The first few years of Doomwood Outfitters

DoomWood originally started as a random idea inspired by my friends. It was 2022 and I caught covid at my friends' wedding. It was wild because my girlfriend at the time and everyone who I was around didn't catch it, just me. If I believed in anything I'd say it was fate. Luckily I had all my vaccines and was working a remote job with tons of PTO available so I just was sick for a few days and at one point I was burning up and decided to figure out what my next "thing" was going to be. I'd spent a decade playing in random punk and hardcore bands in Nebraska and then another decade in the comedy world. I was burnt out creatively and was tired of having to be a part of largely extroverted endeavors. So I needed to figure out what was next.

I remembered something that my friend Nick Gossert, who runs Lucha Libre & Laughs (hands down the best live wrestling and comedy show in Denver) said about how and why he started LLL. "Combine two things you love that no one else has thought to combine before". I had a gift of creating interesting and new concepts and making them "cool" and had used those powers to create and produce festivals and shows for years. What could I do to combine all of that and two things that I love? My brain instantly went to the outdoors. I love outside. Growing up in a small town in Nebraska I was constantly outside running/biking around the woods, rivers, and assorted Great Plains landscapes. I loved finding cool rock and bones. It was a great way to grow up and once I moved to Denver I was instantly obsessed with the Mountains. They're huge and intimidating but I slowly started getting into hiking and conquering some of those titans. Spending time in the woods/mountains was my safe space and where I could go to clear my head (and take hundreds of pictures). Whatever I did next, I wanted it to involve outside.

I've also always loved punk rock, hardcore, heavy metal, and all kinds of other weirdo styles of music. I played in bands for a decade but lost interest once I learned I had a minimal talent for stand up and wouldn't need to drag heavy equipment around to get attention from the opposite sex. Metal, in particular, always spoke to me. The music and the aesthetic were always next level and something I loved being adjacent to. As I got older I was going to less shows but I still tried to get out when I could and keep up to date with new bands. I also noticed that there were a lot of people who loved the metal aesthetic, but not the music. Trve Brewing was the coolest brewery (RIP) and I would see their merch all over Denver being worn by all sorts of people of all ages. Something started to click.

I decided to combine my love of the outdoors with my love of metal and punk music. It made total sense. There was nothing in the outdoor space that I necessarily thought was cool or interesting or spoke to me...it was all very generic and beige. So within a month I started experimenting with some logos and looking at how to get some shirts made. I spent some time asking my friends, girlfriend, and parent for input and ideas. Fast forward about a year and I was doing my first market with a handful of shirts designed by some artists I'd connected with from Indonesia. The market was at an extremely cool tattoo shop in Lakewood called Creature Arcade and I was not prepared at all. My girlfriend at the time was nice enough to come along and help (we showed up almost right before the market started and had to scramble to set up) but I had a tiny table, a DIY clothing rack made out of a green screen stand, no lighting, and no way to accept credit card payments. It was wild. A nearby vendor was nice enough to lend us a light and we actually sold some shirts so it felt like a huge victory. The rest of that year we did a few more markets and learned more lessons but I could tell that the even though I was spending money from my day job hand over fist, the idea had legs.

Fast forward again to my best friend Brian moving back from Atlanta after spending almost four years in stunt training. He immediately became the other half of DoomWood and we decided to do as many markets as possible. We were doing two a weekend in spots all over the Denver metro area. We had some really great ones and some where we just sat and talked for a few hours before heading home. In that time we bought all of the supplies we had been lacking the year before, added more styles and artists to the DoomWood roster, and went from having roughly 350 Instagram followers to almost 2,500. It was truly a learning experience and something that I was grateful I got to do with my best friend.

So that's the first few years of DoomWood and we're currently having our best year and doing some really cool events (and have stopped doing too many markets). We're looking into getting more into the outdoor space and getting into more garments. If you're thinking of getting into this world or a similar pursuit, reach out. I've got stories and some fairly good advice. Happy to help someone figure things out and create more cool shit. Thank you to everyone who has purchased something from us. It started out as mostly friends and family but has grown to people I have never met across the US and Canada, which is just crazy. Thanks to the people who talk to us at markets and support what we're trying to do. Hell yeah. DoomWood.