WORLD FILE — IH-01 45.50° N — MONTRÉAL, DIY STATUS: CO-FOUNDED — 2012→2017

Idlehand.

Not a client. A world we built from scratch: motorcycles, underground music and Montréal's DIY scene, screen-printed into a brand — five years of drops, rides and parties.

Idlehand screen print in black and white — reaper on a chopper riding past the BKLS headstone
ClientIdlehand — own brand
ScopeBrand / Apparel / Community
RoleCo-founder & artist
Years2012 → 2017
The world

A crew
before a brand.

Idlehand wasn't a business plan. It was a culture: the crew we rode with, the bands we went to see, the spots we hung around. We co-founded it to give that whole world a visual signature — a signature for a crew, not a logo for a shelf.

Tees screen-printed with a friend who ran a print shop in the city, graphics built from the moto, music and skate references we actually cared about. Drops, parties and rides anchored at Breakless, my co-founder's motorcycle shop; Paris trade shows, wholesale to France, collaborations — and as much time spent building the community as the product.

"A brand is less about what you print on a shirt than about the people who end up wearing it."

The lesson Idlehand taught first — Montréal

Skater sitting on the coping in a Follow the Fools tee
Idlehand crest printed on black cotton, close up on the weave
01 — Process

Ink first,
always.

Working documents — raw
Season line sheet on screen — the whole range laid out garment by garment
Holding up a Sons of Eighties tee at the shop, bikes behind
Micron pen drawing — eye and skull inked in the sketchbook
Inked studies — crossed bones, IH crest and monogram lockups on paper

Everything started as ink on paper — skulls, choppers, hand-drawn type — then went to screens at the print shop. The flash sheet was the brand system: badges, marks and lockups built like a tattoo wall, years before 'brand world' was a deck slide.

02 — The work

Worn by
the crew.

Final result — real life
Screen print detail on black cotton — the eye at the centre of the Idlehand graphic PRINT DETAIL — ON COTTON
Pocket crest tee worn in the alley POCKET CREST
Acta Non Verba panther tee, red and navy on heather grey ACTA NON VERBA
Grinding metal in a Be Street Weeknd tee BE STREET WEEKND
Rider on a fixed gear crossing the bridge in an Idlehand tee OUT RIDING — MTL
Idlehand mark set — crossed bones, crest and monogram, white on black
Idlehand crest — skull, rope and arrows around the IH monogram
Reaper rooster illustration with red eyes and crossed lightning
Ride Till Death lockup — hand-lettered script over a chopper
IH-01 / 5-YEAR RUNIdlehand — co-founded
03 — The archive

Sheets
and streets.

Line sheets, rides and the crew
Bikes lined up in the street, the crew hanging around them
Folded sweats stacked, Breakless and Idlehand marks on the leg
Two of the crew holding up the Acta Non Verba tee at the shop
Spring Summer 2014 line sheet — tees, tanks and headwear with SKUs
Reaper riding a chopper — white on black artwork
Spring Summer 2014 line sheet, second page — crewnecks, hoodies and Dead Riders
Why it matters

Idlehand is where the studio method was born: build the world first, the product follows. Five years, real drops, real community — learned by doing it, not by theorizing it.

5YFounded, run and grown
2Continents — MTL drops, Paris trade shows
1Moto shop HQ — Breakless