Tribal Gear, Tribal Streetwear or simply Tribal was launched in 1989 by Bobby Ruiz and his brother Joey as a Southern California lifestyle-inspired clothing brand.
History
Bobby Ruiz started Tribal Street wear on November 20, 1989, with his brother Joey. When Bobby was looking for sponsors for a graffiti art/benefit show in San Diego, Carl Arellano, who had a silk-screening business offered to sponsor the show. "It was at that point when we became friends and started to talk about him getting involved with Tribal", says Bobby.[1]
The process started with blank white T-shirts which were given various graphics including tattoo-style designs from Joey. Inspired by his graffiti background Bobby wanted to use bold graphics.[2] Most graphics were Aztec and Mayan influenced. This is how they came up with the name Tribal. They started working with graffiti artists who made hip hop-style graphics. Tribal expanded from T-shirts to apparel and accessories.[2]