DRKN is an Innovative Brand for a Reason: Digital Transformation and Sustainability

“We offer a high-quality premium lifestyle and streetwear products for the gaming community.”

In the past, fashion creatives have taken elements of heritage and redefined them to adhere to modern standards. The new guard of streetwear designers now flash us a touch of nostalgia as a bow-down of sorts to our treasure past. But, more importantly, the next wave is setting the foundation for what is to come.

That said, when we think about wearable technology today, the first thing to come to mind is still clunky wrist-worn devices – smartwatches and fitness trackers that no matter how hard they try, haven’t yet truly nailed looking like something we all want to wear every day. In fact, that ‘fashion’ aspect of wearables continues to have a really long way to go in terms of true integration in our lives.

In light of the foregoing, we’re thrilled to present DRKN — a clothing brand with a dark sophisticated street fashion style, inspired by digital culture.

The brand was established in 2014 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Carl Bofeldt, DRKN CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Breaking Boundaries

The gaming culture and community is not much different in its basic DNA than other communities. Since some of the DRKN founders had a history and strong connection to other subcultures such as skateboarding, the idea of creating a lifestyle and streetwear brand for E-sport and gamers was brought to life. Today the gaming community is one of the largest and fastest-growing subcultures, remaining both interesting and innovative at the same time. When DRKN was founded, no one else had approached the gamers in this area.

Today, DRKN is an innovative brand for the gaming community and also provides premium collaborations with some of the biggest games and studios in the world including Activision: Call of Duty^® & Warzone, Ubisoft: Rainbow 6/6Siege & The Division, among others.

“We believe that when working with fashion we need to be true to ourselves and to the beliefs we share with our community.”

Achieving a Terrific Feat

DRKN’s designs are in tune with both current fashion trends and what is going on in the gaming world. A lot of games have strong aesthetics that we are influenced by, and streetwear becoming the next ‘luxury’ is setting new rules for producing streetwear today.

“For us, adding traceability and provenance, by tagging products with owner history and whereabouts, we might in reality create a valuable vintage piece. As a whole we hail the sustainable movement, ridding the world of fast fashion and landfills. We are happy to see the fashion industry as a whole heading in this sustainable direction.”

Moreover, at the moment, the company’s main project is to merge high tech into wearable fashion. The first step DRKN plans is to make all its clothing articles digitally readable and connected through API. This allows DRKN to give the clothing articles a history, both regarding production (a sustainability angle) and who owned the apparel before (second hand and uniqueness).

“Our goal is to become the go-to brand for everybody sharing our love for e-sport and gaming. With a merge of high tech into wearable fashion, we aim to change the industry to become more sustainable, prolong the life of our apparels, open up for sharing and subscribing, move away from seasonality, minimize waste production, open up for consumers to lead the way. At the same time, we want to bring the enjoyment of gaming into our garments.”

Carl Bofeldt:

A Trusted Leader

Carl Bofeldt serves as the Chief Executive Officer of DRKN. He has held several positions within the company before taking the leading role. Besides, his ability to constantly manage, develop, and find new ways and angles to run companies, brands, and projects, speaks volumes about how

Mr. Bofeldt operates at the grassroots level. He’s fascinated by the gaming industry, lifestyle, trends, and technology.

Recently, Mr. Bofeldt was named ‘Best CEO in the Digital Fashion Industry’ and ‘Most Innovative CEO of the Year – Sweden’ in the 2020 Business Worldwide CEO Awards.

“Our vision grew out of a collective passion for gaming and computer culture which remains the core inspiration for the brand. For every collection, we aim to build upon that legacy.”