October 30, 2024
Using the Dorchester gas tank as a focal point, a father-daughter design team has come out with new hoodies and hats for young people and adults.
Jay Branch and his daughter, Londyn, 9, worked together on the hooded sweatshirts for the fall for their first collaboration. The hoodies feature removable patches that depict the gas tank and the letters “BOS,” and on the back the branding reads ‘You’re Almost Home,’ as Londyn always used the tank to know when they were almost home after visiting relatives out of town.
The hoodies, which are matched by color to the four MBTA subway lines, debuted on Oct. 23, Londyn’s birthday.
“My dad has a clothing brand, and I was interested in what he was doing,” she told The Reporter. “I was watching him design clothes on an app he uses on the computer, and he showed me how to use it. I liked it a lot and liked working with the colors and had some ideas.”
Branch, who has operated MathMatik Clothing (MMC) since 2006, is an organizer of the annual Crew Love basketball tournament held in Harambee Park at Franklin Field every August. As part of that event, he designs neighborhood-specific uniforms for the tournament – a hot-ticket item for players and fans.
Now, he hopes to branch out to do more pieces for kids and young people with his daughter’s help. They both see a market for their designs.
“She supplied me with the ideas, and she came up with it all on her own,” said Branch. “I never forced anything or told her to do it. She was just very interested, and I had that logo around for a few years and forgot about it and she picked it up. It was fun to work with her.”
Londyn attends the Josiah Quincy Lower School in Chinatown, enjoys fashion and sneakers, and has her own YouTube channel. She likes track and basketball, but really likes math. Travelling to school is when she got the idea of making the hoodies to represent different subway lines – the Red Line (a Dorchester favorite), Blue Line, Orange Line, Green Line, and a Purple Line– for visitors.
“I wanted to make these for the kids that have to travel to school on the subway, and they can actually just tap their phone on the hoodie to see the schedule,” she said.
In addition to the removable Velcro patches – one for day and one for night – the hoodies contain ‘Tap’ technology that allows the subway line schedule to come up when people tap their phones on the hoodie. Likewise, tapping on the gas tank patch takes users to the MathMatik Clothing website.