The Launch of Eye Foreign Eye

Hello! My name is Johan, and I started Eye Foreign Eye with my brother, Ivan, and my friend and artist Damian Martin. We're brand new to this, but we are so happy we get to share our passion for fashion with you! 

Over the past year, I've been working with Damian and Ivan to find the perfect balance of art and style in our designs, and to create and launch the brand Eye Foreign Eye. As a college student and musician, it's been difficult, but I am happy to report that we have created an apparel brand that we are all endlessly proud of! Every one of these designs is a work of art, and each one's got its own story to tell. 

As someone who is new to the craft of running a business, I'd like to establish some important details about Eye Foreign Eye, our creative process, and what we stand for.

1. Transparency

I believe in full transparency between a business and its customers, and I will ensure that we remain clear and honest about what we're trying to do here.

We've partnered with the print-on-demand service Tapstitch to produce our clothing. We chose them because of their amazing quality and interesting clothing selections. They are able to put our designs on their products with immense quality and detail, and their entire catalog is full of awesome mineral washed and sunfaded clothes!

I've always loved the textured look and feel of clothes that have been mineral washed or sunfaded. The existence of such texturally intriguing clothing is part of what inspired us to start this brand. 

Our catalog at Eye Foreign Eye reflects our love of fashionable streetwear, and contains many apparel options that have been mineral washed, sunfaded, or textured in other cool, unique ways. We don't just want to put graphics on a tee and call it a day- we want to create something wholly unique with a life of its own with each design, and we're happy we can do that with these kinds of textured clothes.

You can find Tapstitch here at https://www.tapstitch.com/

2. Protecting the Environment

Our top priority as an apparel brand is protecting the environment. We want to leave the earth a better place than when we found it. I personally believe quite strongly in this cause, and I'd like to do something to help benefit the environment while we execute our vision for passionate creativity.

We pledge to donate 1% of our revenue towards environmental causes that we believe in to help protect and preserve our environment. 

It's the least we can do, and I am grateful that we get this opportunity.

Sometime amount of time after we've launched, I plan on increasing this amount to $1 with every sale to further increase the impact we can have. As we scale, it will (hopefully) become easier to turn a profit, and we can in turn donate these profits towards protecting our planet. 

1% might not seem like a lot right now, but after some time, we'll soon be able to contribute a dollar with every sale towards the preservation of the environment! I am looking forward to achieving this milestone and I hope that you are too.

Our apparel is always 100% cotton, ensuring comfort and breathability while keeping things sustainable. Additionally, our clothing is produced ethically and environmentally friendly, as well!

Tapstitch utilizes a process known as DTG Printing, or Direct-to-Garment printing.

DTG printing applies ink directly to the garment, similarly to a printer. A treated solution helps the water based ink bond properly to the fabric, allowing for high quality detailed designs.

(Did someone say high quality and detailed?)

The water based ink is soaked directly into the fabric and heat pressed/cured to make it last. This ensures wash resistance and a long lasting color!

Water based ink is less harmful to the environment than other plastisol based inks, and DTG printing is significantly lower waste than typical screen printing methods. Tapstitch uses ethical and environmentally sound methods to print our designs, and I can't thank em' enough!

In these ways, we promise to protect our environment with an unshakable commitment!

3. What's the Plan?

With the launch of Eye Foreign Eye, our mission is twofold: 1) to protect the environment, as you saw above, and 2) to help people of all backgrounds express their artistic side through fashion, no matter their background.

Through a shared love of art, creativity, and style, we hope to bring about a shared sense of unity in everyone that we reach!

This sense of unity is important to me, and I hope to elaborate why as our brand continues. But this'll have to do for now:

Often times in my life, I have looked up to people whom I admire so greatly that I begin to idolize them. I am a guitar player, and early on in my guitar journey, I would simply be amazed at what these guitar legends could do. A sense of incredulousness came over me as I reveled in their greatness (Synyster Gates, anybody?). To me, they seemed like gods of the guitar, so beyond human capability that I could only remain awestruck. How could I possibly hope to one day achieve such heights?

But the thing is... they're human. They're human beings, the same as you, and the same as me. We're all made of the same stuff. These people whom I idolized- we're all the same. The same species, anyway. The only thing that separated us was hard work. 

We're all human beings, and I want to emphasize that with Eye Foreign Eye. No matter what each of us is going through, no matter where we're all going, we can come together and enjoy art together. We feel unified by our shared passion for what we love.

Eye Foreign Eye represents the blend between art and fashion. While that might seem cliché, I assure you, it is. It's what every crappy graphic tee tries to do- or at least, tries to convince you that it does. The difference is that I don't care about selling shirts. Truth be told, I couldn't give a damn if a single soul even bought one. 

I care about art. True, human expressions of life that speak to your soul and make life mean all that much more. Music that lifts you out of your body and inspires you; paintings that capture real life better than real life ever could; fictional stories that somehow relate to each and every one of us differently and yet in the same way- 

These are what Eye Foreign Eye represents. The love of being human. 

I hope that whoever reads this shares that same appreciation for what it truly means to be human, because it is what I'm really trying to cultivate with this brand. I want to build a community of people that understand how important life is, living in the moment each and every day and understanding that while we may be different, we're all human beings.

Schopenhauer viewed art as a temporary escape from our suffering. It is a shelter where we can forget our troubles and simply enjoy the expression of life. 

I hope that Eye Foreign Eye provides some kind of shelter as well. It may not be much right now, and we've certainly got a long road ahead of us, but with some dedication, open-mindedness, and a little luck, I think we can get there.

Thanks for reading. See you around!   :)

-Johan