Red Dragon Apparel (RDS) Clothing Review

RDS (Red Dragon Apparel) is a skateboarding company out of Vancouver, Canada. RDS has a huge line of clothing available, from hats to shirts to pants - even snowboarding clothing. In this review, we'll take a look at a selection of Red Dragon (RDS) skater clothing.

RDS clothing all feature the Red Dragons symbol, seen in the pictures here (it's sideways on the belt). The company got the name "Red Dragons" from the early days of Colin McKay - he and his friends were all skaters in Vancouver, BC, and decided that they needed to come up with a name for their skate gang. They liked the Red Dragon novel by Thomas Harris (the movie was made in 2002 called Red Dragon). The link with the Chinese symbol goes even further back though, to the game of Mahjong, where one of three Dragon tiles is the red character for Center, also known as the Red Dragon...

So, when your friends ask, "What's that mean"? I recommend just telling them, "Red Dragons!" But for you, all that extra info was free.

The RDS company was started by the Red Dragons, and has been around long enough to have just finished their second skateboarding video, "Skateboard Party". RDS has a skatepark near Vancouver BC, and sponsors a pile of riders. In fact, if you've played Tony Hawk's American Wasteland yet, you know you can slap RDS shirts onto your custom skater!

Enough history and back story - what about the Red Dragon clothing line-up? RDS has a lot to offer. First lets take a look at the Red Dragon hats - FlexFit caps with a variety of styles to pick from, all looking pretty cool.

I tried out the Puffy dark blue, with the red RDS symbol embroidered on the front, along with the cammo and solid red. Like I said, all are FlexFit, which are the best you can get, and most have unique stitching and colors that look good together. The hats fit well too - I have a huge head, so anybody that makes a hat that I will actualy wear gets points from me.

RDS Clothing - Hoodies

Red Dragon hooded sweatshirts are nice and comfy - I'm wearing one as I type this! They're fleece cotton, with front screen prints and a little RDS symbol on the back under the hood. The hoods are stitched in two places, making it rest more comfortably and naturally on your head. The hood cords are thick and flat, and the front pocket has angled entry. This Red Dragon hoodie is a big step up from my old Element hoodie. And really, you gotta have a good hoodie.

Accessories are all the other stuff - wallets, keychains, belts - Red Dragon Apparel has plenty, all with the sick RDS symbol. For example, the Red Dragons belt with the solid metal sideways Red Dragons Chinese symbol (see above). The solid metal Red Dragons key chain (see below) makes a statement, as do the RDS wristbands - black with the red Dragons symbol. Red Dragon Apparel has a lot to pick from.

Red Dragons Skateboarding

What about the Red Dragons Skate Team? You might not want to deck yourself out in RDS gear just becasue it looks good (or you might want to do just that - go for it). Rest assured, the Red Dragons team is strong. Take a look at the latest video Skateboard Party, featuring the talents of team riders Mike Hastie, Ryan Oughton, Paul Trep and more - plus piles of famous pros who are members of the Red Dragons society - you may have heard of Colin McKay, Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek and Jason Ellis? And that's only a few of them. Toss in Ryan Smith, Paul Machnau, Arron Johnson - you know, go read the Skateboard Party DVD review. That'll save time. Or just take my word for it that this team rocks.

So what's the final word? RDS Apparel has some cool clothes - reminiscent of DC Shoe Co USA in their use of solid colors and strong symbols. Red Dragon clothing looks good, fits well, and are good quality - none of this buying up cheap unmarked clothing and tossing them into a factory. So if you're looking for something different, and you don't mind looking around a bit (you might have to buy online, if you aren't in Canada), take a look at RDS. The Red Dragon Apparel website has everything you need for tracking down a shop or shopping online.