cheetahware

 

 

 

 

 

Note: The following was written in 2024, when we were deciding whether to work with Cheetah. It's interesting to look back two years later and see the idealism. We’ve mellowed a little since then, but I think deep down the fire continues to burn as bright.

 

 

CHEETAHWARE

 

We’ve been in discussion with Cheetah for a collaboration. It’s an interesting proposition. 
What was particularly striking though was the reaction by our friends and family, revealing a difference between how the two generations relate to the past.

For background, Cheetah is an OG Malaysian apparel brand started in the 1970s. They mainly sell affordable trackpants, kind of like a Malaysian Bata for trackpants. 

There were two groups of reactions. Among those our age, reactions were positive. People were interested in the idea of a young brand working with an older, established one. Among those a generation older, it was a different story. Reactions were negative.  

For our generation, there was limited interaction with Cheetah. It was a brand we remembered vaguely from our childhood, but not much more. For our parents, it was a brand they were much more familiar with. Most importantly, it seemed to raise associations of a past they had strived to escape from.

I was questioning my mum, and she said, that for her, a local brand like Cheetah carried associations of ulu-ness. There was a sense of having to settle for the local brand rather than being able to get the international one.

It reminded me of when a friend was looking to get a house, and he was interested in some old apartments in PJ. He thought they were cool and a part of Malaysian heritage. His mum was horrified. Her reaction – I worked hard my whole life so I could escape from a place like that.

Overall, there seemed to be a sense from the parents of wanting to get away from or forget a past. A sort of shame that made them instinctively avoid engaging with it.

 

I wonder if we are just romanticizing the past, especially from a vantage point today of greater privilege. 

We should be careful not to dismiss the hardships our parents went through – no proper plumbing, limited electricity, genuine poverty. 

But I wonder if it’s also possible that enough time has passed that our generation finally has the distance to look at the past more neutrally.