The Mind Behind Kong Regime
Junior, Max Bryn posing in his self-designed Kong Regime hoodie.
Most teenagers spend their free time playing sports, playing music, or watching TV but Max Bryn spends his free time making and designing clothes under his streetwear brand Kong Regime. Bryn gained an interest in fashion at a young age and started his clothing brand in 2011.
“I started selling clothes copying Tyler the Creator and drawing cats on t-shirts and tried to sell them at lunch in 6th grade out of my book bag,” Bryn said. “Since I can’t sing or really write, I decided to make clothes because I have a pretty good eye for that.”
Certainly, Bryn does have a good eye for fashion. You can find him around school draped in shirts with vibrant colors and beat up vans. He’s not afraid to take fashion risks like drawing his brand logo on jeans.
Everyday after school, in between studying and doing homework Bryn spends at least one hour working on his clothing, coming up with new designs for shirts or hoodies. Unfortunately, since Bryn funds the brand out of his own pocket many of these designs never see the light of day. Currently, Bryn is working on a new hoodie for an upcoming drop. The design of the hoodie features the word KONG with the letter O being canceled out. Even though in Bryn’s words this is “simple,” it’s designs like this that show off his self-deprecating sense of humor and somewhat detached point of view.
“What it’s supposed to represent is me stopping myself. Lately I’ve just felt emotionally deprived and disconnected so I feel like everything that I want to do with my life is planned out and coming to an end even though I know it’s not. I wanted to make something that represented that, plus it looks cool.”
What separates Kong Regime from other streetwear brands are the emotions behind it. The brand isn’t just about having a nice aesthetic or having eye catching designs even though it has both in spades, but rather a very personal window into Bryn’s mind.
“What inspires me to design the clothes is more or less the people the around me, but not who they are as people but how they make me feel. A lot of people make me overly aggressive or overly happy and it all comes out of my mind as a bunch of vivid pictures.”
— Bryn
Bryn is very ambitious with the future of his brand. He intends to branch out and expand his brand into something more than just clothes. He wants to create a mass media empire. Bryn wants to open a brick and mortar store in Downtown Wake Forest where people can buy his clothes along with indulging in art, food, and musical performances.
“The work I want to do for the rest of my life is going to be noticed,” Bryn said.
