We were lucky to catch up with Chris Jimenez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Chris, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
Very hard. When you’re in the process of naming your business, you tend to overthink. You start to bounce ideas around to see which words fit your business. For several days my girlfriend Jacky (Co-Owner) and I discussed which words we wanted to use. Her and I usually have a pyramid style of thinking if that makes sense. One lays the foundation, in this case, an idea, and we both just start building on it until we reach the top point. Which leads to the finished product.
We both love listening to metal music, love watching horror, sci-fi, and pretty much anything post apocalyptic. So we wanted to keep the name within our interests. After a few days going back and forth, we finally came up with Toxic Doom Studios. Why Toxic Doom? Like I stated before, we’re big fans of horror, and one of the movies that we both love is The Hills Have Eyes. You know, the one with the mutants living in a nuclear testing site? Also, I’m personally a fan of zombies, and post apocalytic/dystopian landscapes so Toxic seemed to fit really well. But now it was time to choose a second name. After knocking out the first name, Doom came in mind fairly quickly. We knew the word Doom was the perfect fit. We chose Doom because to us, it represents the true nature of horror, it represents the hard and heavy sounds of heavy metal.
That brings us to the third word of our name Studios. As we grow, we plan on expanding our reach into different industries. Such as music and film. So we figured it complimented the entire name. Who knows, maybe one day we will own a few of them.
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 back background and context?
I’ve always been creative and interested in business. When I was a teenager I would go around door to door offering my music burning services. Burning was a big thing in the early 2000s. Now that I back on it, it’s quite funny. But when you’re 13-14 years old, it was the perfect way to make some pocket change for video games and other things I didn’t really need. After getting a few orders, I would hurry back home to my Compaq computer to begin the burning process which back then Internet speeds were no where near what they are now. So let’s just say I definitely worked an eight hour shift.
As I got older, I knew I always wanted to run my own business but it never really worked out. I spent a lot of my time working and being a reckless 20 year old. After settling down with my girlfriend Jacky, we always discussed the idea of having our own business. But again, those ideas were just…ideas. We didn’t know where to start or what to do. But in 2016, while going out to dinner, I told Jacky that I wanted to start t-shirt business. My idea was to offer t-shirt printing services to businesses, and schools that needed merchandise. I got the idea because my father has been a screenprinter for as long as I can remember. I’m talking about well over 25 years of experience. So I figured it was a good idea. But life kept getting in the way, bills, rent…etc. At that time, I was working for a local credit union that was about to shutdown. I had no choice but to continue working there to make as much money as I could to keep us from having any financial problems. So a year before this credit union closed, I finally decided to start a business. It was the perfect time! So I sat with my boss at that time and told him I was quitting. After that month I was on my way to start this new venture. But this venture was not in the apparel industry, it was in the recovery industry. Recovery of cars, homes, boats etc. Not necessarily repossessions. My business catered to those institutions that were having a difficult time finding their assets. After a couple years, I realized this business wasn’t bringing in steady income so I forced myself to finally get a job.
While working this new office job (in the same industry) was great. I felt like I needed more. Of course, the COVID shutdown didn’t help. But it did give me and Jacky the opportunity to better ourselves and talk about the future.
In early 2022, I decided to create this design that I had in mind for several months. This design idea came randomly when my co-worker Marissa and I were having one of our many random conversations. I randomly turned around one day and said “Zombie Dinosaurs from Outer Space”. Her expression was priceless as she turned around. Her response was just “what?” And began to laugh. We began to talk about it and continued our work. That stuck with me for several months and decided to turn it into a design. After the design was completed, Jacky and I were having lunch and I mentioned to her that I wanted to turn this design into a shirt. She was 100% on board and said “do it” and so I did. Weeks later after attending a small horror event called Wicked Fest, I told Jacky that this was something we could do. The vendors at that event inspired me to begin this business now called Toxic Doom Studios.
Jacky and I pushed forward this idea and began the paperwork. We spent several hours discussing designs, genres, etc. We decided to stick with Horror, Sci-Fi, and Heavy Metal with some Occult thrown in there. After everything was set, Toxic Doom Studios was ready for business. I was ready for business.
I would like to think that Toxic Doom Studios is an apparel brand that transcends the boundaries of conventional fashion, drawing inspiration from the macabre realms of Horror, Metal, Dark Science Fiction, and the occult. Our designs are not mere garments; they are 100% original designs and narratives created by Jacky and myself. I am happy to say that I’m very proud of what we both have accomplished with this business. It has opened many doors for us in the music and film industry. We have collaborated with director Sean Haitz to create shirt merchandise for his award winning indie film Cannibal Comedian. Nothing but love for him and grateful for giving us that opportunity. I also, was involved in filming a music video called Sci-Fi Sam by Dirty Freaking Joe. And just recently I was involved in the filming of another independent film. Thanks to Joe, the music video definitely lit a spark for acting as a side project once again. Whether it’s background work or supporting roles, it’s all good. I’m just going along with the ride. It’s funny because it’s not my first time in front of a camera. My parents, especially my mom, would push me to go to auditions until I landed a role. Eventually I did, I booked my first gig! But after, my love for entertainment fizzled and decided to stop. Podcasts have also been integral to our growth as a business. Without their support we wouldn’t be able to tell our story. Paul, from the Mutant City Horror podcast, was one of the first podcasts to interview us, and let me tell ya, his support has been amazing.
We’ve been received with open arms. Our followers, family, and friends have shown us nothing but love and support for us and the brand. Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are now. So I appreciate and love every single one of them.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
We have several ways to keep in touch with our followers. For example, Instagram, Facebook, & Tiktok. Those social media apps allow us to communicate and update our followers with any new products, promotions, and events. But our biggest successes come when we are exhibiting at conventions and events. We love to meet any potential follower and customer in person. We love the face to face interaction. It gives us the opportunity to not only grow our business, but to show any new follower what Toxic Doom is all about.
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
All of our apparel products are direct website to consumer. No third parties. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to use platforms like Etsy or Amazon. If anything, I’m sure they greatly facilitate brand exposure and help grow your business. Heck, we may even use them in the future. But for now, we prefer to sell from our own website. It’s definitely more difficult to expand your brand and grow your business but at this moment we think it’s necessary to keeps things tight.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.toxicdoomstudios.com
- Instagram: Toxic Doom Studios
- Facebook: Toxic Doom Studios
- Youtube: Toxic Doom Studios
- Other: Tiktok: Toxic Doom Studios