Meet Paisaboys, the Streetwear Brand Speaking to the Mexican Diaspora With Subversive Designs

Juan Velasquez for Teen Vogue

Founded in 2016 by Javi Bandera and Joey Barba, streetwear brand Paisaboys has built a reputation for its sardonic, boldly irreverent, and inherently political designs that speak to the vastness of the Mexican-American experience. The drops are by the community and for the community, dropping with an IYKYK m.o: they are first announced on Instagram before appearing on the brand's website. If you're "chingón" enough, as a pop-up on their website claims, you can get early access to drops and deals via SMS when you sign up for their newsletter. Once a line is sold out — which happens quite quickly — it's gone forever. This exclusivity is what makes this quickly growing Latino-owned Los Angeles brand sought after and ineffably cool.

The Paisaboys headquarters are in Mid City, where their design studio, office, and shipping area, which also doubles as a clubhouse/Paisaboys museum, are based. Adorning the space is a city bus bench featuring a Paisaboys ad, a stack of speakers in the shape of a cross, a booth from a Mexican restaurant, and myriad framed posters and flyers from the brand's history. The indisputable centerpiece, however, is a neon sign with the brand's name in the style of the Everlast logo, which buzzes in the background throughout our conversation.

Even though Paisaboys has received some well-earned hype, having recently announced a collab with Nike, Javi Bandera and Joey Barba remain warm, authentic, and humble. They got into the fashion game without ego, just genuine collaborators who want to tell the stories of their culture. "Our guiding light is always, 'How do we make being Mexican cool?'" Barba tells Teen Vogue with a smile. Barba navigates fashion with the same confidence he makes that statement. He is self-taught without any prior fashion or design experience. "I did not go to school for anything; [I'm] a gardener," he explains.

Actually, both founders worked in their family business prior to setting up the brand. Before opening up a print shop, Bandera washed cars with his dad. Barba still works in landscaping while running the brand. Though Bandera did attend Cal State Los Angeles to learn design, he graduated by the skin of his teeth. "The program wasn't challenging enough. And I was just finding myself not trying to go to school too much," he says.

Paisaboys was conceived when Barba came to Bandera's aforementioned print shop, then still his new entrepreneurial pursuit, with a design for what would become the first Paisaboys shirt. The two were relative strangers at the time, but they instantly had a connection. Both are children of Mexican immigrants, both were born and raised in Los Angeles, and both spoke the same cultural language of the diaspora. "We were both into the same kind of fashion: streetwear," Bandera says. "We immediately had that chemistry as far as design goes." Much like that fated day, Bandera is now able to "chisel out" Barba's concepts when they work on new drops. Barba considers himself more of a curator when describing how his brain works. "When we sit down and work on a T-shirt, we make magic, man."

The magic he's speaking about is their ability to calcify often disparate iconography to make bold statements. One of their more abstract designs is a long-sleeve tee plastered with graphics in the style of pickup truck decals: the logo of Mexican gas station PEMEX, "Jesus" swapping the "J" with a Nike swoosh, a bikini-clad woman emerging from the water, and most surprisingly an Aphex Twin logo. It's almost a magnetic pull for American Latinos who find themselves straddling both heritage and assimilation. The key? “We never take ourselves too seriously,” the duo proclaim.

While seated on leather couches next to statues of Jesus Christ, Mickey Mouse, and infamous narco-saint Jesús Malverde — a jarring contrast that perfectly encapsulates the Paisaboys style — Bandera comments on their tongue-in-cheek humor. “We want the brand to be respected and elevate what people think of when they think of Mexican designers, but that doesn't mean we're not going to have fun with it.”

Paisaboy's sense of humor serves a greater purpose. As sons of immigrant parents, they've had firsthand experience of how the United States has treated those who move here striving for a better life. The pair want to speak up for those who can't through their provocative designs. Simply by naming their company Paisaboys, they've redefined what  "paisa" means.  Short for "paisano" or countrymen, in some Latin communities, like in Colombian culture, the word simply means "dude" the way Mexicans might say "güey," but in the Mexican-American diaspora, that word is comparable to "redneck." Instead of feeding into the negative connotations, the two took the "paisa" moniker and turned it into a badge of pride. "We're always trying to push the boundaries on what you think a Mexican person is," Bandera says. "But we also like to show stuff that is also very quintessentially Mexican where you look at it and you're like, 'I love us, look at how dope we are.'"

Still, not everyone understands what the two are trying to say and have received a little pushback on certain designs. "I remember that shirt we did, it said, 'Do I look illegal?' [and] had a middle finger pointing at you. It was pretty out there," Bandera reminisces. "There [are] a lot of people on our team, in our families, and even we have been treated a certain way. So, we want to make people think about that." To the people who are offended by their in-your-face designs, Barba says: "You just don't get it because you haven't cut grass in 98-degree L.A. summer heat, and you [still] don't get paid on time."

Bandera and Barba aim to stay authentic by celebrating and expanding on Mexican culture while also questioning aspects of it. They make it clear that, although they honor their heritage, they do not feel obligated to uphold all its traditions, particularly those related to machismo and toxic masculinity. "We make a lot of conscious decisions when it comes to challenging machismo," Bandera explains. "And that could be anything from the models to the designs. I feel like even a lot of the phrases that we use on shirts could be unisex or non-binary. It can be for anybody."

Barba adds, "It goes even into the colors we use or the juxtaposition of phrases that are a little more on the feminine side on something that has a macho look." Bandera has a queer sister who supports his work and lets him know that queer people in her community wear Paisaboys gear. He tells me she jokingly told him, "You've infiltrated." If queer people feel comfortable in their designs and supporting their brand, they see this as a sign they're on the right track.

Though they recently hosted a pop-up at Storefront for Art and Architecture in NYC, offering a limited T-shirt in collaboration with Guadalupe Rosales's archival project "Veteranas and Rucas," the duo hope their reach goes far, far beyond the City of Angels. Barba wants the brand to reach places where Mexican and Latin culture might not be as ubiquitous. "A kid that's in the middle of America somewhere who's the only Mexican at his school. How do we get it in front of his face so he's like, 'There is somebody out there that represents me?'"

As Paisaboys grows, la cultura grows, and they don't take that lightly. "We didn't really set out to be a political brand, but when you have something that's successful, and you're the first of that kind of brand or company, there's a certain responsibility that comes with that," Bandera says."

In the brand's nascence, they were some of the first Mexican-inspired brands in the streetwear landscape. They tell me that it wasn't "cool" to be Mexican; people were not pulling from the culture in this way as they are now. "We definitely feel like people are reclaiming that part of their background. Before, they were unsure about it, thought they might get made fun of, or they wanted to assimilate," Bandera explains. "Now it's like, 'Oh, there's actually a lot of beauty in our culture.'"

With eight years of experience and countless drops under their belt — including one with the Los Angeles Football Club and their fall 2024 collection arriving in October — the pair have been able to see the fruits of their labor. Their intention and purpose are, simply put, pure. Paisaboys is more than just a clothing brand; it's a movement to reclaim and celebrate a Mexican identity in a world that often overlooks its beauty.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

Want more style stories from Teen Vogue? Check these out:

• Where Did All The Tween Fashion Go?

• All the Beauty Products We Spotted at the 2024 Olympics

• 9 Sunscreens Teen Vogue Editors Swear By for Year-Round Protection

• From Rose Water to Eyeliner, An Ode to Middle Eastern & North African Beauty

• I Dressed Like Bella Hadid for a Week to Find the Best Plus-Size Alternatives

• These Trendy Backpacks Will Elevate All Your School 'Fits

• What Is Underconsumption Core? Experts Explain the Trend Putting Dirty Shoes All Over Your Feed