Meet Jake Mattingley and David Iwane of Perplex Apparel

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Mattingley and David Iwane.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jake and David. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was messing around with some design stuff on illustrator and had made a Subway parody logo that said “Send Nudes.” I thought it was funny and I was excited about making my first ever design. So naturally the first thing that popped in my head is “Wow, I make designs now, I should start a brand”. HAHA. I talked to Dave about maybe starting something up..I’m really into clothing and he is a fantastic artist so after speaking about it together it really started making sense. I had sketched up a little rubiks cube logo and showed it to Dave and he cleaned it up and vectorized it. We called it Perplex.

Some time had passed and we were talking about what our next step should be and decided we needed to learn how to screenprint. Dave brought it up to his roommate and found out he actually knew someone that had a screen printer collecting dust in his garage. Other than the conception of the brand that was one of the most crucial moments in our history. From there we went from outsourcing to hand-making everything ourselves in very little time. Now we are designing, printing, sewing and packaging everything ourselves.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The most difficult part so far has been learning the printing process and everything that goes along with that. For example, when we were gearing up for our first clothing launch and we had bought a bunch of these super nice and incredibly expensive black windbreaker jackets. We had never screen printed on polyester and ruined almost all of them.

Even though there have been trying times we’ve used those times as opportunities to learn and grow, Its funny to think that when we first decided to move forward with this “Perplex” idea that we had never thought we would be making everything ourselves and now that’s easily the most important part of our company.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Perplex Apparel – what should we know?
What sets us apart is that we only rely on ourselves to create all of our clothing. From beginning to end, every detail of every piece has our fingerprints on it.

Apart from that, as a company, we are also helping create and promote events in the Denver area. In doing so we have gotten a lot of love and support from local musical acts and creatives alike. It’s a scene we are incredibly excited and happy to be apart of.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We’re extremely excited for what the future brings. We want to be apart of and create new events that allow us and others to show our creative sides.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Perplexapparel.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/perplexapparel
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/perplexapparel/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/PerplexApparel

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