By "Syn" Martinez | Owner of CrossFit Harlem, i.e. Afro Brutality
The story of the origin of Afro Brutality really began with me, my experiences, and how I view the world. Well without boring you to death let me sum up how I came to view that world. I was raised in Acton, Ma. which is about an hour and some change away from Boston and I was always the "token" black: in school, in church, at work, and most everywhere I went. It was only me and my family.
I didn't mind because I didn't know any other way, I just thought that's how the world was I actually didn't start referring to people as a color until I was 19. My favorite musical groups growing up were: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, the Commodores, and Michael Jackson (the black version). All I knew that color was second to the person and that's how I grew up, I'm not saying that I didn't run into racial situations, I did. But those situations, though they were dramatic, didn't alter the way I viewed people. To me, people were people first and were a color second (or third).
So as I grew older, the world kept pushing the color dominate agenda. White girl, black boy, white neighbor, black mailman, black teacher, white doctor and so on. What made it worse was at the age of 16, I still wasn't buying into it. No matter what people, the media, friends, and family said, I was truly color blind.
But then there was that fateful day in Denver, Colorado at age 19. I was told, "brother, you ain't black!" Now, growing up of course I had heard this over and over again. People always tested my black authenticity but this guy got me good with "the civil rights" card. He tested my knowledge of black history, I faltered, and it bothered me.
So from that point on, I was on a mission to educate myself. In an effort to compensate, I soaked up all the white dude conspiracies that my brain could handle. By the time I was through, I was more than aware of color and ethnicity. In hind sight, seeing the world the way that I did at this juncture in my life was a sad existence.
Which brings me to the logo of Afro Brutality, many people ask, "Syn, why the skull?" I choose a skull because the skull shows that under our complected shells, were all the same color.
I wanted a colorless logo to show the solidarity of human unification. The Afro was designed to symbolize that the formerly alive was black. The Afro pick was added to portray my roots. Growing up, I had a similar afro pick. Except it was just a fist not a fist with a middle finger sticking up. I don't know, it makes me laugh.
So when I was talking to the designer, I said to him, "I want a skull with an afro andanafro pick in his hair with the middle finger sticking up and he said "that's cool!" I received the final draft about two weeks later, the exact design that I asked for. That was it for me!
The original CrossFit Harlem shirt just had our affiliate's brand on the front and the afro skull on the back. I showed it to a few people and with an astounding response. For something so personal to me, I was surprised that so many found value in it. They said "Syn, the afro skull is too hot to put on the back of a shirt!" I agreed and told my designer to put CrossFit Harlem and the Afro Skull on the front. I figured that I would come up with a slogan for the back in a few days.
Now to truly appreciate where the term Afro Brutality came from, I have to give you some background on the origins of CrossFit Harlem. Web briefly touched on the subject in his SICFIT blog about me but I will clarify even further. Around town we were known for three things: doing the most ridiculous workouts (which I program), traveling to CrossFit events, and placing top three.
Up north, it was so bad that when we would arrive it was like "damn, its them again!" The look on my face was always like, "Hell yeah, it's us. We're gonna ruin a few peoples days today, get ready bitches! Harlem's in the house!"
So it didn't take but I few hours for the slogan "Afro Brutality" to come about. It was as simple as this: the afro on the skull is what I am all about and for nearly two years, all we did was travel from competition to competition placing top three. So as I thought more and more, I figured that I needed to find a verb that just displayed dominance and strength. I went through a few: Afro Strong, Afro Tuff, Afro Brutal, Afro Brutality!
I immediately emailed the designer and Afro Brutality was born!
I had no idea that anyone would like it but the world has a funny way of letting you know where you fit in the puzzle that we call life. Since that day I have sold over 600 of those original shirts to nearly every state and every country in the world!
I've developed a brand and a slogan that is a direct reflection of who I am as a person and what I represent, a color-blind kid who took the time to discover his roots without forgetting where he came from. The same kid with the undying love for Iron Maiden and the Commodores. No matter how many times I redesign the logo, I will never change the slogan!
Afro Brutality is my calling....
The story of the origin of Afro Brutality really began with me, my experiences, and how I view the world. Well without boring you to death let me sum up how I came to view that world. I was raised in Acton, Ma. which is about an hour and some change away from Boston and I was always the "token" black: in school, in church, at work, and most everywhere I went. It was only me and my family.
I didn't mind because I didn't know any other way, I just thought that's how the world was I actually didn't start referring to people as a color until I was 19. My favorite musical groups growing up were: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, the Commodores, and Michael Jackson (the black version). All I knew that color was second to the person and that's how I grew up, I'm not saying that I didn't run into racial situations, I did. But those situations, though they were dramatic, didn't alter the way I viewed people. To me, people were people first and were a color second (or third).
So as I grew older, the world kept pushing the color dominate agenda. White girl, black boy, white neighbor, black mailman, black teacher, white doctor and so on. What made it worse was at the age of 16, I still wasn't buying into it. No matter what people, the media, friends, and family said, I was truly color blind.
But then there was that fateful day in Denver, Colorado at age 19. I was told, "brother, you ain't black!" Now, growing up of course I had heard this over and over again. People always tested my black authenticity but this guy got me good with "the civil rights" card. He tested my knowledge of black history, I faltered, and it bothered me.
So from that point on, I was on a mission to educate myself. In an effort to compensate, I soaked up all the white dude conspiracies that my brain could handle. By the time I was through, I was more than aware of color and ethnicity. In hind sight, seeing the world the way that I did at this juncture in my life was a sad existence.
Which brings me to the logo of Afro Brutality, many people ask, "Syn, why the skull?" I choose a skull because the skull shows that under our complected shells, were all the same color.
I wanted a colorless logo to show the solidarity of human unification. The Afro was designed to symbolize that the formerly alive was black. The Afro pick was added to portray my roots. Growing up, I had a similar afro pick. Except it was just a fist not a fist with a middle finger sticking up. I don't know, it makes me laugh.
So when I was talking to the designer, I said to him, "I want a skull with an afro andanafro pick in his hair with the middle finger sticking up and he said "that's cool!" I received the final draft about two weeks later, the exact design that I asked for. That was it for me! The original CrossFit Harlem shirt just had our affiliate's brand on the front and the afro skull on the back. I showed it to a few people and with an astounding response. For something so personal to me, I was surprised that so many found value in it. They said "Syn, the afro skull is too hot to put on the back of a shirt!" I agreed and told my designer to put CrossFit Harlem and the Afro Skull on the front. I figured that I would come up with a slogan for the back in a few days.
Now to truly appreciate where the term Afro Brutality came from, I have to give you some background on the origins of CrossFit Harlem. Web briefly touched on the subject in his SICFIT blog about me but I will clarify even further. Around town we were known for three things: doing the most ridiculous workouts (which I program), traveling to CrossFit events, and placing top three.
Up north, it was so bad that when we would arrive it was like "damn, its them again!" The look on my face was always like, "Hell yeah, it's us. We're gonna ruin a few peoples days today, get ready bitches! Harlem's in the house!"
So it didn't take but I few hours for the slogan "Afro Brutality" to come about. It was as simple as this: the afro on the skull is what I am all about and for nearly two years, all we did was travel from competition to competition placing top three. So as I thought more and more, I figured that I needed to find a verb that just displayed dominance and strength. I went through a few: Afro Strong, Afro Tuff, Afro Brutal, Afro Brutality!
I immediately emailed the designer and Afro Brutality was born!
I had no idea that anyone would like it but the world has a funny way of letting you know where you fit in the puzzle that we call life. Since that day I have sold over 600 of those original shirts to nearly every state and every country in the world!
I've developed a brand and a slogan that is a direct reflection of who I am as a person and what I represent, a color-blind kid who took the time to discover his roots without forgetting where he came from. The same kid with the undying love for Iron Maiden and the Commodores. No matter how many times I redesign the logo, I will never change the slogan!
Afro Brutality is my calling....
Got my T's coming soon, gonna spread the Afro Brutality in Newcastle and Manchester UK :-)