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Dear Champion: we won’t work with brands that support genocide
In an open letter, graffiti artist JACK PANIK explains why he cancelled an upcoming collaboration with the streetwear brand he once cherished

Dear Champion,
 
As a child of the ’90s growing up in London I always idolised some of the characters I’d see wearing your brand, particularly those prominent within the London sub-cultures of Jungle/Drum and Bass and graffiti — the latter a culture I went on to play a significant role in.

I remember seeing images of Jungle MC’s Stevie Hyper D and Shabba wearing Champion garments back in the day — a grey spell out hoodie having a particular imprint. I was transfixed on trying to get one but in the early 2000s they were very difficult to find in Britain.

I settled for a less iconic olive green and blue one which my mum bought me aged 15 while we were on holiday in Italy in 2001 after stumbling across a Champion flagship store — something which did not exist in London at the time.
 
I never stopped hunting for that grey Champion hoodie though and, with Ebay failing to provide, I even spent a weekend in 2010 searching the thrift stores of NYC for one.

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