I was a junior in high school and for the past few years had become one of those kids that goes to every alternative show that came through Tempe, AZ. At each show, like many, I would buy shirts to support my favorite band(s). It got to the point, where I could nearly wear a different shirt everyday for a year - I had an obsession.

I remember beginning to notice that the shirts I wore multiple times would fade and get less soft and comfortable. However, in the Fall of 2007 I got a shirt from the ‘Black on Black Tour’ that was printed on American Apparel, I noticed it didn’t fade or shrink, and it remained soft for what seemed like eternity.

Around that time, I was really into Photoshop / Visual Design, and thought it would be ‘cool’ to print a design my friends liked on American Apparel shirts. I made the shirt with $1000 or so I had saved up from my job at a Sub Shop.

In my English class, we were studying Archaic poems, or something that was causing my attention to sway. I scribbled in the margins A-R-K-A-I-K, silently mocking whatever the lecture at hand was indirectly through my own methods of amusement. When I wrote the word and looked at it, I knew it was the perfect feel and attitude for the designs I was working on.

When I started Arkaik in High School, it was because I wanted comfortable shirts with designs and art that I loved. I maintain the same mentality today, and will not print a design if I wouldn’t wear it like it was the last garment of clothing I owned, I’ve even rocked some booty shorts, just so I can stand by that statement.



After Winter Break, I was able to release our first shirt - it was simple, but because it was simple, was a hit among not only my friends, but other students at my High School. I would print out pictures / text my friends pictures of the ‘next’ Arkaik design I would be releasing in the upcoming month - bringing them their product in class the next day.

After releasing the first shirt, I released a second and third, and to celebrate their release - had a Local Showcase of the Bands in my Hometown. This helped me spread Arkaik from my high school, to others around me!



I was entering my Senior Year, and decided to pursue Arkaik simply to allow me to gain business experience since I knew I was going to be Majoring in Business next year. At the time, I was still designing 100% of Arkaik products, MySpace layouts and our simple blog, and I never intended on continuing into college

I nearly got suspended from school twice for selling in class, a few teachers - who will still remain nameless - allowed me to sell shirts in their rooms to avoid getting in trouble with the school security guards / principals. Without them, Arkaik would not have been able to gain the initial fan base, traction and support we still have to this day.

I began working with Alex Mitchell, who built our first website, allowing me to increase the Arkaik presence online, since it was still mostly just me selling out of my backpack to friends at school.

After we had an online presence, I began working with professional graphic artists / t-shirt designers to improve the visual quality of the brand. During one of last releases of '08, Mammoth Hoodie, thought hood print would look great!

I spent two weeks trying to think of what to put on the hood, that would be a simple visual representation of the front print, but also embodies the Arkaik brand. One night when showering, I thought that it would be unique to have a mammoth skull / cross tusks on the hood - something I hadn’t seen before, would represent the Mammoth design on the front, and embody the theme of Arkaik. After seeing the Mammoth Skull, I knew it was the best representation of what Arkaik stood for, and the Mammoth Skull Logo was born!



With nearly 4 months until I graduated, I was beginning to fall in love with Arkaik and what I was doing - and became conflicted as to if I wanted to follow my original plan, and only run Arkaik until the end of High School - or to continue on. To continue Arkaik meant that I would take on the challenge of running a rapidly growing company while also attending college full-time to get my Honors Business degree.

I spent the summer thinking about my decision, and after talking with our printer at that time, Threadbird, was able to put together the first real Arkaik ‘Line’ or ‘Release’ - releasing 6 designs at ONE time - the first time we released more than 1 shirt / month.The line sold well, and we began working more closely with up and coming Local Bands to spread the word about my new ‘full time job,’ if I can even call it that, as I love what I do.

Began working more closely with Alex Mitchell, who started doing t-shirt designs and more graphic stuff for Arkaik, he was running a brand that I was a customer of, called ‘Of Rome’. Arkaik was still doing incredibly colorful designs, 6-7 colors in the design printed ON a colorful shirt, while Alex’s brand ‘Of Rome’ was the darker, more muted, and mature - something that Arkaik was missing.

Since Alex and I were both entering college, we had the idea that joining forces, and working together, would allow for us to create a more cohesive and dynamic brand. We planned a release to ‘Finish 2009 strong’ that would be the first line with both of us working together. The Winter ‘09 line with released 6 colorful items to please the ‘Arkaik’ fans and 5 darker designs to for the fans of ‘Of Rome.’ This helped Arkaik mature, and by offering both bright and dark design, we were able to appeal to more people! The line allowed us to nearly double our fans, and helped propel Arkaik into the new year!



After I started working with Alex, we named the darker side of the Arkaik brand ‘Arkaik:Empire.’ We began networking Arkaik on MySpace - the beginning of our Social Networking. MySpace allowed us to open and use an online store to allow fans who didnt live in Arizona to get product as well!

At that time, I had 3 bins in my parents garage that I stored all of the Arkaik shirts available in. It was probably no more than 200 shirts - but for us, it was a huge step! I was still able to hand-write the shipping address onto each mailer and pack the orders and make weekly trips to the post office. We literally celebrated when Arkaik reached 10 states - yes, 1 customer in 10 different states - we had a party.

In the Spring, we sold at the ‘Bamboozle Left’ festival in Anaheim, CA. We also started using a professional photographer, my friend Rick Marquez from San Diego, to take our product pictures - up until that point, it was me taking pictures of friends in Arkaik shirts in front of a White Sheet in my parents garage. No Joke.

By the end of the Spring, Arkaik was now found in 8 countries - I started having to go to the post office 2-3 times a week, shipping 20-30 shirts a month - the most amazing thing in the world to me at the time - 20-30 people, NOT from Arizona, wearing Arkaik - each MONTH! This is when I finally realized that Arkaik was something that I truly wanted to be doing with all my time



In the Spring we started setting up at local shows / events. We began working closely with a band from our hometown of Tempe, AZ - Eyes Set to Kill. We then went on the entire 2010 Vans Warped Tour - travelling to all 40 US stops and the 2 Canadian cities - which literally catapulted Arkaik into the brand it is today. Arkaik became a name in the music scene that two years prior, I was simply a passionate fan of.



With the increase in Arkaik fans I saw after our first year on Warped Tour, I decided to move the Arkaik stock room into the spare bedroom at my apartment - out of my parents garage - allowing me to pack and ship orders every single day.

Started offering more items than just tees / tanks for the Holiday Season. I began hand-making Arkaik slip ons with canvas Arkaik logo patches, to my surprise, we sold over 200 pairs the first week - allowing us to go into 2011 just as strong as we did 2010.

Before the new year, we got our first offices, shared a space with a local photographer, which gave us the ability to shoot proffesional pictures of products, ship them, and keep everything organized - all under one roof. I also had to get the first Employee to work for the Arkaik offices in Tempe, to assist in shipping the increased number of orders since I had class 20 hours a week



After the new year, I tried to expand the variety on the Arkaik site. We started making more product varieties, offered beanies, dogtags, and more slip-ons and more! When the friends and artists I met on Warped Tour the summer before came to town for shows, they would come to the Office and get gear, photos, the works!

In the late Winter we got onto our first tour, the Molotov Solution tour at the beginning of the year
The tour got us our first national exposure outside of Warped Tour, with ads appearing in AP Magazine, and Arkaik’s name appearing on blogs and websites across the Music Scene

In the Spring, I travelled with 4 close friends to the Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey for the 3 day event. Bamboozle was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had to date while selling Arkaik - since I grew up in NJ, and it was 3 days hustling Arkaik alongside some of my favorite musicians, which was incredible.

Arkaik grew from 10,000 Facebook fans in January to over 60,000. I decided to branch out from the Internet a bit, and I started getting monthly ads in AP Magazine (US) and Front Magazine (UK). After the Spring, we needed to get our own office, with a warehouse to store and ship the almost daily increasing piles of Arkaik, and allow for us to quickly ship orders!

We went from roughly 250 orders / month in December of 2010 to 500 orders in January, 1000 orders in February, and 2500 in April! It was growing faster than we could design / release new product! By the time we were in the Spring of 2011, Arkaik was in all 50 states, 80 different countries and still growing!



In the Summer, we participated in a handful of tours / events. Including:The Entire 2011 Vans Warped Tour, The 2011 Arkaik All Stars Tour, The Summer Partery Tour and Scream It Like You Mean It.
However, after going to the Texas Warped Tour dates...the first 3, I had to return home since it was impossible to be away from the office and keep Arkaik online orders shipping on time. I sent the rest of my friends / the Arkaik crew out without me to keep up with customers.

The summer was incredible, we had nearly 10,000 orders on top of having 12 employees selling Arkaik Merch on 3 of the tours - it was very, very busy. :) At the end of the Summer we had to get a second office because the shipping had taken over the entire Warehouse and the office attached to it. We got a second office to run Arkaik’s business operations out of, and used the entire warehouse for shipping



We sponsored a few more tours in the Fall:lPolar Bear Club, Music with a Mission, We Came as Romans, Uproar Music Festival and the As I Lay Dying 'Decade of Destruction' 10 year anniversary tour!

With attending classes / shipping online orders, we weren’t able to sell on the road for any of the Fall tours. In the Fall we also had a new addition to the Arkaik Staff, when Ryan Mapes - who has over 8 years of experience in the Music Industry, Retail as well as Artist / Public Relations joined our Tempe office to assist me with the rapid growth of Arkaik. Ryan was able to allow me to continue my courses and duties that I have done for my brand in the past, while ensuring that Arkaik remained the exponential growth pattern it had established in the past 3 years.

However, with only a few staff in our now over-flowing 2nd warehouse, and an unexpected delay in the production of our massive Fall line, we quickly began to realize that if Arkaik were to continue growing, we would need help. We had a great relationship with MerchNow after Co-Sponsoring three tours with them over the Summer, and they understood and realized the problems we were having.
We were a very young company, run by me, a 20 year old full time college student, and we ran into a "problem" that not many companies in this economy face - we had TOO many orders to handle. MerchNow suggested that to keep customers happy and maintain the ideals of quality and service that I founded Arkaik on 4 years prior - they would assist us in the fulfillment of our orders, and handle our storage and shipment needs.

While it was difficult to explain these benefits to our fans and customers, looking back now, this switch is truly what allowed Arkaik to continue in the direction I have been taking the brand in since I started in my parents garage. Through shipping our products through the vast MerchNow online store system, we are able to satisfy all customers with incredibly fast shipping, great customer service, and an insanely high quality garment - it is truly the Win-Win-Win that Arkaik needed.


I have always loved New Years, as I have said before in this 'Story' - I LOVE to start years with big plans, new objectives and obstacles to conquer and a fresh slate.

2012 truly is the 'Year of Arkaik' - with our past issues behind us, and our team solidifed in the Tempe offices - as well as this truly amazing website, Arkaik is ready to see what the future holds for us, and hope you are all in for the ride!

I am currently developing a large run of custom-made Arkaik products, something I have never been able to do until now. I am working on Shoes, Denim, Jackets, Women's Items, and even more - to revolutionize the Arkaik brand once more, and continue expanding the T-Shirt company I made, into the Lifestyle brand that I dream of.

I always say it, but it is sincere: Arkaik would be nothing - and nowhere - without the loyalty and support of our fans and customers. Without you, I would not be able to pursue my dreams and my passions, and I would still be wearing poorly-made, faded-out band tees like I did four years ago. Thank You.

I would not be here without you. You are all like family to me :)