There’s a narcissist in all of us. We tell everyone on a weekly basis what we’ve been doing, in the vague hope they’re actually interested. In the same vein, here’s some pictures which sum up our first full year as grown ups. As you may be aware, Proper has ebbed and flowed for many years but it’s only since January 2016 we really began to work full time on it. Since then we’ve learned shitloads and done some things. Quite a few of them. Here’s the first installment of how our 2016 looked, with the aid of some photographs.
This is what the Inbetweeners would have looked like if they’d filmed it in Ancoats with Victorian gangs in mind.
Ross Barkley has more agents than the CIA.
Speaking of agents, here’s Neil doing his best artisan bread terrorist impression. The Sourdough Republican Army is a legitimate political party.
And here’s Pep Guardiola wearing Stone Island.
And here’s Lei-Mai reading about it.
This mug was ace, but only really sold in the UK. Did they not have any Action Men in Europe?
This lad was our neighbour for a while. He moved out after a couple of months bemoaning the ‘crackheeds bringing the area down’.
Here’s Blossoms doing their best to look like they truly care about Stockport County.
Here’s a pair of Neil’s shoes. He’s a size 13, lol.
Parody tees went down well this year. Here’s a few. NB. There’s a difference between ‘bootleg’ and ‘fake’.
And here’s a Volvo outfit designed by Massimo Osti which made Neil do a massive yelp with glee when he found it on our first trip to the archive. You can see it if you’re at the exhibition we’ve put together on 26-27 Jan. Brick Lane. Ask about.
One of the nicest people we’ve met this year. Ladi from The Vault.
And here’s a t-shirt/mug we should have done but decided against. We’ll return to this idea soon. Josh Parkin did it btw.
Visited the office of Sprayway and Mountain Equipment.
Back when we had the door open and wore our Longshot tees. They really were marvellous times.
Ray Chan and Chad Ryan are an anagram of each other, almost. Here they both are helping us put a lookbook together for Dickies Life.
They flew out. We can’t do any more even though we should. But we’ll do a variation.
Bun and Bones Club is the best place to eat a really nice burger. You should visit if you’re anywhere near SK7.
Though you’ll need to hit the gym after eating, so you will. Catch yourself on, Tyrone.
This is at the HQ of JD Sports. No idea who Pete is.
Morrissey wasn’t into the Supreme tee, so we thought we’d do this Norrissey one. Not printed it yet. Probably won’t. Rob Trigg did this. He’s really good.
Best kit at the Euros? Probably.
Here’s Neil looking well fit up a mountain. This should have been a front cover but we chose Ross Barkley instead. Worst selling cover ever.
Meanwhile, the lunchbreak casuals queued up for Manchesters.
And this had us thinking about finally having an inaugural tattoo. Max from Kinoko is your man.
Oh and there was also a Neil Morrissey version. Not as good.
These were popular.
Is that? No… really? No it’s not. Is it? Photo of the year.
Closely followed by this?
“Hello my name’s Terry and I’m going to enjoy myself first”
We eventually finished this and felt it was the best mug ad we’ve done. And we’ve done some good uns. Adam Gill has been as vital to us this year as it’s possible to be.
Crossing a massive sheet of ice in the middle of summer. If we’d slipped, we’d have fallen quite a long way. Gonz from Klattermusen looked after us though.
But the hiking theme remains. Here’s the latest bit of stuff from Ben Lamb.
This went down well in internet land.
More of this sort of thing later this week.