Roma Cult Files: Pizza Hype Carlo Bartolomucci, Silvio Gianmarco and Alessandro Tanzi tell about themselves
It is midnight in Rome and I am in a secret location situated in the heart of "Africano" district. Is the headquarter of reselling collective Pizza Hype.
I am surrounded by some of the rarest and most hyped items of the season that literally invade the room. The three founders welcome me into their odd world. Their names are: Carlo Bartolomucci, Silvio Gianmarco and Alessandro Tanzi. They look totally different from the now-diffused reseller stereotype. They aren't wearing any hyped or expansive item to impress and the attitude they show is surely closer to punk than fashion. Irony is their way to talk about themselves and, even if they just came back from a long day at work, the first thing I can see on their face is a big smile. The guys deeply differ one from the other and any of them has his unique caratteristics and skills: Carlo is quiet, but has great leading and organizing skills, Silvio is charismatic and messy, Alessandro is the businessman of the team, always with money on his mind. Together they are able to bring the most absurd situations to life, yet they show a really strong energy that permeates the entire room. Pizza Hype in less then one year was able to become one of the most influential and recognizable reselling collective in Italy.
Now it's time to get deep down in their world and see the things with their eyes. This for sure will be a long, long night...
#1 Tell me how Pizza Hype has born.
CB: We were sitting in a bar and we were really high at the point, we actually thought that a Yeezy on a Pizza could be a nice idea for our logo...
SG: Come on! Things didn't went that way...I was sitting on my porcelain throne and we were at the phone, speaking about what happened the night before. The idea was to start a reselling website, but, at the time, we didn't know how people could feel about it. So we decided to start with a fake blog and Instagram page in order to start reselling straight after. Then it came the shitty logo with the Yeezy and the Pizza and everything else...
AT: I joined them later, when the Yeezy Boost 359 Beluga came out.
#2 So how much time have you been in the business now?
About one year.
#3 How did your passion for streetwear and sneakers got started?
SG: My first obsession were skate brands. Then I started looking for London based independent brands, often just graphic tees printed on Gildan samples. I remember myself always being more interested in the culture, than in the stuff itself. Never have been and never will be into hype.
CB: My father used to go surfing, so I started from there. Then I started listening to more and more hip hop music and I got instantly trapped more and more into the streetwear and sneakers vortex.
AT: Honestly, for what concerns me, there is no such a story to tell. I started looking for streetwear and sneakers when I understood that one could make money out of it. The slowly I got involved and now my passion is real. Without passion is really hard to achieve anything in life.
SG: Don't resell if you used to wear Abercrombie (laughs).
