sat down with Sam and Jay... on their Outsider podcast

I didn’t set out to build a brand. I set out chasing to smile, to feel, to live... and keep on keepin on.
Black Bear Brand came from what I'm dreamin—from the road, my middle finger to belief that if something doesn’t exist, I'll find a way to make it. My life is what it is from chasing my dreams, fucking up, traveling everywhere I could, crashing shit, getting marked for life with black ink in Japan, chasing everything to feel and fill an unfillable void in me.
Designing, for me, isn’t a mood board or a mission statement—it’s releasing the insanity that is in me. It gives me a moment of sanity.
I grew up in a time before everything got soft. When freedom wasn’t a post, it was a way of life. You chased it. Bleed for it. That era is where my heart and head still gets its rare moments of rest.
Welcome to the mess, the mission, the madness.
—Josh