10 Year Anniversary

10 years ago to the day, the BRD online store released its first collection and sold its first tees. The mission; create pro-2A propaganda... which appears to be a very bad thing to strive for in a techno-authoritarian system, but, luckily, my hatred for their system keeps me going every day :)

The idea for the brand started in 2012 while at a shooting range with friends, specifically because I saw people wearing t-shirts from popular commercial brands that were publicly anti-2A. I asked myself a logical question, "Why would we financially support brands who openly hate us and want to destroy our heritage?" Most people generally shrug it off, but when one resides in a State like CA which has steadily eroded our rights while also criminalizing its population year after year, I personally don't take it lightly. I wanted to start my own brand promoting 2A and bring in my perspective from the surf/skate industry that I'd been a part of for several years. However, I was still working full-time as an illustrator at FOX MX and raising my newborn daughter, so there wasn't much energy for anything else. Nonetheless, I came up with a company name, registered the URL, and kept a sketchbook that I wrote down & sketched any & all random concepts & possible designs.

Then came the name. It was derived from a phrase commonly used on forums - black rifle disease - an affliction where an individual purchases an AR or AK and, within a year, they suddenly have 10. The condition is exasperated if the individual has unlimited credit & a good gunstore with attentive staff in close proximity. I did not want "disease" in the name of the brand and went with "division" - Black Rifle Division. I'd also seen issues in regard to trademark lawsuits or branding conflicts while working in the skate/surf industry, so I broke the name down further by eliminating some of the vowels to make it more unique - BLK RFL DIV was born.

Two years later, in 2014, my position was eliminated at FOX and I decided that if there was ever a time to give it a go, now was the time! I took my "fuck off & die" severance money issued to me by my former employer, worked furiously to bring all my concepts to fruition, picked a few, got them to my local printer, built out the online store, created an FB page, an Instagram page, a Youtube page, and jumped a bunch of other hurdles to get the business up & going. I had no damn clue what I was doing but I was doing... and that's what I tell most who ask; stop thinking about it and waiting around, just start, start somewhere, anywhere and figure it out as you move forward! Of course having the capital is necessary when starting any new venture, especially the first couple of years when you're barely breaking even, if that. I did have to work side jobs during that time to supplement my income. Enter the second point; have goals and realistic expectations, because it's never going to go as you intended but stick with your outlined goals. Then comes the third point - luck. You either create it or know when you hit it and take advantage of that moment. My lucky break was when Mr Guns & Gear spotted the BRD Banana Clip tee on the AK FILES forum where I had a few ad banners. He emailed me to ask if I wanted to do a giveaway via his channel. I jumped on the opportunity and I'm very thankful for that. So thank you, Mike. Luck matters if you don't have unlimited marketing resources. A company can have a great product, but people have to see it. You've got to get your name out there. Generally, a brand is started with either the face of a popular figure within a community / sport / activity that is trusted & admired or the brand already has sales team & outlets in place and simply needs to deliver a product to sell. I had neither of those, just the will to do something on my own and see if it worked out. Afterall, if I failed I could just go back to corpo world.

It's somewhat overwhelming to sit here and consider the timeless hours spent, the thousands of invoices signed, all the orders I've personally packed & shipped out, the grassroots growth on Instagram (before META bought it & started deleting my accounts - those were great times; ah the chronological feed, the square format, no vids, the call-out challenges), driving to gunshows & setting up for long weekends with my fellow vendors, meeting so many amazing people, and, in the end, that's what it comes down to - BRD's amazing customer base, the people, you guys. And not just the customers who purchase & support the brand, you guys are fucking awesome and it's because of you I can pay the rent & buy ammo, but also the thousands of individuals I've spoken to & speak to on social media. Social media is such an unusual beast, both a curse & a blessing.

On that thought, 2020 became a defining point where I was challenged with the decision to truly speak my mind for what I felt was right knowing that I could lose many of my customers, thus potentially jeopardizing sales & the future of the company. I could have simply taken a neutral position, but that's not how my tism works and any time the feds say "we're here to help" or "this is for the children", historically, it's the complete opposite. I'd already been acclimated to being called a baby killer for owning a firearm, so to be called a granny killer really left me unphased... and I've been called everything in the book since for trying to bring tinfoil topics & the truth (or something in between the lie, the msm narrative, & the truth) to light. I figured that those who agreed would be the people I want around me & repping BRD, those that didn't, "well, goodbye!" Those times also showed how quickly people will turn in their neighbors, firends & family to the feds:

"The horror of Communism is not that bad people do bad things; it's that good people do horrible things thinking they are doing something great" - Slavoj Žižek

But that year was wild AF... unbelievable really, a psyop like I could have never imagined and I still relax, sip my tea, and say "What in TF and who TF are these sociopathic assholes who rule over us and why do they still walk freely?".... but, my point, stay true to who you are. So that's what I did throughout 2020; I wrote openly about what I thought was happening, I shared articles and ideas from the people that followed the account and who I had established trust with. Some accounts I can reflect back on and say, "yeah, that was a fed" or big pharma bot, while many others weren't. We fought their BS with memes, we really did, as stupid as that sounds. But it's also interesting to consider how we are all used by the simulation to fulfill their agenda in one way or another, whether BLM protestors or J6's... I'm going down a rabbit hole, I digress!

So with that, here is the MERCHANTS of DESTRUCTION hoodie, tee, and (re-release) snapback cap to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this small brand and I want to thank all of you for bringing BRD to this point in time, sincerely, thank you! - Rob