Our Mission
Our Story
Going strong since ‘93
Art has, to me, always been a means to assess the world around you from multiple viewpoints. To appreciate but primarily to critique, revealing the contradictions, absurdities, and cruelties of our society. However, as a leftist I have often felt unable to find art that speaks to my experience of the world. When I've encountered art that proclaims to speak for me, it is sanitized, defanged and often leveraged to support the systems i find my life at odds with.
I believe that at the intersection of art and self-expression lies a powerful opportunity for leftists to bring conversations typically confined to the corners of the internet into the public sphere. Apparel is a canvas that brings these dialogues into the streets, into our daily lives, and into shared spaces. Whether to bring levity or to spark meaningful discourse and learning, Comrade aims to use our art and clothing to advance the cause of building socialism in our lifetime.
My mission is not to commodify revolution or promote conspicuous consumption. My mission is to create opportunities for education, community development, and organizing towards liberation.
Expression
To make apparel and goods that represent our political, economic and ideological leanings
Connection
To create community through clothing…allowing comrades to see each other in the wild
Education
To spread information and combat disinformation about socialism while exposing the truth about capitalism.
How it works
What does it mean to be a socialist fashion brand?
It might seem like an oxymoron but it’s not. A lot of people think that markets, money and commodities are capitalist… They aren’t. Capitalism denotes a particular relationship between who produces goods and who receives the fruits of that labor. In a capitalist enterprise the workers make everything and the capitalist takes everything.
In a socialist enterprise, like a cooperative, the workers collectively own everything and decide what to produce, how to produce and what to do with the money made in the course of production. A cooperative is like a tiny island of socialism in a sea of capitalism.
As a self proclaimed socialist apparel company we work to uphold our ideals to the highest degree possible given our size and the institutional context we operate in. We try and source garments and use productive practices that are as sustainable, non exploitative and democratic as possible.
But let’s be clear:
THERE IS NO ETHICAL CONSUMPTION UNDER CAPITALISM.