Told in the designer's own words, a true punk story of rewriting a negative to symbolize a powerful positive
Before LOWLIFE, I was an angry young man. I didn’t have the hardest childhood, but two things were constant: I never fit in, and I was always told I needed to. In school, I was the “weird kid” – everyone knew of me, but very few truly knew me. The world insisted that being myself wasn’t acceptable. The message was always the same: change who you are, or stay alone.
That pressure built anger inside me. No matter how much I tried to meet expectations, I always came up short, and the acceptance I craved never came.
At 17, I joined the U.S. Army one month after graduating high school, hoping to finally find that sense of belonging everyone promised. During basic training in the summer of 2021, I was motivated and determined. I pushed my body and mind to their limits… but the harder I tried, the more I realized I still didn’t fit in – and I didn’t like the Army.
In that environment, every mistake was met with harsh words from drill sergeants or trainees who would call you a “bitch” to your face if you fell behind… then give you a pat on the back the moment you did something right. That flip-flop – I love you when you’re up, fuck you when you’re down – became routine throughout my three and a half years of service.
The anger I carried from childhood grew into resentment. Eventually, acceptance replaced resentment, and from that acceptance came defiance. I wasn’t the best soldier. I couldn’t run well. I talked back when leadership used their rank to be unfair. And most importantly, I stopped caring what anyone thought.
Trying to make people like you is Sisyphus’s boulder – endless effort, only to end up back at the bottom. At some point, you realize you don’t need the approval you’ve been chasing. The “perfect soldier” obeys without question, respects authority deeply, stays in line, stays in shape, and never challenges anything. That was never going to be me.
During my last year in service, needing new clothes for college, I went to stores like Hot Topic, Spencer’s, Rue 21, and Hollister – and everything felt fake. The graphics were just recycled pop culture images slapped on shirts. Nothing had meaning. Nothing had soul.
My dad had been designing clothes my whole life, and during that last year in the Army, I started designing too – mostly to vent my anger and create pieces that actually meant something. The first garment I ever made was a black-and-white sweatsuit with “FUCK AUTHORITY” printed boldly across the pattern. That piece became the seed of what would eventually grow into my brand.
I moved to Hawaii to study marine biology, but immediately realized I wasn’t built for that world. I was drowning in biology and chemistry assignments that drained my time and my spirit. Whenever the boredom became too much, I would leave class early and design clothing. Designing felt grounding. It let me turn everything I felt — anger, loneliness, depression, pain — into something physical I could wear. Clothing became armor made from the very things I was trying to survive.
One night during that semester, I had a panic attack in my dorm. I screamed into my pillow, hit the walls, and felt like my world was collapsing. All I could think about was everything I had to give up just to keep up with school. I texted 988, calmed myself down, and made a promise: I will never put myself through this again.
I didn’t drop out, but I failed almost all my classes on purpose, switched my major to fashion design, and spent the rest of the semester focusing on what actually made me happy – creating. I knew I wasn’t the only person who felt like an outsider. I wasn’t the only one who hated the pressure to conform to a world that rewards sameness and punishes expression. That’s when I named the brand:
LOWLIFE – Love Over Wealth, Live In Full Expression
A word associated with negativity flipped to symbolize something hopeful – that duality felt right. The logo is intentionally imperfect, crooked, and confusing at first glance. It’s human. Just like the people who wear it.
In less than a year, LOWLIFE became a registered business, established a presence in Honolulu, built a clear identity, did its first pop-up, made its first sale, gained recognition in the local punk scene, started a relationship with a local sober bar and charity called Viper’s Sanctuarnii that supports Hawaii’s homeless population, scheduled its second pop-up, and even secured a potential vendor spot at Riot Fest in Chicago.
LOWLIFE isn’t just another streetwear brand. It came from real pain – my pain. And pain is universal. There’s the coldness of being alone in a crowd, the dull ache of heartbreak, the desperation to be seen in a world that doesn’t understand you, and the internal scream of trying to explain yourself to someone who never will.
Without pain, LOWLIFE wouldn’t exist
As the founder and creative director, my mission is to create clothing that expresses the raw human experience – pieces that make someone say either; “What the hell are you wearing?” or “He’s wearing what I’ve been feeling for years.”
Not everyone will get LOWLIFE. Some will call it obscene, cringey, offensive, or try-hard. Fuck them.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not everyone’s opinion deserves your energy.
Those who do understand LOWLIFE will find a community where the price of admission is simply living through pain and choosing to turn it into something powerful. Anyone can join. To find each other, just look for the mark – the LOWLIFE logo.
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I’m a fashion design student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and I run a streetwear brand called LOWLIFE Streetwear Company. I’ve received attention from many local punk rock bands in my area, and have secured a vendor spot at Riot Fest, a punk rock show in Chicago in September. An army veteran, I moved to Hawaii from the mainland to go to UHM, and in less than a year of being on the island, started a business that’s gaining recognition from the local population. I work with a local business in hope of doing an event to raise money for the homeless.
Did you know that we are 100% DIY? We run our own game. No one dictates to us, and no one drives what we can or cannot put on our pages – and this is how we plan to continue!
