From the Concrete Up: AWAKE NY x Headquarter x MACHINA Honoring the Pioneers of Mexican Skate Culture
MACHINA participated in a special activation alongside AWAKE New York, Headquarter, and key national brands to create a collaborative T-shirt from each brand’s own perspective. With an open and unrestricted theme, MACHINA presented a personal design proposal a direct homage to Raúl Mendoza, father and son, foundational figures in Mexican skate culture. The project honored the pioneers who built skate culture in Mexico from the ground up.
From the perspective of MACHINA’s creative direction, this tribute is deeply personal. Raúl and his generation didn’t just introduce skateboarding, they introduced Angelo alias Antonio Machina to retail experience, community and hard work. How to understand retail as culture. How to respect product, distribution, and community as a single ecosystem. Long before “streetwear” existed as a category, they were already bringing American brands into Mexico, translating global movements into a local urban language, and shaping the foundations of what street culture would become in the country.
MACHINA’s design wasn’t conceived as nostalgia, but as recognition. Acknowledging the people who built the infrastructure physically and culturally that made today’s scene possible.
The activation culminated in a community driven event where AWAKE New York, Headquarter, and key Mexico City based brands came together to give back. Two hundred T-shirts were given away for free, each representing a different creative voice. Visitors were invited to choose the design they connected with most, transforming the experience into an act of participation rather than consumption.
The space became a cross generational meeting point with pioneers, new voices, and brands coexisting on equal ground.
Working alongside AWAKE NY amplified the narrative. Awake understands cultural bridges, diaspora, and honoring origins without freezing them in time. Together withHeadquarter and national brands pushing Mexican street culture forward, the activation became a living conversation not a look back, but a continuation.
For MACHINA, this moment closed a circle. The people we honor today are the same ones who taught us that retail is storytelling, that product carries responsibility, and that culture is built through consistency, risk, and belief.
Raúl Mendoza, father and son, embody the architects of the culture, creating space where none existed and opening doors for others to step through with their own identity.
Everyone who worked with them, skated beside them, or learned under their roof is now shaping culture in real time: designers, founders, creatives, and operators pushing the scene forward. Their legacy didn’t end with them; it multiplied. They have cultural sons, and one of them is Angelo, also known as Antonio Machina.
This collaboration stands as a reminder:
Nothing we wear today exists without those who first stood on a board and claimed the city as their own.
Culture doesn’t start on the runway.
It starts on the street.
