Brema Brema’s Unfinished Legacy

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Photo Credit: Allen Halas

Brema Brema

In the world of streetwear, it can be hard to stand out amongst the dime-a-dozen brands that flood the online marketplace, or make a mark against now behemoths of culture like Supreme and Off-White. Milwaukee brand Unfinished Legacy, however, is able to carve their own path into a world where anyone with an Adobe product can become a streetwear designer. The man behind the brand is Brema Brema, a Sudanese refugee who ultimately made his way to Milwaukee during his youth and started Unfinished Legacy while attending Riverside High School. Now the clothing line has garnered the attention of Levi’s and Vogue magazine, with Brema documenting his journey along the way. We discussed his upbringing, influences, and more during a recent pop-up event at Sky High Skateboard Shop. 

Let’s talk briefly about your background. You were born in Sudan?

Yeah, born in Sudan. My family migrated to Kenya when I was around 4 or 5 at a refugee camp called Kakuma Camp. That’s where a lot of refugees from Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda migrate to Kenya, which is a little safer than the other countries, because of civil wars and things like that.

Was Milwaukee your first stop in the United States?

We came straight to Milwaukee. People always ask me if we had any choice in that. There’s no choice. The United Nations helps refugee families come to the states, and they usually pick places that are affordable to live. Milwaukee is very affordable. Moved straight to the North Side, on Richards and Burleigh.

You went to Riverside High School. When did you get the idea to start Unfinished Legacy?

I feel like it was with skateboarding culture. You get hyped if you’re able to get sponsored, although some people just skate for fun. I thought it would be cool to get free clothes, especially coming from a background where we barely had clothes. So I skated a lot, and did street art, but probably my sophomore year of high school. I interned at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and that’s kind of where everything happened, and where I learned how to screen print. We were exposed to different kinds of art, and I was like “oh, this is how you make shirts,” so I would go do that. I saved my money from the internship and bought a small screen printing kit and started doing it in my basement ever since.

When and how did you discover skateboarding?

Honestly, I don’t know. When I first moved here, I was in 8th grade, and went to Lincoln Center of the Arts. I saw a couple of kids skating outside. I didn’t know what it was, but it looked cool. So I went home, we had just moved here, and barely had any money. I didn’t even ask my parents if I could get a skateboard, I was just like “I’m going to build one.” I was literally using caster wheels, trying to figure out how to make this thing rideable. Months later, I saw a kid skateboarding with a cheap Family Dollar skateboard. I don’t know where I got the money from, but I offered to buy it off of him for five dollars. He asked his mom, who didn’t care, so he sold it to me. As soon as I stepped on it, I fell so hard because I didn’t know how the board would move. But that’s how I started.

You’ve got a lot going on with the brand. You recently posted that you did something with Levi’s, right?

There’s something in the works right now. I just got an email from them a few days ago. Their factories aren’t at full bandwidth right now, but they sent me a bunch of stuff to create content with. Hopefully that leads into a bigger collaboration once their factories are fully operating again.

Has there been any kind of big moments where you’ve seen that more people are noticing Unfinished Legacy?

I mean even now, we’re just doing stuff, still figuring it out. It might come off like I know what I’m doing, but some days I feel like I don’t know. I take it day to day. Quarantine happened, so I was forced to really take that jump, putting in 110% on Unfinished Legacy, which is something I really hadn’t done before. I started to see the return on that, though. I was like “this is what I need to be doing the whole time.” Even after years of doing it DIY, now I’m finally full-time. I don’t do anything outside of my brand.

How much time in a day would you say you spend on the brand?

70-80% of my day is working on Unfinished Legacy. Unless I’m sleeping, I’m working on my brand. From designing to everything else. There’s weeks where it’s really busy, and there’s some where I’m just looking up inspiration, but you easily work 14-16 hours a day sometimes.

You’ve been involved in skateboarding and hip hop a little bit. Is there anywhere you want to take Unfinished Legacy that you haven’t yet?

Man, right now I’m just figuring out a lot of things as far as processes and whatnot. But I think just being more involved with the community is everything. You come to an Unfinished Legacy pop up, you see everyone. Milwaukee is super segregated, but if you come out, you see the South Side, you see the North Side. Gender, age, everyone. That inspires me to do more, and that’s a direction I want to take the brand. Equality, too, is something that I’ve been focusing on. Just the thoughts that are in my head and aligning it more with my values and what I believe in.

What is the big, lofty goal that you see for yourself?

Oh my god. Right now I’m just in a phase of figuring a lot out as far as goals and dreams that I can’t execute on yet, in terms of resources or where I’m at in life. I still have to grow and learn, and some goals aren’t accomplishable right now. The biggest dream is to pursue every idea that I have, and a lot of them come with needing more things to do them. I want to go back home, too, and do some work there. Helping build schools and things like that. That’s something I can’t do right now, but as my brand grows, and having the resources align, maybe I could pursue some of those ideas.

You can check out Unfinished Legacy on their official website.