In Brooklyn, it’s best to ride a bike, and in fact, all of New York is so cinematic that it’s best to do everything by bike. Each borough conjures up many images from the seventh art. From Martin Scorsese, through Jim Jarmush and James Gray, to the Safdie brothers.
The bike and the movie, on the one hand the freedom, the ease, the enjoyment of walking according to one’s own rules in a city in full effervescence, and on the other hand a total art, combining different artistic forms, and which invites to reverie, but also to reflection.
Two passions, two hobbies that inspire Dan Snyder, the founder and designer of the young brand Corridor NYC.
I heard you paint houses
Dan Snyder’s background is not exactly murky, but it’s no less original for a clothing designer.After studying information technology, he worked for IBM, Homeland Security, an NYPD counter-terrorism unit, and even Palantir (a software solution specialized in data analysis, used by government agencies for surveillance purposes). By his own admission, if he had pursued this career, he would be at the CIA today blackmailing some South Americans from his consulate. But, fortunately for us, and potentially fortunately for him, his passion for design and clothing soon caught up with him.
(unless, of course, Dan found the perfect cover and is actually Jason Bourne).
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a designer
The Corridor adventure began long before its official creation. In fact, Dan Snyder has always been driven by the desire to create beautiful clothes. A natural inclination, a facility to understand silhouettes, proportions, color schemes… During his studies in intelligence and diplomacy, he paid his bills by creating a few pieces for his classmates. What he thought was a simple hobby, fueled by a few night classes, turned into a revelation in the early 2010s. He had to get into the business, quit his studies, and embrace his passion completely.
Always Do The Right Thing
Dan Snyder learned his craft on the job, practicing it from the label’s inception in 2013. In the hustle and bustle of the Garment District, shuffled between 38th, 35th, 37th, even as far away as Jersey. Cutting here, sewing there, washing elsewhere, and selling in Brooklyn. Tedious, heavy operations, but which led him to rub shoulders with all the textile workers, and to learn his trade little by little. He developed a philosophy that is not common to hear. For him, the so-called superiority of the made in usa does not have any more course nowadays. There are still some specificities, but the scarcity of spinning mills on the territory leads to an import of raw fabric on which the brands have little control. And this without mentioning the aging and disappearance of craftsmen and workers in the textile sector. Corridor prefers to cut out the middleman and work directly with factories in Peru, Nepal or India.
Another strong opinion from the founder of Corridor concerns the issues of “responsibility” and “sustainability”. Without any tongue in cheek, and carefully avoiding any greenwashing, Dan Snyder argues that “sustainability” is always relative. Sustainable because it is made in the United States, but with what fabric, transported from what part of the world? Sustainable because it is made with organic cotton, but from a workshop in Bangladesh with no environmental or professional certification? It’s up to customers to make their choices in this maze of ideological questions. Corridor, on the other hand, take their responsibilities and work in close collaboration with various workshops in India, and with certification to back it up, proves that it is possible to accomplish great things while combining high quality products made by experienced craftsmen, in a healthy, progressive and ecofriendly environment.