Who is Maras and what do you do?
My name is Maras Rejaän, I am an illustrator that studied at the Willem de Kooning academy in Rotterdam. I’m also a sales agent for Saucony Benelux and owner/designer of Maras Streetwear.

Describe a typical and average day in your life.
When I get up one of the first things I do is put on some soul music while I take a shower, like Otis Redding, Smokey Robinson or other soul classics. I’ll have some breakfast while I check the morning news on TV and I turn on my laptop to check my mail.
If I have an appointment with a store I pack my bag with sneakers, check the info about the store and off I go. Because the stores are all over The Netherlands I mostly travel by train so you could possibly find me at Amsterdam’s Central Station. I always have my black book with me when I travel so I can draw in the train. I never forget my music: can’t live without it.
When I’m not meeting with stores, I’m busy with the marketing for the Saucony sneakers. Making concept plans, talking with contacts who are interested in collaborating with Saucony and having meetings with Paul Jonkhart and Orville Arduin.
If I have some free time I go back to my workplace, grab my black book and start drawing or start on a painting. I never really have a concept when I start, I get the inspiration from the simple things in life and work that out into an illustration or painting. I can be busy for hours and don’t really think about the time when I’m all in my zone. In the evenings I mostly grab my design book for Maras Streetwear. Right now I am working on a line that not only features t-shirts and crewnecks but is more of a real clothing line. With jackets, shirts, sweaters… you know what I mean. I wanna take the time for it because I see this as my child and want to impress people with it.

What was the first job in your life and how do you look back to it?
I started stocking shelves at the supermarket where I was head of the dairy section. When I look back I can say I was proud of myself: a 15-year-old boy on my first job to earn my own money and also managing a section. It made me realize that I was at a new stage in my life.

What influenced you to do that hustle you do now?
When I was a little boy I knew I wanted to do something with drawing/art. I was always making drawings on the inside of my writing book at school. I wanted to show the world my vision, the simple things of life that you can show with art. With just a black pencil and some lines and colour. Dick Bruna has greatly influenced me because of the simplicity he uses in his illustrations. He made me think about the simple things in life that you can draw with a simple black line and colour. Everybody understands what he meant.
For Maras Streetwear there was one person who influenced me to start my own clothing line. This was Rima Freeman; she was a designer at a little store called Studio shop. She showed me the basic elements of clothing design and gave me an opportunity to make some designs on their clothing. People reacted positively to it, which gave me the push to do my own thing.
Why I’m an agent for Saucony is very simple: because of the passion I have for sneakers. Saucony has great history when it comes to sneakers. When they gave me the opportunity and asked me to be an agent for Saucony originals, the only thing I could say was YES.

What is your bond with GPB? How did that happen?
Paul Jonkhart is my cousin. He introduced me to Orville Arduin and Punang Adipradana when they just started with Green Paper Boys. In the beginning I joined the boys with the thing they where doing and they joined me with Maras Streetwear. After my fashion show at Valtifest, we started to work closely together. That was the point I started to be a part of the Green Paper Boys family.

What can we expect from you this year?
I’m busy preparing an expo of my work and work I made together with another artist. When? I don’t know. Where? It will certainly be Amsterdam.
For Saucony, there will be a lot of great things this year. Some nice events coming up. Can’t say what but it will be nice. If people are curious, they’ll have to follow me on Twitter or check the GPB site. For Maras Streetwear I don’t know if the new line will be launched this year, but there will be some previews for sure.

And where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
In 5 years I see myself as a person who has learned a lot from all the things that he did in the past. I’ll have met new people who gave me their vision by talking about my artwork, Saucony and Maras Streetwear. I’ll use that to improve the work that I’m doing now. And now that I think about it, at a GPB fashion show we used the track ‘On to the next one’ by Jay-Z for Maras streetwear. I think that’s the best way to describe my next step: On to the next one.

3 things you can’t leave home without?
My laptop, my telephone/music (I use my telephone to listen to music, so this counts as one), black book and pencils.

Follow Maras and GPB

Tags: Saucony