What started as a few friends creating some cool tees as a weekend project, has quickly turned into a ten year whirlwind journey with one goal to make the most unique clothing in the world. The name Affliction, which means “pain and suffering due to adversity” was hand picked as a play on words from their previous experience in the fashion industry which is notoriously difficult and cut throat. The self-proclaimed shy and anti-social partners, coming from backgrounds in graphic design and screen printing, quickly realized that they had started a trend that would not soon end. It all started with an idea to make a small line of tees that were truly unique and were premium in fit, fabric, wash, and art.
They set out to make the best possible product not following any normal rules of printing and covered the entire shirt in their extremely detailed art. Their creative visions invoke emotion and display themes battling between good and evil. The images clearly leave their consumer wanting to see more. This unexpected dream team has proven to be tough on their competition leaving most in the dust. Their unwavering work ethic and unmatched creativity has led to some amazingly unique product. They spend their days fine tuning their illustrations and their nights toiling over their screen printing machines creating wearable works of art.
Due to the highly graphic nature of their product they are not liked by all, but they hardly seem to care. They are consistent in their approach and don’t seem to mind if others head in a different direction. Driven by passion and a creative spirit the brand that is best known for premium tees has now claimed its spot among the best with their unique take on all categories including: denim, knits, wovens, and outerwear.
They are equally inspired by those who choose to wear their product which has become a counter culture staple. The brand is clearly not for everyone and they don’t want it to be. Affliction is rooted in a passion for creating truly unique clothing that is as much a work of art as it is fashion. Have you ever seen a t-shirt with a unique distressed or tie dye wash and extremely detailed art? Yes. Well Affliction is to thank for that. They created a huge trend and they aren’t planning on stopping it any time soon. They spend countless hours perfecting their illustrations with the intent of printing this fine art on premium cotton. They toil over garment washes, inks, and interesting techniques while others just continue to get more and more watered down and similar.
Their goal has been consistent year after year; to push the envelope of what is possible on clothing. They are artists and clothing is their canvas. They invest most profits back into building their empire and continuing their quest to become the premier artistically driven fashion company. They now have 4 manufacturing and washing facilities dedicated to this fine art: 240,000 sqf in Los Angeles. CA, 130,000 sqf in Ensenada, Mexico, and 75,000 sqf in China totaling almost half a million square feet. These investments provide Affliction with a completely vertical factory for creating innovative product. This huge dedication to the fine art of putting ink onto a garment is paying off for the people their companies employ. They are proud to say that they employ over 750 employees in the United States and the majority of their product is still made in the USA. Their passion is fueled by the joy and dedication their fans have with their uniquely embellished clothing. They have no plans of slowing down and are constantly excited about what new techniques or discoveries lie ahead. As they have mastered their fine art of printing and washing they have quickly become experts of many other aspects of the industry. Their denim, knits, wovens, and outerwear show amazing amounts of quality and creativity and complement the tees. Their hard work and dedication is clearly displayed in their product and they feel that these first ten years of business have just been training for what is still to come.