Gay Pride Apparel strives to celebrate Pride year-round

Gay Pride Apparel is a NYC-based LGBTQ+ apparel & accessories store founded in 2019 by two first-generation Mexican-Americans, Jesus Gutierrez and Sergio Aragon.

The mission of Gay Pride Apparel is to empower and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community with high-quality clothing and accessories. Their presence on social media, along with their products champion authenticity, empowerment, and pride for everyone, everywhere, every day. 

Hailing from the low-income and minority community of Maryvale in Phoenix, Arizona, Jesus and Sergio became best friends in 6th. They went off on their own after graduation and later reunited, fell in love and moved to New York City to chase their dreams. 

Gay Pride Apparel began with a simple yet profound moment during Pride 2018 in New York City. Watched pride literally being washed away from the sidewalks on July 1st left a lasting impression on them and they realized the need for a space where people could embrace their pride every day of the year.

In January 2019, fueled by passion and determination, they officially brought Gay Pride Apparel to life. What started as a small endeavor with a monumental mission has surpassed their wildest expectations. With shirts, blankets and accessories for every single member of the LGBTQIA+ community emblazoned with colorful, often clever and impactful designs, the brand has empowered the community not only with its wares but with a strong online community. GPA has over 100,000 followers oh Instagram.

Today, Jesus and Sergio stand proudly, knowing that their little shop has become a beacon of empowerment and celebration for the LGBTQ+ community worldwide. And it’s all thanks to the unwavering support of incredible individuals around the globe.

We had the chance to talk to Jesus and Sergio about Gay Pride Apparel and their new Queer Protest collection, their inspiration and the impact of the collection on the community and on themselves in our exclusive interview.

 I’ve read a lot about you and I’ve done a lot of research and I don’t want to have to make you go through the whole story about how you started the business. What I want to know is what are the pros and cons of working with your partner?

Jesus: The thing is, I think for us is that it’s not a “traditional” working with your partner situation that I think some people think it is. We met really young. We’ve been best friends since we were in sixth grade. I think we had this established foundation of trust and communication as friends. Then we became partners – which was another whole level of communication, trust and transparency and just being trustworthy to each other.

And then we became business partners and the one thing that we always talk about is that we have our distinct roles in our business and what we do – and we try to keep it that way but it’s fun. We work from nine to five and we always say it’s really refreshing for us to work with each other compared to the big corporations where we used to be at where it takes seven years to get one thing done. And here it’s like, hey, what do you think about this? That’s great. Let’s do it.

Sergio: The pros that would be that it’s easy to communicate with one another. I can be like, “Hey, I don’t like that. Can you change that?” And he’s like, “Fine, let me change that.” That’s one of the biggest pros, like just being able to just be very free with one another.

But then for cons, if I’m having a bad day or he’s having a bad day, it’s annoying because now we have to talk and figure out this answer for a solution for this question that this customer is having. That would be one of the little cons, I would say, it’s like, ugh, I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t feel like talking but we have to talk.

Another con, truthfully, is that we have to make it a point to be at dinner and be like, okay, we’re not going to talk about anything that has to do with GPA. We’re going to discuss our week outside of the work that we’ve done. It’s like you’re dating your co-worker or your business partner, you’re just trying to keep those different roles separate. But yeah, there are cons but the pros are so much better.

Okay, now I know you both have backgrounds in e-commerce and fashion, how did that benefit you as you started GPA?

Jesus: I come from e-com and digital marketing, that was my background. I worked at Tiffany & Co. on their e-commerce website. Prior to that, I did social media marketing. I kind of had that side, and I’ve always been a little bit, I think, more adventurous and creative and I had the idea of doing this.

Sergio:  I did product development at companies like Coach and Cole Haan and then, right after that, I worked on e-comm at Uniqlo.com. They hired me because of Gay Pride Apparel. So just being able to bring that information from how to get a good margin on a product or knowing how the customer’s going to react to it. That gave us a different sense of if we’re going to start our own company, we can’t just like put a random price. We have to make sure that we’re actually making money, making sure that the product is good, making sure that it’s elevated, but we also are hitting our product margins.

And then for e-comm, I learned so much from Uniqlo from the click through rate and the ROAS, the return on advertisement and making sure that what is doing really well is pushed to the top of the site and making sure that we’re really analytical about it. I was like I’m learning from you and I’m bringing more information from me to you as well. So, it’s like a win/win.

Jesus: Without Sergio, I would have never had any product knowledge. I call him creative director because he’s very creative but he’s also more analytical than I am. I’m just like, let’s make this and put it on the website. He’s like, well, let’s discuss what the goal is. I think that’s how we bounce off each other. But that also comes from our professional backgrounds where I was working more in the creative world and you were working more on product.

Who comes up with the designs for your collections?

Sergio: So, it’s all [Jesus]. He shows me…it’s not even a first draft…and he’s asks, “Hey, this is what I’m thinking of. What are you thinking?” I’m like, alright, I think we can tweak this a little bit more, try two or three more different fonts, and then I’ll start placing it in different products to see which one really resonates with me and then we’ll go from there. But it’s all him.

Jesus: I’ll say, “I just thought about this really cool shirt”, and he’s like, “Can we please go to bed?” 

I learned about you from the Queer Protest Collection. How did that come about?

Jesus: Truthfully, it came out of a lot of frustration. And honestly, I was feeling very burnt out by the news cycle. The election happened in November and, at least for us, we didn’t expect that result. I think maybe I just completely blacked out the rest of those months afterwards because I don’t remember December or even thinking about the election after it happened.

The minute the election happened what we did notice is an increase in hate – almost like it was unleashed. Trump won and our Facebook account specifically became just this gross place of people coming after us, telling us to go die, very, very jarring things. So when that started happening, we started snowballing in January. And on the 19th we were like, what are we going to do tomorrow? We can’t just ignore it. We just can’t. I mean, we can’t just sit here and be like, ah, how’s everyone doing? Like, no rainbows and butterflies here and there.

We actually were planning on this really big launch right before that, which was a Zodiac Collection launch so, we kind of were ignoring it ourselves. But on that day, we were like, what are we doing? We should make a post tomorrow.

A lot of our designs that you see on apparel and that you see people wearing really just start off as us making a post on Instagram and social media trying to be supportive. We’re trying to make a statement of some sort. So, we came up with, I think it was like 15 designs that night before the inauguration. And we were honestly just channeling all that frustration that we felt from ignoring what had happened to that day where it’s like, oh, it’s becoming a reality tomorrow. We wanted to be supportive, but we also wanted to be very upfront and vocal. We’re not going to just back down and let things just happen.

I think the reason why the front and back shirts came about – we really don’t do them often – was because we wanted people to have something they can wear that you can show someone behind you. You don’t have to be eye-to-eye with someone and show support. You can just walk by someone and they read your back of your shirt it’s empowering. So yeah, I think it just came from frustration and rage and wanting to create more community online. The Gay Pride Apparel Instagram family has been amazing for the past six years. So, we really wanted to make supportive posts for them. We always joke that we can’t make a post anymore because the first comment is always, “Put this on a shirt!”  

One of the things that I appreciate about your line is that you really represent everybody in the LGBTQIA+ community. How important was that for you when you started GPA?

Jesus: When we started GPA….to be transparent, I think we had a very closed-minded view of being queer – we probably wouldn’t have said queer back then, you know. We were two gay, cis men from Phoenix, Arizona who grew up in conservative Catholic homes.

And so, when we started, truthfully, we were like, oh, just rainbows, you know, everyone’s just gay. And then, as we started growing, we started learning more about the full acronym. We had no idea it was LGBTQIA+.

Sergio: There was intersex, genderqueer, pansexual, non-binary…all these different identities that we had no idea about and our customers were like, hey, I love the rainbows, but I just came out as pansexual. I would love to see more items for pansexual people.

Jesus: I was like, what’s a pansexual flag? And I looked it up and I was like, Oh my, there’s other flags out there.

Sergio: I think it’s a really important pillar of our brand to have all these identities, just because it’s not just being gay, lesbian, bi, trans, like, rainbows, you know. There are way more identities that encompass this whole community, which is really important to highlight, which other people don’t do at all.

Do you have a favorite out of all of the things that you’ve produced?

Jesus: Right now, I was thinking about the Queer Protest Collection. I think the White House design – “You might have the White House, but we have the fucking streets.” That design, it feels so aggressive, but when I was making it, I opened up Illustrator and I just have my artboards and I remember Sergio asking, how did you come up with that? I was like, I don’t know, I just started typing.  I mean, at the end of the day, I think it’s a historical thing, too. People were kind of upset about it, saying things like “you’re promoting violence,” but I’m like well, no, because that’s why we are here – because of the streets, because our ancestors at Stonewall protested for days after the raid. So, I think that is my current favorite.

Sergio: For me, it would be “diversity hurts no one”. Why are you so hurt over being different? You can’t be better if you don’t venture out and learn different cultures, learn different things. So, “diversity hurts no one” and then especially “you stupid orange…”.  You know, it’s so stupid that It’s comical at a point. That would have to be my favorite.

Jesus: Oh, I also do love funny stuff and funny stuff does well. “Why are you scared of colors, bro?” was a reactionary post to Marco Rubio banning pride flags. I just think it’s like, why are you scared of colors? Why are you so scared of a pride flag?  I think I like all of them, but also “Leave Queer People Alone”, I think I love that one too.

Sergio: They’re all great. They’re all really good.

On your website, you talk about your give back initiative. What are some of the organizations that you supporting?

Jesus: What we’ve been doing lately is sponsoring other nonprofits’ events. So, for example, last year, we sponsored an event by the Stonewall Community Foundation. And all that means is that we gave X amount of money and got listed as a sponsor, but the way that the sponsorships work is that all that money got pooled together to offer other nonprofits grants.

That was how we learned to make a better impact.  So, we work with different nonprofits that do that sort of stuff, like the Stonewall Community Foundation, we’ve helped the Trevor Project, Feed the Queens, which is a nonprofit to help feed hungry drag queens during the pandemic. So, it really depends.

One thing that we used to do a lot but haven’t done recently, but we’re going to get back into is we used to do specific campaigns. So, for example, you know, if we launch a new read banned books campaign, we’ll donate a part of the profits to a specific nonprofit that does that kind of work.  During the reversal of Roe versus Wade we did this shirt that had all the people that voted to repeal Roe versus Wade and we donated all that money to NARAL. I think the give back initiative is ongoing and fluid.

Sergio: And not just like that. We get emails all the time and they’re like, hey we’ll be hosting our first ever prom night for LGBTQ youth that never got to go to prom and we would love to have like a blanket or a gift card or anything that you can send us for a donation we would love. So, we send gift cards and they do a raffle and the person gets to win a gift card from us. We do really small things like that, but then we also do really things that we sponsor like X amount for like a night out at a gala and stuff like that. So, it just ranges. 

Your social media presence is very dynamic. How important was it for you to have such a community built on social media? 

Jesus: It’s everything. It was the only reason I think we kept going during the first two years when we kind of weren’t making money – the first couple of years when you’re just trying to build this brand. And for us, Instagram is our biggest platform. Our first year we gained 10,000 followers on Instagram. We’re like, oh, I think there’s something here and nowadays it’s our entire community and our social media community is everything.  And, like I said, most of our t-shirt designs start by us trying to make them feel something positive or empowered or just deliver supportive messaging. So, I think they’re really the backbone of most of the collections.

Sergio: We have like a question where we’re like, which ones should we do? Should we do this or that? Or do you guys have any feedback? What different things do you guys want to see from us? And that’s what we, they’re everything for us.

How has GPA impacted you personally? 

Sergio:  It’s a lot. We get emails from grandmas, from moms, from dads, from families that they’re like, hey, my son just came out as non-binary and I looked up non-binary blankets and I found your site and I love everything that you have and it brought us closer together. And now we have a special bond over this blanket. And it’s like, I tell Jesus, wow, we made a blanket and now we’re getting families together, you know? And it’s like, we thought it was a silly design and we thought it was a silly thing that we were doing, but we’re bridging families together and it’s so important to do that and we might not see it every single day. And that’s what pushes me to do more.

Jesus: I mean, GPA is our lives, it’s quite literally our baby. It’s everything to me. I think like Sergio said, it’s really weird to think about it but knowing that something that we did or said is impacting someone in a positive way. It’s extremely rewarding and humbling. I mean, we come from low-income families in Phoenix, Arizona. My dad worked construction, my mom was a stay-at-home mom and now I’m impacting this person’s life over there, and it’s very rewarding and humbling.

Sergio: We read every single review, every single email, and whenever we get a positive one, I show it to Jesus, so I’m like, Oh my god, this person is screaming because they’re so happy that they’re able to wear their t-shirt in their small conservative town, and scream it to the world that they’re queer and they’re happy and they don’t care, and we’re making them feel that way. It’s such an amazing happiness that I feel of like, wow, I’m able to touch someone by a t-shirt that we made, so it’s changed a lot.

How are you planning to evolve the brand?

Jesus: We’re at a good moment right now. We just quit our jobs in May of last year. I think we’re just trying to be there for the community more and more. We just hit 100,000 followers on Instagram, which is a really big accomplishment for us and I think we realize, especially with the Queer Protest Collection, that people are looking for community even more than before, especially in the next 4 years.

We did launch during Trump’s first administration, which was 2019, and we did notice that then too like, for example, during the 2020 like George Floyd moment and I think 2020 was a rough year for a lot of communities. We saw our brand’s need and people resonating with it. Now, five years later we’re full time working on this. It gives us more flexibility to just be there quicker. I think when we had nine-to-five jobs, I couldn’t respond to something that happened today and make a post about it. I would have to wait till after work. So now that we’re in this moment of our time, I think we can be there for people a little bit more. And then how do we evolve? I think it’s just continuing to make a statement. I think that a t-shirt with a graphic is a really powerful tool for speaking out and making people feel safe around you.

Sergio: I agree. And just evolving that, like you said, we worked nine-to-five, we weren’t able to be able to be reactive. We want to evolve the statements that we’ve made and just build a community and increase that with a wider reach because we’re just two gay men. We were very comfortable in who we are but we’re fighting the fight for the people that don’t have the voice, people that are scared, people that are not where they’re at. And we just want to be the support that they have.

Shop The Queer Protest Collection and all of Jesus and Sergio’s clothing and accessories Gay Pride Apparel and follow the company on Facebook and Instagram.