Just Like Japanese Denim, Drew Joiner Is All About the Details
Drew Joiner’s first love wasn’t fashion. It was fossils. When he was a kid, he wanted to be a paleontologist. He definitely didn’t think he’d be just shy of hitting 1 million cumulative followers across his YouTube, TikTok and Instagram accounts through videos like “12 Things That Instantly Make You More Stylish” and “Vintage Shopping in Japan” to “Clothing I Regret Buying…” and “I Wore the Same Jeans for 100 Days Straight.”Growing up in Denver, the now-27-year-old digital content creator didn’t become passionate about fashion until he was a senior in college – at the University of Denver where he studied marketing and played Division 1 basketball. The sport sits as Joiner’s second childhood love alongside his segue into the fashion world.“Basketball has a distinct aesthetic value,” says Joiner, an avid sneaker enthusiast throughout his college basketball career.“I cared about sneakers, but I figured, ‘I can’t just have nice sneakers and not have an entire outfit to match the vibe,’” he continues, comparing it to basketball once again, noting that the sauciest basketball players’ swagger can be traced all the way down to the headphones.Joiner kept a close eye on these subtle details – pant silhouettes, sneaker lacing and audio accessories included – and began to develop his personal style once he graduated college. Sneaker culture dominated the zeitgeist then, with Joiner staying tapped in with the hype heavy-hitters of the time like Supreme and Palace and emulating the looks of Kanye West, Virgil Abloh and Jerry Lorenzo.Having decided that basketball wasn’t the career path he wanted to pursue, Joiner pivoted to building his career as a fashion creator, teaching himself the basics of technical editing and “learning everything [he] could about the fashion world through the internet.” Joiner says it was the internet that invited him into the fashionverse, “allowing [him] to step into a world that [he] otherwise wouldn’t have been able to step into.”“I’ve always interacted with fashion in an online sense,” he explains, setting a rather sleepy portrait of 2010’s Denver, a mellow metropolis sans a thriving fashion scene. When COVID-19 hit, Joiner doubled down on his content creation, inspired by the new influx of approaches to digital media brought on by the pandemic. Still living in Denver at the time, Joiner – who found significant inspiration in Bobby Hundreds’ This Is Not A T-Shirt – launched his first foray into the fashion content sphere in 2020 with his Beyond the Garment podcast, which wrapped its fourth season in December. “I wanted to learn more and ask all of the questions I had,” Joiner explains of his main motivation behind the creative venture, which gave him the platform to reach out to creative directors, designers and small business owners he respected to pick their brains on the ins and outs of the industry. “I wanted to know what it actually meant to care about fashion.”"The quality was poor, but the passion was clearly there, but I wasn’t going to come to the space and not provide something of value.”Joiner then locked in on building his YouTube channel before expanding to TikTok and Instagram. After getting his feet wet with a few unboxing-style videos – being one of the first YouTubers to recognize the potential in the New Balance x Aimé Leon Dore partnership with closer looks at both the early collaborative 997 silhouettes – Joiner got in front of the camera for the first time in September 2020 with his review of the FEAR OF GOD x Vans Sk8-Hi sneakers. While everyone was reviewing Nike and adidas drops, Joiner found New Balance to be a rather untapped market, shooting reviews of the 990 v5s and playing basketball in the 550s.“The quality was poor, but the passion was clearly there,” Joiner admits of his early videos, “But I wasn’t going to come to the space and not provide something of value.”In 2021, after acquiring a Rolodex of editing skills from YouTube, Joiner moved over to TikTok, where he posted more timely, short-form videos, and, unlike YouTube, his follower growth skyrocketed to 50K in just a matter of months. An editing enthusiast, Joiner enjoys seeing through his content fully from front to back, whether it be a minute-long TikTok on the new Levi's Japan collection or a 20-minute deep dive into the history of Japanese denim – the latter of which something Joiner is incredibly passionate about at the time of our chat.Feeling like a “big fish in a small pond” in suburban Colorado, Joiner ultimately bit the bullet to move to New York City because he wanted to take his content creation to the next level. “What’s beautiful about New York City is that there’s so much opportunity,” says Joiner, “but it’s a double-edged sword” in terms of its excess of opportunity."I explore a lot of areas of fashion that you might not typically associate with someone who looks like me.”An athlete first, Joiner explains that he had to “unlearn his competitive side” instilled in him from years of playin
Drew Joiner’s first love wasn’t fashion. It was fossils. When he was a kid, he wanted to be a paleontologist. He definitely didn’t think he’d be just shy of hitting 1 million cumulative followers across his YouTube, TikTok and Instagram accounts through videos like “12 Things That Instantly Make You More Stylish” and “Vintage Shopping in Japan” to “Clothing I Regret Buying…” and “I Wore the Same Jeans for 100 Days Straight.”
Growing up in Denver, the now-27-year-old digital content creator didn’t become passionate about fashion until he was a senior in college – at the University of Denver where he studied marketing and played Division 1 basketball. The sport sits as Joiner’s second childhood love alongside his segue into the fashion world.
“Basketball has a distinct aesthetic value,” says Joiner, an avid sneaker enthusiast throughout his college basketball career.
“I cared about sneakers, but I figured, ‘I can’t just have nice sneakers and not have an entire outfit to match the vibe,’” he continues, comparing it to basketball once again, noting that the sauciest basketball players’ swagger can be traced all the way down to the headphones.
Joiner kept a close eye on these subtle details – pant silhouettes, sneaker lacing and audio accessories included – and began to develop his personal style once he graduated college. Sneaker culture dominated the zeitgeist then, with Joiner staying tapped in with the hype heavy-hitters of the time like Supreme and Palace and emulating the looks of Kanye West, Virgil Abloh and Jerry Lorenzo.
Having decided that basketball wasn’t the career path he wanted to pursue, Joiner pivoted to building his career as a fashion creator, teaching himself the basics of technical editing and “learning everything [he] could about the fashion world through the internet.” Joiner says it was the internet that invited him into the fashionverse, “allowing [him] to step into a world that [he] otherwise wouldn’t have been able to step into.”
“I’ve always interacted with fashion in an online sense,” he explains, setting a rather sleepy portrait of 2010’s Denver, a mellow metropolis sans a thriving fashion scene. When COVID-19 hit, Joiner doubled down on his content creation, inspired by the new influx of approaches to digital media brought on by the pandemic. Still living in Denver at the time, Joiner – who found significant inspiration in Bobby Hundreds’ This Is Not A T-Shirt – launched his first foray into the fashion content sphere in 2020 with his Beyond the Garment podcast, which wrapped its fourth season in December. “I wanted to learn more and ask all of the questions I had,” Joiner explains of his main motivation behind the creative venture, which gave him the platform to reach out to creative directors, designers and small business owners he respected to pick their brains on the ins and outs of the industry. “I wanted to know what it actually meant to care about fashion.”
"The quality was poor, but the passion was clearly there, but I wasn’t going to come to the space and not provide something of value.”
Joiner then locked in on building his YouTube channel before expanding to TikTok and Instagram. After getting his feet wet with a few unboxing-style videos – being one of the first YouTubers to recognize the potential in the New Balance x Aimé Leon Dore partnership with closer looks at both the early collaborative 997 silhouettes – Joiner got in front of the camera for the first time in September 2020 with his review of the FEAR OF GOD x Vans Sk8-Hi sneakers. While everyone was reviewing Nike and adidas drops, Joiner found New Balance to be a rather untapped market, shooting reviews of the 990 v5s and playing basketball in the 550s.
“The quality was poor, but the passion was clearly there,” Joiner admits of his early videos, “But I wasn’t going to come to the space and not provide something of value.”
In 2021, after acquiring a Rolodex of editing skills from YouTube, Joiner moved over to TikTok, where he posted more timely, short-form videos, and, unlike YouTube, his follower growth skyrocketed to 50K in just a matter of months. An editing enthusiast, Joiner enjoys seeing through his content fully from front to back, whether it be a minute-long TikTok on the new Levi's Japan collection or a 20-minute deep dive into the history of Japanese denim – the latter of which something Joiner is incredibly passionate about at the time of our chat.
Feeling like a “big fish in a small pond” in suburban Colorado, Joiner ultimately bit the bullet to move to New York City because he wanted to take his content creation to the next level. “What’s beautiful about New York City is that there’s so much opportunity,” says Joiner, “but it’s a double-edged sword” in terms of its excess of opportunity.
"I explore a lot of areas of fashion that you might not typically associate with someone who looks like me.”
An athlete first, Joiner explains that he had to “unlearn his competitive side” instilled in him from years of playing basketball and instead adopt an “everybody can eat” mentality. As a social media creator in the competitive digital scape of modern-day New York City, Joiner pushes himself to find creative ways of cutting through the noise. He focuses on bridging the gap between his identity, personal talents, and the things that he finds interesting and making content that establishes him as “a legacy figure in a space that’s always evolving.”
“I explore a lot of areas of fashion that you might not typically associate with someone who looks like me,” he elaborates, circling back to his love of craftsmanship and Japanese denim. Something Joiner is specifically passionate about in his craft is finding the best garment in each category – which he firmly believes in the denim realm is, by far, Japanese denim due to the love, attention, and craftsmanship that goes into the design process.
Japanese fashion at large is a scene that Joiner draws heavy inspiration from, specifically drawn to its nostalgic references to the 1950s–1970s and recontextualizing of Americana. His travels overseas have also proved a key point of creative catalyzation, having recently spent time in 12 cities throughout Japan as well as Amsterdam and the South of France.
"If I approach fashion like a scientist or a statistician approaches their work – creating hypotheses, asking questions – that's when I'm the most creative and I’m having the most fun.”
A sentiment he shared in a video and echoes throughout the interview is that fashion makes him feel like a kid at heart, fueling his curiosity unlike anything else. “Fashion isn't complicated. It's not science, it's not math, and it's not the medical world, but I believe what you wear can have tangible impacts on your life and well-being,” he says. “If I approach fashion like a scientist or a statistician approaches their work – creating hypotheses, asking questions – that's when I'm the most creative and I’m having the most fun.”
Of course, Joiner does get to points where he feels rather uninspired by fashion, saying he goes through “phases” with it. When he’s in a creative rut, he doesn’t force it; he knows that won’t work. “All it takes is for me to take my foot off the gas a little bit and start to do the things that I find interesting and inspiring,” he explains, citing spending time with his partner, listening to Larry June, walking around the city, and working out as key ways he grounds himself.
“I hope my videos can bring some light and positivity to people,” Joiner concludes our conversation. “As important or unimportant as you might think fashion is, what is important is how you treat other human beings and what effect that has on them. That’s always been my biggest goal and fashion has always been a vehicle to communicate that to other people.”
He hopes to see more sustainability in fashion – “More people who care about making things that aren’t vapid and actually last a long time” – and less blind copying, leaving readers with one challenge: to not listen to him. Joiner, like Larry June emphasized on "Watering My Plants"
“I challenge everyone to not just follow what you see online. Don’t just copy those trends. Take them and make them your own.”
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