Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Doerr and Davis Smith.
Hi Will and Davis, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
August 2020 after graduating from Cal Poly SLO. Started as blog as side project for Men’s Mental Health. Over time realized there’s more to it than me (Will) writing a blog. I (will) began chatting with Zach Rusich and Davis. Had no intentions to become a business, we just had a shared passion and goal to make a difference in the community. Initially we were only focusing on men’s mental health, but that evolved into encompassing the entire community, because in reality, anyone can have mental health issues and that should be recognized. Bailey Yuen (another close friend and fellow cal poly slo graduate) was brought on board to spearhead the creative vision of the brand. Starting in January of 2021, we met on a weekly basis (all located in different cities in CA) to put a plan in place to develop the brand and our mission. These conversations included deciding on ACOTH’s colors, logo (s), merchandise designs, and sharing our goals. They led to us having limited runs of “drops” where we sold navy and sandstone hoodies with a portion of the proceeds being donated to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Following a handful of merchandise releases, we hit a wall as Zach and Bailey were forced to leave due to them pursuing full-time job opportunities.
Life happened, and Davis and I were forced to put a hold on operations. Come October 2021, I had moved to San Diego (where Davis already was) and joined the same organization Davis was working for. We reached out to Cole Heavlin (Cole-Man) to see if he was open to a collaboration for his upcoming Bass Haven event, and he was fortunately interested in having us design a shirt for the concert. This, along with increased collaboration between myself and Davis led to the re-birth of the brand. In January 2022 (one year after we officially begun) we were approached by the Covina family who reside in Newport Beach. Their son had just lost his battle with mental illness, and they wanted to see if a “one off” hoodie design could be made in his honor. Given their tragic loss, we wanted to do all we could to help honor their late son. We designed a hoodie that consists of “always check on the homies” on the front, the left sleeve include his initials “CRC” sewn in, and the back has a bubble text message with the words “I love you more.” The last text Charlie ever sent his mother.
The hoodies were on pre-order for two weeks, and to our surprise, we sold almost 350. All proceeds ($10,000) were donated to the Jed Foundation in Charlies honor.
Since our intermission during the summer of 2021, our footprint has largely increased. We recently launched a 24/7 online store with an array of hoodie, t-shirt, and hat designs, and are hosting our first fundraising event on June 8th at The Local in Pacific Beach. All proceeds will be donated to The Trevor Project and The Jed Foundation.
We look forward to growing the brand, and continuing to highlight the importance of mental health.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely has not been smooth. It’s been a learning process to say the least.
Losing Zach and Bailey was very difficult and quite intimidating since they were such huge influencers. This increased our responsibilities, but in turn, made us hone in on what exactly we were looking to accomplish and the direction we want to take the brand.
Our manufacturing and distribution model has changed quite a bit. When we initially ran pre-orders, we worked with a printing company in the Bay area, which resulted in high shipping costs and slow turnaround times. To add to this, we had to hand package each item and handwrite each shipping address.
We eventually invested in a label printer saving us quite a bit of time, but did not help with our other disjointed processes. In January of 2022, we began working with a local print shop, which slightly assisted with turnaround times, but balancing full time roles with ACOTH was still a hefty challenge. We recently shifted to a drop shipping model, allowing us to offer more items on our site, faster shipping times, and providing us with time to focus on growing the business in other areas outside of merchandise.
Growing business with full time jobs is a constant challenge.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Always Check on the Homies?
Always Check On the Homies is a brand built by the community for the community. We believe that mental health can be improved through having better conversations and establishing stronger relationships with those that are around us. It’s important to us that anyone, anywhere feels like they can truly be themselves and seek help when needed and offer help when capable.
Our community focus sets us apart. Our goal is to promote people coming together and break down the stigmas around mental health.
The Charlie Project is what we are most proud of. The initial two week run of hoodies was a great success, leading to a second running of them. More than anything, we are humbled to have been asked to work with the Covina family and help donate $10,000 to the Jed Foundation.
Our ultimate goal is to have greater involvement in the event space and corporate world – sharing our mission and help build a community around having meaningful conversations and caring about others. We hope readers can connect with that we are doing and can help normalize the discussion around the topic. If we can impact one life, that is a success.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
We’re very fortunate to have the “day jobs” that we have and live in the city that we do. The city of San Diego has provided us with multiple opportunities and the community is extremely supportive.
Pricing:
- Hoodie – $50 (6 color options)
- T-shirt $25 (3 colors, two designs)
- Hat $25 (one color)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alwayscheckonthehomies.com/
- Instagram: @alwayscheckonthehomies
