They are such nice guys, those lads from 302 Designs. They sure know how to make a girl feel welcome, not to mention giggle. Perhaps it was the pitcher of Lone Star or the festive atmosphere at Spiderhouse, but we had fun interviewing the three young men that comprise one of Austin's more innovative clothing design companies.

302 Designs is Franco Barrera, John Michael Torres, and David Walker. All three are (clearly) busy UT Students with both business and social change on their minds. 302 Designs is clothing with a message. And it's 100 percent sweatshop-free. We find that very cool. So we got them to talking about life, starting a business, and how to avoid that sometimes disappointing place called The Real World (and we're not talking about the MTV show).

The real world is horrible.

Franco: I think that is part of the reason why we’re doing what were doing.

So how did you start?

David: It kind of started between me and John-Michael.

Franco: People didn’t really have the shirts that we would want to wear. Plus the fact that we didn’t have the shirts that we would want to wear.

David: I kind of looked at it as, well, all the cool shirts out there were really high priced and I was thinking we could come up with something just as cool, if not cooler than those, price them really low, and we’ll have some shirts for ourselves and, you know, sell them to friends and family. It kind of grew from there, I guess, once we started to do it.

Franco: And I went yeah, good idea. I wasn’t actually in town. I was in California. And John-Michael said ‘oh you know, Dave and I were talking about starting a business’ and I was like 'cool, let’s do it.'

David: It’s funny, though, because I guess the reason we started talking about it from the beginning was because we’re in this big house and it’s all three of us and we’re like we gotta take advantage of this! I mean, we have kind of an office setup and we can do whatever we want with this place.

Franco: More than that, us three together, we bring something just very unique, you know, and we would have talks that would just stretch on for hours and why not put this into something creative, right? So, I think we’re doing a great job.

Are you philosophy majors?

David: Far from it. I’m a business major.

Yeah, that must help.

David: Actually, we’re all different majors.

Franco: I’m Communication Studies.

John-Michael: Radio Television and Film.

David: And I’m Marketing and Sociology. So we all bring different backgrounds, I guess.

(to Dave) Did you aspire to be an entrepreneur? Or did it just happen?

David: I personally have always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I’ve started up a few businesses in my lifetime. I started a web design company when I was 16 in high school and I did some more stuff following that, but this has definitely been my most fun and most successful venture, I guess you could say. And now that I have partners who are just as passionate about it as I am, it takes a load off my shoulders and it really makes the business run a lot more smoothly.

John-Michael: I was just going to add that I had never thought of it before.

(laughter)

David: He’s kind of an anti-corporate guy.

John-Michael: The cool thing is that after we started and after we got into it a little I was like “wow” this is what needs to be happening. People that really care about these issues and care about these morals and values should start doing something about it.

Franco: Amen

John-Michael: Start doing activities such as this.

David: John-Michael is a huge activist. He just got off this Taco Bell boycott campaign and he does a lot of activistism around the university. I came home one day and he tells me “you know, Dave, businesses, I guess, maybe aren’t really that bad if they are run properly.” and I was like holy cow we got a revelation here.

Franco: And I’m kind of like the middle ground guy. I’ve always been interested in starting new ventures and ideas. Like I have a hip-hop duo going on. We’re set to record this summer. So I’m always looking to do some new things. And I’m also glad I met these guys cause JM, you know, he brings that whole perspective of social responsibility that I really take to heart now and Dave brings the whole [business] thing. It’s just a great combination.

(to Franco) And what do you bring?

Franco: I absorb it all.

David: No, he does a lot more than that. He brings passion into this business. I mean he’ll come home and be like 'what do we need to do to get things going guys? Let’s turn this into something big. I really believe in this company, I really want to make it into something.' And so that puts a fire into our bellies, I guess.

John-Michael: And his lyrical capabilities help a lot.

David: Yes, hip hop star Franco B.

Are you playing anywhere?

Franco: We have a show coming up May 7th. I believe it is going to be at Graffiti's in north Austin.

Do you write what’s on your t-shirts?

David: It’s kind of a combination of the three of us. They are originals. And Franco is the best one at it, personally. Just because he comes from this experience. I mean he writes oh so much for the songs that he does. So he brings a lot. Like I’ll slap something on there and he’ll look and it and say, 'well, let’s change this around. this is a little bit overused and this word there you haven’t really heard that.' He really turned it into something original. So yeah, it’s kind of all a combination of the three of us.

John-Michael: Our first t-shirt was a quote from Nietzsche.

Franco: Originally that’s how it started. We were going to find quotes that I felt embodied something deep and soulful and I don’t remember who presented the idea, but we were like let’s get even more organic with it and let it come from us.

David: Right, because it means a little bit more when it is actually a creation of our own. But we like to look at other quotes for inspiration. When we do it we say; the theme of this next shirt is going to be this, let’s come up with a powerful way to express that.

Franco: And another important thing I think that we should add about this process is we ask people to give their opinions on it.

Friends?

Franco: Friends and sometimes we will even hold focus groups because we don’t want to be the judge and say 'oh we like it so everybody must like it.' We want to create something for them.

David: Yeah. We want to create kind of a constant give and take between the people that support us and how they feel about things. We want to create something that they feel good about. Just kind of a mutual understanding, I guess. So we don’t want to force our values on anyone. We want to come up with something that we can all find a little bit of meaning in.

Who do you feel you are representing? I mean, are you going towards a more young, progressive population or are you trying to get everybody? Or none of the above?

Franco:Well these things are always so weird to me, because, well anyway... To me I was thinking that since we are all college students--that would probably be the people that we would wanna reach. College is something that we believe is a time of growth and a time of learning and a time of knowledge and honor.

David: And a time of finding yourself.

Franco: Yes, exactly.

John-Michael: The people that are really gonna be involved with this experience are people that are not only conscious of their style and looking cool with their t-shirts, but also expressing their values with their t-shirts. Because we are printing on sweatshop-free t-shirts and our company, we’re trying to be as socially conscious as possible. These people are not only digging the shirts but they’re also digging the values and the ability to express themselves with something that is socially conscious.

David: And I wouldn’t really say it is going too far to say that we’re not your typical business. The way we run, the way we talk about things, the way we conduct ourselves and talk to our customers and just thinking in terms of making a difference and not really making the bottom line, making the profit, that is really what we’re trying to promote. It’s that it’s not all about that profit. That’s not the end goal. It’s about doing something and sharing something with the people.

John-Michael: People are supporting us because of that.

Hopefully you are the future of “typical business”.

Franco: We hope so.

David: That is one of my ultimate goals. We will never stray away from what our true goals are and our true aspirations for our clothing company. We will always stay true to ourselves. Although my dad does say, “get a real job, son.” Well let me see what I can do with this unreal job, dad.

302 Design t-shirts can be purchased from their website.

t-shirt photo by Danielle Maddox