By Chris Rockwell

I recently finished reading an amazing book titled, “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” by Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Joseph Ellis. It explores how a group of individuals both gifted and flawed coped with the challenges of founding the United States.

The fact that America exists today is the ultimate “against all odds” story, regardless of our political, religious or socio-economic ideologies. And in every corner of the world the same type of amazing story is being played out. To me it represents what can happen when a group of people come together with common hopes and dreams in the pursuit of exciting new possibilities.

When we started King Duce we wanted to create a record label and clothing brand that was a symbol of artistic and lifestyle expression without limits. And that meant crossing genres that were not traditionally connected. A lot of successful people in the established music and apparel community looked at us with the same disapproving comment, “That will never work”. But we pushed on and maintained that our philosophy made sense for today’s world, based on the fundamentals of how the Internet and iPod had provided a new platform for individual expression.

King Duce is certainly not in the same context of the American Revolution. That would be a ridiculous and laughable statement. But it does represent a new framework of creative freedom and expression for today’s new revolutionaries around the world. In the spirit of democracy, King Duce was created by the people, for the people.

Duce Up!!