boutique blogs. All apparel is made using American Apparel fabric and undergoes the most delicate printing methods. One thing about LKDN//PiNC. apparel is it’s extremly exclusive and won’t be available at a lot of boutiques. LiKuid Nation is getting closer at receiving placement in Atlanta, Ga. hopefully. With LiKuid Nation being the creator for North Carolina’s new dentity, the future looks extremely bright! We will keep you posted on more LiKuid Nation news and events.

Wrote by: LiKuid Nation_PR
Interview by Arize Magazine
To purchase these tees and learn more about LKDN//PiNC visit www.likuidnation.com and/or likuidnation.org/post/99697191/onlinestores