Written by Joey Gomez

January, 2021

This has been a long time coming. My name is Joey Gomez and I am the founder of cllctd.

 Back in summer 2017, I was journaling in my notebook and I realized that you can be ‘collected’ as an individual and also ‘collected’ as a community or a group of people. Inspired by the brand ‘Undftd.’ which is based out of Los Angeles, I took the vowels out of the word ‘collected’ which made ‘cllctd.’ I started writing down ideas for this lifestyle brand called cllctd; brainstorming the brand concept and also design ideas. 

After many ups and downs in college and in my life, I finally went back to this “cllctd.” idea. I had an urge to express myself and create like I never had before. I rallied some confidence in myself, made the first two t-shirts using a vinyl cutter and an iron, and had a little photoshoot with a couple friends. That was in January 2019, and now here we are... almost exactly 2 years later. 

I started making more shirts and giving them to friends, playing with different fonts and designs, making social media content, and spreading the word. I was getting good feedback on the shirt designs, but more importantly I was getting great feedback on the meaning behind the brand, ‘staying collected as an individual and staying collected as a community’.

This message behind the brand was really resonating with people. I was constantly getting feedback and every time I would get feedback it would develop the brand further. The growing realization in my head was that this can be MUCH more than just a clothing brand, or even a lifestyle brand for that matter. cllctd. can be a platform for us to generate positive social impact. It can be a platform for us to share our stories and share truthful information. It can be a platform, a medium for us to empower others, and spread love and positivity. 

Over the past 2 years my direction in life has changed, and my relationships have changed. From friends, family, co-workers, previous coaches, old acquaintances, you name it, people in all aspects of my life have interacted with this brand. People have come into my life that see the long term vision I have and now they are part of it. Together we are working daily to manifest the shared vision we have. Some of these people I call my brothers. I might not have these relationships if it wasn’t for me starting this journey. It goes to show that you just need to start. Start, and then the people and resources will come.

Starting this brand literally changed everything for me. It has changed how I interact with the world and how I interact with other people. cllctd is now fully intertwined with everything I do in my lifestyle. My goal is for everything that this brand puts out, from the products, to the content, to the experiences, to at least leave a positive memory in your brain no matter how small. If you just want to buy a t-shirt because it looks cool or read one blog post because it interests you, that’s fine. No matter what, if this brand is going to exist, I want it to stand for something good. 

I plan to continue to talk more about what this brand is, as well as who I am as a person in future blog posts.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! Peace out, and stay Collected!