Many students at Oak Park River Forest High School have yet to decide on their future careers. However, Sam Castro has a clear vision. The OPRF junior is the creator of the clothing brand High Speed.
Motivated by the junction of his two interests, fashion and skateboarding, Castro slowly constructed the High Speed brand from the ground up with the help of those who believed in his work.
Castro initially created a brand called 616a, which he used to post skateboarding videos, which were mostly filmed in downtown Chicago.
Going downtown to skate became a habit for Castro and his friends around the beginning of their freshman year. There, they would meet other skaters from the Chicagoland area and make plans to meet again. As their relationships solidified, they would record each other doing tricks like flips or jumps down stairs. One of them even jumped off of a bridge into the Chicago River, Castro said.
These clips would then be compiled into 20- to 40-minute videos and posted on social media. To promote these videos, the boys would make and distribute stickers and host premieres
Castro began to turn his creative talents toward fashion after discovering the clothing store Notre, located at 118 N. Peoria St. in the West Loop. He credits Notre as his incentive to begin clothing construction and expand the 616a brand to High Speed.
Notre’s items range from vintage to designer to their own collaborations with brands like Vans and Converse. The store attracts customers from all over the country who identify with Notre’s distinct style.
A specific Stray Rats brand shirt stood out to Castro on one of his visits. When he went back for it, one of the workers, Darius Osorio, was wearing a similar one. The shirt sparked a conversation about fashion. “We got his phone number that time, and I just started talking to them as I went more often because I would go there to buy clothes,” Castro recalled.
With more visits, Castro also befriended Von Clark and Emmanuel McCarrell-Bradley, both of whom work at the store. He would show them 616a, which was transitioning into High Speed, and some of his other projects.
“They’d always see me working on different stuff, and I’d always show them skateboarding clips that I filmed when I’d go there and I’d give them my stickers,” Castro said. “But one time, I came in wearing this orange shirt that had been dyed.” This shirt had been originally black, but Castro bleached it, giving the shirt an orange color. He also stitched an- other shirt on the sleeve and heat-pressed a graphic with Arabic writing with “High Speed” written under it and three stars in the middle.
The unconventional style particularly caught Clark’s attention. “I was wearing that shirt, and then Von said that he really liked it and that he wanted one just like that one. Eventually, I gave him a similar one that was purple with the same graphic on it and he wore it to Blind Barber [nightclub]. He said he really liked it and that a lot of different people liked it, so it was cool to see.”
Clark has his own fashion brand, Bad Church Boy, where he collaborates with different artists to host events and pop- ups. While Castro developed and created High Speed, Clark opened many doors for him by promoting his work and connecting him to potential customers. From Feb. 27 to March 1, Clark had a Bad Church Boy pop-up in Detroit at Xhibition, an exhibition space that showcases and sells the work of fashion designers, where he took five pairs of High Speed pants. One pair sold for $200.
Every piece created by Castro for High Speed is manually reconstructed. He finds vintage pieces and reworks them to his liking by adding his personal style to it, usually consisting of a looser fit with open cuts, bold graphics, and contrasting stitching. He dedicates all of his free time to his brand, spending upwards of 30 hours a week on clothing construction, branding and marketing. He has made around 100 pieces in less than a year.
Castro is the Co-President of OPRF’s Graphic Design Club, along with junior Lincoln Lundak. The club provides an important resourse for High Speed’s branding: a free subscription to Adobe, which Castro uses for editing all of the posts and the skate videos, as well as for designing products. According to Lundak, “It is a resource that our school has that is very valuable to anyone who wants to express themselves creatively. I think it was a place for Sam to really get his foot in the door with designing graphics, with designing clothes, and with having a way to creatively express himself.”
High Speed’s emerging success was largely made possible by those who believed in the brand. Friends of Castro’s like Lundak and junior Luke Dwyer have been with him since even before the beginning of this process and have shown continuous support. The three have been friends since before the start of high school. Castro credits Dwyer and Lundak as important aids, using them frequently as models and help in other areas of the brand.
However, it isn’t solely their close bond that drives his friends to support High Speed. Castro’s authenticity genuinely captivates his audience. “I think the clothes are really unique. It’s not just like an Instagram brand,” said Dwyer. “I think it’s really cool to see it expand, and the skating videos are edited in a way that I don’t really see in other videos. I really like Sam’s style, clothes and editing, just all of it.”
