Our Mission

We want to make authentic, empowering, and trend-setting apparel available to everyone, fostering a sense of belonging, pride, and confidence to be themselves. We want to empower individuality and ignite self-expression through our vibrant, high-quality fashion collections, thoughtfully designed for the LGBTQ+ community and our awesome allies.

A Little Bit More From Our Company Co-Founders:

From Our CEO - Matt:

Hi, Everyone! I want to share a few personal anecdotes to help our customers and brand partners understand our company's mission and values. I grew up in rural Arkansas. Unfortunately, when I came out at 19 years old, it was almost impossible to shop online, and the handful of clothing options I could find definitely weren't allowing me to express my authentic self. Going to class each day felt like blending in with the wall. Locating my closest department store with the brands I'd grown to love from magazines, movies, and more meant no less than a two hour drive, with fingers crossed that I'd find a rack or two with something I could consider fun and fashion forward.

Since then, it has always been my mission to make it easier, especially for folks like myself in the LGBTQ+ community to find brands we want, gathered under the scope of a single retailer, making it easier for everyone to find great clothing and accessories, not just on the coasts but from anywhere with a wifi connection across the country.

At 26, I said goodbye to friends and family in Arkansas, and I moved to San Francisco, California. It's my true home, a beacon of hope and resilience for our community, especially needed with the current state of our country, and I am very proud to call it the home to our company headquarters. I hope you all have a chance to visit the amazing Castro district, its museums, culture, and art. We are looking forward to bringing some of our local makers online and sharing SF with everyone!

I also want to ensure this company stays true to my personal values of kindness, empathy, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging during these trying times. I want to prove that the best companies are great from the ground up with every single employee able to be their truly authentic self without fear of judgement or discrimination. Our leadership team will always follow these values. Kindness is not a weakness, nor a blocker to success.

I'm excited to build a team of amazing people that can help me prove it. I want to acknowledge our company's goal is for all members of the community, but my personal experience lends itself to only a few letters in our alphabet, and you'll see that come through a bit in our launch assortment. I am excited to hear from and hire folks that can help us round out our product selection to ensure true inclusion. I would rather hire leaders to help me find those brands and products than to claim I am an expert and for these words to fall flat.

Lastly, I wouldn't have this company, platform, or the ability to otherwise follow this dream without our amazing and supportive COO Drew. Next are a few words from him.

Much love, Matt

From Our COO - Drew:

I grew up just outside Cleveland, OH, where San Francisco always seemed like this magical, far-off place, home to legendary punk bands, unbounded creativity, and people who proudly embraced their uniqueness. I always had it in the back of my mind that I’d end up here someday, and I’ve been fortunate to call it home for the past 13 years.

One of the best parts of that journey has been meeting Matt. What started as a friendship has turned into something much bigger - we’ve gone from acquaintances to chosen family, and now, business partners. I’m constantly inspired by his creativity and vision for 18th & Castro, and together we’re building something that reflects our shared belief: everyone deserves the freedom to look and feel exactly as they are.

I’m a firm believer that we’re all in this together. Now more than ever, I think the world needs spaces and communities that celebrate authenticity, expression, and belonging. That’s what we’re here to create, and it’s truly an honor to be a part of this adventure with you all.