By, The Curator
One brand that I’ve had my eyes on for awhile is Bomb Clothing Co. Their website is awesome and their brand is really developed. I messaged Devon, who runs it, to see if he would like to share his brands story and some of his experiences. Thankfully he was down and I ended up learning a lot about Bomb Clothing. I was surprised to find out that it’s primarily a solo job as well which made me respect what Devon has accomplished even more. Learn more about Bomb Clothing below!
The Curator Blog (TCB): Tell me a bit about yourself, outside of BCC.
Bomb Clothing Co. (BCC): I’m a Canadian creative and have been designing various digital media and physical products since I was about 12.
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TCB: Where are you from?
BCC: Born in a city called Red Deer and currently live in Edmonton, Alberta.
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TCB: How did you start Bomb Clothing Co.?
BCC: I started the brand by just going out and doing it. I came up with some designs, got them printed, and began selling them out of the back of my Jeep at the time. This would have been about 7 years ago, when I was still in high school.
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TCB: Where did you get the idea/concept from?
BCC: The original idea was based around the love for skate brands, but the label has continued to evolve as I’ve grown as a designer and a person. The modern concept for the brand is now much more coherent and comprehensible, and continues to change with each collection.
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TCB: What is Bomb Clothing Co.?
BCC: Bomb Clothing co. is a presentation of fabrics & materials inspired by the intricate expressions of youth culture, parallel to the visual artistry of our curated Utopia.
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TCB: How many years have you been running your brand?
BCC: Although the brand is completely different from when it started, the original idea started just about 7 years ago.
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TCB: Have you gone to college or taken any college classes?
BCC: After Highschool I went to College for business with the hope to learn more about Entrepreneurship – for me this was a waste of my time and I dropped out after the first year.
TCB: Unconventional education seems to be on the rise, especially recently. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think getting a degree is still necessary to be successful?
BCC: It really depends on what you want to do. If you have the entrepreurial drive, you will just go out and make something from nothing. You don’t need a college degree or anything more than Google to figure it all out. That being said I would be extremely hesitant to work with a lawyer, accountant, dentist, etc. without them having the proper education.
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TCB: Is this your first time starting a brand or business?
BCC: Since I was 12 I’ve started numerous business ventures and spearheaded a number of differnet ideas. This is the only one that I have been truly passionate about and that has really stuck.
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TCB: What do you think you’d be doing if you hadn’t started this brand?
BCC: I’d be a graphic designer.
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TCB: Does your family or close friends understand how much you’ve achieved with BCC?
BCC: Not really. Where I live there is no market for what I do, and the style isn’t for them.
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TCB: Your website is very original and well done, how long did it take to make?
BCC: This was at least a 2 month build, and was entirely designed and coded by me.
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TCB: Tell me a bit about your team.
BCC: I have a very small team, in fact the majority of the brand is entirely managed by me. There is a handful of individuals who help a significant amount for things like event planning, garment adjustments, packaging & shipping, etc.
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TCB: Personally, putting a team together to work with has always been a big goal of mine which I’m finally doing with The Curator. How has having a team behind you helped with the growth of BCC?
BCC: Having a strong team can be very important. This is something that is still ongoing for BCC. As of right now, apart from a few extra hands on deck, the brand is mostly a one man show.
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TCB: What aspects of the brand are your favorite to handle/take care of?
BCC: Definitely the physical product related aspects, specifically the designing and bringing of new ideas into existence.
TCB: Do handle production yourself or outsource?
BCC: The actual manufacturing processes is outsourced, with some alterations being done in-house by the BCC team.
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TCB: How did you learn cut and sew?
BCC: Everything was self-taught. It took many, many tries to begin perfecting the type of products that BCC puts out today. It was important to me to learn every single aspect, from pattern design, to fabric sourcing. It’s quite a difficult process to produce exactly what is in your head.
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TCB: Do you enjoy designing cut and sew or print pieces more?
BCC: Designing cut and sew can be great, but printed pieces are much more difficult and rewarding to create. I like to introduce a mixture of the two when I can.
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TCB: How long, roughly, does it take you to design and produce a collection?
BCC: Generally around 3-6 months to go from base concept to ready to sell. For certain items this can take much longer.
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TCB: Business isn’t always pretty, how do you handle things when shit gets rough and isn’t going your way?
BCC: Toughen up and get it done. I live in the sweet spot between excitement and utter chaos, and I love it. That’s just what this business is.
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TCB: What are two of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
BCC: 1) It helps to be the “jack of all trades”, especially in the early stages – the best way to properly bring a vision to reality is to be able to know how to handle every portion of the project. 2) Just do you. It’s so easy to compare yourself to others and see what worked / didn’t work for another brand, but I just ignore that and make what I want to make.
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TCB: What has been the biggest challenge that you’ve faced so far?
BCC: There are endless challenges running the business, but finding a way to properly maintain work and life has been a big challenge. It can be easy to lose yourself in this world for weeks while designing a collection or putting together a physical pop-up location.
TCB: When did you realize that Bomb Clothing Co. had enough potential to continue putting time and money into?
BCC: Fortunately for myself, it was fairly early on that BCC was able to for the most part, sustain itself. The early years were about spending every possible hour working on it, while still maintaining a full time job.
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TCB: Is there anyone that has helped point you in the right way, push you, or supported you more than others? A mentor basically.
BCC: Unfortunately, no. I would have welcomed the push and support, but growing up in a small Canadian city left me with no options. To this day I’m still very much on my own.
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TCB: Are there any people or brands that you would like to collaborate with?
BCC: Absolutely. We hope to see some things come together in the future.
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TCB: Is there anything you wish you had known before you got into business?
BCC: There is lots of stuff that would have given me a good boost in the beginning, but I think all the challenges and learning is what has pushed the brand to what it is today. I see the struggle and learning as you grow as a positive.
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TCB: Any suggestions for other upcoming brands or people looking to start their own?
BCC: Learn to do everything yourself. Honestly. You will pay a fortune for a designer, a website guy, a pattern maker, a fabric sourcer, etc. Unless you’re being handed endless money to start your own brand, just learn and master every single portion of the business.
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TCB: What is the most important thing you’ve taken away from your experience with your brand so far?
BCC: That I genuinly love to do what I do. This is a difficult industry, and without passion I would not have made it this far.
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TCB: Do you ever take a step back and look at how much you’ve grown and changed from your time running BCC, or is it just a non stop grind?
BCC: Non-stop grind I would say.
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TCB: Where do you see yourself and where do you see your brand two years from now?
BCC: We’ll be relocating to a new city in the very near future, which will give us a larger warehouse space and some other exciting new opportunities. More pop-up and permanent retail experiences in the works as well.
Go check out Devon’s brand and be on the look out for more drops from Bomb Clothing!
Website: https://bombclothing.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bombclothing/
The Curator 
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