Brandon Herbel
06/17/05, 11:10 AM
There has been so many rumors and speculations of where the name ATTICUS came from. Could you clear any of them up and give us a actual answer to where the name came from?
The word came from several places, there is the literary connection but there is also a roman who spent his fortune supporting music and art, his name was Herodus Atticus.
For those who aren’t aware of how ATTICUS started, where did the whole idea and concept of the company start?
At the time I was running Loserkids.com, and in dealing with all those different brands we really wanted our own brand. I kept checking out different companies and thinking to myself that we could do that, and do it better.
How did you go about getting involved with Atticus?
I grew up with Tom DeLonge in San Diego, I think we met around 12 years old through skating. And some years later we met Mark through his sister Anne who hung out with us, so I have been friends with the guys for almost 20 years. I’ve always worked in skate/snow shops so when they wanted to get involved in this they just asked me.
Now, you said in the article that you design yourself. Now, do you do most of the design work or do you have other designers come in a lot of the time to work on stuff?
In the beginning I did everything, a couple years ago we brought in some designs to help out, so right now we have 3 in house designers, but I still contribute designs when I can.
I know that Tom and Mark are both involved with ATTICUS, now does ATTICUS have any relationship with Macbeth shoes or is that something completely different?
They are totally separate companies, in the beginning when they were starting I helped out with some of the first shoe designs and tees. But now they are really doing well and have an amazing staff.
Now, for a lot of smaller companies they have their shirts printed at other locations. Does ATTICUS print all their stuff at the headquarters or do you have them sent out somewhere else?
For the cost of maintaining a screen press, people to run it, inks and all that, its not really something that we wanted inhouse. I can’t think of any company that screens their shirts in their building, in the long run you are just better outsourcing something like that rather than dealing with all the headaches that come with screen printing.
Do you have any advice or tips on how to start a clothing company and what you have to go through to get it up and going for anyone interested in starting something like ATTICUS?
Have a plan, know who your customer is and how you are going to reach them. Anyone can start a company, but to have it really grow you need to realistically figure out how you are going to compete in the larger marketplace, which is difficult even when you are a big company like Element and Volcom.
ATTICUS sponsors a large number of bands, how do you guys go about deciding who you want to sport your clothing or do they come to you?
If someone likes a CD then it gets passed around the office to see what everyone thinks, sometimes everyone likes it and other times you just take a chance. We definitely try and get a good cross section of musicians.
The new “Dragging The Lake” just came out. How do you decide what bands that you want to have on it? And who makes the final decisions?
For the smaller bands we base it on how much support we go through out the year, it really is a huge deal for a smaller band to get on the comp, since our CD sells over 100,000 units each year. Mark Hoppus, really becomes hands on with the CD he was a big part of the diverse line up on the third CD.
Well, that is about all the questions that I have for you. Is there anything else that you would like to say to all the fans and readers out in absolutepunk.net land?
Working here has been a dream job for sure, its fun, I get to bring my dog to work, I get to work with good bands and people. I painted a pretty good picture of a good day here, but trust me not everyday is that great. There are definitely those days where you would rather be mowing someone’s lawn for a living, rather than having to deal with a production issue or other problems just like any other job. You just have to believe in what you are doing and know that the good days will always out number the bad ones.
The word came from several places, there is the literary connection but there is also a roman who spent his fortune supporting music and art, his name was Herodus Atticus.
For those who aren’t aware of how ATTICUS started, where did the whole idea and concept of the company start?
At the time I was running Loserkids.com, and in dealing with all those different brands we really wanted our own brand. I kept checking out different companies and thinking to myself that we could do that, and do it better.
How did you go about getting involved with Atticus?
I grew up with Tom DeLonge in San Diego, I think we met around 12 years old through skating. And some years later we met Mark through his sister Anne who hung out with us, so I have been friends with the guys for almost 20 years. I’ve always worked in skate/snow shops so when they wanted to get involved in this they just asked me.
Now, you said in the article that you design yourself. Now, do you do most of the design work or do you have other designers come in a lot of the time to work on stuff?
In the beginning I did everything, a couple years ago we brought in some designs to help out, so right now we have 3 in house designers, but I still contribute designs when I can.
I know that Tom and Mark are both involved with ATTICUS, now does ATTICUS have any relationship with Macbeth shoes or is that something completely different?
They are totally separate companies, in the beginning when they were starting I helped out with some of the first shoe designs and tees. But now they are really doing well and have an amazing staff.
Now, for a lot of smaller companies they have their shirts printed at other locations. Does ATTICUS print all their stuff at the headquarters or do you have them sent out somewhere else?
For the cost of maintaining a screen press, people to run it, inks and all that, its not really something that we wanted inhouse. I can’t think of any company that screens their shirts in their building, in the long run you are just better outsourcing something like that rather than dealing with all the headaches that come with screen printing.
Do you have any advice or tips on how to start a clothing company and what you have to go through to get it up and going for anyone interested in starting something like ATTICUS?
Have a plan, know who your customer is and how you are going to reach them. Anyone can start a company, but to have it really grow you need to realistically figure out how you are going to compete in the larger marketplace, which is difficult even when you are a big company like Element and Volcom.
ATTICUS sponsors a large number of bands, how do you guys go about deciding who you want to sport your clothing or do they come to you?
If someone likes a CD then it gets passed around the office to see what everyone thinks, sometimes everyone likes it and other times you just take a chance. We definitely try and get a good cross section of musicians.
The new “Dragging The Lake” just came out. How do you decide what bands that you want to have on it? And who makes the final decisions?
For the smaller bands we base it on how much support we go through out the year, it really is a huge deal for a smaller band to get on the comp, since our CD sells over 100,000 units each year. Mark Hoppus, really becomes hands on with the CD he was a big part of the diverse line up on the third CD.
Well, that is about all the questions that I have for you. Is there anything else that you would like to say to all the fans and readers out in absolutepunk.net land?
Working here has been a dream job for sure, its fun, I get to bring my dog to work, I get to work with good bands and people. I painted a pretty good picture of a good day here, but trust me not everyday is that great. There are definitely those days where you would rather be mowing someone’s lawn for a living, rather than having to deal with a production issue or other problems just like any other job. You just have to believe in what you are doing and know that the good days will always out number the bad ones.