Bear with me here, because this may be my inner PCP-fueled paranoiac conspiracy theorist talking, but consider the similarity of these two logos.
The first logo is the logo of Trukfit, Lil' Wayne's newish skateboarding influenced clothing line.
The second is the Michael Worful designed logo for Beeftruk, a beloved skateboarding 'zine established in 2005 in Saint Louis, MO that you may be familiar with if you visit this blog.
Now they are not identical, the Beeftruk logo is distinctly a Michael Worful creation and the Trukfit logo, well... looks like it should be on a truck.
Trukfit isn't exactly an obvious name for a skateboard/lifestyle clothing company nor is Beeftruk one for a skateboarding zine. The origin of Beeftruk, if i'm not mistaken, comes from a little euphemism about a "beef truck driving into tuna town". Lil' Wayne explains the origin of the Trukfit name here.
Shortly after Lil' Wayne's new found passion for skateboarding, he sustained a head injury at the Plan Nine skate park in the Mills mall while touring through Saint Louis. I imagine this surprised very few people as lil' wayne is/was a very inexperienced skateboarder skateboarding at what is locally known to be a very slick park (Spills Mall, Dislocation Station, etc.).
Shortly after this, Trukfit clothing was announced to the world and presented at the 2012 Agenda trade show.
If you are familiar with Beeftruk zine, you'll know that there isn't a skatepark, skatespot, or general public area in Saint Louis that isn't littered with Beeftruk stickers. Is it possible that Wheezy, perhaps still woozy from his slam and high on sizzurp, drew influence from a Beeftruk sticker to create the logo of his new clothing brand? Did the Beeftruk logo stir up "tha carter's" childhood memories and inspire him?
I also barely thought about Trukfit until they began following me on twitter which was odd because well, I don't know and haven't skated with veteran rap superstar/greenhorn skate rat Lil' Wheezy but perhaps he is a fan of the skate zine where I was once given the honor and privilege of being cover boy?
What are the odds? Well, as the buzz from the last honk on my crank pipe wears off I'm saying pretty slim, but the dualities here are irrefutable.
Maybe Trukfit would throw some of its limitless advertising dollars towards an ad in the heavily-anticipated Beeftruk #3? Obviously Beeftruk knows that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (heres looking at you Soytruk) but maybe Trukfit would consider running an ad to keep everyone from calling this a shameless rip off?
Even if this wild conspiracy proved true, could we call this a shameless rip off? It might even be downright endearing. After all, Wheezy's zest for skateboarding brings us back to when we first found our love for it and comparing the quality of the logos, the Trukfit logo would be the equivalent of a junior high binder drawing of the Beeftruk logo.
Also, if this happened to be the case, good choice choosing a defenseless non-tradedmarked or copyrighted skateboarding 'zine to rip off, we all know how much trouble actual skateboarding brands can run into with this kind of thing.
