In the summer of 1998, the founders of Manly Wear left the warm comforts of their Florida home to pursue adventure in the final American frontier-Alaska. They returned home regaling their friends with tales of bald eagles as plentiful as mosquitos on a muggy Florida night, 4000 foot mountains jutting out of icy cold Cook Inlet Waters, and a ring of volcanoes that lazily puffed rings of smoke like Grandpa lounging in his favorite recliner and smoking a fine Cuban. Days of labor, late night brawls, and less-than-desireable women filled their existence. The men found work on the high sea, bringing back tales of huge pods of humpbacks and orcas, stories of 300-pound halibut that would practically jump into your boat, and yarns about grueling days that brought in tens of thousands of pounds of salmon.
The founders, along with their fellow close friends braved the Alaskan frontier as commercial fishermen, charter boat deckhands, set-netters, fish filleters, and even factory workers. They made their way through the wild lands and returned tougher, stronger, and manlier.
Ethan Altaratz and Richard Anderson continued to return to Alaska the following two summers not only to recharge their bank accounts, but also to take hold of their beer swilling, womanizing, fish killing roots. They worked, slept as Spit Rats in tents on the beach, showered bi-weekly, and ate fire-heated food.
As the gentlemen were working in tip intensive industries, gimmicks that would catch the eye of, and amuse the bovine Midwesterners were a must--thus, the advent of the Fish Killer® T-Shirt. Lounging among his day’s kill, Richard was accosted by one of the finer ladies on the spit (she was in possesion of all her teeth). “Well, you’re just a regular fish killer, aren’t you!” The following day, Richard began wearing a tight white t-shirt with "Fish Killer" hand-scrawled across the front. The shirt was an immediate hit, and unbeknownst to either Richard or Ethan, an idea was born and a company conceived.
The popularity of the Fish Killer® t-shirt spurred the entrepreneurial friends to philosophize that our modern world had been largely emasculated. Men were not the men of old. What had happened to real men, like our grandfathers, who hunted, fished, fought wars, boxed at fairs, and got drunk, all without worrying about what the Missuss might say? Who needs fifty dollar shirts, hundred dollar pants, and shoes you had to buff with a diaper, thought the friends? Figure out who you are, write it on your shirt, and be done with it!
With that epiphany, Manly Wear, Inc. was founded. Our mission is to make simple, direct clothing, that get's to the core of the manly men, that we know are still out there. No fancy designs, no puffed up prices. With Manly Wear, what you see is what you get, and what you wear is what you are!