Puig, Puig, Puig & Puig, the master never ceases to amaze! His current “Leon the Professional” phase actually might be his best.
Also featuring:
Lucas Puig, Flo Mirtain, Marek Zaprazny, Thierry Gormit, Gauthier Rouger, Pedro Attenborough, Victor Campillo, Karl Salah, Mikel Vidal, Pierre Leze & William Monerris.
A new Hélas X Adidas Skateboarding collaboration is dropping at midnight. Apparently the design of the collection will continue to be mostly influenced by the style of sportswear that you might have witnessed famous tennis players from the 90’s winning gold medals in. However, this time the campaign also includes another theme from the 90’s that just recently, I believe, has gained great popularity again – Anime. Thus, The Ultimate Challenge is a special manga-themed commercial starring Hélas label mates Lucas Puig, Stephen Khou, and Clement Brunel as they’ve never appeared before…
Hélas and adidas spared no effort to present their new collection in Paris. On three floors you could dive into a white and green world of tennis, meet almost every common face from the Parisian skate scene and important guests from all over Europe, expensive champagne and exquisite snacks were served and then there he was – Suddenly the lights went off and the upcoming French rap superstar Kekra entered the stage, and in less than a minute the vernissage-like meet and greet event turned into a gangster rap concert. As someone whose heart is beating for all sorts of rap it will remain an unforgettable night in blurry pictures. In this spirit, thanks for having me!
Text & Photos by Paul Röhrs
Happily, I received an invitation to beautiful Paris to join the launch party of the Hélas X adidas collaboration and even to meet one of my favorite skateboarders for a little chat. Not far from the more than well-known Place de la Republique I met Lucas Puig and his Hélas fellows Stéphen Khou and Clem Brunel at a nice restaurant in a smaller side street. After I had introduced myself to everyone and ordered some food and something to drink, Lucas and I took seat in a quieter part of the restaurant.
Interview & photos by Paul Röhrs
Hey, Lucas! First of all I have to admit that it is really an honor for me to meet you. Somewhere I might still have a poster from a Fourstar demo in Berlin years ago with your autograph on. So, I always have been a big fan and still am!
Oh, crazy! I’m appreciating man! Thanks!
Well then, let’s start with the basics! How are you?
I’m really good man! I can’t complain. I’m finally able to skate again, we have this collab with Hélas and adidas and yeah, I am happy to be here right now.
Nice to hear that! Since your knee is healing and getting better each and every day let’s briefly talk about this accident. What did actually happen?
Yeah sure! Well, I tore my same ACL already for the second time. So, I got the typical ACL surgery again and had to go through a lot of physical treatments for months.
I know from a friend that it can get complicated if you tear your ACL more than once.
Yeah, I mean as you see with a good surgery and rehab two times is still repairable, but I think I should try not to fuck with it for a third time. (Laughs)
How did it happen? Usually the worst things happen doing the easiest tricks.
Exactly man, I just tried to ollie a couch for a cool looking picture for my instagram. I put the couch in front of a little bump. Then I tried to ollie it once and I was like “man, this is harder then I thought”. So, I went a little faster and then my back foot got stock and I quite uncontrolled landed only on my front leg with all my weight on it and then it just snapped. So yeah, you always get hurt on the stupidest moments. So, watch out! Shit like this happens when you don’t really pay attention to what you do because you think it’s easy, you know.
When you were injured you, of course, weren’t able to skate, which is as everyone can imagine a very tough time. But, on your instagram it seemed like you were using your time out for some new activities. For example, you started surfing. Could one say, that there also is something positive about having the chance to step back from skating for a little while?
You know, when you are skateboarding all the time, the other life that exists around you is just paused. For example, I lost my driver license and actually needed it back again, but I just haven’t had the time to do so. When I hurt my knee, I was kind of forced to take this break that I also needed to finally do my paperwork and all the annoying “regular life” stuff. And when I was done with everything, I just needed to do something cool, you know!? Since I couldn’t skate I was like “man, what can I do to just be outside?” So I started fishing and stuff to be outside with my friends, instead of playing PlayStation all day.
How are your feelings about that Cliché is out of business now?
When I first got the news I was shocked man. I couldn’t believe it.
So, it was surprising for you, too?
Yeah, I mean for everybody! It wasn’t like they planned to shut down the company they just had to. So yeah, it was really sad and it took some time for me to realize it. You know, we all grew up together. I have been riding for Cliché since I was thirteen. I even had my first skate trip with them.
Yeah, and I mean you have been super loyal like you never even thought about taking the next better offer and switching to another board brand.
Yeah, since we all became really good friends it didn’t felt like business at all, and thus I always felt being at the right place even if there sometimes have been also tough moments. Now I think these 15 years have been the best time of my life, and although it is really hard to move on I am more than happy to have shared all these great experiences with them. So, I try to see it that way, you know.
Switch Fs Slappy Noseslide 270 – Place de la Republique
How does the new chapter of your life is going to look like? I can imagine that you already got plenty of offers on your desk right now. Will we see you being introduced on a new team soon or are you probably planning to start your own company like you already did with Hélas as a clothing brand?
No, I’m not going to start an own brand because Hélas is already enough of work. I already got some new offers on which I’m super stoked on, you know. I’m just going to take my time to do the right decision and then let’s write a new chapter and hopefully go for another 15 years!
Sounds good to me! Well, talking about Hélas, tell me about how this collaboration with adidas came about. Who had the idea first?
Well, of course, riding for adidas was the main reason that brought us the idea. We are always thinking about new collabs and this time it just took a couple emails and both sides were like “fuck yeah, let’s do it!” So, my friend started to work on some graphics and also adidas had some ideas and then we brought everything togther. Boom! Tennis style! I think this theme is fitting for both companies pretty well, too.
Do you have any other companies in mind you would like to collaborate with?
Yeah, for sure! There are a lot of stylish companies out there. But for now we are happy to have this one with adidas. So, we will be focusing on this one and maybe do a second one and then we’ll see what happens then.
Before Supreme collaborated with Lacoste, I always thought this would be cool with Hélas.
Yeah man, when we started Hélas and still were this little company we were like “Yeah, one day we will be working with Lacoste and shit like that!” (Laughs) It was our dream, you know. But now, Supreme already did it and I really like it. Who knows, maybe one day we will have a big collabo like this as well. But for now, as I said, I can’t be any happier. Adidas is big for us, you know, it’s insane!
Skating-wise, what is the next thing coming up for you?
We are going to work on some new Hélas edits for sure! And when I find a new board sponsor there will be something released for an introducing. I guess, it might not be a full video part but still something to look forward to for sure! You know, at first I just want be able to skate 100 percent and then I can focus on something proper.
You are already doing good on your instagram man! It’s incredible to see you skate like this as if nothing ever happened!
(Laughs) Yeah, but you know, it’s just instagram. There is no stress, it’s okay when I go slow and skate little curbs and shit like this.
Yeah, but still you keep it really creative!
Well, I guess I had too much time to think about new tricks! (Laughs) I always try to go forward and progress, you know.
Last but not least, what’s your latest French rap thing you became a fan of?
Kekra just released a new album and it’s really banging!
I even heard some rumors that we might see him tonight as secret act for the Hélas X adidas party?
(Laughs) Yeah, he might come! I don’t really know. (Blinks one eye)
So, you have some connection with each other?
Well, we start to have some, yeah!
Then I am curious for tonight! Thank you very much for your time and see you at the party!
You are welcome! See you later!
Hélas and adidas came up with a nice Court inspired selection of items including a Matchcourt shoe, a windbreaker tracksuit, a polo shirt, a t-shirt, some shorts and two custom headwear pieces to top things off.
You know it is going down on adidas’s website and the at the launch event in Paris tomorrow (May 5th) because with the designs being as smooth as Sade’s music we are sure that this Limited Edition release will be gone in no time.
It is not by chance that international hype around the Paris based clothing brand Hélas is constantly growing, if they keep their mixtapes shine like this! Lucas Puig and his GUCCIT retinue are ripping the shit out of Paris and Barcelona! Click clack boom!
Starring: Lucas Puig, Jesus Fernandez, Maxime Geronzi, Brian Peacock, JB Gillet, Dan Leung, Mark del Negro, William Monneris, Karl Salah, Mark Zaprazny, Brayan Albarenca, Tommy Zhao, Clement Brunel, Stephen Khou, Roman Lisivka and Luy Pa Sin.
As we have been to Paris for the launch party of our recent Paris Paname Issue at Chez Justin a couple weeks ago I got introduced by Thomas Busuttil to Clem Brunel, who is next to Lucas Puig and Stéphen Khou one of the three main guys behind the French fashion brand that is associated with the infamous umbrella symbol, Hélas.
Actually, I wanted to ask Clem if there would be a chance to buy some caps from him before I would had to head back home to Berlin because they currently are still rarely sold over here. Clem kindly invited me and my peeps to meet him at his office to be in a more quiet atmosphere to talk and to have some coffee, as well.
The Hélas office is located in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. On the outside it has some beautiful old wooden framed glass windows were some caps and cloths are shown. Behind the window is a sort of tiny showroom followed by a narrow corridor that leads into a second larger room that serves as storage space.
Clem friendly received us with the before promised cups of coffee and after we had sat down around a table in the middle of the stockroom we naturally began to talk about the developments of the company, for example the switch from making caps only to producing a broader range of cloths, and also we talked about the upcoming projects and collections.
As it turned out, we happened to be there just shortly before the new collection was going to arrive and the office would have turned into a full packed space where one is barely able to walk through. He also told us that they are currently working on a new Hélas video project that they want to drop very soon.
At the end, Clem provided everyone of us with some fresh head covering and we fixed to meet again in Berlin for the Bright Tradeshow. Thanks for having us, Clem!
Today morning at 00:01 the new spring collection was dropped as a quickstrike! Beneath you find some product pictures from the lookbook presented by Hélas very own model boy JB Gillet. To get Hélas products visit the online shop that also provides worldwide shipping.
Text by Paul Roehrs
Photos by Danny Sommerfeld
Lookbook shots by Nikwen
Anfang des Monats, frisches Geld auf dem Konto und keine Ahnung wofür du es ausgeben sollst – wir hätten hier 10 brandheiße Items für euch, die es wert sind von den Stangen der Shops gerissen zu werden.
TPDG Supplies – Coach Jacket – 89,90 Euro
Vans – Sam Partaix Slip-On Pro – 70,00 Euro
Buttergoods – Court Polo – 99,95 AUD
Hockey – Eyes without a face – 55,00 USD
Diamond Supply Co. – Rock Sport Socks – 7,95 Euro
Claro! Caps – Milano Cap – 35,00 Euro
Hélas – Umbrella T-Shirt – 35,00 Euro
DC Shoes – Mikey Taylor 2 – 90,00 Euro
Fluff x Nike SB – 1826 Puzzle – 15,00 Euro
5Boro NYC – Stefan Marx Airline Series Queens – 59,90 Euro
Kurz vor Weihnachten kommt Hélas noch mit einem Highlight um die Ecke, die Rede ist von diesem 14 Minuten langen Videomixtape in dem unter anderem Lucas Puig, Flo Mirtain, Brian Peacock, Luypa Sin, Felipe Gustavo, Marek Zaprazny, Dan Leung, Mark Del Negro und Gauthier Rouger ihr Können unter Beweis stellen. Gefilmt wurde in Frankreich, Barcelona, England und Shanghai – und wie!
Lucas Puig zeigt seine neusten Stücke für Hélas in Training Day, der Frühlingskollektion des französischen Hutmachers. Auch wenn es zur Zeit eher weniger nach Regenschirm aussieht, sind wir ziemlich begeistert. Für die gesamte Kollektion geht es HIER entlang, wir haben vorab ein paar Highlights für euch.
Bobby de Keyzer hat nicht nur den geilsten Namen, der Typ hat es auch richtig im Fuß. Der kanadische Vertrieb von Hélas Caps hat das erkannt und sich den Jungspund direkt geschnappt. On Top legen wir noch diesen sonnigen Skateparkclip mit modernem Skating a la Austyn Gillette. Viel Vergnügen: