Empire in the Air is a Bay Area Asian American-owned streetwear apparel brand that promotes positive messages of being self-aware, having confidence and chasing dreams.
ChiChai Mateo, the founder and art director, started the brand in her dormitory at San Jose State in 2010. She started selling her spray paint shirt designs on the floors of Joe West Hall in the spring semester of her freshman year.
Mateo, who refers to the apparel brand as “Empire,” said it focuses on a bigger message of helping other creators by providing a platform, such as hosting pop-up shops with other artists and encouraging them to “build their own empires.”
The apparel contains designs with positive messages of self-affirmation like a long sleeve shirt that reads “Do Not Forget To Tend Your Garden, Let Yourself Bloom On” and a hoodie that says “Handle Your Empire In The Air With Care.”
“It’s very simple but it holds meaning,” said Sayan Uttarkar, a customer and SJSU business junior. “It is pretty artistic. I have the [Hometown Hero Baseball] jersey and I really liked the design [on the back].”
The jersey features Empire’s logo in the front and a drawing of a “Hometown Hero” character. The description on the Empire website says that Hometown Hero is someone who guards the Bay Area so it can build bridges and transcend hate, fear and doubt with love, faith and unity.
Mateo’s love of fashion, art and writing helped inspire her while creating her brand.
One year into creating her apparel brand, Mateo met and connected with people who helped her bring Empire to fruition.
Samantha Manklang, who would later become the brand’s public relations and event coordinator, was the first to join Mateo’s team. Manklang said she ran into Mateo on campus during an event hosted by Akbayan, a Filipino American organization at SJSU.
“We were just passing through the restroom and putting on lipstick and fixing our hair,” Manklang said.
Mateo then invited Manklang to be a model for a photo shoot for a product Mateo’s co-worker created in San Francisco in 2010. Mateo and Manklang had an immediate connection that remains strong 10 years later.
Manklang works on helping the brand maintain connections with artists on the East Coast and in San Francisco.
Raymond Baltazar, Empire’s visual producer, was Mateo’s “little brother” in Akbayan’s mentoring program in 2011 and joined the team in 2012 after Mateo brought him on to do a photo shoot.
“[Mateo] knew I was super into photography and videography . . . and asked me if I wanted to just tag along and work behind the scenes,” Baltazar said.
Baltazar produces visual content such as the brand’s “lookbooks,” where they film and photograph every new product launched as a way to show their new clothing pieces.
Mateo took a two-year break from her brand to focus on her undergraduate degree and later relaunched it in 2013 after she graduated.
Since then, the brand has hosted events like its latest pop-up shop in September to support local
Bay Area communities by donating all proceeds to local organizations.
Last month, Empire was invited by San Jose Made to organize a pop-up shop in Downtown San Jose from Sept. 10 to Sept. 20. San Jose Made is an organization that helps small businesses in Silicon Valley display products through craft fairs, pop-up shops and creative reselling.
“We had an art gallery that featured more or less than a dozen artists and all the proceeds from that gallery went to Community Got Us, which is an organization that aims to uplift the unhoused out in [the] east side and south side [of San Jose],” Mateo said.
She said she had been involved in many organizations, including the one she started with her mom.
In 2008, Mateo and Melissa Villa, her mother, created a nonprofit organization in the Philippines called “Project Pearls,” which focuses on providing aid for children living in extreme poverty in Manila.
Last October, Empire partnered with tattoo artists from Gold Leaf Ink in San Francisco and fundraised around $2,000 for Project Pearls’ program, which fed 300 Manila kids a day for almost two weeks.
“I would have never dreamed that we would provide a space for two dozen artists in [Empire’s] door,” Mateo said. “I would have never imagined that people would be reaching out to us to have these types of events or to join us in our pop-up shops.”
Mateo has mentored many artists and was described as selfless and inspiring by members of Empire.
Aljhecia Alolor, the design associate at Empire and an SJSU design studies senior, said she longs to have her own apparel brand and joined the team because Mateo began mentoring her.
Alolor was inspired to start a vintage clothing business of recycled products to create higher-quality clothing pieces that include her own designs after being on Mateo’s team for a year.
Mateo said her business has grown to a level where she can choose who she wants to work with.
“The fact that we’re at the level where we’re able to say no to different people and know who we want to work with is something to be proud of in itself,” Mateo said.
She said there are hurdles when creating an apparel company but that everything is a learning process.
In the near future, the Empire team wants to use Zoom to host events like a “Sketch at Home,” where Bay Area artist Bryant Sina hosts a still-art drawing session.
Mateo hopes to keep providing a space for creators to “sweat out” their creativity through their blogs, videos and social media.
