Streetwear - an ever-growing arm of the fashion industry which maintains its grip on its customers through exclusivity and the careful cultivation of hype. In Egypt, new brands seem to appear out of thin air, and vanish with the same urgency. HRYA, the brainchild of siblings Youssef and Judy Shalaby, is driven to ensure they buck the trend.

Built on a basis of conventional casual wear silhouettes, such as hoodies, T-shirts, sweatpants and the like, streetwear is less concerned with pushing the possibilities of garment design and creation, but is rather about the purpose of your brand, and your ability to communicate it to an audience. It’s a game of creating a demand your supply can never fulfil and its value lies in its scarcity and in its message.

But in a sea of crew-neck t-shirts and bold graphics, how do you set yourself apart? “In Egypt, it’s a very saturated market, and everyone’s doing the same thing” founder of HRYA, Youssef Shalaby began. “You see the same faces showing up everywhere.”

HRYA is the Cairo-based streetwear label which markets its wares through the medium of digital artwork. A team of 3D-animated avatars get their hands on the young brand’s newest releases before any human does.

“I started out by using models just like any other brand, but after a lot of trial and error, I began to present my brand in a way I don’t see anyone else doing right now.”

Committed to growing slowly and organically, HRYA remains a brand steeped in meaning and in mission. HRYA’s slogan, ‘for the city,’ reflects its founders’ commitment to ensuring the label gives back to the place that inspired it: Egypt.

“After each drop, I take 10% of the revenue and I give it to charity,” Shalaby explained. His customers vote for how they want this money to be used, and since its inception, HRYA has donated more than EGP 20,000 to local charities.

Emblazoned with imagery celebrating Egypt’s rich heritage, both ancient and contemporary, each pixel and each stitch of the brand’s identity is directed by Shalaby’s relationship with his home, and his immense love for its people.

“I consider myself a very nationalistic person in general,” Shalaby told SceneStyled. “l love my country, I love absolutely everything about it. I love its people, its history, and its culture. I want to give people a way to wear this pride across their chest.”

The name itself, HRYA, is an ode to his Heliopolis childhood, and was the spark that ignited the brand’s formation: “Share’ Al Horeya is the street I grew up on my whole life. It basically means freedom, and instantly it made me think about Egypt.”HRYA is steadily forging a place for itself among a new generation of streetwear heavyweights. With grand plans for future artistic collaborations and creative, interactive events, like face-to-face drops and scavenger hunts, the label has already built itself a wholly distinctive DNA, and a purpose which traverses across several verticles; a passion for a homeland, a sense of social responsibility, and a commitment to resetting the bar for up-and-coming streetwear.