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Home  >  Online Shopping >  Streetwear Brooklyn Industries Artists Lexy Funk and Vahap Avsar met at an artist residency program in upstate NY and started to work together and decided to settle in NYC. Both young successful artists they found themselves divided between the trivial art world and the harsh reality of NYC living. They had to work full time jobs to support themselves and make art. In 1996 they decided to start a company in order to do their creative work and still be able to make a living. First they set up a film production company where they produced promotional videos, music videos and video art installations. Unsatisfied with the commercial film works, Lexy was traveling from Australia to Greenland shooting her documentary films. Meanwhile Vahap back in NY trying to make the company work using his art skills. He kept staring at the giant billboards from their studio on the 16th floor of a building on the west side highway, thinking that the billboard would make a great sculpture. He finally got hold of some used billboards and decided that vinyl billboard would make an even better messenger bag. The duo started collecting billboards and figuring out how to design a pattern, cut and sew them together to make the messenger bags, they quickly realized they needed a bigger space to clean, cut and sew the pieces. So, Lexy and Vahap leased a factory building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to set up their first factory and home. For the first 3 years they made and sold the recycled bags and then nylon bags to other stores under the brand name Crypto. In 1998 they introduced Brooklyn Industries as their industrial arm, and started making t-shirt designs for local kids in the neighborhood. The skyline logo that Vahap drew from the roof of the factory became a hit. This is still the main logo which is the view from Wythe avenue and N15th street in Williamsburg looking West towards Manhattan. The duo opened their first retail store in May 2000 the same month their first son Aslan was born. The 200sqft store named “Crypto” was an immediate success and the promptly signed a lease for an additional 600sqft next door. The Crypto store sold Brooklyn Industries clothing and bags along with some other street wear brands, but people from all walks of life came in to buy the Brooklyn Industries brand. A year later, the first Brooklyn Industries store opened in a former hardware store on the corner of N8th and Bedford. This was the first retail store in Williamsburg to carry cutting-edge clothing for men and women. Added on: 26-6-2006 Hits: 1107