The Inkredible Street Fashion in Splatoon 2

前注： 兴趣使然的不专业结课论文，节选了其中的一部分。本篇考据了喷射战士2中十五大品牌的时尚风格，和其背后的街头文化。排版原因很多图片无法插入在文章里，之后会做一份完整的中文版。

Developed and published by Nintendo Switch for Nintendo Switch Console, Splatoon 2 is a sequel to the Will game Splatoon. Despite gameplay, Splatoon 2 builds on the art design. While combining street fashion, it hits an unstrained, unbridled, inkredible style.

In this incredible youth world, fifteen brands dominate fashion, carrying a full line of shoes, headgear, clothes, and weapons. As a species born with fashion, the playable protagonist inklings are very sensitive to their favorite brands because each brand typically creates a specific style of gear. As this saying, each brand stands masters in its fashion style in the principle of design.

I. ZINK

Zink is a head to toe sportswear provider. They carry a full line of shoes, headgear, and clothes for all kinds of sports. These include basketball shoes, a cycling shirt, and a baseball jersey. They are appreciated by their simple, sophisticated design. Its famous line of shoes, Seahorse represents a retro-style sneaker, maybe a representation to Adidas Top Tens High sneakers.

II. Annaki

Annaki is a new brand that is rising in recent years. Its logo, formed by a squid standing in the circle, creates a big letter A which stands for Anarchism. Also, the pronounce of Annaki is similar to anarchist movements. This brand develops a strong counterculture and postpunk feel. Their clothes are mostly loose, long fitting, a representation of naturalism and rebellion. Annaki has a metal-studded bracelet and thick sole black shoes that are usual fashion accessories in punk.

Their hand-printed Annaki Drive Tee is loose-fitting long top and has a long tail with a tartan pattern.

III. Tentatek

Tentatek is a brand famous for its sportswear and athlete shoes. Compared to Zink, Tentatek focuses on more high-tech shoe design. The logo is a sophistication of inkling’s eyes. Like this neon pink logo, Tentatek appeals energetic and powerful because they use a highly saturated complementary color to emphasizes the dynamic contrast ( pink sea slug sneaker). If you are a true sneakerhead, one fun fact is, you may even find 750s Yeezys in Tentatek. In the game, it’s called Norimaki 750s, 9800 coins, the same price in reality. This is the only actual way that I can own a pair of Yeezys.

IV. Zekko

Zekko is known for its casual wear among street and surfer inklings. They are mainly referring to skate-punk style, a derivative of hardcore fashion, such as a cap worn the opposite way, a hoodie, a flannel button-down shirt, and lo-top shoes. They aimed for both comfort and practical wearing. For example, lo-top shoes have flat, grippy, and usually extra wide soles to help skaters hold onto their boards better.

Zekko has one of the moment jackets, a souvenir jacket, also called sukajan. It is a type of jacked inspired by baseball jacket and it uses embroidery, silk and Japanese styles. When considering a historical meaning, it was a symbol of rebellion in post-war Japan because the vintage silk deco in the back was a customized design, it is going to express some ideas about the wearer. This squid satin jacket has two Judd-like cats (the judge cat in-game) on the front, an ikameshi and Judd on the back. Ikameshi is a Japanese dish of rice-filled squid. However, here is the problem. How inklings know Ikameshi in this squid world, do squid eat themselves? Though the designer may only consider this cool pattern in designing, that could be a profound question which worth to argue with.

V. Enperry

The brand name Enperry comes from a giant squid. It could also come from “emperor” because the logo has a king label. Their gear is similar to hip-pop fashion, include basketball shoes, hoodies, piercings in one ear, velour tracksuit and tank. Enperry is the only brand that uses velour because both black Velour Octoking Tee and Green Velour Octoking Tee contribute to famous rapper Wu-Tang Clan’s rocking velour suits fashion in the Mid-90s. Squidkid IV series look like Air Jordan One. Since the 1980s, Air Jordan is closely related to the hip-pop scene.

VI. Krak-On

Krak-On is an older brand in Inkpolis. Krak-On focuses on retro fashion. They have vintage accessories like circle glasses, work caps, bandana, tops such as waistcoat, shoes as clogs, canvas high-tops, and canvas slip-ons. Dots, high tone light colors compose a natural earth tone in their fashion. Quickly they have become inklings’ favorites among all the generations. Its square logo has a jellyfish inside, and Krak-On means encouragement. This brand may refer to the real-life footwear brand, Converse.

VII. Inkline

Inkline is a real-deal outdoor brand. Their clothes made to protect the wearer from even the most extreme climates, such as raincoat, down jacket and fisher vest. They also have climbing shoes, straps, and boots. Many of their shoes have dark gray colors and clothes are made in polyamides in order to reach a durable performance. This is reflected in its logo, which features a mountain range. Also, inkline means “incline”, climbing.

VIII. Splash Mob

Splash mob is a brand that oozes sophisticated and exquisite designs. This brand is inspired by the preppy style, a classic style with pop colors created by prep school kids. Splash Mob has bright, saturated colors, nautical-inspired stripes, and plaids, as well as tailored and structured pieces that ooze luxury. Their preppy retro theme offers gears as a shirt and tie, a college sweater, a pair of retro-style glasses, and Velcro canvas shoes.

IX. Toni Kensa

Designer Toni Kensa named the brand after himself. He creates his bold and highly personal style in three colors, black, white and red. When this black and white monotone design provides an asymmetrical contrast, red balances each other. In both ink-wash and inkfall shirt, the negative space highlights the middle cure line. This wave line proposes a sense of falling and flowing thus creates a dynamic movement in 2D pattern.

X. SquidForce

SquidForce is the official brand of the Turf War in Splatoon2. Though Inklings inhered many folk customs from humans, Turf War is a cultural idea of their own. Since SquidForce is a representation of inkling culture that is full of youth and energy. They are the only brand who has different festival headgears.

XI. Forge

Though Forge is a brand that produces a variety of gears, its theme seems to be practical headgear and military-style clothes. Forge produce retro style over-the-ear headphones, a football helmet and gas mask, clothes like a leather aviator jacket, a B3 bomber jacket, a peacoat, and a sailor suit. Their gears vary in a hue of dark green, the most symbolic color in military fashion, Olive Green 107. This is an army green which means dust and earth. Their jackets are even more resistant to water, gasoline, oil, and dirt. For example, B3 Bomber Jacket provides the W.W.II pilots and bombardiers in the middle of winter a serious warmth. The functional quality and the comfort, more resistant fibers and fabrics represent the luxury in military fashion.

XII. Skalop

Skalop is the hottest milliner Their produce caps and helmets. Its name, skalop is a parody to scallop, a common name in saltwater clams. One of its gears, Do-Rag, Cap, & Glasses shows a common element in hip-pop fashion. Red and white caps and backside logos resemble the Nintendo Switch.

XIII. Firefin

Firefin is also a streetwear brand. Their clothes have developed a strong old-school hip-pop style, such as a carnivore T-shirt, a Kangol hat, an urban vest, and visors. Several 8-bit and 16-bit T-shirts bring back to the history of video game console in the 80s.

XIV. Takoroka

Takoroka focuses on sneakers and sportswear. Takoroka's theme appears to be clothing for active, running and battling. Their clothing, like modern-style running shoes, a soccer jersey gives trendy in Inkpolis. These two shirts have classic color schemes for soccer jerseys: yellow, red and blue, the primary color. Indeed, soccer clubs like FC Barcelona and Valencia are using those color schemes this season. Yellow, red and blue appeals energic, powerful and enthusiastic.

XV. Rockenberg

Rockenberg decks out their fan in shoes, with a focus on boots. Its logo, the Jörmungandr, a sea serpent formed the German language. As this beautiful logo, Rockenberg is elegant and punk. Their leather materials add an extra oomph to outfit. In a street fashion view, boots are punk. Dr. Martens was an essential part of subcultures such as the punk and grunge movements of the 80s and 90s. The presence of Timberland, a casual hiking boot brand even dominated hip-pop fashion in the 90s. Black, brown and cherry red is mainly the basic color of boots but you can find Rockenberg in a myriad of shades, patterns, and designs. Those shades and patterns add to a strong rock character.

Bibliography

Live from Squid research Lab, https://splatoonus.tumblr.com.

Inkipedia, https://splatoonwiki.org/wiki

Nintendo, The Art of Splatoon 2. Dark Horse Book