Ajaxx63 is the brainchild of designer
Bill Sherman and operations director Andrew Fraser.
Bill's done fashion time with the best - Polo Sport/Ralph
Lauren, Vogue, Gap/Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer.
Andy's a management guru out of New York's Museum of
Modern Art and Sony. Bound and gagged by successful
yet stifling careers, they looked to New York's gay
club and street scenes to blow off steam. Inspired more
by the colorful and fashionable nightlife than the daily
drudge, they conspired to combine their talents, escape
the rat race, and risk it all on a dream. They relocated
to Seattle, “a great place to start a creative
young business” says co-owner Bill Sherman, and
Ajaxx63 was born in 1997.
Ajaxx63's urban-oriented, gay-targeted
graphics were first sold at Pride Festivals, becoming
an instant sensation after appearing on the first season
of “Queer As Folk” and partnering with Gay.com
that catapulted them to high profile status on the national
gay retail scene. Sold in over 400 retail and online
locations throughout the world, Ajaxx63 has grown from
a two-man home grown operation into a Seattle office,
warehouse, and a sales staff supported by reps in major
markets. Ajaxx63 has been featured in numerous gay fashion
publications and has appeared regularly on Showtime’s
hit series “Queer as Folk”, as well as “Queer
eye for the Straight Guy”, “What not to
Wear”, (in a good way), “Open Bar”,
MTV, part of the regular wardrobe on “Q television”
and many more.
We treat T-shirts as fashion. We release
our designs in “fashion seasons” and think
of them as collections with themes and concepts. We
think and refine our ideas and constantly keep in touch
with our customers’ interests and fashion tastes.
We get that our guys are about the internet, text messaging,
hanging out, they live all over the world yet are connected
by online groups. They are hyper modern yet pick and
choose thru various unrelated retro trends. We believe
in making something more than just a disposable part
of pop culture. We truly believe in what we are designing.
We make and sew our own shirts; we obsess over the fit
and feel or our garments and hats. We dye our own color
palates and rework our finishing techniques to reflect
our customers sense of style.
“Ajaxx63 gear is what I
wished I was wearing when I was designing,” says
Bill Sherman. “Clever, sexy, and edgy. Were not
pretentious, we make tee shirts for crying out loud…and
I love it.” We love the design process of ajaxx63.
We explore all sides of gay life, what makes us tick,
what makes us laugh, what makes you decide while shopping
or out at a club to say “I have to have that”
“that is so me” “that is so cool”
or “that fits so damn well."
We have been heralded as the best Gay
Shirts by OUT magazine and have been featured in numerous
fashion layouts from big gay publications in the US,
Europe and Asia. Fashion editors and stylists tell us
how great, stylish and innovative we are while simultanesly
being singled out in editorials and by various political
groups that we re-enforce stereotypes and our influence
is dangerous, shallow, and has encouraged labeling and
so forth. We have been banned in a suburban Seattle
High School for promoting Gay Sex (according to a conservative
Chrisitian Group). We got a TV show host in London in
trouble while wearing Morningwood Basketball on a Talk
Show. We are a clothing company and we believe passionately
in what we create. We love being gay. We love working
with gays. Sometimes you’ll love what we make
or say. Sometimes you wont. I do believe that the best
thing that can said about us is that we try to be fashion
with a message. That message. Be proud of who you are.
Andy touches an emotional chord when
he says, “We're talking more than just shirts
here. It's memories in the making. I'm proud to be doing
something that will be part of the gay community for
years to come”. Ajaxx63 has been worn out to so
many aspects and activities of the world in which us
gay guys live in. We are proud to be part of the good
times, the celebration of being gay. Yes sometimes the
world can be rough, discrimination sucks, But we don’t
have to let that shit into our birthday parties, or
niteclub and vacations, times when people are letting
loose and living it up with their buddies. So looking
back I welcome the idea that somewhere, someone might
say, 'I remember when I met you…you had on that
fabulous shirt.'” That makes us proud.
