My Interview w/the Designer of Mishka’s ‘Nagel Ranger’ T-shirt

Jermaine Davis, AKA DUM, is a true example of every dark cloud having a silver-lining. An investor for his once burgeoning t-shirt line caused it to become defunct by ditching him.

But, his talent was discovered afterwards by Mikhail of the clothing line, Mishka, and has led to him designing the infamous ‘Nagel Ranger’ t-shirt…he’s only getting started.

DRENCH: What’s your name?

Jermaine Davis: Jermaine Davis aka DUM haha.

DRENCH: Where do you stay? What’s it like there?

Jermaine Davis: I stay reppin’ Lacey, WA. It’s a quiet town. We have a Wal-Mart, gas stations and a mushroom farm that emits a nasty ass stench.

DRENCH: Didn’t you once have an upstart t-shirt line if I recall correctly? What happened with that?

Jermaine Davis: Ha, yeah. Bamf. I had 4 designs I liked at the time. I had an investor because I didn’t have the money to produce like I wanted. I even had orders from a couple stores. I don’t know what happened but the investor basically cut off any contact and left me scrambling to keep going, but in the end I just deaded the brand as a whole.

DRENCH: I found out the ‘Nagel Ranger’ Mishka t-shirt I own was actually designed by you…how’d you link up with Mishka?

Jermaine Davis: As funny as it is, the internet. I’d been a fan of theirs for awhile, Mikhail had some idea of who I was and had seen some of my designs. So, he proposed a summer internship in NY. It was a fun trip.

DRENCH: In what ways do you believe the internet has influenced fashion?

Jermaine Davis: Ah, it’s crazy. Too many people have gone into this screenwear blah blah too in-depth. I just like that I can see so many brands from so many places. As long as remember to go outside periodically and realize it’s all just fun, it’s a good thing.

DRENCH: What was the premise behind the shirt’s design? Comedy? Social Commentary?

Jermaine Davis: I had actually just mentioned it along with a handful of other tee ideas I had for my own then-upcoming t-shirt brand, Bamf, and he mentioned he’d had a similar idea around the same time he thought up the ‘Tom of Eternia’ tee and he asked if I could do that to start off my internship. The idea behind is, simply put, most kids that grew up watching Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers wanted to give Kimberly some hard-lovin’.

DRENCH: A couple of places I went to wearing the shirt requested that I take it off, some people ask me where I got it from. What are some reactions that you got when wearing it (I’m assuming you’ve wore it before lol)?

Jermaine Davis: I guess most people that know me have come to expect things like this, all my friends loved it. I’ve gotten some weird looks from people, it’s funny to see people react sometimes.

DRENCH: Would the Nagel Ranger shirt describe your style of design in a nutshell? Or is there more to it?

Jermaine Davis: Nah, I don’t think so. Mikhail had the idea of imitating Patrick Nagel’s work with this design. I don’t know if I’ve yet really developed a specific steez that’s present in all my work. But lately I’ve been playing with more photographic stuff, the older photomontage stuff is really interesting and fun to play with.

DRENCH: Have you designed any other shirts for another clothing line, or was that your first tackle at a design project for someone’s line?

Jermaine Davis: First time, I’m hoping I can get some more freelance stuff in the future.

DRENCH: What was that experience like?

Jermaine Davis: It was cool to see how the brand works from the inside. Though once, they did have to sit me down and talk to me about my addiction to internet forums, specifically superfuture.

DRENCH: You have any plans to collaborate on designs for any other lines?

Jermaine Davis: I might have some shit coming soon.

DRENCH: What’s your favorite t-shirt of all time?

Jermaine Davis: Damn, that’s hard. Let me pick a few. As far as streetwear, my favorites are aNYthing’s “Junkie Whammy”, Mishka’s “Avenged”, Supreme’s “Sucky My” and “Bad Brains” and of course Sidney Lo’s “WeStSiDe”.

DRENCH: How can someone contact you if they want you to work on a design?

Jermaine Davis: my site isn’t up yet, but anyone can e-mail me at jermaine@andnoneshallsurvive.com

DRENCH: Any thing else to add?

Jermaine Davis:Shout to OMC, fuck the police. And a big shout out to OLD JEEZY for keeping them wilde tarzan jungle gym homo niggas out the game.• end •