What Is thisisneverthat? Seoul Streetwear from Three Friends
What is thisisneverthat? thisisneverthat is the Seoul streetwear label whose company began in 2009 and whose first collection dropped for Spring/Summer 2010. Friends Nadan Cho, Jongkyu Choi, and Inwook Park built it from city memories and clothes they actually wanted to wear. This explainer maps the brand for shoppers tracing Korean streetwear.
Cover photo: lumoplank — Street scene in Hongdae, Seoul — CC0. Also on Wikimedia Commons. Resized for web. Hongdae street mood for Seoul streetwear; not a thisisneverthat storefront or product shot.
thisisneverthat sits on the modern Seoul streetwear map next to the wider Asian context in our Asian Streetwear Guide.
Three Friends, One Seoul Label
MAPS records that thisisneverthat started as a casual menswear brand in Seoul for Spring 2010, with the company founded in 2009. The founders told MAPS they began with a simple line: create something they wanted to wear. That friend-group origin is the base story, not a corporate spin-up.
END. names co-founders Jongkyu Choi, Nadan Cho, and Inwook Park. Choi and Cho go back to elementary school, both studied fashion design, then split study abroad paths to Japan and the United States. Daily video chats about streets and stores became the brand’s early brainstorm. Park later describes the project as an independent organization that keeps design, lookbooks, films, and soundtracks in-house.
2009 Company, 2010 First Collection
MAPS and FNMNL both separate the years carefully. Preparation and company setup sit in 2009. The first collection lands Spring 2010 because factories, warehouses, and learning curves took time. FNMNL also sketches a rough role split: Inwook on design, Jongkyu on sales, Nadan covering the rest. Treat that as their interview self-description, not a formal org chart.
City Memory, Logo Clothes, Global Lookbooks
MAPS quotes the brand saying work begins from daily memories with the city they live in, and that wearers should feel balance in the clothes, not only see a logo. Goodhood adds that lookbooks often travel to cities such as London and San Francisco, with a taste for vintage magazine editorials from the 1980s and 1990s. The result reads as global streetwear filtered through Seoul rather than a copy of New York or Tokyo alone.
FNMNL’s Tokyo interview gives the name its design meaning: the first image you intend and the garment you finish are often different, and that difference can still be good. The lowercase logotype later became a Seoul street-style staple. W Magazine notes Jungkook of BTS wore a thisisneverthat shirt in the 2016 “Save Me” video, and that after nearly a decade the designers presented a first runway show.
Why thisisneverthat Matters for Asian Streetwear Shoppers
If you are mapping Korean streetwear after learning Japanese Ura-Harajuku names, thisisneverthat is a clear Seoul peer from the 2010s: friend-founded, logo-forward, city-referential, and built for daily wear rather than couture calendar theatrics. It helps explain how Seoul labels grew their own culture instead of only echoing American or Japanese codes.
For more reading, see the Asian Streetwear Guide and What Is Streetwear? 15 Streetwear Outfit Ideas.
FAQ
What is thisisneverthat?
thisisneverthat is a Seoul streetwear label whose company began in 2009 and whose first collection launched for Spring/Summer 2010. Co-founders Nadan Cho, Jongkyu Choi, and Inwook Park built it as friends making clothes they wanted to wear, with in-house design and visuals.
Who founded thisisneverthat?
Nadan Cho, Jongkyu Choi, and Inwook Park. END. interviews all three; MAPS and FNMNL confirm the three-friend founding and the 2009 company / 2010 first-collection split.
When did thisisneverthat start?
Company established in 2009; first collection Spring/Summer 2010 in Seoul, per MAPS and FNMNL. Goodhood and W Magazine commonly shorthand the launch as 2010.
What does the brand name mean?
In FNMNL’s interview, Inwook Park says the first design intention and the finished product often differ, and that gap can still be valuable. The name holds that design philosophy.
How is the brand run day to day?
END. quotes Park calling thisisneverthat an independent organization with strong in-house production across design, lookbooks, films, and soundtracks. FNMNL roughly maps design to Inwook, sales to Jongkyu, and broader ops to Nadan.