Phil Shafer is a Brooklyn-born kid in the heart of the Midwest. In the 1990s, he roamed the halls of his inner-city art magnet high school with a manual camera hanging from his neck, poised to capture the moments unfolding around him. The setting was Kansas City, Mo., a sprawling metropolis straddling the border of Missouri and Kansas. Shafer’s interest in graffiti began in his early teens and he soon adopted a street moniker that reminded him of the East Coast. It was then that his alias, Sike Style, was born.
After high school, Shafer attended the Kansas City Art Institute, whose past students include Walt Disney and Robert Rauschenberg. Shafer majored in photography and digital media and soon became known throughout Kansas City by his ubiquitous stickers and wheat pasted posters that plastered street signs and utility poles. The bold designs and typography, carried various messages and bore the machine mask that became the Sikenomics trademark.
“I was interested in doing street art, but I wanted to find a way to get up without getting arrested,” Shafer says. “Stickers were really fast and really sneaky, so it just went from there.”
After graduation, Shafer landed a job as a graphic designer and got heavily involved in designing and selling merchandise for local Kansas City hip-hop artists. Shafer’s success in selling T-shirts and buttons for other people led him to a venture creating and selling his own designs. His clothing line, Sikenomics, established in 2006, is now sold in stores and online. Shafer’s designs reflect his fine arts background, where each T-shirt design is a different piece in a series. Instead of a collection of works hanging in a gallery, Shafer opts for a cotton-blend canvas with holes for a neck, a trunk and two arms, a gallery space that is 3-D and mobile.
SIKENOMICS CLOTHING RETAILERS
Spool / W. 18th St Kansas City, MO 64108 / (816) 842-0228
method. / 1529 grand blvd • kansas city, mo 64108 (816) 221-5888
The Bunker / 4056 Broadway KC, MO 64111 / (816) 561-7407
Hot Pop / 213 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, WIsconsin 53202 / (414) 208-7813
Vintage Vinyl / 6610 Delmar Blvd STL MO / (314) 721-4096
Hum Records / Ankerstrasse 11 Zürich, Switzerland 8004
Phil Shafer is a Brooklyn-born kid in the heart of the Midwest. In the 1990s, he roamed the halls of his inner-city art magnet high school with a manual camera hanging from his neck, poised to capture the moments unfolding around him. The setting was Kansas City, Mo., a sprawling metropolis straddling the border of Missouri and Kansas. Shafer’s interest in graffiti began in his early teens and he soon adopted a street moniker that reminded him of the East Coast. It was then that his alias, Sike Style, was born.
After high school, Shafer attended the Kansas City Art Institute, whose past students include Walt Disney and Robert Rauschenberg. Shafer majored in photography and digital media and soon became known throughout Kansas City by his ubiquitous stickers and wheat pasted posters that plastered street signs and utility poles. The bold designs and typography, carried various messages and bore the machine mask that became the Sikenomics trademark.
“I was interested in doing street art, but I wanted to find a way to get up without getting arrested,” Shafer says. “Stickers were really fast and really sneaky, so it just went from there.”
After graduation, Shafer landed a job as a graphic designer and got heavily involved in designing and selling merchandise for local Kansas City hip-hop artists. Shafer’s success in selling T-shirts and buttons for other people led him to a venture creating and selling his own designs. His clothing line, Sikenomics, established in 2006, is now sold in stores and online. Shafer’s designs reflect his fine arts background, where each T-shirt design is a different piece in a series. Instead of a collection of works hanging in a gallery, Shafer opts for a cotton-blend canvas with holes for a neck, a trunk and two arms, a gallery space that is 3-D and mobile.
SIKENOMICS CLOTHING RETAILERS
Spool / W. 18th St Kansas City, MO 64108 / (816) 842-0228
method. / 1529 grand blvd • kansas city, mo 64108 (816) 221-5888
The Bunker / 4056 Broadway KC, MO 64111 / (816) 561-7407
Hot Pop / 213 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, WIsconsin 53202 / (414) 208-7813
Vintage Vinyl / 6610 Delmar Blvd STL MO / (314) 721-4096
Hum Records / Ankerstrasse 11 Zürich, Switzerland 8004