Some would say this ones been maturing like a fine wine but personally I’d say life’s a bitch and finally I’m getting this banger of an interview out with Bailey from Redrum Retro a year later. While I sit here bumpin “Get Throwed – Bun B”whilst reading this over I’m realising this is by far the best interview yet! A couple of things have changed since then such as the fact he’s finally got his hands on a Heart Shaped Box tee (big boy bucks) and he could have possibly taken an even harder L over the past year but apart from that this one slaps, no lie Baileys a real one for everyone out there only just discovering him…Lets get it!

• Yo Bailey I hope you’re dope bro! Lets get straight into it, tell the readers a little bit about yourself and what got you onto the drug of vintage. Oh and what’s your most worn tee in the rotation right now?

My names Bailey I run the Instagram page Red Rum Retro. I’d love for it to become my full-time job but unfortunately, I have to make the ends meet so I work at Size the trainer store, but I collect pretty much full-time getting packages sent to work every day. I’ve been collecting for about four years now and the Instagram’s been live for just over 2 years. I started posting on Instagram just purely for the fact that I wanted to show off what the UK had to offer in the sense of thrifting, and it’s not always just been about t-shirts. I did start off buying and selling sportswear. I’ve become more of a collector of shirts and stuff like that selling every now and again just to make room in the collection. 

What kickstarted it for me was basically being into metal from a young age, into heavy metal and just most of the band tees are so sick, like I had quite a few as a kid and then sort of revisiting them in my late teenage years and buying originals was pretty cool. Finding them on eBay at the time for around £5 and finding them in charity shops and stuff so it was pretty cool to see. I just got the real bug for it seeing a lot of the American guys doing a lot of things with t-shirts and I thought well let’s see if we can bring something to the UK and try something a little bit different. Obviously, you know a lot of pages doing it now and a lot of pages have been doing it for a long time. I just wanted to put my own twist on it.

My most worn tee is…that’s quite a difficult question cause they all get rotated in a certain sense, but it will probably be my Type-O-Negative “All you need is blood”. Real, real nice, big heavy hitting graphic on the front and on the back. 

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• I think a large number people see the US as the mecca of vintage and that’s strongly supported when scrolling through their IG feeds so we’d love to hear your thoughts on both the UK and US vintage scenes.

So, with the US scene and UK scene comparison I’d say obviously we’re almost polar opposites because it’s a difficult thing sort of looking in the US and seeing their sort of sources of being able to find vintage. Their thrift stores are ten times bigger. I’ve had the opportunity to go over there and pick in the bins and in the thrift store and they’re just so much bigger and America is just being a bigger place and almost having more t-shirt history as stupid as it sounds. You do see a lot more coming through but to be honest the UK scene recently in sort of the past year has been crazy. I’ve seen guys coming up on deadstock stuff from old places that used to sell old tees back in the 90s. Just coming up on some crazy stuff, so the UK really is you know, running a real good game. The US, obviously people are still finding crazy heat. Quite a lot of my follower base is people over in the US and its pretty cool to see both comparisons. I did a trip last year to New York and got speaking to a couple of the main stores over there like Metropolis Vintage and the guys in Round Two. It’s really interesting to see what does well there and what does well here but to be honest comparison wise I don’t think either of them compare, it’s just opposite ends of the spectrum really. We have a lot more obviously euro bootlegs, a lot more deadstock whereas in the US it seems to be people coming up on crazy steals on the racks or in the bins.

• You mentioned your Type-O-Negative All You Need Is Blood tee earlier and after some digging I know they’re one of your top 3 bands along with Metallica and Wu-Tang. So, with that what is your favourite track. 

Yeah man, like I say, I mentioned in the video about my 3 favourite bands. That question got sent over my Instagram when I was planning the last YouTube video. Music to me has always been there ever since I was a kid, it’s a big, big thing for me is music. Anybody who knows me personally I never really have music turned off..haha..it’s kinda strange really. Every given minute I can put a bit of music on I will but yeah like I say my 3 favourite bands being Type-O-Negative, Metallica and Wu-Tang all very different across the spectrum. 

Type-O-Negative being sort of ya gothic sort of sounding, late 90s that was very popular then. Metallica just being the 80s thrash metal super kings that were just fucking crazy and then Wu-Tang being one of the best groups of all time but favourite tracks…Type-O-Negative would probably be “Life Is Killing Me” just a very, very powerful track. Metallica…”Sad But True” one of the riffs that’s just so heavy and then Wu-Tang from the 36 Chambers album “Da Mystery Of Chessboxin’” the samples on that album are just so crazy and growing up loving Kung Fu Movies as well was pretty cool so to find that album was real, real sick for me.

• I and so many people look up to Round Two for the feats they’ve achieved and the following they’ve built. Don’t get me wrong they’re not loved by everyone, but the general consensus is all for Round Two. We know you’ve been lucky enough to see the store in the flesh so for the people who haven’t can you touch on that experience a little.

So yeah man with Round Two, massive, massive outlet for vintage and streetwear and all that kind of stuff. When I discovered those videos I think I must have discovered the videos when their channel had just started booting off you know. People had just started giving them traction and I just really loved what they were doing at the time and it was just so sick. Me and my friend would watch Round 2 religiously every time the episode would come out we’d text each other and we’d just catch up and see what was happening over there and then, maybe a year later I had the chance to go to the New York store when it first opened. God I can’t even remember what year that would have been but yeah it was so, so sick and I’ve been to the Round Two store in New York now 3 times, such a dope store. Crazy, crazy heat you know, the guys are so sound in there. It’s pretty cool to see that Round Two and Sean Wotherspoon get a very sort of mixed reaction from the vintage community but me personally I dig it. I think the stores are cool, it’s cool to be able to walk into somewhere like Round Two and see a massive curation of vintage and streetwear and all that kind of thing. Then I discovered Metropolis Vintage which is in New York and…pfftt…literally, their t-shirt collection in there is absolutely insane. Never seen anything like it! As much as I love Round Two, Metropolis really is one of my favourite spots to go in New York, everybody should check them out on Instagram.

• Lets talk sourcing…funny, crazy, mad steals, sentimental, whatever it be tell us your favourite t-shirt find story. Hit us with some entertainment!

So craziest find…ahhh it’s so difficult. For me there’s 3 different categories on how I base it in my head. There’s sitting on eBay or sitting online and purging that for a night, you know just sitting down on the sofa and seeing what you can find. Typing in all these different things and getting yourself into a bit of an eBay black hole. Then there’s obviously going out and finding it whether that be a car boot or a charity shop or something like that. The third one I sort of categorise them into is either looking for deadstock or sorted over vintage. So going to vintage shops and stuff like that and searching for deadstock in weird little places. I have obviously my favourite ones for those but my favourite one was when I was in Camden maybe about 3 years ago for my birthday. I just wanted a Marilyn Manson t-shirt. I wasn’t bothered whether it was vintage or anything like that, but I just walked into this little gothic spot that had like all the leather belts and shit and leather pants and thought there must be a reprint Marilyn Manson shirt in here surely. Then I sort of peeped my head round the corner and there was a vintage bootleg single stitch Stone Cold Steve Austin rap tee and I was like fuck and I was stood with my mum, a couple of my friends and stuff and I was like shit! So, I went to the owner and I was like how much is that? And he was like “oh it’s not for sale, it’s not for sale” so I was like no no, no, no, no, I can see its hung up, how much is it? He said ahhh you can have it for £20, I was like okay cool. Obviously, you know the price was okay, I was willing to pay that but as I’d gone to grab that you turned to the left and you could just see all these t-shirts in plastic, it was literally just like a goldmine, you could go digging through for hours. I went back to that place numerous times and was just picking through these crazy euro bootlegs and bartering with this crazy European dude who was just off his head. Some of his prices were…hahaha…but I usually just started bartering him down. That was a pretty crazy time, that’s probably my favourite sort of come ups as far as vintage tees go but that story changes sort of every other week because I’m always on the hunt for new pieces in the collection but yeah that Camden spot was crazy. I’m pretty sure everybody down south knows that spot now as word got out but yeah insane little find that was.

• Reprints are rife and I think a lot of people don’t even realise that the tee they buy in a high street retailer with a vintage print on it was once an original and that’s a sad thing. What’s your take on reprints, does it water down the real nostalgia of an OG?

So, with the reprint market it’s so, so difficult. With straight up reprints, say for instance when you see a Metallica shirt in H&M or Topman. When they were straight up reprints and copies of a piece that was printed say by Giant in the mid to late 90s and its just a straight up copy say with 2016 or 2017 copyright mark on it. To me personally I think that’s so shit it really does sort of take away the buzz of getting an original shirt but then there’s a sense of the reprints then becoming available to a wider market and being widely and regularly available. I really personally don’t fuck with them I’d much rather have an original. Even obviously in the Camden one I mentioned about having a Marilyn Manson tee. You know back in the day I looked at it very differently but now I would only really be bothered about getting an original but obviously it’s one of those things where if you can’t find the OG tee like for instance they did the Nirvana Heart Shaped Box all over print. They did reprints of that maybe about 5 years ago, obviously that’s pretty cool you know. If you don’t really fancy paying over a thousand for a t-shirt you know, buy a reprint, that’s really cool do you know what I mean. But for me personally…reprints…I don’t enjoy them but bootlegs and stuff like that. I think bootlegs are cool. Not a reprint as such but taking a really cool idea, taking a focus and then working on it yourself, creating your own design. I think that’s really, really cool.

• What would a wish list be without it including 5 vintage tees you wish of one day owning…hit us with your 5.

So top 5 tees that quite an interesting question. So, I mean I’ve had tees since I first started collecting that I’ve always wanted but let me just think of a top 5 real quick…So number 1 being the Nirvana Heart Shaped Box all over print. One of the most sort after tees in the vintage game hundred and ten percent that shirt…if you find that, that’s crazy you know. I had a deal on one once but that fell through unfortunately, so I was pretty gutted about that! (Bailey has however now come up on t-shirt gold check it!).

Number 2, maybe like a sub-pop Nirvana “Bleach” tee. I think that’d be just like one of the cleanest tees to own. Just a black and white graphic looks so hard and you know one of Nirvanas first pieces of work, yeah I just think the graphics for Nirvana sub-pop stuffs really, really sick.

Number 3, ohhh god, let me try and think. It’s so difficult! Number 3 I’d say the Riot Gear, Charles Manson tee, the Charlie can’t surf, it’s basically a big photo of Charles Manson on the front and then on the back in big bold text saying, “Charlie Don’t Surf”. Real, real cool piece, real, real sick, you can find them every now and again, but they come up for silly, silly prices. Then another sort of weird quirky one.

Number 4 would be…basically I’m a big fan of crime documentaries and real-life crime. Basically, when the infamous murderer Ted Bundy was executed, they sold bootleg tees out in the car park saying “Burn Bundy Burn”. It was basically sold to people there waiting for his death and obviously all the news reporters and all that. So, there was guys selling those t-shirts out the back of their car. That’d be a real cool one to own.

Then number 5…errmmm…God….number 5, number 5. I’d probably say like a Wu-Tang rap tee, I have a few just basic Wu-Tang euro bootlegs, but I’d love one of the Wu-Tang Cream rap tees! I’d seen one in hand when I was out in Florida last time at a vintage event so, so cool but the prices again, a little bit crazy. But yeah, a decent Wu-Tang rap tee wouldn’t go a miss in the collection. 

• One thing is for sure and that’s that any marketplace is subject to change at any second and especially within the world of fashion. So when we’re talking vintage where do you see the scene being in the next 5 years?

The thing I find fascinating about vintage is that its forever changing. When I first started you could grab a lot of tees, especially now at the calibre that are selling for a couple of hundred pounds, so cheap! Below a hundred. So, it’s cool seeing when I first started collecting vintage and mainly selling and how its changed since then. But in the next 5 years I’m really, really unsure, just because the market is so up and down at the moment, everything could change. Tees will always have some form of value regardless of what it is you know. Obviously, some tees more than others but I have a feeling this year with vintage tees we’re gonna have another good year (2020) with these and then maybe it will drop out, maybe another good year, year and half with t-shirts. Until the next thing comes back. It’s crazy, for instance Nike sweatshirts, spell outs and stuff. Certain designs and the bootleg designs and the central swooshes are all selling for crazy money at the moment. It’s ridiculous, you haven’t seen those sell in a while, maybe a good two years you haven’t seen them sell for that kind of money and its crazy and some of them are even going for loads more than they usually would. So, you know its forever changing but I think we’ve got another good year, year and a half out of t-shirts but then we’ll just see what the future brings. It’s quite exciting really but I’ll always be collecting tees. It’s all about you doing you and you know following a crowd’s is good and following suit’s good but do your own thing. So yeah, that’s where I reckon vintage will be within the next five years.  

• This is your time to plug your top 3 vintage sellers in the UK and put some spotlight onto some others that you think are doing dope things…GO!

So my 3 top UK sellers…Luckily, I’ve had the advantage of becoming friends with a lot of these guys in the UK at the moment. So first off would be Billy @youcantfindeverything on Instagram, sickest guy! Stays to what he believes in, stays true with what he finds in vintage, just a real cool guy you know. Real hard working finding shit when the car boot seasons on just pulling heat all the time. He does what he does, and I respect him for just sticking to his suit and really sticking with what he enjoys. And then same again for the second one, its @redkitevintage. Lewis has been a good friend of mine for the past few years now. Same again just sticks to what he loves, knows what he likes and curates some crazy pieces. Real heavy into Stone Island and stuff like that and I really, really respect that. Then thirdly I’d probably have to go with one of the big guns… @teejerker. Matt over there is such a nice guy. One of the soundest guys you know. We buy pieces off each other all the time and he has one of the craziest archives out there for vintage tees. Obviously running the game, I don’t really have to introduce him because his following is astonishing and he’s such a sound guy.

• Everyone wants to see more dubs than L’s that’s for sure but that’s not to say that we can hide from L’s because they’re out there waiting for us and we’ve all had our fair share. So hit us with your biggest L to date.

Right so biggest L, unfortunately I’ve had a couple but this has been the biggest, soooo I’ll try and cut a long story short. Id sorted out a trade with quite a reputable seller over in the US, thought I could trust him blah blah blah. Id sent over two pretty crazy pieces for the Nirvana Heart Shaped Box tee. Was so, so stocked to be getting one, was real, real hyped for it. Didn’t hear anything for about a week, my tees had managed to get over there because I’d paid for premium delivery for these tees because obviously, they were worth it, they needed covering and heard nothing for a week. Then I received a photo of my Nirvana Heart Shaped Box tee absolutely shredded to pieces errrmm…due to the guy deciding upon himself to fade the shirt and this method of fading would basically use stones to basically give the material a hard fade and it had basically torn the t-shirt to shreds. I’d value that t-shirt at around $1000 at the time and yeah basically that was a real big hit. I managed to get my money equivalent back for the shirts that I’d sent him cus I wasn’t too bothered about getting the shirts back, the money helped at the time. So, you know it’s not an L as such cus obviously I bounced back from it, getting the cash and stuff but at the end of the day I’d have much rather had the tee. Heart breaking times but you know you gotta do it. 

• I feel like being a sneakerhead has become obligatory UK etiquette now! I remember when I was like 13 no one was into kicks no one really got the obsession but now however…it’s caught on with every man and his dog having a little collection they care about. I know you’ve been a day one when it comes to sneakers and you’re a real lover, drop your top 5 sneakers in your collection.

So top 5 sneakers of all time…I’ve seen some crazy stuff, I’ve got some crazy stuff, real happy with the stuff I’ve got but top 5…I’d say number 1 the Sean Wotherspoons. Insane shoe! Got a pair of those at the start of the year (2020), really, really happy with those, the material on those is on point, absolutely love those. Second the Supreme Foamposities in the red, I got a chance to grab those. Sick shoe, so cool, loved what Supreme did on that. Number 3 the Stussy Dunks. Managed to find a pair of those on eBay back in the day for £15 so they’re pretty sick. Errrr number 4…Jordan 4 Toro Bravo. All classic red upper looks insane with a pair of shorts. Got a chance to own those. Then number 5 quite a difficult one…I’d say the Airmax 95 Halloweens. One of my favourite shoes in the collection, I’ve worn them to death, long overdue a new pair. They’re going up in price every year now so yeah that’s my top 5.

• Stussy Dunks for £15…you’ve got to be kidding me?! That’s a mad one, what even madder is to see that its now around 2k to cop a ds pair, shits got out of hand! You’ve gotta let us know how that one came about?

Hahaha, that was really interesting sooo…I was scoping them out ever since they got listed, I was kinda like okay if I pull this off its gonna be crazy…I was like sick I’ll try my best. So, I kept just keeping an eye on them, keeping an eye on them and there was 10 minutes left on them. I think it had something like a £10 bid. Bear in mind the conditions not the greatest, they need a good scrub up and obviously I’ve worn them to death now. I was speaking to the dude and he said he wore them to BMX in and stuff but still it’s a Stussy Dunk do you know what I mean! Stussy Cherrys…insane. Still look sick, still look good on foot and I literally just put the bid in and was like fuck that’s crazy! Fully not expecting for them to arrive. I then check what he’d also sold in the past and he’d had a pair of the Diamond Dunk Lows on there and obviously I was kicking myself but I was happy with the Stussys. They came and I was so, so stoked. I tell people to this day and they still don’t believe that’s a true story haha.

• I remember back in school thinking I was next Tinker Hatfield or Kim Jones on Nike ID cooking up a mad colourway letting everyone know what’s up! But honestly, I think a lot of sneakerheads think they could give designing a shoe a seriously good go so if you were to design a shoe what’s the vision?

So yeah like you said, every sneakerhead has definitely thought about it you know. At one point thought about designing their own shoe or designing it off a known, existing model no matter what the brand is. But yeah I’d definitely for Nike, probably a Dunk Low, kinda take inspiration from what Sean Wotherspoon did with the corduroy and the way that that shoe was built to fade and to fray. I’d stylise it in the sense of Sachai with sort of layers and stuff like that using multiple tongues and just sticking and adding certain things and then I’d use a lot of materials that would fray and fade over time. So, for instance grab a piece of material and maybe use it on the toe box and screen print on that and use that and see the cracking of the design as you wear it as your toe box creases. I’d use all those kinds of materials to really sort of make a shoe fit with a vintage tee. You could have had the tee for years but it’s still got plenty of wear left in it not matter if it’s got holes in or if its faded. So yeah that’s what I’d like to create in a shoe. The Dunk Low for me personally is the most versatile Nike model, you can wear it with anything. So yeah, that’s where I’d be at, a shoe that would stand the test of time, wearing it, skate in it, running in it, doing whatever but still looking good after being beat up and worn endlessly.

• Bailey, you’ve been the most dope honestly, you’re responses have been straight fire giving the readers plenty to get their teeth into while kicking back and sipping on a beer. With that it’s now time for this to come to a close. So give the readers a little advice from the man himself and any final words you have for us.

No literally thank you man for giving me this opportunity to speak about Red Rum Retro, it’s so cool to see that people really care about me collecting old t-shirts you know. It’s just an old hobby of mine, I would love to take it full time one day but yeah we’ll see what life throws at us but yeah as far as advice goes…My big thing is to stay true to yourself, don’t ask too many questions, do what you’ve gotta do you know, go find it yourself. If you’re struggling with something, you know struggling with tags, struggling with anything like that try and learn yourself. Bring it upon yourself to find out those facts that you need. Everybody takes L’s you know, you’re gonna buy some shit but you’ve gotta take the L’s to bounce back and win in some form of sense. That’s all I’m saying, stay true to yourself, answer your own questions, find out your way, do your own thing that’s what I really have followed all this time. Like I say my name is Bailey aka @redrumretro thanks so everybody who’s reading this, feel free to go and check me out on Instagram @redrumretro and on YouTube at Redrum Retrogo watch the videos. Like, comment and subscribe, all of those. Follow the Instagram to keep up with all the content that I post. But yeah, like I say man final words buy vintage, buy second hand clothes. In a more desperate time than this everything is such a cluster fuck especially in this time. Don’t contribute to fast fashion it’s ruining the industry, go and buy vintage, go and buy second hand and you’re still gonna look good doing that.

Peace man, thank you very much.

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