We catch up with a pair of young creatives to hear what makes their business tick.
Twenty-four-year-old mates Vincent Adduci and George Harte have always been passionate about clothing and American Hip-Hop Fashion. This inspiration was the driving force behind launching their clothing label, Push Pull.
“It came from a simple state of being passionate about clothing and looking good when you get dressed, it’s a form of expressing yourself,” Adduci says.
The pair met through a mutual friend three years ago and are now co-business owners of Push Pull. The Melbourne-based company supplies streetwear on a drop-only basis, meaning each round of clothing is limited and not repeated.
Adduci and Harte turned Push Pull into what it is today, but the brand started out as more of a collective than a straight-up streetwear brand. Adduci started screen printing for Push Pull in 2019 when it was a group that resold vintage sneakers and clothing.
“It was just a group of boys selling vintage clothing and sneakers, setting up stalls at the Camberwell Market and other vintage markets,” Adduci says. “From there, we took the concept and turned it into a streetwear brand where we started selling our own hoodies and t-shirts".
The name comes from those slightly awkward moments when someone sees you pushing a door that you’re meant to pull open.
“When you're trying to open a door and it says push and you do the opposite, and there's someone on the other side of the door and suddenly it’s a funny moment that can lead to a conversation – Push Pull as a brand is about opening doors and having conversations,” Adduci says.
Heart says that the ethos behind Push Pull is about promoting a positive lifestyle surrounding open conversations.
“We live in a world where anxiety and mental health struggles plague young people, so we hope to shed light and positivity on those situations by showing dreams can come true, and that passion will outweigh anything,” Harte says.
In addition to creating new items, the pair is facing a new chapter of the business where they aim to make their clothes vessels for cultural shifts towards mental health.
“We’re trying to be more in-touch with each other by being positive, being present and making an effort to look after each other and our customers,” Harte says.
Adduci says the best way to spread this message is through interactions with the brand’s customer base.
“We are trying to be as transparent as possible, we want to bring everyone along for the ride, share that message and make people feel like they’re part of the journey,” he says.
Coming from Italian and Greek backgrounds, both Adduci and Harte share similar beliefs that have helped them structure their business model.
“We want to shine a light on Melbourne and give creatives around us a platform, but we also want to help less privileged people,” Harte says.
Harte hopes that younger business hopefuls can learn from Push Pull’s successes and failures and follow in their footsteps.
“We’re trying to create our own blueprint for the next up-and-coming round of kids, we have gone through all the highs and lows, so it would be great to pass that knowledge onto younger people,” He says. “The best thing is overcoming challenges and embracing learning from our failures, that's the beauty in the process.”
Just how the pair will engage with young people is still in the works, but expect to see some work in this field from the Push Pull team in the near future.
Aside from Adduci and Harte, the Push Pull team includes Meg Broadhead who manages the social media accounts and customer service. There’s also a team of screen printers, videographers and models who work outside their office.
You can check out Push Pull’s website here.
Photography: Supplied
