Catch Body Customs...What's In A Name?

Met a big homie from high school today, started choppin' it up and, it turns out, he hip to the clothing line, which was real dope. So, while we politicin', he points to the Peanuts-style Dilla t-shirt I had on and goes:

"This one of your pieces?"

Me: "Yeah, I rock my joints every day."

Him: "Why isn't it branded? I don't see your brand anywhere on the t-shirt..."

Me: "This from the Hip Hop line, ain't no need for that, these for the ones that already know"

I go on my phone, open the online store and go to the '97 RAG line and show him all the branded pieces. He double-takes when he sees CATCH BODY CUSTOMS everywhere!

Then he like, "What does that name mean?"

I give him the short version of the explanation...then it hit me, some people who have been supporting the brand might also not know the history or the reason behind the name, so...here it is...

My brother (R.I.P.) introduced me to Hip Hop in '89, I was 6 years old, and from that year on, I was hooked for life. I don't think I knew it at the time, but everything I did after that was influenced by Hip Hop, from the clothes, to haircuts, to the sport I played. I don't think my momz (R.I.P.) knew what the deal was though, because until I was about 11, she bought all my clothes, sometimes she had me lookin like that dude who always complained about his "freakin lawn" on Friday. I'll never forget the first time I got a whole outfit that was all picked by me, this was '94, I'd seen a bunch of music videos on TV with my favourite emcees wearing baggy jeans and matching denim shirts and Timbs...I wanted to look like em so much! So when my time came, I picked a pair of baggy jeans, denim shirt, and a pair of black Hi-Tec Magnums (we ain't had no Timbs in South Africa in the early 90s!). I felt like the flyest kid on planet Earth that day! That was a good year, shouts to my pops (R.I.P.), he got me my first ever CD (Dr. Dre - The Chronic) that same year, not really sure what he thought he was bringin home to his 11 year old kid, but that joint made me happy as hell!

Fast-forward to high school, I met friends that were obsessed with Hip Hop as much as I was, and we started buildin, my horizons started widening because I got put onto new stuff, different styles, different artists, all that...we also started messin with the pen coz we was listenin to so much music, it was only natural to start makin our own. So the late 90s to early 2000s was a period of absorbing everything that had to do with Ebonics, from movies, TV series like Oz, to the latest underground music we could get our hands on. I say that to say this...when you see me talk or write like this, it ain't no act, the acting I did was when I had to be proper for my teachers at school and my colleagues and bosses at work...you might think I'm ramblin' right now, but be patient, this all gon add up...

The 2000s was an interesting time, I'd met even more friends university, and we thought we was them dudes when we had two, three pairs of sneakers to rock to campus...that was until we saw a documentary titled "Just For Kicks"...my mind was blown! Up until then, I'd been as casual about sneakers as the dudes that will wear a pair of Adidas kicks, a Nike t-shirt, and a Pony cap...I just didn't care that much about kicks, as long as I had my 3 pairs, I was cool (shoutout to my Adidas shell toes, yellow and white Meccas, and the red and white Golas). After the doccie, it was all about gettin my hands on as many pairs as I could manage. So I had my little collection goin on...started seein more money which meant I could afford cop joints when they dropped, but you know how Nas says, "when they do make the whip you like, your chips ain't right, by the time you can afford it, the car's not important"? That was me with the kicks! Before I had shoe dough, the joints was out there, then I had a lil sum'n for the kicks, couldn't get em, the bot kids was coppin em all and reselling 'em for triple the price!

Frustrating, right? Hell yeah! So, one day I'm sulking about how I can't ever get the fly joints...then it hit me, I been nice with my hands since the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles colouring books, the comic book trades and all that. I think I was the only dude at school that used a fine liner to draw, I was that nice! I decided to cop white sneakers, and custom paint the joints exactly how I want. Went online, copped a set of 12 leather paint bottles, set of paint brushes, and I was good to go. January 2021, my first ever custom painted kicks were posted online for everyone that knows me to see, the feedback was crazy. I liked the feelin I got from that. Up next was the camo joints, I'd always wanted camouflage Uptowns but could never find 'em anywhere, now I had 'em, and people was lovin the joints!

People started hittin me up, "where you get your joints?" My response, "send your joints to me, I'll hook you up...long as you gon pay". I started getting more calls, so many that I copped a compressor and an airbrush, now the joints was gon look even more professional, give 'em that factory look...I was killin every pair that was sent to me. I started gettin that feelin' when you know you can't miss. Soon as the plain kicks were delivered, I'd post 'em up online and show the world the next pair that was about to 'get bodied', shouts to my dudes that supported from day one, Ctzn-X, Bati, stand up! So every time I posted a custom pair online, there would be a big thing about how I bodied the joints, if you sent me a white pair of kicks, I was gon catch a body, simple and plain...

Word was gettin around because the people that was supporting also posted their stuff on their social media joints, and people were askin how they can get their joints bodied too. I couldn't let em say, "nah, this dude I know hooked me up", I had to have a name. CATCH BODY CUSTOMS just came naturally, that was what the movement was about. It felt right...like how Phil Knight, I read in his book, went on a trip around the world before he started Nike, and picked visiting the Temple of Athena Nike was the highlight of his trip. It fit, the whole thing tied in with what he wanted to do at the age of 25. Dude saw a play set in the Temple of Nike, some dude gifts the king with a pair of shoes, the temple itself had a carving of Nike, the goddess, leaning to adjust a shoe strap, he had to call his new shoe company Nike, had to...just like CBC had to be CATCH BODY CUSTOMS, no other name would be able to define what this movement was about. 

From then on, everything started fallin in place. The kicks was so fly, they needed matching t-shirts. I had a print shop from around the way do some pieces for me, and everything would come back the opposite of what I wanted. Shoutout to them for messin up, coz that was the reason for me to finally roll up my sleeves and do this myself the way it's supposed to!