RAIN OR SHINE

Just a reminder that we are having our Spring Cleaning Sale TOMORROW Saturday February 27th and yes, it is a "rain or shine" event! We will be gathering as many canopies and EZ-UP's as we can to keep you all dry, but bring an umbrella or two just in case. Worst case scenario, we'll just let everyone hang out in the warehouse anyway so don't worry!


ALL products will be ON SALE, plus we'll have our usual bundle deals and an exclusive event-only tank top release so you can get your hands on some limited goods! Mexican food will be for sale and if you are one of the first 50 people, you get a free taco! FREE drinks courtesy of Monster Energy.

Starts at 12PM. Cash and credit is accepted.

14258 Valley Blvd, Suite C
City of Industry, CA 91746

(Call 626-336-4726 for directions or if you get lost. When you are on Valley Blvd between Orange Ave & Athens Way, look for the large wooden archway next door to Paradise Showgirls. That's the entrance to our warehouse complex. Check this link for a map - http://bit.ly/byjui4)

Hope to see you all tomorrow! Come hang with us! We won't let the rain stop us!

- Vince

Pre Production

It's that time of year again! Spring 10 line sheets are floating around amongst potential retailers and we're gearing up for another fun-filled week of L&O production. Start mixing the inks, printing the films, and preparing the screens!














- Vince

S.L.A.T.E. at MAGIC

As a growing brand in the fashion industry, when you start to prepare to make bigger moves and take larger steps, the word "tradeshow" begins to get thrown around. If you follow every other streetwear brand in the universe, then you already know that everyone and their mothers were in Las Vegas last week for the MAGIC and Capsule tradeshows. For us more specifically, we were there to check out the S.L.A.T.E. section at MAGIC.














Stopped by the Cash Crop Clothing booth to catch up with Ian (El Mercado).


Jon (Fully Laced) showed us one of his upcoming products. The hour hand is blocking it but it actually says "FOLEX by Fully Laced". Comedy!


Our new friends from Konfused Ink invited us up to their private suite showroom. Lots of nice people and creative ideas in that room. Thanks for having us!






Also got a chance to meet Steven from Railcar Fine Goods, a completely D.I.Y. denim and cut & sew clothing company from Los Angeles drawing industrial and traditional American influences. It's awesome to see people pursuing what they love, especially something as difficult as manufacturing your own clothes. This guy is a true inspiration! Definitely hope to cross paths with him again in the future.




Later that night, we visited Ramon, Eric, and the Bloodbath crew at their own private suite showroom. Watch out for these guys, they are definitely the next big thing. Some serious heat was on their racks! Very impressive.


HUGE props to everyone doing it big in Vegas in their own way, whether it was having a booth, starting your own private suite show, or just networking on the tradeshow floor and making it happen. It's crazy to see so many entrepreneurs hanging out in one place.




Our brand has come to a point in its existence where we can either choose to push for growth or keep the pace we've been moving at and see what happens. We know we have the potential to grow so we've decided to push the pace and instead of waiting to see what happens, we want to make things happen. We want this year to be our "break-out" year and to truly make it known that we have arrived and that we will be sticking around for a while. We're not quite sure yet which tradeshow best suits us at this time, or if the tradeshow route is even for us. This recent trip to Vegas was mainly to see what S.L.A.T.E. has to offer, check out the show, and talk to some of our peers and get opinions on the current state of streetwear for small independent brands.

Time to man up and make some big decisions real soon.

- Vince

RIP Dear Life

Hands down, this was EXACTLY how we wanted to go out.


As a DIY hardcore band playing their last show, this was leaps and bounds beyond anything we had ever imagined it would be. We knew that we wanted to play a last show in our warehouse because DIY is the only way for us. We knew that we wanted it to be a free show so that everyone can come and just hang out with us one last time. And we knew we wanted it to be a memorable night. Little did we know that we were in for one of the most emotional nights in our lives. Easily in my "Top 5" greatest moments in my life.


When we decided to have it here at our warehouse, we knew we would have to do some extensive moving and re-organizing so we made sure to knock that out the night before. Also, just want to thank EVERYONE who helped us move and make everything perfect. You all know who you are!

We have A LOT of leftover band merchandise to get rid of so we wanted to make sure we made our merch area look appealing as well.




Did I mention that we have A LOT of leftover band merchandise? If you're interested in picking some up, we've got some SUPER discounted deals. Send me an email at vince@dearxlife.com if you want anything.




I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank and welcome Monster Energy to the L&O family! We look forward to a long lasting relationship with the company as well as many creative events and projects in the near future.


Late on Friday night, we finally got everything working and in place. We had no idea what was in store for us the next day.


When it's all said and done, I could sit here and gush about this all day every day. To be honest, there just aren't enough words to describe how that night felt and I'm sure you guys would get tired of hearing it, if you already aren't by now!

Since the band is now finished, this may be my last chance to say a few words on this blog without it being irrelevant. So here goes..

I just want to say that being in that band was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I encourage everyone to do whatever they want to do in their life. Whether it's starting a band with your best friends and hitting the road for months at a time, or starting your own brand with your own creative ideas. Just do what YOU want to do. If it happens to be going to school and using college to land your dream job, then do it! But make sure you're doing it because YOU want to do it, and no one else. There's not enough time in this life to slave away doing something you're not passionate about, so don't waste it. You need to surround yourself with people that you care about and give your life purpose and meaning. Otherwise, what the hell are we even here for? Certainly not to be unhappy. I know I've talked about this all before and you may be wondering why our band Dear Life even relates to this blog. Well, it's because without that band, we would have never started printing shirts and we would have never met Brian. We wouldn't have the two companies we have today if it weren't for the band, so for that I am very thankful and have no regrets. Without that band, we wouldn't have met ALL the people that we now know today. That being said, just do what YOU want to do because you never know where you will end up. It's not about the destination, it's the journey.


One last time, on behalf of my band Dear Life, thank you to EVERYONE for reading this and sharing in our moments. Whether you follow L&O, Dear Life, Glad Rags Ink, or all of the above, thank you so much for taking an interest in our endeavors and for contributing to all the incredible memories that we have to look back at. Hopefully some of these things will live on in your memories as well, and you can use your experiences with us to help you find the purpose and meaning in your life too.

Call us cliche, but we just really love life. And you should too!

To view more photos from our last show, please visit Noel Vasquez's Flickr page and check out the "Farewell Dear Life" photo set. He's been shooting us since our beginnings and has become an incredible professional photographer! Plus, he's a very good friend of ours and he loves hockey. Good dude in my book!

- Vince
(additional photos by Noel Vasquez)

Spring Cleaning 2010

We need to make room for our upcoming Spring 10, Summer 10, and F/W 10 collections, so it's time for us to have a SPRING CLEANING SALE!


Saturday February 27th - All products ON SALE plus special bundle deals and an exclusive "event-only" tank top release. There will be FREE drinks provided by Monster Energy and Mexican food for sale. FREE tacos only for the first 50 people through the door!

Hope to see you all here! Come down and hang with us as we celebrate the return of sunny California weather!

- Vince

Risk Everything, Regret Nothing

Here's an official statement from our band regarding our decision to play our final show:

Dear Family, Friends and Fans,

As many of you already know, Dear Life is soon coming to an end. Vince, Matt, Mike and I have decided that the time has come for us to say our goodbyes.

Dear Life first started at the end of 2003 and has been an integral part of all our lives over the past 6 years. We have done many things, seen many places, and accomplished a few small goals, which, however insignificant they may seem in the grand scheme of life, meant the world to us and forever will be in our hearts.

While we have always been a band fueled by our own hard work and passion, there has definitely been a significant number of people who have helped us along the way. To them, we offer our sincerest thanks and appreciation. And to anyone who has ever come to a show, listened to our album, bought some merch, said a few kind words or gave us a place to stay for the night, we say to you: thank you, thank you, thank you.

We will be playing our final show on Saturday, February 13th at the Glad Rags Ink warehouse and invite everyone to come out and party with us. This will be a free show and Dear Life will be playing all of our songs we have ever written (including new, never released songs), one last time, for everyone there. The flier is on our page.

As we have never been a band to live in the past, Dear Life is not remorseful in the least. Some choices turned out differently than planned, but in the end, we are still left smiling and happy for the way things are. In closing, I think the lyrics from one of our first songs ever written is a fitting way to end this memo, as it applies to how we tried to live our lives for the past 6 years.

“Risk everything. Regret nothing.”

Tomorrow we will share the stage one last time and we invite everyone to take part in this joyous occasion! This is going to be our last chance to pretend like we're 17 years old all over again, so let's make it a memorable one! Like I've said before, without Dear Life there would be no Glad Rags Ink and there would be no Loud& Obnoxious. If it weren't for DL, we would have never started printing our own merchandise and we also wouldn't have met Brian. He saw our band at a local show and ended up buying one of our shirts and becoming friends with us. Funny the way things work out.

The festivities begin at 8PM but we advise you to arrive a little earlier just to be safe. Free drinks will be provided by Monster Energy and there will also be tacos for sale, so bring cash!


To commemorate our final performance, I wanted to make sure we had something to remember it by so I designed this t-shirt. One of my favorite lyrics of ours goes "building until we break the sky" so I wanted to include some clouds amidst the shapes created by our band name. I've always loved how simplistic and iconic punk band shirt designs were and how they usually involved geometric shapes. The design also features the lyric "risk everything regret nothing" and our years of existence "2003 2010". The shirt will be limited to 50 so come get a piece of history!

See you tomorrow!

- Vince

p.s. Here are some directions to find our warehouse if you've never been here before. DIRECTIONS: When you are on Valley Blvd, the entrance to our warehouse complex is a large wooden archway next door to Paradise Showgirls between the Orange Ave & Athens Way street lights. Check this link for a map/image - http://bit.ly/byjui4 - or call 626-336-4726 if you get lost.)

Balance Your Lifestyles

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that one of our retailers Balance Lifestyles has officially moved! They are no longer located at the Block at Orange and have now opened shop at the Los Cerritos Center Mall in Cerritos, CA.


“Balance Lifestyles is a hybrid crossover lifestyle concept; catering to artistic, athletic, street wears cultures. We are always developing our eclectic brand list to keep you on the next level, scouting for labels that are pushing forward, but never sacrificing quality. We're in the business of giving you something you've never gotten before; we're not a lifestyle store, we're the balance between your lifestyles.”


BALANCE LIFESTYLES
Los Cerritos Center Mall
113 Los Cerritos Center
Cerritos, CA 90703
562-860-3600

If you are in the area, make sure to stop by and check out their new location and grab some new L&O gear while you're there!


Remember, we have a promotion going on right now called the Incentive Program where if you buy any L&O product at Balance Lifestyles, you can get a FREE exclusive t-shirt from us. All you have to do is show us proof of purchase. Send an email to email@loudobnoxious.com with a scan or photo of your store receipt, your shirt size, and mailing address.


This t-shirt is not for sale anywhere and only exclusive through this offer. It's our way of saying thanks for supporting our brand and the stores that carry us.

- Vince

Big Easy, Big Win

First off, I'm not as much of an NFL fan as I used to be. Every Sunday I would always join my dad to watch every game and ask questions about plays and strategies. My favorite team was the San Francisco 49ers during the Young-Rice era. At some point down the line, I began to lose interest in professional football but this year it was tough to ignore the underdog story brewing in the Big Easy.


Like everyone else in America, I'm a fan of the underdog and if you follow this blog enough you know that I basically live my life as the underdog. Between being in a DIY hardcore touring band and starting two small businesses with my friends, I enjoy giving my life the challenge of working towards something bigger and better.

In the summer of 2006, my band Dear Life booked and promoted our own full US tour and one of the dates we had was in New Orleans. Only a year before, the city had been devastated by one of the deadliest hurricanes in US history. Visiting this city was one of the most memorable parts of any tour we ever did and I can remember every second of it. We arrived in the city in the middle of the night and ended up parking on a random residential street to sleep until morning. When we woke up, we had some time to kill and decided to visit the local mall and hit Bourbon St. as any tourist would. That's when everything got real.


While driving through the city, we noticed that all the buildings had a strange horizontal stain across their walls. We were wondering what it was and why it was on all the buildings, and soon enough the tragic reality had dawned on us. We were looking at how high the water had reached in the city due to the flooding of the hurricane. Some of the water lines were even taller than us as we explored the streets of New Orleans.


Instantly, a wave of empathy for the city washed over us. The city was a wasteland and most homes were uninhabited. Businesses were closed and buildings boarded up. The local people we encountered were all very melancholy and a little somber. It felt like we had entered a ghost town. The only sign of life was a solitary man and his saxophone playing the trademark sound of the south: the blues.

Finally, it was time for us to play our show but as we arrived to the small local venue, a strong thunderstorm rolled in and soon even the venue parking lot was flooded. Luckily, the venue is called The High Ground and for good reason. We loaded up our equipment to the second floor of the venue in the rain to avoid the flooding. As we lugged our heavy amplifiers and speaker cabinets up the flight of stairs, we noticed that not very many people had shown up to see us play. The experience of being in the Big Easy was becoming a big bummer.

Just as we were about to start our set, a group of 20-30 fresh-faced youngsters rushed into the room and one of them came up to me and asked, "Are you guys Dear Life?!" and as soon as I saw the excitement in his eyes, I knew it was going to be a great night. It may have not been the biggest show of our career, but these few kids that braved the storm to come to our show made that entire tour worth it. They went nuts for us and each one ended up buying a piece of merchandise to support us on the road. We ended up hanging out for hours outside the venue after the show just talking to them about what happened in their city. Even the rain had cleared up and some of them brought out their boards to skate with some of our guys. I'll never forget the night we truly experienced southern hospitality.

Now you may think that the city of New Orleans and football don't really have much to do with our experience as a streetwear brand, but I think otherwise. Events in my life like this have shaped me to be the person that I am today, and I just want to thank and congratulate the city of New Orleans for being an inspiration to our nation as a whole. Yesterday was a lot more than just a football game.

Also, a big shoutout goes to Traffic Boutique, one of our newest retail accounts out in New Orleans, LA. Party hard! You deserve it!

- Vince
(Additional photo by Braedon Photography)

Filbert

First off, apologies for the lack of updates. The Glad Rags Ink office has been picking up again and we've been busy preparing our attacks on Spring 10, Summer 10, and Fall/Winter 10. Basically trying to plan out the whole year and beyond, complete with meetings, scheduling, planning, budgeting, proposals, and carefully calculated risk-taking. Never would I have ever imagined we'd be at this point, planning for our future so far ahead and given the opportunity to break through into an industry I knew nothing about less than 3 years ago. Wait, we still don't know much about this industry. I guess we'll just wing it.

Amongst all the hoopla and the fast-paced adrenaline rush of running your own businesses, it's nice to come home to a peaceful friend. His name is Filbert.


Some of you may remember him from previous blog posts, or when I TwitPic him on Twitter. The first thing that people usually notice when they first meet him is his majestic size. The Maine Coon is one of the largest breeds of cats and can weigh between 16-20 lbs. Just for scale, I took a picture of him with my lady Jaimee. He's huge!


The next thing everyone notices is his kindness. He really is a gentle giant and just wants to be your friend. I've NEVER been a fan of cats, but he is the exception. I swear, he's a dog stuck in a cat suit. Also, he's soft-spoken and loves to cuddle. When I come home from all the turmoil of the outside world, he always reminds me to slow down, relax, and enjoy the time I get to myself.




Filbert is also known for his ability to sleep ALL DAY LONG.




And when he sleeps, he's OUT.






Jaimee even made me a painting dedicated to his sleepy ways.




I'm very proud to say that our family rescued him from the streets and neglectful owners and I encourage everyone out there to adopt as well. If you are looking to add some lovin' to your family, there are plenty of cats, dogs, and other animals that need homes! We may have saved Filbert but, as cliche as this sounds, I think he may have saved our family too.

- Vince