Badman's story starts with a boy born and raised on a 21-square-mile island called Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Austin spent most of his childhood in the water: freediving, fishing, surfing and sailing. His father was a marine biologist, shark diver, underwater photographer, and scuba instructor who dove multiple times a day most of his life, and Austin would go with him whenever he could. That world under the surface is where so many of our graphics come from.
His mom, also a scuba instructor and underwater photographer, would work all kinds of jobs to fund adventures. One of which was painting signs for shops around the island. This is how Austin first learned to draw. Those distressed, hand-painted island signs still shape the style in our designs today.
He continued developing his interest in art and design with his best friend, Lu, whose Mom was a jewelry maker living on a boat in Trellis Bay. They would make drawings and sea glass/shell jewelry, fill Lu's mom's dinghy with everything they'd made, and motor 'door-to-door' through the sailboats in the mooring field until they found someone interested in their stuff. Badman still runs on that same idea: make something you're proud of and bring it straight to the people.
That love for art and the ocean was balanced by a harder edge: rugby, strength training and adventure sports. It's why Badman has to do both, look good enough to wear anywhere and hold up to anything you put it through.
Badman was born out of this creative, hustling island spirit and need for versatile, durable apparel that's comfortable in the gym and out on any adventure. It's a brand created for people who take the hard way, live on their own terms, and build a life worth telling stories about.
Austin still packs and ships every order by hand out of his garage in LA, where this brand started with him and his training partner, Ziad. Austin would draw and design, and Z would help pack and ship side by side. The two of them come from different worlds: the bustling streets of the city and the dirt roads of the islands. Our designs live in that intersection — a nostalgic callback with a modern edge. Every piece is made to feel good and last, whether you're in the gym or out in the salt spray and sun.
