Electric Family is a streetwear brand based in Los Angeles that got its origins from electronic dance music.
The company was founded by two friends, Matt Dronkers and Andrew Nilon, who would often go to electronic music festivals together with a tight group of friends. They wanted to create something special that everyone could wear in order to distinguish themselves as a unified family.
Matt Dronkers, a co-founder of Electric Family, tells exclusively to Jetset Times:
We wanted to create something that we could all kind of have or wear together. The easiest thing to make was a bracelet and we realized that there are other groups of friends similar to our which kind of brought the idea of creating bracelets like this and selling them to other people in the dance music community.
The company’s trademark product is a nylon tricot braid bracelet that comes in a variety of bright colors and tasteful color combinations. What makes these bracelets special is that many of them are collaborations done with famous artists and DJs, for which the artist chooses the colors and has their logo imprinted on the clasp. Most importantly the artist also chooses a charity that is meaningful to him/her, to which a part of the proceeds from that bracelet are donated. Some of the most popular artist bracelets include Laidback Luke for Fuck Cancer, Krewella for Dance for Paralysis and Kygo for Doctors Without Borders. It’s a terrific way through which artists can send a personal message and fans can support their favorite artists along with the causes they care about.
“We’ve been fortunate to create a lot of really good relationships with a lot of really great artists. One thing, because we give a lot of money back to charity, but we try to be as authentic as possible and just be who we are and I think a lot of artists and influencers can sense that. And they seem to want to support us because we’re just out there to do good and make an impact…So when they wear our products and they wear our clothes and our bracelets, it’s extremely helpful for getting the word out. The influencers have such a vast and huge reach and they can touch so many people with just one message. And when they wear our clothing it really says:
I’m supporting this movement that is out there to change the world and I want you to support it with me as well.
The company also releases seasonal lines of streetwear attire that consist of t-shirts, tank tops, crewnecks, hats and hoodies which are available in their online store.
Due to their focus on charity and making a difference, Electric Family aspires to be more than just a cool streetwear brand. The core mission of the company is to do good and inspire positive action.
“The mission of the company is to touch as many people’s lives as we can by doing good and inspiring others to do good, and to be nice to people and to choose love rather than hate. And I think that the best way that we can do that is by distributing our products globally. We’re not in any stores right now, we only sell online. But we’re looking to change that later this year and in the beginning of next year, to start selling to stores which will help us to get the word out, further spread the products and stuff like that…We want a balanced brand that is meaningful to all of our dance music community followers and customers and also can appeal to people who don’t like dance music.”
They aspire to provoke positive action and change by connecting with individuals in the electronic dance music scene and all around the world. Electric Family successfully embodies the loving and unifying spirit of the rave scene which is what has continuously made electronic dance music grow into what it is today. They hope to eliminate much of the negative perceptions associated with electronic dance music by emphasizing the great potential for positive action by its followers.
It has organized ultra-cool charity events such as painting a mural in an educational complex with Krewella and packaging food at a food bank in Colorado with Big Gigantic. They can also be found traveling to many music festivals around the U.S. during festival season.
“One of our main distribution and promotional channels right now is festivals. So our team travels multiple times a month to different festivals. It’s one of the best ways that we can meet our customers face-to-face and spread the word about what we’re doing on the ground level because we rely so heavily on internet marketing and social media stuff. So it’s just a great way for us to get out in front of people’s faces and tell them about what we’re doing and get them to support the brand and to support our mission and to support their favorite artists and charities. So the festivals are the first way we really incorporated travel into what we do in order to get the word out.”
The company has had a presence at major music festivals such as Snowglobe, Euphoria, Buku, Counter-point, Mysteryland and Electric Forest. In these upcoming months they can be found at Mamby on the Beach and Lollapalooza in Chicago, Global Dance Festival in Colorado and TomorrowWorld in Georgia.
For more information about Electric Family and their products, visit their website.
