Why do we place a strong emphasis on making everything in Cleveland?

Well, to begin, I literally am the son of a mom-and-pop business. Growing up, my parents owned a restaurant supply company, which is where I learned the importance of hard work and the value of supporting local businesses. My first job, at age 12, was in their warehouse and my parents emphasized that no job was below me. They made sure I had experience with every level of the operation: I unloaded trucks, delivered orders, assisted walk-in customers, answered phones, took orders, did inventory reports, mailed monthly invoices, drove a forklift (not well), handled window cleaning for the storefront (there were streaks; lots of streaks), cleaned toilets (there’s cleaning toilets and there’s cleaning toilets that truck drivers had used - I did the latter), and handled bookkeeping while I was in college.

With these experiences, I have always felt connected to both blue-collar and white-collar work. Throughout my 20s, I often felt guilty for working in a corporate environment. Growing up where I did, it’s hard to break the stigma that only manual forms of labor should be considered “work.” Luckily, I watched my dad Cris firsthand. While he had his own office and often wore a white oxford button-up with tan chinos as a daily uniform, he was also never afraid to get his hands dirty. He’d regularly come out of his office to help us unload trucks, show up on delivery days to help install a walk-in cooler, roll up his sleeves for equipment repairs, and then come home with grease on his clothes.

My lifelong dream was to join my family’s business after graduating college, but their company closed shortly after the 2008 recession. It was the most difficult period of my life. There is no way to have a family business and lose that business without it affecting the family. While we lost many material items and were set back financially for years, the most difficult moment occurred when my mother came home one evening to tell me that Cris was in tears and had said, “I don’t want my son to see me as a failure”. As a man, you are either trying to live up to your father’s expectations or make up for his mistakes. The only mistake Cris made was believing I could ever see him as a failure. All along, I’ve just wanted to do the same thing as he did: own a business.

As a result of my experiences, I have always wanted the opportunity to do the type of work where I could blend office work with manual labor. In a strange turn, owning a clothing brand, of all things, has afforded me that ability. I’m back in a factory environment where I’m surrounded by machinery, doing various forms of manual labor, creating products where craftsmanship and quality are at the forefront of every decision, and getting my brand off the ground while also working full-time as a medical underwriter. I am as comfortable in a suit as I am in Carhartt. Now, I get to wear both. That, to me... well, it sounds like work.

In Cleveland, that’s all we know.

Film Photography by Michael Thornburg

Location: IL RIONE PIZZERIA

Why? Well, Work.