interviewed by Angel Cheng. Photos by David Wang

Star Team East Village is a clothing + accessories brand that began in New York City’s East Village, founded by Kyota Umeki. Since its inception, the brand has grown from a local East Village gift shop to an internationally recognized label. The brand’s signature piece is its jeans, famously marked by a star logo on the back pocket; their product range includes accessories such as backpacks, headphones, portable chairs, basketballs, and more.

Star Team’s deep connection to Kyota’s personal circle and the creative community around him, embodies the current East Village scene, reflecting a lifestyle that is both urban and globally relevant.

ANGEL — Last time we formally had an interview, it was maybe three years ago. Two and a half, something like that. But you didn’t have the shop, Star Team. Everything has evolved and popped off like crazy since then.

KYOTA — Maybe it was before I thought of the name. The shop and the name came at the same time because I needed a word to describe the symbol. It was like, a forced name for it, I guess.

ANGEL — How’d you come up with a symbol?

KYOTA — The symbol was from this character I used to draw, inspired by my favorite show that I watch. It kind of just evolved from the character to just the Star logo and that worked.

ANGEL — Its been popping off.

KYOTA — Yeah. I think I started hearing a bunch of people telling me they see it in other places that they visit, skate parks and stuff. But I feel like it won’t really make sense for me until I see it myself. I don’t really see it too often as much as people tell me they do. I see it often when I go to Asia, though. I see it the most in Asia, for sure. It’s actually, like, fucked.

ANGEL — Where in Asia are people rocking it?

KYOTA — Seoul, Korea. A lot of different parts of Korea. In Japan, mainly Tokyo.

ANGEL — Tell me about opening up the shop. How was that?

KYOTA — I think it was very simultaneous with the chances that I had. At first, there was a Craigslist call. I walked by the “store for lease” sign twice, and then I was talking to MAG at Tompkins. He verbally motivated me, telling me how there’s no other choice but to do this.
It’s do it or not do it, like, right now in this time. And it was kind of a huge gamble. I had enough money saved for the rent to cover the first year. It was kind of like a gamble of if I could afford this year of rent because it’s a two-year lease. I had six months to really think about how the shop was gonna be from when I contacted the property management.

I got the keys for the space, then I went to Japan and London for a month. And then the whole trip, I was on Photoshop, Photoshopping all the furniture on my computer, buying stuff to bring back to the shop because everything’s cheaper out there. Once I got back, it was just a straight, full month of building.

ANGEL — You guys built it dolo?

KYOTA — Ryan was there most of the days, [@world_provider]. He helped me with a lot of things. If I had to go get something, he would be at the shop, and we would just go back and forth to the hardware store. That would suck too, because the hardware store in the East Village is fucking breaded. So it was like, if there was one thing that we didn’t have, we would just be wasting money. Like, if it was in Asia or anywhere else building a store, it would be so much chiller just because of the material and the cost at the hardware store, to be honest.

ANGEL — When was that?

KYOTA — May 2023.

ANGEL — How’s it been for the year?

KYOTA — After the year, I definitely learned a lot about how it can change the way I see people and change the dynamic of my routine. I feel very lost, but with the shop being organized, it makes me feel sane. However, it also makes me feel lost as to branching out to different things because I can’t just do something else and connect it with Star. I can’t combine everything into one thing. It’s about realizing the line of what I want to do.

Opening the shop was a dream, and now that it’s over a year in, I don’t want to be a shop manager, and I don’t necessarily want to be an “owner” of a shop, if that makes sense. I’d rather be pumping out designs and different shaped pants, which would have most likely been possible if I got a warehouse space. But if I did get a warehouse space, I wouldn’t have a visual community right next to Tompkins that’s showing Tompkins that we’re actually doing stuff. If I got a warehouse, I would probably have way more space and way more ability to get products. But I think right now, I need to be more organized so I can have more products in the space I have now.

Because it’s always like, “Oh, cool, I got this space. Cool. Now I want a bigger space,” obviously. And then no matter how big the space would get, I would want a bigger space if I wanted to make more stuff.

ANGEL — And you do want to make more stuff?

KYOTA — I do want to make more stuff. It’s just taking care of the shop and trying to… there is a line where I need to act like a homie or I need to act like a manager. You know, like, I need to be, not a “leader,” but like a boss.

And I feel like that kind of gets agitated when I’m really chilling with a close homie. Like, it’s all in my head, but it’s little things, like, “Oh, he does have to go to work tomorrow,” or little shit like that just bugs me. It almost feels like I’m way too young to be dealing with any of that type of shit.

ANGEL — But also, I think it’s cool because it’s your team, it’s all your homies.

KYOTA — I think it’s fire that people think it’s way bigger than it is, because it’s like the way some people treat it is like a big brand. They would post a skate clip wearing the jeans and tag us in it. I would get messages asking to get sponsored, and that’s way out of what we do. But it’s still like, if we’re viewed as a big brand, then we need to act like one. But we’re not anywhere close to a big brand. We’re just kind of running things based in Tompkins. The people who really see it physically are anyone who visits Tompkins to skate or do whatever. But also, I don’t really want it to be “skater” based. There’s so much more than a skate shop.

ANGEL — How big are you trying to make it?

It would be sick if it’s big enough to where it can have its own genre of stuff. If Star can be bigger than a clothing brand or a gift shop. If it’s big, then it won’t be crazy to have a running cafe. If it’s major, it won’t be crazy to have a private skate park in Brooklyn with a fee. There’s too many ideas.

KYOTA — Originally, I thought the smartest thing was to stick with this vision I had. But one of the big problems is the vision changing as well. When I first started, I had this exact idea: if it got big, I knew exactly what to do. But now I’m seeing so many paths where I don’t know which investment is the smartest. It could be a whole party organization. Like, Star Team is just a party agent, a sound agent, where it’s just a DJ group. We have equipment, and if any company wants to throw a party or have a Star Team party, like some crazy stuff, we know exactly what we’re doing. That would be one of my ideas, but it’s just like… then I would be invested in throwing parties rather than clothes. If I were to try to do both, it would be like half-investing. Also, on top of everything that I want to do, I need to skate. That’s the number one priority I need to do while I can. Everyone’s probably like, why am I not skating? Why did I quit skating?

ANGEL — Why is the Instagram private?

KYOTA — The Instagram is private because it’s an “if you know, you know” type of situation. If someone is interested in this symbol and wants to know what we’re up to and what we’re doing, they can follow us and see everything we have. This way, there are no people just seeing reposted content from someone else and dismissing it at first glance. Making it private creates an environment where everyone here supports each other. Everyone here won’t hate; they can’t hate, first of all. And it’s kind of untouchable for people that connect with the symbol. The only downside is that people can’t share it, but that’s almost a good thing because people already see everything everywhere.

One different thing I could do is push the physical store more into people’s faces rather than have it shown all over Instagram. If I didn’t have the store, the Instagram wouldn’t be private, for sure. I would be trying my best to have it in everyone’s faces—repost this, repost that—but I can’t even repost Star posts on my personal Instagram. I feel like exclusivity in this age comes from privacy.

*Full interview, featured in Issue 7, Living Proof Magazine.