ALIS—from skatewear to streetwear. Photo: Courtesy of ALISALIS—from skatewear to streetwear. Photo: Courtesy of ALISFor an industry that’s purportedly driven by change, fashion loves a comeback and puts a whole lot of stock in the idea of heritage. Rains’ Philip Lotko and Daniel Brix Hesselager certainly endorsed these ideas when they acquired the 28-year-old Danish skate line ALIS and tasked Tobias Birk Nielsen with reimagining it as a contemporary streetwear fashion label. ALIS 2.0 will be introduced to the world at Copenhagen Fashion Week with a big show, followed in a few months with a store-cum-“playground and universe.”ALIS (pronounced like Alice) was a skate brand named after its co-founders Albert Hatchwell Nielsen and Isabelle Hammerich that was started in Freetown Christiania 1996. (That’s “just a year after Supreme,” noted Lotko on a call, adding that he doesn’t know if the founders were aware of that fact.) Sales of cannabis were legal in Freetown until 2004, and, in Lotko’s telling at least, along with T-shirts the company also dealt in “what else you were selling in Christiania back then [hash cash] to make everything go around.”From the start, there was a strong sense of community based on location and skateboarding—Albert is responsible for building Christiania’s Wonderland skate park. Isabella, who remains involved with the company, “represented something else, she was pushing way more into a fashion forward contemporary segment,” Lotko explained. The decline of the brand in recent years seemed to mirror that of Christiania itself. When ALIS was sold in 2022 Albert was out, upsetting local skaters. Rains bought the brand in late 2023.A sneak peek at the fall 2025 ALIS campaign. Photo: Courtesy of ALISA sneak peek at the fall 2025 ALIS campaign. Photo: Courtesy of ALISNostalgia is one of the drivers of this relaunch; another is business know-how. As talented as the founders were, said Lotko, they were unable to “drive a business and organize the backbone of what could have become a real Copenhagen export story.” He and Hesselager are out to change that—and more. “We have to cut some roots and cut some ties to the past in order to grow something new,” Lotko pointed out. “And one of the things we need to cut is probably the ties to Christiania in order to blossom somewhere else.” Also, the new ALIS is focused on contemporary streetwear. “We’re not skaters. We will not build a new skateboarding brand,” emphasized Lotko on a call. But “we are humble. We’ll pay a tribute to, and we have the utmost respect for that culture.” The sentiment was echoed by Nielsen, who has no wish to be seen as creating “a fake skate brand.”For Lotko and Hesselager, this “comeback” is largely tied to nostalgia. “We were young kids in the end of the ’90s, so we grew up seeing these box logo tees saying ALIS all around town,” Lotko said. “It was really a thing back then because it was underground. It was some kind of a movement.” For Nielsen, the project has many more layers. A graduate of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, he shuttered his eponymous line after losing his wife. ALIS clearly represents a new start on a very personal level, but he’s also thinking big picture, when he talks about “the sincere and wholehearted energy that we on the modest team behind [ALIS] have put in in order to give this iconic brand that we know a lot of people care about, a loving push towards a new steady island to stand on.”

ALIS (pronounced like Alice) was a skate brand named after its co-founders Albert Hatchwell Nielsen and Isabelle Hammerich that was started in Freetown Christiania 1996. (That’s “just a year after Supreme,” noted Lotko on a call, adding that he doesn’t know if the founders were aware of that fact.) Sales of cannabis were legal in […]

ALIS (pronounced like Alice) was a skate brand named after its co-founders Albert Hatchwell Nielsen and Isabelle Hammerich that was started in Freetown Christiania 1996. (That’s “just a year after Supreme,” noted Lotko on a call, adding that he doesn’t know if the founders were aware of that fact.) Sales of cannabis were legal in Freetown until 2004, and, in Lotko’s telling at least, along with T-shirts the company also dealt in “what else you were selling in Christiania back then [hash cash] to make everything go around.”
Photo: Courtesy of ALIS

For Lotko and Hesselager, this “comeback” is largely tied to nostalgia. “We were young kids in the end of the ’90s, so we grew up seeing these box logo tees saying ALIS all around town,” Lotko said. “It was really a thing back then because it was underground. It was some kind of a movement.” For Nielsen, the project has many more layers. A graduate of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, he shuttered his eponymous line after losing his wife. ALIS clearly represents a new start on a very personal level, but he’s also thinking big picture, when he talks about “the sincere and wholehearted energy that we on the modest team behind [ALIS] have put in in order to give this iconic brand that we know a lot of people care about, a loving push towards a new steady island to stand on.”

For an industry that’s purportedly driven by change, fashion loves a comeback and puts a whole lot of stock in the idea of heritage. Rains’ Philip Lotko and Daniel Brix Hesselager certainly endorsed these ideas when they acquired the 28-year-old Danish skate line ALIS and tasked Tobias Birk Nielsen with reimagining it as a contemporary streetwear fashion label. ALIS 2.0 will be introduced to the world at Copenhagen Fashion Week with a big show, followed in a few months with a store-cum-“playground and universe.”

From the start, there was a strong sense of community based on location and skateboarding—Albert is responsible for building Christiania’s Wonderland skate park. Isabella, who remains involved with the company, “represented something else, she was pushing way more into a fashion forward contemporary segment,” Lotko explained. The decline of the brand in recent years seemed to mirror that of Christiania itself. When ALIS was sold in 2022 Albert was out, upsetting local skaters. Rains bought the brand in late 2023.
Photo: Courtesy of ALIS

Nostalgia is one of the drivers of this relaunch; another is business know-how. As talented as the founders were, said Lotko, they were unable to “drive a business and organize the backbone of what could have become a real Copenhagen export story.” He and Hesselager are out to change that—and more. “We have to cut some roots and cut some ties to the past in order to grow something new,” Lotko pointed out. “And one of the things we need to cut is probably the ties to Christiania in order to blossom somewhere else.” Also, the new ALIS is focused on contemporary streetwear. “We’re not skaters. We will not build a new skateboarding brand,” emphasized Lotko on a call. But “we are humble. We’ll pay a tribute to, and we have the utmost respect for that culture.” The sentiment was echoed by Nielsen, who has no wish to be seen as creating “a fake skate brand.”

The ALIS Relaunch Brings Streetwear Back Into the Copenhagen Fashion Mix

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