We recently connected with Will Britton and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Will thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

In high school, I worked at a clothing store. So I’ve always had a thing for streetwear/skateboard apparel since then. Over the years, I’d try to start a streetwear brand, but I’d always get hung up on the name or the logo. I pushed it aside for another day. Those days became years. Finally, with the help of my wife, I came up with a name. I threw some ideas at her and she told me which one she liked best. Next was coming up with a logo. I used the initial logo for only a few months and knew it had to be changed because I wasn’t happy and proud of it. I wanted the logo to have meaning and heart. So I landed on a Rocket. It was my dad’s nickname, and I have one tattooed on my arm. Rockets don’t draw a lot of attention, so I drew up the rabbit with.a rocket balloon. That worked for me. It clicked. I actually felt good about everything I had in place. It was time for the world to see what I’ve created.

Will, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As I said before, I worked in a clothing store in high school. Thats how I got the passion to actually start the business. I set myself apart from many others because I don’t want to go with the trends. There are a million of me in the world, trying to do exactly what I’m doing. I want to create trends. I only use premium blanks. I only use premium products. I do almost all of the designs myself. I put the designs on the blanks myself. If everything isn’t perfect, even flaws no one will notice, I won’t sell it. I don’t half-ass shit, I go all in! I want my customers to actually want to wear what I create.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

I got started years ago learning the skills to create a brand. I bought the materials needed to learn to screen print. I would print a few shirts and then not print anything for several years because I wasn’t happy with the name or the logo. These days there so many different ways to print onto shirts. Sublimation, White Toner Print, DTF, Supacolor, Heat transfer vinyl and/or just draw paint on the shirts. I’m sure there are many others, but I’ve dabbled a little bit in all of the ones I’ve listed. Just like everyone else, I used YouTube. Learned a lot from watching other peoples successes and mistakes to figure out which methods work best for me.

I purchase only premium blanks so my customers fall in love with the fit an feel of what they’re purchasing from me. I do all of my own printing and placing of the designs on the blanks myself in my garage. I have set up a little studio where I make a mess but create premium apparel at a price most can afford.

I’ve been through a lot of blank companies. Trying to figure which ones wash up the best. Which ones shrink. What t-shirt weight I prefer. What hoodie weight and cut do I like the best. For years and years I’d read about blank garments. Where the best come from. If I was out shopping I’d take pictures of tags of shirts so when I got home I could get on the interweb and read about that blank company. I only want the best, none of those off the shelf cheap craft store blanks.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I didn’t start with a lot of money to fund my brand. I have been a part time reseller of what some people call “junk” for 20+ years. I would go to estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores and shop marketplaces online for this “junk”. I’ve been reselling this stuff to help pay bills or save for something I wanted over the years. After I got the name and logo figured out, I was able to get the brand off of the ground with the profits from reselling. I purchased the materials I needed to make a few things. Once I actually started the brand, I was selling vintage t-shirts on Instagram lives. There is a large and great community of vintage t-shirt collectors on Instagram. Now, I just keep reinvesting the profits from Weird Citizen Co. back into the company to keep growing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.weirdcitizen.com
• Instagram: @weirdcitizenco
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/weirdcitizenco
• Twitter: @weirdcitizenco

Image Credits
Will Britton Whos Your Thaddy and 6one2 Studio.