“This is Just the Beginning”: A Conversation with Punc’s Ryan Mack
By Rowen Dinsmore, Content Creator at lmno
Created in-house at lmno, Punc is a company that recently launched their first capsule collection and e-commerce website. The '76 Collection marks the bold beginning of Punc, containing three pieces including ready-to-wear garments and functional vessels. Founded by lmno’s Ryan Mack, Punc understands that while victories, losses, and draws are important, it’s the journey and growth that truly matters.
ROWEN: So, Ryan, what is Punc?
RYAN: Punc is a company that explores design and production through different capsule collections. So, the intention is that each collection is going to be different from one another, and it gives us an opportunity to explore our own skills and design things that we want to wear or have or use, but also things that the consumer is equally excited about.
ROWEN: Yeah, we’re excited. And where did the idea of it come from? What made you want to start the brand?
RYAN: Yeah, so just a bit of my history, is I've always been obsessed with sports and fashion, and in a lot of cases, they kind of became intertwined. And I think it's just the way that it was marketed to me as, you know, as a 15-year-old kid.
RYAN: I was impressionable and loved the idea of belonging to something outside of what I believed existed in my local city. And so, by wearing and using these different brands, I felt like I was a part of something larger, a part of their story in some way.
RYAN: There aren’t a lot of fashion and streetwear brands coming from Saskatchewan. Trends hit here a bit late. That's normal. And, you know, having access to the Internet, that's changed things over the past 15-20 years or whatever.
RYAN: So, I've been, closely tied with a retailer here in Saskatoon called Momentum. And I've had an opportunity to build a lot of strong relationships through that. And my background in marketing during university, gave me the tools and mindset to develop a brand called Olé Denim with two good friends of mine. We started the idea back in 2013 and we tested and built products over two years and launched in 2015. We were able to make raw selvedge denim with fabric from Okayama, Japan, taking all raw materials to California and develop product there, including Horween Leather from Chicago, that was then handcrafted in Vancouver by Ken Diamond, and also sent back to L.A. We then brought all pairs back to Canada and sold it through trusted retailers. But we also sold directly to our customers that were literally all over the world. And we did that for ten years, and that ended this past December.
ROWEN: Wow.
RYAN: I don't even know if I answered the question.
ROWEN: No, you did. I'm also curious if you could explain your role at lmno and how Punc became involved in-house here?
RYAN: So, when I was ending Olé over the Christmas break of 2023, I woke up in the middle of the night, literally woke up in the middle of the night, and I was like, I want to, you know, that's ending and that's the perfect time for that to end. But there's more I want to do. And before I was so tied to denim and indigo and every product had to be based around that, I wanted to explore something else. So, I don't know, maybe the night before I was on a run with my dog and I woke up in the middle of the night and I was like, I want to start a running company.
RYAN: And I thought about it more and I was like, “no, I don't necessarily want to create a running company, but I want to do a running collection.” And I wanted to do a running collection because right now that's important to me and I'm passionate about it. And the Olympics are coming up. So, I want to do products that are tied to the Olympics in some sort of way. And really, I thought there was an opportunity to work with lmno on this first capsule collection because the team there has such strong resources in design, web, writing and strategy. So, there was a lot of these pieces that kind of came together to make Punc possible.
ROWEN: Amazing. So, is that your plan, that future collections are always going to be athletic-based or running-based, or is that just this collection?
RYAN: I'm not going to say it's never going to happen again.
ROWEN: Okay. But it was kind of like a one-time plan?
RYAN: Yeah, like if you have gotten to know me or if you've had conversations with me, sportswear is super important to me. That's typically a part of my daily uniform. The brands that I like, the product I like to wear and use, maybe it'll come back? But as we strategize and think about these next couple collections, I think these next couple collections are going to be very different from what we've designed in this three-part for the ‘76 collection.
ROWEN: That's kind of the beauty of doing limited drops and capsule collections because you can move forward and do something completely different every single time.
RYAN: Totally. And there are a bunch of brands that have been doing this for years, and I think the strongest thing that they do is marketing their collections not in-season design. Often, they're making a bigger splash with the collaboration than they are with “Spring Summer 2024,” you know what I mean?
RYAN: And when you think about designing for seasons, you need to be so on top of a schedule. And we don't want to just create product for the sake of creating product because we’re held to a timeline. I want us to be able to create product because we're passionate about that product itself or an event that's tied to it or just the timing. So, that's kind of the beauty of it.
ROWEN: And then it gives you less pressure too. You can have a long gap or a short gap between collections. It just depends on life.
RYAN: I think that's like kind of the issue right now with consumerism and fast fashion. So much is getting created, so much is getting thrown out and we don't want to be a part of that problem.
ROWEN: I love that. That's awesome. And what would you say Punc's ethos is?
RYAN: I think a lot of it is based around design, but when I think about what's important to the brand, it's about progression, exploring ourselves, and really using passion as the driver to create, market, or sell.
ROWEN: Yeah, you can see that when you just look at your page or the products themselves. Beautiful. And why “Punc?”” Where did the name come from?
RYAN: Yeah, kind of speaking a bit to progression. I can't take credit for the name. I was talking to Taylor, who's the Chief Creative Officer at lmno, we were discussing just different names for the brand. And when we talked a bit about that ethos of progression and thinking about things like periods or capitalization or different moments, we ended off on, “Well what comes after a sentence, it's the punctation that separates this moment to the next.” So, the punctuation ends up being “Punc.”
ROWEN: It does sound cool. It does sound punk. It sounds awesome. Yeah, I think it's great too. Especially being a branch off lmno as a brand, but in relation to it and almost like honouring that. It's like you zoom in on the dot in lmno and that's where Punc is.
RYAN: That's kind of how it came up. Yeah. If you look at the lmno logo, it ends with that red period or that red dot. I didn't want to call it “Red Dot.” I didn't want it to be a “Dot” or a “Period.”
ROWEN: And “Dot Dot Dot” is already used.
RYAN: Yeah. So, it ends up being the punctuation. In a lot of cases what comes after the punctuation is the capitalization. So, we are capitalizing on a moment.
ROWEN: Yeah, I love that. And moving on to the collection, what was the inspiration behind the ‘76 collection?
RYAN: The idea behind ‘76 was the creation of the Marketing Den (lmno’s original name). So, 1976 pays homage to the year that the Marketing Den was created. And when I think about running and I think about activewear or exercise, which later leads us to the Olympics, it ties back to one of my favourite Olympics logos that has ever been created over the years, which is Montréal 1976. So basically, if you don't know that logo, hop on to Google and search “the 1976 Montréal Olympics logo.” It is a play-off of the five rings becoming a maple leaf and it's super retro, super nostalgic. There's a lot of great Olympic logos, but that ended up being a bit of the inspiration for the design, in this case we wanted to capture movement. So, this design that exists for the 1976 collection is going to be unique to this specific collection. So, branding will change every time.
ROWEN: I think that's really cool.
RYAN: I think when you think about the Olympics of 1976, you start thinking about reliable products that you want to use when you're training, or in everyday life.
ROWEN: Moving forward to our last question, which isn't the end, it's just the beginning. What's next for Punc and can you share any teasers for the upcoming capsule collection? No pressure.
RYAN: There are two ideas that have been floating around. Very different from what you've seen in the ‘76 collection. But I think what you'll continue to see is us working with high-quality garments. We've got a couple cool canvases to work with in the future, and I think that's a bit of foreshadowing and into not only the products that we're going to be developing, but we potentially might explore events as well.
RYAN: So, we just want to improve each time. So, you know, this time it was a web drop, but is there an opportunity maybe to do an in-person release next?
ROWEN: Well, I can’t wait to see what’s next. Thank you, Ryan.
RYAN: Hopefully it pieces together.
ROWEN: It will. This is just the beginning.