About Us
Death Grip Clothing is a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal lifestyle brand based out of the “Southside” of Chicago, IL. Also know as “The Underground Alternative”, Death Grip Clothing is the go to clothing company for the Chicago “underground” or “hardcore” style and attitude. Before we were all of that, we started off with an idea and a dream….
I started the company in 2008 in my Uncle’s garage in Oak Forest, IL, a south suburb of Chicago. I had recently moved in with my Uncle and had no job or form of income. i had $246 dollars to my name. I had just left another small clothing company that I helped to create. So I knew what sort of money selling clothes could bring in. Only difference was this time I didn’t have enough start up cash to have the shirts printed up. So i took the last $246 dollars left in my bank account and spent the next 40 hrs the following week teaching myself to screen print.
All that was left now was a name. I never forgot a conversation I had about a year before with one of my best friends, Tom Biggs (the baddest fucking tattoo artist in Chicagoland). We were talking about cool names for for a choke hold I was using to finish people as a Pro Wrestler (Pro Wrestling is a story for another time).
Tom said, “what about Death Grip?” I loved it right away! So when it came time to start an apparel line, it was a no brainier on what to call it. I wasn’t sure if it would appeal to everyone though. Would people wanna wear something that said “Death” real big across their chest? I was real quick to say, “Fuck the masses. It’s a badass name.”
Peoples thoughts on the name would change drastically in the next year as they learned the true meaning behind the brand. Death Grip isn’t about killing people or corpses (although we enjoy cheesy horror flix), but more about the death of something that’s trying to hold you down. Put a Death Grip on life. Let nothing hold you down.
It was right around this time that I started to date my current girlfriend and business partner, Brooke Gilmartin. If it wasn’t for Brooke none of this would have been possible. We moved the operation from My Uncle’s garage to Brooke’s basement. She invested a few thousand dollars into some new screen printing equipment and we began the grueling task of trying to improve our printing techniques. It took a lot of weekends and fucking up a lot of shirts, but we finally started making some good looking t-shirts.
I was promoted at Redbox within 3 months from a merchandiser to a lead technician. This meant company phone, company car, gas card, laptop, the works. I got back on my feet pretty quick. After I was promoted Brooke and I got a place and moved in together. Once again moving our printing base of operations to our apartment (Yep…we were printing shirts out of the apartment).
At this time I was working 60 hrs a week at Redbox. So there was no time to print t-shirts. We had just booked a tattoo convention which would be our largest show to date. So it was time to find a printer. I heard a graphic designer friend of mine, Joe Quade, was working at a print shop. I got in touch with him and went over some design ideas. In probably the single smartest move I had made to date, I asked him to design a new logo for us. The Death Grip Clothing brand was officially born!
We began to sponsor a local MMA company, Cut Throat MMA, which gave us a booth to sell at there events. Before we could blink we needed more help selling at shows and printing for other customers. A close friend of ours, Nasser “Nas” Khatib, showed interest in investing in Death Grip Clothing. We soon worked out a deal that would make Nas 1/3 owner of Death Grip Clothing and giving us the extra hand we needed. Nas not only brought to the table his expertise in business, but also the first band that we would endorse, Janus. Janus had just released there first album, “Red Right Return” to HUGE success and would help increase our exposer nationwide.
With all the pieces of the puzzle in place, Death Grip Clothing and our sister company Elite Pro Screen Printing have doubled in size in 2010. 90% of the clothes bought from us are designed and hand printed by one of us. We’re by no means “raking in the dough”, but we’re rich in self gratification. We all live certain lifestyles to continue to our dream of running a successful clothing company and print shop a reality. We all make scarifies on a daily basis to further Death Grip Clothing and Elite Pro Screen Printing. The future is what you make of it. If you believe in something enough, anything is possible. We’re living proof…
I just purchased a Death Grip t-shirt while working at The Best in the Midwest tattoo convention in Council Bluffs, Iowa via Basement Ink tattoos. I was impressed by the design and furthermore when I read your story and how you got started. Before working at the convention center, I was a graphic designer at a local shirt shop and know all too well how the frustration goes when getting a design on a shirt (we used thermaflex for the majority of our designs but often did some screen printing jobs). Just here to tell you to keep up the good work!
Thanks for the props brotha. Check back to the site often. We plan on posting more stories as the company continues to grow. Thanks again for the support!