AINT WET’s new collection celebrates a disappearing New York
The brand behind merch for MIKE and Show Me The Body is back after a fire displaced their studio last September.
MIKE wearing AINT WET at MIKE's Young World festival
AINT WET, the New York City brand behind merch for MIKE, Show Me The Body, and Liim returns August 4 with a new collection, AREA CODES, on sale at noon ET at aintwet.nyc.
It's the brand's first collection since a September fire that displaced founders Abraham "Abe" El Makawy and Michael "Mikey" Saunders from their studio in Red Hook, General Waste. Within a year they managed to rebuild and relocate, and find time to release this new collection.
2026 AREA CODES collection
"Losing General Waste the same year as the MetroCard was the wake-up call we needed to get back in the kitchen," shares El Makawy. "What is the value of our great city once it's stripped bare of curious textures and flavors?"
"AREA CODES is a reflection of a vanishing New York," says El Makawy.
AREA CODES is built around preserving a vanishing New York: urban architecture, transit signage, graffiti tags, and the city's diverse cultural communities, such as the City's Islamic community hubs such as those off Nostrand Ave in Brooklyn.
MIKE previewed the collection onstage at this year's Young World V. Highlights include the 718 Pant, a collaboration with Yatusabe; socks patterned after the mosaic tile at those subway stops; and MetroCard hats modeled on the ones MTA employees wore at the MetroCard's 1994 debut.
The FADER profiled AINT WET in 2018, back when Abe and Mikey were printing shirts for a tight circle of New York musicians out of a Gowanus print shop. Their work supported the voices of their communities by designing for independent artists such as rapper-producer MIKE and post-hardcore group Show Me The Body. “Collaboration is not being yourself, it’s helping someone else be them, and them helping you be you,” Abe noted in their profile.
AREA CODES goes on sale August 4 at noon ET at aintwet.nyc.
