In regards to

Powsey [po.zé]

(Can be pronounced by stressing the last syllable [po. zéj])

Ety. From Latin populaire posatus, from classical Latin posteus, tranquility. Def. Lit. Comes from the verb "poser" more precisely from the passive verb "être posé" (to be placed or settled). It can be used for various occasions of tranquility and feeling of freedom.

Example:
You are comfortably seated in a deck chair, enjoying the spectacle of the BSF with your buddy, and suddenly! We're not sure why (probably a Duvel advertisement), a hostess brings you two beers. That's when you look your accomplice in the eyes and say... POWSEY!

But what is POWSEY?

 

  • Zero Stickers POWSEY

It all started on the small beach of Oostduinkerke, ODK (Oodeekay) for insiders. Imagine a group of friends, hair blowing in the wind, bright smiles: The ODK TEAM! Between evenings at SYCOD (Windsurfing and Kitesurfing Club) and BIG parties in grandma's apartment, believe me, we had plenty of time to be POWSEY. What could be better than a sticker we could stick everywhere? Let's go, we write POWSEY in red, add two frames, convince the brother to pay half, and BAM, we order 1500 Stickerzzz.

  • 1.500 POWSEY Stickers

The enthusiasm takes off immediately, members count by the hundreds, and once the stickers are distributed in handfuls, demands for t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, and more are heard. The POWSEY mantra was launched...
But how do we make people even more POWSEY than they already are? We order more stickerzzzz.

  • 3.500 POWSEY Stickers

Summer at the coast with friends, but the rest of the year in the capital city. The youth house of Watermal Boisfort comes into play. "Want to print your own t-shirts and hoodies? Screen printing workshop every Wednesday!" Here I go, I take the plunge, I attend the screen printing classes at the MJ de Boisfort, and I print the first POWSEY t-shirts and hoodies of my career in a small, makeshift room of 4 meters by 3. I distribute them to everyone who had requested them. It's crazy, the stock goes much faster than expected... Between classes, homework, and detentions, I can no longer free up time for the screen printing classes. So, I decide to use all the skills I was taught at the MJ de Boisfort to set up a screen printing workshop at home. I call my engineer brother once again to build the machines, and I take over my father's basement. This time, I'm on my own, and I have to learn by myself - researching, reading, getting information, following tutorials, making mistakes, failing, starting over... But progress is made, and the workshop runs at full speed. The loyal supporters work to spread the concept and promote the good word. The POWSEY logo becomes a symbol of recognition; you become part of a team, a heartwarming family, always with a sense of camaraderie and sharing. Don't be surprised, we are everywhere. Whether you're in the Azores or in Medellín, you might meet a member with whom you can share a beer, talk under the stars... I'm soon running out of stickers; I need to reorder!

 

  • 8.500 POWSEY Stickers

We stick, and stick, and stick even more stickers. The mantra evolves, and with it comes the appearance of its first website. Always in a self-taught approach, the quality of textile printing improves and specializes, to the point that a second initiative emerges with "PrintActif." I stop printing PRIMARKT clothing and take my first steps into the world of textiles. I decide to get in touch with a factory in Pakistan. Together, we create clothing designs, including the famous reversible leopard jacket. I realize that working directly with factories is complicated if you don't order thousands of pieces per month, and the distance doesn't help either. Luckily, during a burst of enthusiasm at a KIDNOIZE concert, I decide to climb on stage, grab the microphone, and shout PO-PO-POWSEEEEYYY. After a brief interlude with security, a member of KIDNOIZE's label approaches me and invites me to have a drink with the entire team. It is during this "backstage party" that I meet my future textile supplier.

 

  • 12.000 POWSEY Stickers

The streets, the bars, the skate ramps continue to fill up with the red emblem. In the process, PrintActif expands and acquires an embroidery machine. A complex device to handle, it took distributing around 2,500 stickers to finally tame it properly. But it was perfect timing, as summer arrived with the sun, and POWSEY was finally ready to embroider the caps that were eagerly requested. Now, we have 14,500 stickers and, most importantly, a lot of printed t-shirts and hoodies.

However, POWSEY is also the adventure of a lifetime, one that pushed me into the textile industry, exposing me to overconsumption and exploitation. For almost five years, I've explored the depths of the fashion world. Now, I can no longer buy clothes from mainstream retailers as I've started to understand the mechanisms of manipulation and camouflage used by industries. The system is the opposite of transparency, and I want to break free from it. Playing with regulations, blurring traceability, changing labels, and appropriating the work of others, the Western world has completely lost the economic value of textiles. Nowadays, you can get a t-shirt for less than the price of a coffee, but just across the street, the same t-shirt might be sold for €50, only because of a minor change in label. If you ask someone to explain this price difference, they'll probably tell you that you're paying for the brand. But what is a brand? According to Larousse, it's an imprint on something, a style, a way of doing things, serving as a reference. However, do we have any idea of the imprints that these major brands leave on the world? Many of these clothes come from the same factories. These carbon copies get assigned different values in the final stage of the manufacturing process - during the imposition of the label, which is sometimes placed in the country of sale to add a "made locally" mention. In this case, POWSEY is not a brand.

POWSEY is a movement, an ideal that, more than ever, needs restoration. In recent times, globalization has pushed our society and the planet to their limits with one dominant motto, loudly proclaimed: profit at any cost. I firmly believe that an economy is essential for society, but the key focus should be on human beings, transparency, and our ecological impact - making it a top priority.

That's why I've decided to relocate production as much as possible to Brussels and its surroundings and move in that direction. I want to know my products and their origins. I'll only work with workshops that I personally verify and control. I used to think our stickers were made in Belgium, as stated on the producer's website, until the day there was a production problem. When I urgently requested a reproduction, I was told that it couldn't be done due to the Chinese New Year... NEVER AGAIN!

Now, it's my skate buddies who take care of the production of POWSEY stickers. Check out what they do! https://anonbrand.com/

Continuing forward, I want POWSEY to evolve with absolute transparency, establish local workshops for textile creation and personalization, increase production there, and strive for a certain independence from the thoughtless consumerist world.

We have arrived at a pivotal moment. It's time for us to defend our values and know-how. Remember, you are part of the movement. It's up to you to anchor your values in your daily life while maintaining a POWSEY attitude.

POWSEY is not a brand but a movement, an ideal towards which we all strive.

LEAD BY EXAMPLE, STAY POWSEY.