Official Biography

From Antidote Apparel’s MySpace Page, 2006

Music-related clothing company, Antidote Apparel was conceived with the goal of injecting more positive imagery into music and the music-related fashion scene. Antidote strives to promote a culture of positivity, as much as sell clothing. Antidote’s different lines include the nostalgia-inducing “Simpler Times” line, the motivating “Life, Don’t Miss It” line, and a group of shirts best described as the “Positively Put Personal Politics” line. These items support personal choices like vegan, vegetarian and drug free lifestyles, but project the themes in a fun positive light, unlike most drug free fashion options especially.

Launching the company in 2005, in a culture rife with imagery of gore, weapons, anger and morbidity, founder Greg Wood recalls ‘When I was first going to concerts there were a lot of encouraging, enabling messages and imagery in punk, hardcore, and underground music and fashion. With Antidote Apparel, I want to give people what I was given, which was a feeling of possibility, and encouragement to be an individual that can change the world.’

Antidote Apparel is intended for anyone, particularly those supportive of the idea of putting some positivity back into the world.

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The Back Story

When I subbed in for a few dates in 2005 for Punchline, and they asked me to join in February of 2005, I was excited about joining the band, but knew I would feel stifled to be not “in control” of my greatest endeavor, as it was their band and I was joining the party late in their existence. The way things were done in Punchline would likely be set after being a band with no lineup changes in 8 years, and I was used to being the leader of my own projects by now. I was actually also enrolled in a leadership training workshop as well at this time.

My solution, conceived during the leadership seminar, was to come up with a separate endeavor I could simultaneously pursue, but again from the helm.

Even prior to this time, I’d thought (and publicly journalized) about seriously considering quitting touring, even as a solo performer (the answer to the question ‘can a solo project break up?’)… but was drawn back into a full commitment to the road with Punchline because of the great opportunity, and how great I saw us all getting along. Part of why I’d been considering quitting was because I was beginning to feel out of touch with what was going on in “scene culture.” Everything had become off-puttingly dark and moody. All shirts were black, and all messages were hateful, hopeless, or melancholic.

It’s funny that, at a time when I was playing perhaps the most moody sounding music I’d ever played, as a solo artist, I was at a very high in mood and outlook. Perhaps the demons that drove lyrics up until this point had been sung out, or just grown out of.

The best things I’d ever experienced in my life immersed in music culture were the positive messages and supportive “unity” atmosphere of the first days of my show-going years. Punchline seemed a potential platform to shout, from a place where kids were already listening, that message of positivity and empowerment.

I was feeling my age (not a kid anymore) at this time, and felt that impending responsibility that adults, or perhaps even just older siblings have, to deliberately create an environment for younger people “knowing what they know now.” What I knew was, the angst of youth didn’t have to be channeled into negativity. It could become activism, or ambition, or many positive things, as I’d had in my youth.

Actually, at first I thought Antidote would just do straight edge clothing. I couldn’t resist fleshing out other ideas that came, though. A consultant might have said there was a period of real identity crisis for the brand, but ultimately I did what I had done in college: I did what I wanted as it appealed to me, and used retrospect, when finally necessary, to decide what my major was going to have been.

After designing 10 or so shirts, I broke them into ‘collection’ ideas (imagining collections that otherwise unrelated designs might find a relevant home in), and ultimately realized that they were all ultimately about making choices and seeing or acting from a positive place. And there I had it.

The first Antidote just sold pins, which I figured I could make into shirts if any sold like hotcakes. Many pins did, and I did get some second season shirt ideas such as “I Heart Tofu” and “SXE is sexy” from the sales of these pins as time went on.

Soon, shirts were designed by myself and Jason Doring, who had done work for Punchline (and went on to do design work for American Eagle and GNC, I believe). All were featured in a catalogue I put together for 2005.

I had the brochures pressed, and some shirts pressed also, at a friend’s merchandise company.

The VERY first promotional postcard I made was done by sending shirts to a couple of young cute girls I had met at a sweet 16 party I’d played in Texas as a solo artist, and asking them to take pics of themselves in the shirts and send me the pics. In exchange, they could keep the merchandise. They excitedly accepted, sent me pics, and I had my first postcard! (One of the girls became a model for other companies, and does professional shoots to this day.)

I brought some merchandise out on tour with Punchline, and gave a shirt to guys in other bands we were on tour with, essentially appearing like a sponsor of the tours. It was great to see the stuff up on stage, and have it noticed by kids at the shows.

In retrospect, however, I think my ambition to promote Antidote at this time was such that some people in my band were wondering where my heart was, and looking back, I agree with them. I think at that early time in Punchline, Antidote served, in a good way, to position me in the band (“the straight edge guy with the clothing company”), and ultimately any “waves” Antidote created within the band did go away when my focus came to center on the band primarily. This happened for two reasons: more time on the road with the guys, and Antidote’s set-up in an online store. This store had their own press and warehouse, would press, stock, and ship clothing for me, and issue me a check for my cut. It allowed me to focus on the band, and occasionally, new designs I could conceive or commission from my seat in the tour van.

As Antidote grew, I set up a photo shoot with a friend from CT, David Apuzzo, and found a handful of cute, CT-local teens (via MySpace, I believe, through friends and fans) to model, male and female. I did some modeling too for the shoot. It was a fun experience for everyone, and parents were in tow, also also proudly enjoying the process.

I learned at this time how to design animated and non-animated gifs to make banner ads that would appear on music subculture websites. I got a lot of traffic from these, actually!

Probably the wisest thing I did was partner with Adam from Fueled By Ramen Records to give him a cut in exchange for promoting. He had been a HUGE driving force in the mega-success of a number of bands at that label, including Fall Out Boy, and I know he’d been pushing for the label to sign a couple others who did succeed elsewhere, including Bayside. He had watched Pete Wentz’s clothing line take off close up, and saw, I hoped, the potential here to do the same. Working with Adam also ensured a cozy relationship with the press down at FBR, so that was a good thing as well.

This partnership coincided with, if not helped create, the biggest boom in Antidote’s existence, across a Christmas season, in which hundreds of items were sold through the online store at fueledbyramen.com.

Ultimately, I went back to doing it on my own when Adam became busy with other things, though no offense was taken on either side. Soon after, however, it didn’t make sense for FBR to carry the line, as I was also leaving Punchline, and we agreed to take it off their store.

After Fueled By Ramen discontinued selling Antidote Apparel on their site, I built a Yahoo store.

I also changed my PROCESS. I pressed all garments myself using heat transfer prints, which I would order from a company Ohio, and then apply designs to clothing using my heat press (a giant clam-shaped iron that bites the shirt for 10 seconds and adheres the ink from its paper sheet to the garment enclosed).

I would press the shirts as they were ordered, and mail them myself.

AWESOME TIP: I saved money on shipping supplies by turning durable 11×17 priority mail envelopes (the post office will give you as many as you like) inside out, and shipping items in those.

I felt the closest connection to my customers when I was pressing. I would literally picture this very shirt I was transforming into a message vehicle being ordered, eagerly awaited, and opened to great delight. As I’d press the shirts, I felt most closely connected to what I’d set out to do. Previously, I had just advertised and collected checks after FBR had taken care of pressing and fulfillment. Not a bad deal, don’t get me wrong! Quite a nice business model, but these were the most intimate moments of this endeavor for me.

From a business perspective, were huge pro’s to this “press-as-you-go” method. No inventory for me to store (except transfers), and customers could completely customize their orders (location of design, color of shirt to print on, etc. They could even send me clothing they owned or found to press onto)!

At this time, I had a friend who worked his way up to the corporate offices of Hot Topic. He helped get my stuff checked out, and they were interested in our straight edge stuff. This was very exciting, since Hot Topic is in malls around the country, and this kind of deal could easily “make” the brand. I sent a few designs, but they repeatedly asked me to go “darker” .. I was conflicted because it would be good for the line, and I had a couple of designs drawn up by a friend who had done some great gothic designs for band shirts.

Ultimately Hot Topic and I lost interest in working together, as I continued to hesitate about “going gloomy.” (Of course a year or two later, merchandise in their stores was cute and fun again.)

The “do-it-completely-yourself” nature of the new AA became a bit less customer-satisfying when turnaround times suffered because of problems on my end. I owe some apologies for that. I alternated between self-pressing, and using a company for this for a while, and disruptions in my supply chain affected turnaround times on individual orders more than once.

An enormous, pivotal blow to Antidote Apparel came when MySpace, which I had used to reach and keep in touch with customers, shut down my account (I think for adding too many people in a row). This was devastating, resulting in the loss of over 4,000 “friends,” and was the beginning of the end for my motivation to continue, I’m sad to say, despite setting up another MySpace account as quickly as possible with some word-of-mouth support from fans, and some friendly bands such as Valencia.

A while after I quit Punchline to move home and focus on being in one place and achieving some other things in my life, I realized Antidote was not one of them either. I saw that its success would require treading up a prohibitively larger hill without my travel and promotion, much less the spotlight on me personally as a performer, and I wrapped Antidote Apparel up officially when the pressing and fulfillment became no longer fun.

Antidote Apparel had a stellar run, at about 3-4000 garments sold. I learned a lot about how to run an up-and-up LLC, how to design, press, stock, and promote clothing; I learned how and where to use banner ads and early social media (especially MySpace) to promote online, as well as do’s and don’ts for tinkering with social media; and I learned about how and when to source work out, and when to partner. I saw a lot of amazing impact from the line, and got really touching feedback, in person and online about how it spoke to someone in a way no one else was.

I still own the URL for antidoteapparel.com, my heat press, and tons of ready-to-go transfers. I even have stock of a number of shirts. I daydream sometimes about reviving the brand. Realistically, it’s not an industry I know enough about to see much success in without pounding the pavement like I was, and without the platform the band provided. I suppose I was right about timing, and about combining the company’s operation with my time in Punchline. I most often fall back to the position that Antidote is one of those ideas that is good and could succeed with the right person really working on it. I am happy to have been that person when I was.