Local Spotlight: Permute Clothing

With their motto listed as "a changing clothing company", locally known clothing Permute Clothing has been hard at work over the past few years churning out streetwear that doesn't generally follow the norm. Permute's heavy use of social media has benefied them greatly in solidifying their spot in the Twin Cities streetwear scene. Headed by Saint Paul natives Max May and Matt Muraoka, I got the chance to sit down with May before the snow fell and got to ask him a few questions about their endeavor.

Max May (c) 2014 Bill Berger

Bill: First off, thanks for sitting down with me.

Max: No problem, glad to be here.

B: What was Permute's inception like? How did you get to the point you're at now?

M: Well, we were all friends in high school at Central and got to all be part of a screen printing class. With all of us interested in street fashion and printing on clothing, it just sort of fell into place that we started a clothing company. We pooled all the extra money we had and produced our first line in 2011 which consisted of three designs.

B: What do you think is your best selling product?

M: Hmm, I'd have to say sweatshirts or warm hats. We've done everything from baseball hats, posters, t-shirts, patches, and everything along the way, and sweatshirts are definitely our best selling item. Makes sense with the Minnesota winters I suppose.

B: How has the use of social media and technology in general affected your business?

Handsewn Turtlenecks (c) 2014 Bill Berger

M: Oh, it's hugely beneficial. We're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, you name it. There's nothing like randomly getting retweeted or a shoutout from a dude in Italy or something to really make you realize how connected we all are. We also have an online store that Matt wrote the code for and everything.

B: What are your plans for Permute's future?

M: Nothing too concrete, the online store I mentioned earlier was the big project we were looking to finish. With that, we have a more stable platform to host and promote our work.

Max in Colorado this Fall (c) 2014 Bill Berger