Felt and Open Portal: When Streetwear Collides With Toy Culture
Not all streetwear brands are created equal. In a flurry of graphic tees, oversized hoodies, and snapbacks, Kristian “Kosta” Acosta the brain behind the New York-based brand Felt, seeks to diversify himself from the played-out “tough guy” image churned out by his contemporaries, venturing into unexpected territory: toys via the launch of his new endeavor Open Portal.
Kosta fully embraces his nerdier influences, from anime/manga to his love of collectibles proving that otakus and other members of once unheard-of subcultures are in a power position to shape today’s tastes. Kosta’s new venture Open Portal fuses the collective love of toys found amongst other self-described “90s kids” raised on a steady diet of cartoons and unsupervised internet access, with artists from the Tokyo community who simply want to make something cool, madly collectible, and that in the words of Kosta “takes you to another place when needed”. The Open Portal team also includes artist Freddy Carrasco and Agnes, the designer behind Agnes Kruel.
Prototypes of unreleased Open Portal figurines.
Everything from Open Portal’s packaging to toy designs, aims to provide a more experimental take on classic collectibles.
Felt and Open Portal from Kosta’s viewpoint are a collective of friends, rather than another hype-laden set of brands, drawing upon the relationships formed in his Miami youth and the mash-up of cultures he was exposed to early on.
Felt also has a strong presence in Tokyo, a city with unlimited potential for connections, with artists, designers, and other members of the creative community with a passion for anime/manga, and an openness to try something new. The brand is best known for its butterfly emblazoned loungewear sets and graphic-printed puffer jackets, that pop up with the most unexpected people and places from NBA stars to local Tokyo legends.
Felt’s signature monarch butterfly embroidered hoodie.
It’s Felt’s versatility of inspirations, “all in the family” vibe, and frankly the fact that Kosta is a guy that almost anyone would want to sit down and shoot the shit with over a beer, that cultivated a loyal crew as well as an authenticity that’s easily apparent from a short conversation with him.
The connection between streetwear and toys may not be understood at first glance, but both are rapidly expanding niches originally dismissed as a childish endeavor, then elevated into an art form. In other words, toys aren’t just for kids but can be appreciated by anyone who craves off-kilter creativity and owning a piece of pop culture history. Japan has long understood the artistic value of toys, with limited edition figures sold at hyper-expensive resale prices [Mandarake] or in cheap gachapon machines found in many metro stations with surprisingly innovative designs, but recently brands in the West have been catching on as well.
Open Portal’s much anticipated collaborations with Tokyo artists and designers are proof otaku obsessions are easily compatible with fashion sensibilities. Plus, Kosta’s fusion of Western and Eastern cartoon influences is an ode to the experiences of many 90s kids, who were exposed to more familiar Looney Tunes-esque characters and the poorly dubbed anime that started creeping onto U.S/E.U TV screens at the time. It’s Open Portal’s nod to this cross-pollination of Western/Eastern cartoon influences, and the injection of old with the new, that simply results in cool toys for cool people.
Sabukaru got to sit down with Kosta, about his unexpected pathway to becoming a designer to his adventures in the streets of Miami and beyond.
Prototypes of yet to be released Open Portal figurines.
Friends of the Felt team include members of Tokyo Vitamin and Wasted Youth.
Hey Kosta, can you please introduce yourself to the Sabukaru Network?
Hello Sabukaru Network, my name is Kristian Acosta but Kosta is my go to nickname. I’m an American born, Colombian creative designer and owner of a clothing company called FELT and Open Portal which is an independent toy company we’re launching soon with Freddy Carrasco and Agnes. I am a thinker, a spirit guide, a dog whisperer and a DJ on occasion.
Before we talk about all things future, let's talk about Miami and the cultures around you. Can you give us a glimpse of your youth and what kind of life, people, and subcultures you were into?
Having had the opportunity to travel as much as I have I can tell you that there isn’t a melting pot quite like Miami. The cultures, the music, the spirit and energy of the city is unmatched. It’s extremely difficult to not be inspired in Miami. You can go from being in a purely Cuban neighborhood to being in a fully Haitian neighborhood by just walking 2 blocks. And I’m talking about a big change between blocks; different architecture, different sounds, different faces, different art. That proximity to other cultures is exceedingly inspiring and it led to me being friends with many different people.
Kosta mid- web chat.
The accessibility to different ways of life served as an endless fountain of inspiration for me as a youth. I had friends from Egypt to Puerto Rico to Argentina to China and as might be expected we were always in each other's homes, whether being babysat by each other's mothers or just chilling and that was really eye opening for me. I absorbed it all like a sponge. A lot of things I didn’t always understand or appreciate as a kid but now I realize how impactful they were for me and my craft.
Miami is a crazy place. I left Miami quite young. I was about 19 or 20 when we packed up all our belongings and moved to New York. There was a lot of Miami and Florida that I never got a chance to experience due to that. I truly did not appreciate this place until we moved back about 2 years ago amidst the pandemic. Once the shit hit the fan we decided to clear it from New York after 8 years there, it just made sense to seek out more space if we were going to be bound to being inside. I got a couple of dogs and some mango trees.
With that being said I’ve always been into the strange and absurd and growing up in Miami before I lived in New York really fueled that.
How did that all form you to start something creative? When and how was Felt born? How would you summarize the early years?
Growing up I could never draw, I couldn’t draw anything in much detail without looking like chicken scratch. I noticed early on that I wasn't born with the skill to draw nor traditionally paint; however my older sister is a phenomenal painter and my dad is a great illustrator. That lapse in drawing skill skyrocketed my interest in finding an art I could potentially be good at. That journey ranged from music, to graffiti, to painting, to collaging, to eventually landing on the idea of starting a brand with my friend Luis Correa.
Luis Correa, who started Felt alongside childhood friend Kristian Acosta.
In high school I was lucky enough to take a graphic design class in 10th grade, this class happened to change my life and essentially became the first stepping stone for what Felt is today. I don’t think anybody paid any attention in that class but me, everyone took the 3rd period graphic design class to play Counter Strike, listen to music and sleep. I managed to do all three of those things and still pay attention to our teacher.
I absorbed everything I could from Mr. Delanois, not just program based things but shit like reading a Pantone book properly, knowing how to think outside of the box and when to think outside the box. He challenged me creatively quite a lot and that ultimately prepared me for what was to come.
Towards the end of the school year in 2009 our finals project was to print a single color graphic on a t-shirt. From top to bottom with no help. I got to burn a silk screen in the dark room, fuck that up a few times, source a good t-shirt to print on, mix the colors together to create the color I wanted, try the print a few times. This specific assignment is what made me realize that this was something that I could possibly be good at, a cocktail of graphic design, creative direction, willingness to try new things and just enough nerdiness.
Anyway, I ended up printing a shirt with a navy silhouette of Mike Tyson throwing a left uppercut with collegiette letters that read CONQUER ALL arched across the top. The photo meant nothing and neither did the text but it was the first shirt I ever printed, and one of the first times I felt like I was really good at something. That project would essentially change the direction of my life. Shortly after that I dropped out of high school and figured I’d work a few odd jobs and do my creative shit on the side. Around that period of time Louie also dropped out of school and given we were hanging out everyday we opted to start a magazine called Southern Cut which eventually turned into the brand Felt. That was 2011 or 2012, crazy to think it’s been 10 years.
The timing of everything just made sense for us. Locally there weren't many, if any, independent brands making cool garments and being from South Florida we didn’t have access to stores like Supreme, Stussy, or Bape, we never had a “Soho” or “Fairfax”. In a way I’m sure Felt was subconsciously born out of the need we saw for a generational brand to come and open a shop in Miami. A place the local kids could congregate at, skate at, paint at, and be inspired by.
Felt is a melting pot of symbols, 90s future nostalgia, classic streetwear and everything Kosta - can you give us a little ride through your visual world; from butterflies to electronic music and graphic design?
For one I chose the Butterfly motif out of a dark place if you will. I was up reading about MK Ultra one night and somewhere in the text they called the program the Monarch Mind Control Program and from there is where I got the idea to start using butterflies on garments. In a way they really served as mind control given how popular they became within the streetwear and fashion community. However, my intention was never one of purity or beauty although I openly embrace those things as well.
I was born in October 1993, making me a peak internet baby. At a young age I realized how vast the internet was. While kids my age were freaking out about computers for other reasons, I was on my family computer everyday downloading all this information into my brain. It was good and it was bad. I understood the importance of the internet and how fragile it was. The endless stream of information truly captivated me. Everything I came to love in my teenage years I somehow obtained because of the internet, anime, manga, music, books, getting lost on forums and blogs containing all sorts of data. The internet is one giant library for information, you can learn everything and anything on there.
As a kid I was always hungry to learn more, I was the type of kid to ask 10,000 questions during a movie, I just wanted to know more and more. The internet filled that void for me as a youth, anything I wanted to know I would pull up online and embed it into my brain. My mom is an older Hispanic woman that to this day doesn’t speak much English, so she never really had a grip of what I was doing on the computer. So, I never had any supervision when surfing the net and that freedom really instilled something in me. A seed of creativity, a need for more.
And with all that being said, the internet came led to real life impulses. When I stumbled across the graffiti culture I couldn’t help but go outside, steal paint from Home Depot and start a crew with my friends. It was a wrap shortly after that, we couldn’t help but spend all our nights outside painting and fucking shit up. One night catching a few tags with my homies we stumbled into some cats going to a techno rave, and when I say techno rave I’m talking about that dark warehouse, bass in your face, 128bpm shit, not the EDM, Swedish House Mafia type of shit.
I instantly fell in love with electronic music, everything about it, the artwork on the vinyl sleeves, the symbolism, the history, the freedom of expression, the noises and sounds. From that love of electronic music I discovered other things that would eventually influence me deeply, things like mushrooms and playing music at parties.
The rest just sort of falls into place. I’ve always been into these things and they constantly resurface in my work for Felt. Sometimes I design things with one mind set and when they’re done I realize that I've pulled inspiration from something I saw when I was 17. All this sort of snowballed into my life from being online and outside.
The brand seems to get bigger and bigger each year with more and more people wearing it, we have seen Camron, Curren$y, Freddie Gibs, Gunna wearing it, things are pushing forward. How did the last years feel like for you watching this all unfold?
It’s honestly a crazy feeling as it is a bittersweet one. On one flip of the coin it’s truly amazing seeing our hard work out in the world being worn by so many people, famous or not. It’s me and Louie’s dream come true. On the other flip of the coin it’s still strange sometimes. When we started Felt it was very very very lowkey. It was a secret handshake within the streetwear community. We didn’t sell a shirt publicly for the first 2 to 3 years, if you wanted a Felt shirt you would have to know me or Louie or someone really close to us. So in that sense it really was like a secret handshake like a password to get into our little secret club.
All in all it’s very rewarding seeing our work touch so many corners of the world, it blows my mind everyday.
It’s also extremely cool that our craft has allowed us to be friends with some of the people we grew up looking up to. I’ve had the chance to smoke a blunt with Cam’ron at his house while his mom was screaming at us to get out of the kitchen. That’s some type of shit that 15 year old me would really be trippin about y'know?
My favorite part is when my mom recognizes someone that’s wearing a Felt piece. Recently she called me freaking out because she saw Jimmy Butler on her TV wearing a Felt butterfly hoodie after a Miami Heat playoff game.
It feels good but it’s not the only thing that fuels me. It’s all part of the process and I’m here for it.
What are the next projects you are working on with Felt?
The future! The future excites me nowadays. We have a lot of projects on the horizon for Felt but I’ll only spoil a couple of the ones we’re set to release in 2022. I can say we’re releasing the third installment of our ongoing collaboration series with Carrots by Anwar Carrots. With that comes a lot of baby and kids clothes which I’m really excited to see given we all have babies now. We are doing a few cool booths for Complexcon this year, the first and craziest one is for our collaboration with Doraemon.The team is super stoked to have the opportunity to do this one and it’s been a fun time putting it together.
We’re also in the process of cleaning Felt if you will, going green, or at least taking the steps in the right direction. The bigger Felt gets the more duty we have to make the company as green as possible. Which is very easy to say but really hard to make a reality. That’s a big project we’re spearheading into 2023, and 2024 and every year to come after that.
Let's talk about Tokyo! Before the pandemic, you have been a regular in this city behind the decks, parties and also by collaborating with Tokyo brands. What does the city mean to you and your creative moves?
I don’t even know where to begin. Honestly, I first went to Japan in 2017 and ever since then I spent 3-4 months out of every year there. That thing that’s in the air, that feeling that smacks you in the face when you walk into Shibuya crossing, that’s just something that’s unexplainable. It’s such an inspiring place on so many levels. Like anyone not from Japan, I dreamt of going there as a kid. It always seemed like a magical place to me and my friends, the Alpha and the Omega. I was lucky enough to be pushed into the deep end as soon as I stepped foot off the airplane, to this day I haven’t had a traditional stay in Japan. It’s always an experience that seems to come from a H.P Lovecraft novel. A Hunter S. Thompson screenplay.
It’s a city that has fueled my creativity and madness for years to come.
And what are the niches and cultures you link up here with? Who are the city’s creatives you hang with and start things together?
I was lucky enough to first visit Japan on Felt related work. We were doing a pop up with our friend H33M at a now closed shop called Pot of Gold. Big ups Taku. It was during that trip in 2017 that I met Verdy outside our pop up and a very brief conversation with him. It opened the doors to a plethora of friendship and opportunities. Through him I met Guapular and Disk of Tokyo Vitamin. Through them I met Agnes from Agnes Kruel and Mr. Tikini and that snowballed into becoming friends with everyone else, you (and most of your team) and so forth.
Agnes of the brand Agnes Kruel, a Open Portal partner.
From there it was a no-brainer for us to start working on things together, from throwing parties with Tokyo Vitamin on a regular basis, to doing pop ups with all of the homies, to doing collaborations with Medicom Toy.
Real crazy stuff y'know? Guapular and I got to drive across the entire island of Japan inside of a van with the Wasted Youth skate team. That’s the type of stuff that really only happens to other people in movies. On that same tour we got to release a bunch of collaborative merchandise for the band ENTH which meant crowd surfing in Osaka and running from security guards in Nagoya.
There’s honestly no amount of time that we can allocate to mention all the creatives I’ve gotten the chance to hang out with in Japan. Big ups all of them, can’t wait to have a drink with Katoman at Beat Cafe and play some techno at Oath.
Fast forward from Felt to Open Portal: Kosta can you tell us a bit about your interest in toys and toy culture? How and when did that all start?
Having been born in the 90s allowed me to grow up during the time that the best toys, video games and cartoons were coming out. I think that essentially everyone born in that time period has some sort of obsession with collecting toys of some sort, y’know? So many people in the 20-30 age group have some sort of Pokemon doll or toy or little figure. A Funko Pop. Something. We’re all somewhat part of the toy culture.
And when did you decide to start your own company? What is the idea behind and what were the initial thoughts?
We decided to start Open Portal after a night at Madam Woo in Shibuya, an oasis of inspiration. Agnes, Freddy Carrasco, Louie and I were outside the conbini discussing the lack of toy companies collaborating with artists in our community and there and then we started Open Portal.
An open portal toy fresh out of the box.
Not sure if I can speak for everyone but my idea behind Open Portal was simple, I wanted our toys and figures to take you to another place when needed. As corny as that sounds haha. Open Portal is still in its infancy and I’m in no rush to scale up the company fast or do anything for money. This project was made for our friends who haven’t got a chance to make toys yet because a big toy company won’t take a shot on them.
Who are the artists you are working with, and what are the toys we can expect from you guys?
Oh man! Our first toy is with my beloved friend Freddy Carrasco and it’s a character named Abel out of his book GLEEM. I’m really fucking excited about that. Not only because we get to make a toy with our good friend but because GLEEM is easily one of the most influential comics of our generation.
GLEEM, a graphic novel by Freddy Carrasco, an Open Portal partner.
We’re also working with some of our other friends, we have a toy coming out with Elbo Glass, one with Medicom Toy, I’m trying to make a toy of Agnes of Agnes Kruel too haha. Honestly, Open Portal is so young that we’re still trying to figure out the next moves. Johnny Terror? Sabu? There’s just so many talented people that are deserving of a toy and we’re trying to work with all of them.
A Miami born designer, opening up a toy company referencing subcultures and global creative otakus, and crews; how much do you think your story is a symbol for this new generation of cultural nerds that went from school outsiders to creating leading culture and leading “cool” in the year 2022?
I’m not sure how to answer this question but I hope my story inspires kids like me for years to come. If I could figure a way to make it happen, so can they. No matter your story if you stick to your craft and put in the pain it’ll all be worth it in the end. I’m a kid born from 2 Colombian immigrants, poor by class, had to share clothes with my cousins, I wasn’t meant to succeed in this country but here I am, a testament to keeping it real and not giving a fuck.
What's next Kosta? When can we expect to have access to your toys and when will you be back in Tokyo playing music?
What’s next for Kosta? That's a good question, for now I’m potty training my daughter Hunter and teaching her how to count to 10 in Spanish. I’m going to have a photo show in Paris early next spring, where I’ll be releasing my first ever photography book ARC. I want to start a magazine called Shampoo as well. So, I guess we don’t know what’s next just yet. We’ll talk again soon over a beer.
Interview by Adrian Bianco
Introduction written by Ora Margolis
