Keva Marie Dine shared the full story of the early 90s girls skate brand she co-created, which mustered a cult following and paved the way for brands to come. Though Poot! What began with a simple Poot! It was the pootgirl hashtag that lead me to Keva Marie Dine , the co-creator of the brand.
This is her story about that time, from the very beginning of Poot! You started Poot! What was going on in your life at that time? I was waitressing and taking classes on fashion illustration, marketing and economics at a local college. I had done this a couple of times in my childhood and as a teenager. I was making hats and these wrap-around tops and dresses and selling them to a lot of local hipster stores. I had a bit of a name for myself. Around the time Poot! I was pretty cute [laughs].
I had hired a friend of mine, Heather, who was a seamstress. I was better at directing people who had the actual skills. So I would source all the materials and she would make the dresses. A lot of them were made out of curtains and bedspreads that I would find at thrift stores. I had so much fun doing that. It was everywhere and it was ingrained. My boyfriend at the time, Greg Goodfellow, was semi-sponsored by Foundation. Tod was showing us around and I went into the warehouse and was like, ooooh, what is going on here?
I was always very business-y and just wanted to do stuff and, like, start a business. I was very style-y and full of energy. I was probably wearing one of my dresses and hats at the time. Tod started talking to me like, oh you do fashion? You do clothes? He was asking me all these questions. All the brands back then made t-shirts and were screen printing designs, but around that time Plan B and Duffs and these other companies were just starting to get into cut and sew.
I also knew about marketing, and I had the energy and I was just really into it. It was all very natural, the energy and interest were there, the opportunity was there.
