Daniel Mocellin

Öus Ueno Whatafuck Imperial

07—28—2017 Photos by: Kickstoy

Interview # 56

On July 26th of 2017, Öus released in collaboration with Whatafuck Hamburgueria the Ueno Whatafuck. A sneaker made in homage to the F#%*ING BEER, WhataFuck’s original American Pale Ale. Its outsole was made in a unique fashion, using the leftover Pilsen malt bagasse, to give the rubber its beer-like color. The Kickstory crew headed down to Curitiba to check out the release of the sneakers and to learn more about the process, the history of the restaurant, and to talk with Daniel Mocellin, one of the creators and owners of the place.

“My name is Daniel I’m from Curitiba. I’m 28 years old, journalist and someone who loves the street food science that is happening here in Curitiba. Before I created Whatafuck with my partner, I would go to Avenida Vicente Machado and the streets Trajano Reid a lot, which also has one of the city’s biggest street scenes. I always went there, I was always there. I really dig the concept of having freedom, of not staying in just one place, where you can leave whenever you want, don’t need to stand in the line to pay your stuff, and not having to pay to get in as well. I was always on the street, and here at Vicente, back in the day, there was really only one go to spot like that. That’s when I had the idea of taking Hamburgers to the streets.

So I invited my partner, who I was doing work with, back then I worked with advertising for restaurants – I would do the entire branding and media. One day I brought him here and I told him about this whole street movement that was happening, and he went crazy for it. Around 6 or 7 months later we were inaugurating Whatafuck. I think we hit it off because we attended a big demand from the people, me as a journalist or communicator would never have thought that I would be the owner of a burger joint, getting involved with the craft beer scene, making my own beer, selling burgers by the loads and helping the street scene grow. I think this is insane.

If I can say something on my behalf, I’m very determined, I’m not more intelligent, nor better or worse than anyone, but I might more determined than the others. Even so, that I didn’t settle with the success of Whatafuck, we opened a whole other establishment just for fries, another Whatafuck and the Whatastore. The whole idea for the store was inspired by Void – simply because we made t-shirts and hats for the uniforms and people liked it so much that we decided to create a concept store with some partner brands. And that’s how we met Öus, a good friend of mine introduced me to Rafael Narciso, a really ahead of his time type dude, he already was a client at Whatafuck and he really liked the idea of opening the store.

We are really boosting up our brand, we start online sales this year. We’re making a new collection with a bit more concept and design, and really focusing on genderless fashion. So, that’s what we’re up to. We plan to expand to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the next 12 months.”

Daniel, what’s your relationship with sneakers in general?

~~daniel~~To me, it’s undoubtedly the most incredible piece of accessory that a person can wear. Sneakers are dope, it’s just like beer, you know? There are all the different types of malts, hops, different fermentation temperatures, time, maturation and everything. So making a quick analogy, every beer is a story – a dude can start making beer in his kitchen at home, and then he opens a store and now sells by the load, there’s a lot of crazy stories like that. So I think that sneakers are kinda the same thing – every model has a purpose, a concept, materials, durability, every thing has a meaning. I also think that sneakers tell a lot about the person, to me, it’s the thing that tells the most actually.

And what’s your relationship with this sneaker in particular?

~~daniel~~They are probably the most important branding project that Whatafuck has had up until this moment. Despite our brand having a huge bang here in Curitiba – we are number 1 on FourSquare e we have sold more than 320 thousand burgers since we opened. To have a sneaker with Öus is just incredible, is to have national visibility on our plans to expand and grow the company. And it’s also for Öus because at the moment we are the strongest brand amongst young and college consumers, and that’s interesting for them as well, so they can get closer to these consumers.

This particular model is very dear to me because it’s completely related to beer, she is the great turning point in my life. I love beer, I’m not exaggerating, I drink beer every day from Mondays till Monday, I have a lot of friends that make beer, I’m one of the main influencers of craft beer culture in the city, I put a lot of craft beer out there for people to drink. A lot of young people inspired by Whatafucks business format opened their own street food stores and put out craft beers to sell, I see myself as a big responsible for the culture.

So to have Whatafucks own sneakers with Öus, that’s from Curitiba, that already knows the company, and to make them with the malt from my beer, it’s like making our own beer over at Öus. I got the all the malt from this first batch of sneakers myself, I got it from the factory dried it, delivered to Öus myself and etc. It’s all quite handmade, I spent the whole day doing this.So it’s all really crazy, every time I see this sneaker on somebody’s feet I’m going to think “Damn! I had to dry that malt there”.