By Anna Bryson
Graham Johnson started his clothing brand, Garbaj, out of his garage in 2015. Now comedian Eric Andre wears his clothes.
The company’s slogan is “quality clothes meant to get dirty.”
Garbaj is pretty hot in the Tampa Bay streetwear world, but what many people don’t know is that the brand is environmentally sustainable. Johnson’s newer clothes are made partially from recycled waste.
Garbage into Garbaj.
“I want to make the world a better place,” Johnson, 22, said. “Even before I came up with the name Garbaj, the idea was I wanted to do something, and I wanted it to be sustainable because I’m going to go all the way with it. When I’m high up there, I don’t want to feel guilty about things I’ve done.”
With each new line that’s released, Johnson only creates about 30-40 of each item.
“It’s an art piece. And if there were just a ton of them, essentially the value would be diminished,” he said.
When Garbaj releases a new line and it sells out, that’s it. Johnson has only recreated one item, a logo T-shirt. Some items have sold out in as little as 8 hours.
“With exclusivity, it makes the art piece more important,” he said. “It creates drive, a little more desire for it, and for me that’s more fun.”
There’s no set schedule for releases, but Johnson said the next one is expected to come out in April.
“Of course you get people saying, ‘Yo, when’s this coming out, you gotta make this come out soon.’ And that drives a little anxiety of production because I’m not going to rush anything,” he said. “It’s gonna come when it comes and that builds suspense for it, which is key.”
Although the brand can be hard to get your hands on, it’s affordable; T-shirts average $20.
“I like to make the price really good and then you know you’re not being robbed,” Johnson said. “That way a friend can say, ‘Oh, I can afford that, that’s awesome.’ And that gives you a good feeling.
“When you see something you love and it looks good on you but you think, ‘Ahhh I’m really pulling out my wallet for this one…’ I don’t want to generate that feeling with my company.”
When a cool shirt is over $300 and printed on a regular T-shirt, that’s “literally garbage you’re paying for. That’s trash,” Johnson said.
When Johnson was creating his brand he thought, “What if I had a clothing company that was named garbage and it just got bigger than (the other brands) and then a clothing company named garbage was above their ranks.”
Garbaj clothing is graphic-driven. Some pieces have extensive pseudo-hidden imagery, some bear the logo. One of the first Garbaj shirts read: “7-11 was an inside job.”
Johnson, 22, who has been into graphic design since he was 15, creates his designs using Photoshop.
The “Lady of the Lake” hoodie, which is still available online, depicts a woman casting a spell on the earth with holy-looking recycle symbols on its back. The front side bears the classic Garbaj logo. While some of the designs incorporate recycling messages, it’s not cheesy.
“I want Garbaj to be so cool that you bought it for the logo,” Johnson said. “Behind that, you bought it because it was cool.”
Some of the pieces depict angels; the idea behind it is that angels are inherently good and that’s what Johnson wants his company to be.
In addition to online sales, Johnson sells his clothes at events at local venues like Black Crow Coffee and The Bends.
He eventually wants to set up a storefront and travel to places where he can help people.
“I just can’t tell you how much I can’t wait until I have power, I’m going to say power because power is money in this world, to go change things and to go fix things and see things the way I want,” he said. “I’m going to do so through my passion, which is clothing and fashion. And of course, my passion is also changing the earth. I’m going to do so through canvassing and creating art.”
You can find Garbaj on Instagram @garbaj_clothing.
