Meet the man behind HYPLAND\u2019s anime streetwear revolution Cody Marquez, Courtesy of HYPLANDI got the chance to speak to the founder of pop culture-infused streetwear brand HYPLAND, Jordan Bentley, about his journey creating the company and his vision for its future after opening his first physical store in Los Angeles. HYPLAND is an exciting and stylish crossroads where nerd culture meets street fashion. The brand has skyrocketed in popularity over the last few years thanks to its collaborations with major anime series and video game titles, such as its recent line of officially licensed Street Fighter clothing that launched in Spring 2024. After bagging so many important franchises, HYPLAND has secured its first-ever physical store in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, which celebrated its grand opening on June 8. Fans lined up in a long queue outside of the building, which also featured a tent where customers could get a flash tattoo based on popular anime and manga. The inside of the shop is nothing short of a gamer\u2019s wet dream. The walls are decorated with tons of plushies from titles like Pokemon and Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as a massive arcade cabinet where up to four players can go head-to-head in games like Soul Calibur and more. On top of that, there\u2019s a spacious gaming lounge in the center of the store, which Jordan told me he hopes to grow into a place where the community can come together for tournaments and events in the future. Bentley, who\u2019s been featured on Forbes\u2019 30 under 30, excitedly communed with customers in front of his store, taking photos and answering questions as though he wasn\u2019t the man of the hour and merely another fan celebrating a brand he loves. I spoke to Jordan about his history with HYPLAND and where he plans to take the brand in the years ahead \u2014 a company that he first started back in 2010 when he was merely 14 years old. \u201cI kind of grew up around it,\u201d he told me. \u201cI got a silkscreen machine as a gift in the eighth grade for Christmas. I used to draw a lot. So naturally, I was just drawing stuff and trying to print it on T-shirts. I was selling T-shirts in high school, which was a fun hobby at first, and then it turned into an actual business as I got a little older.\u201d At first, HYPLAND was just a streetwear company. Bentley wouldn\u2019t snag his first anime collab until 2018, which he says started after he had a dream about collaborating with the late Akira Toriyama\u2019s Dragon Ball Z. \u201cI had a dream that I had a collaboration with Dragon Ball Z. That next morning, I went out and made a bunch of designs. My mom was like, \u2018No, you have to do it right. Go out and get the right collaborations.\u2019 I fought her on it tooth and nail, but she ended up being right.\u201d HYPLAND\u2019s first anime launch would center around BLEACH, and it was off to the races from there. \u201cIt just kind of opened my eyes to how I could service the community and give them something new, really,\u201d he explained. Anime fans and gamers are well-acquainted with the boring T-shirts and hoodies that are often made as officially licensed merchandise from their favorite IPs. HYPLAND aims to challenge and change this norm, offering fans stylish clothing they\u2019ll feel confident wearing while also repping their favorite shows and games. However, it\u2019s not easy getting a deal with some of these iconic anime series. \u201cJapan is very particular,\u201d Jordan admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting. It\u2019s a lot of learning. At first, it was a big creative adjustment because I\u2019m used to being creative and kind of doing whatever I want. Working with Japan and these anime companies, everybody has rules, things that they really want to be a part of. It\u2019s an adjustment, but now I feel like I\u2019m even more creative, because now I can be super creative in a box or work with other people collaboratively and bring their vision to life.\u201d Thanks to all his hard work, HYPLAND is now one of the biggest streetwear names in the anime game, and it has a brick-and-mortar location to show for it. Jordan told me he was actually \u201cnervous\u201d about the grand opening \u2014 but he really had nothing to worry about, as oodles of fans showed up to support the brand and spend their cash on his clothes. \u201cIt feels very surreal, honestly,\u201d he told me. \u201cThis morning, I was super nervous. I was thinking people weren\u2019t going to pull up. Then, my maintenance man sent a picture of the line down the street. So I was really excited about it, but I don\u2019t know. I always get the jitters before every release \u2019cause I just never know how it\u2019s going to go.\u201d For Jordan, connecting with the community in Los Angeles is the next big step in his mission with HYPLAND, which includes offering anime fans and gamers a place to connect and express themselves. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be able to connect with my community,\u201d he said. \u201cLA is our biggest city, so it just made sense that our first store is in LA and the city that I\u2019m from, in the city that really inspired the brand in the first place. \u201cI saw the store as a community meeting space more than anything else. It wasn\u2019t designed to be a full-on store. It\u2019s like, you know, you can shop, but I really want a place for people to kind of come hang out. I miss days like that when I was a kid going on Fairfax and Melrose and being able to hang and meet people and see what\u2019s cool and see what people are interested in. \u201cI wanted to create an environment for the same space where I can have parties, pop-ups, gaming tournaments, you know, have a space for kids who are just fans of the brand to come out and just enjoy one another and meet people and be social, you know. I feel like we miss that with the internet now.\u201d As for the future of HYPLAND? Jordan says he wants to \u201cbring some energy\u201d to Little Tokyo, an area that\u2019s bursting with Japanese pop culture, restaurants, and tourists. \u201cI\u2019m really focused on growing the community in the store in LA. I want to do a lot more stuff in the area with other businesses and just brands in the neighborhood, bring some energy to this Little Tokyo community. Someone said it\u2019s dying. I feel like it\u2019s my job and responsibility to bring it back to life.\u201d That\u2019s not all; Jordan also told me that there\u2019s a \u201cton\u201d of new collaborations and \u201creally big moments\u201d that are coming in the near future to coincide with the store\u2019s grand opening \u2014 but for him, putting the fans first is what matters most. \u201cI feel like we haven\u2019t reached our potential for how big we can get. So I\u2019m really buckling down and just going to keep staying creative, building a community, and servicing the fans at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meet the man behind HYPLAND\u2019s anime streetwear revolution Cody Marquez, Courtesy of HYPLANDI got the chance to speak to the founder of pop culture-infused streetwear brand HYPLAND, Jordan Bentley, about his journey creating the company and his vision for its future after opening his first physical store in Los Angeles. HYPLAND is an exciting and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}