There were alot of highlights in 2012 that I’m very proud of and I would like to thank everyone involved in making things happen. From the shows in Japan to the magazine features about the brand to the collaborations, we’re very grateful and humbled by the support of everyone of you. 2013 is going to be another busy year. We have alot of really good double labels coming up, brand movement globally, a really cool fatlace artist series launching in the Spring, and as for shows.. we’ve consolidated our events and will be doing only Slammed Society Events and having Hellaflush as a category.

Here’s some photos from this year that we’ll always remember.

Last year Illest Brand exhibited at both Agenda and Magic. It was our first year doing this as a brand and we’re humbled by the reception we were given. Come check us out again as we exhibit next week at Agenda in Long Beach showing off our Summer & Fall collections.

The USA Demo RWB 993. This car made it to a bunch of events and now lives with a good friend of ours.

Who’d thunk? We worked with Chevy on this Sonic Build. Thanks to everyone involved.

Next year I’m going to be working alongside James Stewart on a special project. Something unrelated to our brands. It gonna be cool.

Transformers collaboration doesnt end in 2012 as we’re going to be pushing out some new and exciting stuff for 2013. Thanks to everyone who supported this.

I personally went to a place I’ve always wanted to goto. The Honda Museum at Twin Ring Motegi. It was truly an experience.

Something I’ve always wanted to do outside of video games was really race on a track in Japan. This year I got to do just that as Nakai invited us to race along with other RWB owners in a 12 hour endurance race.

Spotting a crew of 30 Bosozoku motorcycle guys on the way to Motegi. Thought I’d throw this one in.

Another thing we did this year was host the Illest B-Boy Battle. For 2013, we’re going to be doing this event outside of our car show events and it will be a stand alone event. Stoked to be putting this event on.

I had my essentials published by Hypebeast. Rad.

My good friends Toshi & Nakai of RWB

Thanks to all our sponsors who supported us this year for our 2 builds. The GTR and FRS turned out awesome and we’re very happy on the way they both turned out. Here’s the team from Brembo holding up some skate decks which we made specifically for Sema to show our appreciation to our sponsors

We threw our annual Hellaflush event in Japan. Although it was probably the most trying events we’ve ever thrown, we were very grateful that so many people wanted to come to the show. We’re again very sorry for those that drove 12 hours and couldnt come in due to the event selling out of parking spaces.

Friends at Hellaflush, Japan

This year we worked with Ken Block & Team on logistics for their infamous Gym4 video filmed in San Francisco. Was amazing to watch the team tear down the car, drop the engine and re-assemble in an hour.


We’ve also spread our wings a little and have been sponsoring outside of automotive and music. We’ve sponsored some MMA fighters as well as Team Proper. We’ll be looking to do more with these guys in the future.


Here’s the schedule we’re looking at for next year. We’ll be kicking the year off with an indoor event in the Bay Area. Will keep you posted once we lock in that date!


And finally, we’ve once again collaborated with Beats to created the illest Beats Studio headphones.

Thank you again for supporting our brands this year and we hope to see you guys next year at one of our events.

Mark Arcenal

Creative Director at Arcenal
Lived the Agency life for over a decade and then moved to client side and helped in launching the biggest brand Nike has to date, Nike Sportswear as the Global Digital Lead.

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