We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Duane Greene a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Duane, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

No problem and thanks for having me. Well the backstory is pretty interesting. Prior to starting the company I actually had another clothing line with one of my friends. The brand was beginning to take off and our message on the designs was a positive one. Everything about it was good there but the only thing is it wasn’t a brand that was centered on exalting God, but rather people. Which again there is nothing wrong with looking to encourage people but deep down I knew that I really wanted to create something that would make God the center of attention.

One day I was doing a few things around the house and I put a sermon on from youtube to serve as some background noise. That’s when I heard the preacher say something that served as the beginning of God Over All Things. He said “God is in all things” when I heard it uttered the words “and He’s over all things” as a way to say that not only do all things exist because of Him but it also exists for Him and He is Sovereign over all creation.

That’s when the acronym G.O.A.T stood out to me, which we know the world uses as the acronym for Greatest Of All Time, so I just remixed it and made it God Over All Things. I immediately knew that God had dropped something heavy on me and I had to work on it immediately. Honestly I’m not even sure if I finished what I was doing for the house or not, I just dropped everything and went to work on the shirts lol.

The problem though was I already had a brand that me and my partner were in the middle of building. To make matters even more complicated I knew in my spirit that God wanted me to do this one alone but me being a loyal guy I wouldn’t want my partner to feel slighted, or me not be a man of my word since we previously decided that anything clothing related we would do together. I felt I was in between a rock and a hard place but then God blew my mind with how he helped me through the situation.

I decided to present the idea to my partner despite the fact that I felt I was supposed to do this one by myself, I just couldn’t fathom in my mind doing something that I felt would be disloyal. I literally still remember feeling like I was Abraham when God told him to leave his country and family but Abraham ended up taking his nephew lot with Him. Also a part of me felt a bit relieved with not doing it by myself because it lessens the fears I had of doing it alone.

When I presented it to him he thought it was an amazing idea but it would be better to shelf it for a bit while we focused on the other plans we had going on. I knew in my heart that not only did I not want to shelf it but that it needed to be the primary idea, which obviously would’ve been an issue since we already had a flagship concept.

However as fate would have it he also told me that he recently came up with an idea for a shirt that was outside of the brand that he was planning on running by me. That’s when we decided that it would be best to continue working with the brand together but the other shirt ideas we had we could work on individually with our own families. That way we can put them out whenever we were ready without having to consult the other.

And that was the beginning of God Over All Things. The weight was lifted and I was able to do with the brand exactly what I felt God was leading me to do with it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Sure, well I’m originally from Brooklyn NY and I currently reside in South Carolina with my wife and 3 kids. I actually got into the clothing industry because I’m an artist and music & clothing go hand in hand. The creativity that it takes to come up with a verse is the same place I’m able to pull from to come up with sayings to put on the clothing. The fact that the clothes we wear can also serve as an expression of the type of music we listen to only helped so when I first took notice of the clothing industry it was a no brainer in my opinion.

We sell everything from T-Shirts, hats, hoodies, joggers, sweatshirts, to even tote bags, and will soon be adding in wristbands, workout gear and a whole lot more items.

As a Christian clothing line we feel ours is pretty unique because we focus on making bold statements about our faith. When people read our shirts It creates an opportunity to engage with the individual therefore the clothes serve as a type of evangelistic tool. People are very visual nowadays which calls for more creative ways to share the gospel so why not incorporate a way to share even before we open our mouths by wearing it on our sleeves

This brand is not just another Christian clothing brand. I didn’t just think of a cool saying and decided to run with it. It was ministry from the jump. We’re placing God’s name into the debate culture of who is the G.O.A.T claiming that since He is the One that is Over All Things then how can He not be the Greatest Of All Time? This is really the mindset that I have everyday I come in to work is that this brand will succeed because it must succeed. The Bible says that He’s a jealous God and doesn’t share His Glory with another so it is time out for being passive and time to boldly show the world who God is and our purpose for being here in the earth. We won’t rest until the name of our company sits at the top of the hearts of the people.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The thing that helped us build our reputation in the market was the authenticity of the message and the sincerity of us that represented it. Ask any customer that ever emailed us with an issue and you’ll see that we did our best to provide them with the best customer service we possibly could. When people came by our pop up shops we just didn’t sell them items, we listened to their stories, talked about God, even prayed with them. We didn’t just talk the talk but we walked the walk. We have true conviction about the message we are putting out and I believe that it was able to be seen as something that wasn’t run of the mill but something different.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Well I can’t speak for Amazon or Etsy because we are not using those platforms at the moment. Our business is run primarily online through Shopify and we also do popup shops. E Commerce is just the way of the future so no matter what type of business you have if it’s not online you’re getting left behind. Especially with Covid now being a thing, people are more used to not having to leave their homes to get goods and services so I would encourage all new and current business owners to get familiar with some of these online platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and Shopify. We believe Shopify is the premiere platform that online business owners need to have set up. They have preset website templates you can choose from to give your store a unique look, easily integrates with tons of apps and the overall best site in our opinion to get started with. The only cons I would say when it comes to being an online company is that customers don’t get to see the merchandise before purchasing, or get to interact with you as a brand owner so they can ask questions to make sure the brand resonates with their core values which is also super important to people. That’s why we like doing pop up shops because it gives us a way to meet our customers, let them touch and feel the product, and get to see that we truly believe in the message of the brand. Don’t get me wrong, though we are currently focused on Shopify and the pop ups we do intend on placing the brand on sites like Amazon and Etsy in the near future. I’m sure there’s a lot of people that use those platforms we can reach that would love to be a part of the God Over All Things family.

Contact Info:

• Website: godoverallthingsco.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/godoverallthingsco
• Facebook: facebook.com/godoverallthingsco

Image Credits
Duane Greene and Darius Dior