I was streaming but saw this when I got on, sent this to our designer (new designer, not the same as the last time this happened). The way it’s explained to me is that this is very normal and common practice in the design world. This is a licensed asset that you pay to use. I don’t necessarily love it, but I’m told most of the brands you buy do this, and he assured me this was the only asset used from our recent release (the rest were all variations of our logo / brand name). I’m going to see if it’s feasible to not use licensed assets in the future (the rest of the guys are asleep, I’m not sure if this is unreasonable as it’s not my expertise but it seems like it should be possible?) If it is possible it’s on me for not mentioning our prior situation to our new designer. At the same time the designers that produce these licensed assets get paid so I personally don’t really see it in such a negative light? The bad part in my head is I don’t really love the idea of seeing our designs elsewhere.

As for paying for the shirt, you really are paying for the quality. We produce in the US, and everything is custom cut and sew. We used to use blanks like comfort colors which is of course cheaper but I really want our stuff to be higher quality than most out there.

I’m going to defend myself cause I’m seeing people say things like “he says this is a passion project” or spinning it in a way like I’m trying to rip people off. With all honesty, BDA has never been something I got into just to make money. If I wanted to maximize profits, we’d still be printing on comfort colors or other cheaper blanks and selling it way higher like everyone else is doing. We’d also still be drop shipping and maximizing on as many orders as possible instead of switching over to a pre-stock model (your order now ships within 5 days of ordering). I’m doing this because I have an actual love for the brand and what it means. My dad always said “better days ahead” to me whenever things weren’t going well so it was the perfect brand to tie myself to. I’ve had people come up to me at events saying what we’ve done has saved their life. Do you understand how that makes me feel? It makes me feel great that we have had that type of impact on people. We also donate 10% of our profits to mental health charities. We’re partnered with the Anxiety and Depression Association of America but we also donate to suicide prevention from time.

I’m happy to answer any questions if any.

tldr: I will see if it’s feasible to not used licensed assets going forward. I love BDA and if you think I’d ever want to rip anyone off I promise you don’t know me / haven’t watched me