While there was chaos in stores, shootings in malls, and crashes on websites during Black Friday, many streetwear brands released entirely new collections while others put older items on sale to celebrate the consumption-based “holiday.” Brendon Babenzien’s socially conscious brand, NOAH, decided to close it’s webstore and New York flagship to highlight the detrimental times we live in: “a time when overconsumption is actually contributing to the death and destruction of the world around us.”
The sophisticated streetwear brand announced its exclusion from black friday in an Instagram post which included snippets from the 1997 film The Devil’s Advocate. The scene, in which Robert De Niro is telling Keanu Reeves about the his terrifying prediction for the next millennium, is applicable to the world we’re currently living in. De Niro predicts a reality where everyone’s insatiable desire is fed by their ability to get anything they want, causing for the destruction of the earth to be ignored.
In the post, NOAH also speaks about being concerned about how we will look back on this era in the future. Much like after Watergate and the 2008 market collapse, we may reflect on this time with both disgust and embarrassment.
This year, as we’re witnessing what De Niro predicted in the film continue to take fruition, the CBS Evening News reported that half of all Americans were expected to shop on Black Friday weekend.
While NOAH obviously isn’t against consumerism, the company recognizes the troubling reality “mindless consumption will be the end of us all.”
According to a 2017 study by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, “an estimated $500 billion value is lost every year due to clothing that’s barely worn and rarely recycled. If nothing changes, by 2050 the fashion industry will use up a quarter of the world’s carbon budget.”
Originally started in 2002 before shutting down in 2007, NOAH relaunched in 2015 with an enlightening ethos. Babenzien credits NOAH’s sophistication to him having 15 years to imagine what it would be, what it would look like, and how he would use it.
Since it’s relaunch, the brand has continued to find ways to showcase the myriad of issues it’s concerned about. As a result, the brand has gone beyond the common corporate social responsibility marketing and embedded a civil duty into its DNA. NOAH makes clothing in “factories where tradition, expertise and human dignity take precedence over the bottom line,” uses social media to deliver illuminating information, and is politically involved all while maintaining a true essence of culture.
“I’ve always believed that businesses have a responsibility to operate responsible, at least in some small way,” Brendon Babenzien told GQ style. “ We [NOAH] do it in a very specific way. We did Black Lives Matter shit, we’ve done environmental shit, we sent money down to Puerto Rico…So we use the business as a vehicle to do whatever the hell we think is important. Some of it’s social, some of it’s environmental.”
Inspired by Patagonia, and influenced by skate, surf, and music cultures, Babenzien has found a place in fashion where consumption culture is excessive due to changing trends, and most consumers are seemingly uninformed regarding the unhealthy state of the world, whether it be politically or environmentally.
While some would see this as a time to cash in or to find another market, Babenzien is using it as a chance to teach.
“Staying in this slice of the business is probably the most effective thing we can do because we can reach people that maybe never considered these things, “ Babenzien said on the Maekan. “We talk about some things that maybe just isn’t on their radar. Or just exposing them to things.”
Through it’s instagram and it’s blog, NOAH shares stories of people and brands that are, like NOAH, attempting to make changes to different issues plaguing our society. For example, the blog has highlighted the mass consumption photographer Chris Jordan and the chocolate company, Tony Chocolonely, who’s trying to end child labor and slavery in the chocolate industry.
Commercially, NOAH has released t-shirts purely for donation purposes, donated money to non-profit orgs on certain holidays and for causes merely because Babenzien finds them important. This year alone, the company has released the “Free the Children” shirts to raise money for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services; donated 100% of their “God Protect Robert Mueller” t-shirts to the non-profit Generation Citizen; released the Cousin’s tee inspired by Dame Jane Goodall and donated 15% of all proceeds to the Jane Goodall Institute;and donated 10% of all proceeds from President’s Day to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Additionally, in August the brand joined the 1% for the Planet, a non-profit organization that takes one percent of company’s annual sales and uses it to benefit the environment in multiple ways. The brand also allows customers to donate to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society directly on their webstore.
On a smaller, less humanitarian level, NOAH believes overconsumption is the death of culture and personal style. Today, the ability to purchase has diminished the importance of having an experience. There are more skate tees than skateboarders, more tour merch than show attendees, and overall more viewers than actors. It’s become easier to buy than to actually live, so having the items has become more important than having the memories and connections.
NOAH is the antithesis to this mentality.
Babenzien, the 46 year-old former creative director for Supreme, comes from the era of genuine connection to culture caused the brand to show appreciation to the things, people, and music that he loves. Motivated by individuality and positivity, the brand has collaborated with Bob Marley’s record label Tuff Gong, New York organization Rowing Blazers, and 80s band Big Audio Dynamite– all companies that Babenzien feels people should know about and in some way represent what NOAH stands for.
NOAH’s New York Flagship store has become a center for people to hangout, as well as a place for tourist who know about Noah to come and visit. The stores has an employee that teaches a yoga class in the store on Wednesday morning, and it screened Jordan’s film,The Midway Film Project. Still, Babenzien is working on creating a more interactive-based environment both in New York Flagship and at the Tokyo Clubhouse, which has a working kitchen inside.
While these steps aren’t exactly revolutionary, they are subversive. For three years, NOAH has consistently revealed some of the disregarded flaws in our society that’s leading us to a very dangerous future. In the instagram post, the brand writes: “We know it won’t make a real difference today, but feel it’s important to make a point. Change takes time, and if our little statement affects even one person it’ll be worth it.”
As Black Friday continues to break records, and consumption continues to rise, NOAH continues to find different ways to effect culture with it’s social messages. In a generation with so many issues, so many truths, and so many possibly destructive endings, it’s refreshing to see a conscious brand that not only stands on genuine beliefs, but takes the necessary actions to contribute wherever it’s possibly. It’s still a work in progress. Babenzien admits that he’s still learning. Still, the intentions are applaudable, and the longer the brand is around, the more beneficial it will become.
“This [NOAH] is as much a weapon of war as it is a business in my opinion,” Babenzien said. “We’re waging a war informationally, culturally, societally, whatever you want to call it. Businesses are vehicles for warfare at this point because wherever the money goes–that’s who’s winning. So, if more businesses act responsibly, that’s one side of the war.”
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