Mad Gods blogging

I had mentioned my venture into blogging for Mad Gods, local and international T-shirt company, before, but I thought I'd share my first post with my very own readers.

For my first post, I thought I would photo document the insane warehouse they run and interview the mind behind Mad Gods, Chris Martin.

Why “Mad Gods,” what does that name mean?

Honestly, the name was lent to me by some friends who thought it up for a stoner project that never happened. I repurposed it based on the fact that it has so many connotations, the most obvious ones would appeal to metal heads and hip hop heads. Ultimately it just means ‘many creators’ which is the purpose behind the company. To give the many artists around us a mechanism for getting up and getting out. The starkness of the name keeps us honest. We can’t really front with a name like that.

Was the creation of Mad Gods a sort of epiphany or a slow, simmering process?

Epiphany. I started MG with some friends from Texas when we were all living in the SF bay area. I personally had no relevant experience at that point, but we were young and needed something to do. An early partner was a manager at a kind of landmark store back in Austin, who I met in the SFC. He looked at our talent in a pragmatic business sense. One night, while looking at black books, he broke down the retail vs wholesale aspect of clothing. That moment is when it started. Within weeks, we started to learn how to screenprint from scratch. Growing up between band swag in Texas and surf/skate tees in Hawaii, my love of graphic tees had found a purpose. We got sold on the 90s American street dream.

That was just a snippet, read the rest of the interview and check out more photos on Mad Gods blog.