Introducing nice as heck.

Today we’d like to introduce you to nice as heck.

Thanks for sharing your story with us. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The origins of nice as heck began just north of Chicago, in the burbs of Glenview and Golf, Illinois. Since the three of us lived just a few miles apart, attending school and participating in many different activities revealed our shared passions and eventually brought us together- whether it was ripping the slopes, or sneaking out at lunch to do who knows what. Chris originally founded the company in his sophomore year of high school in the spring of 2015. Chris’ problem was that he couldn’t find clothes to appease his vintage style. He would shop around at thrift stores, skate shops, and online, but never quite found what he was looking for. Fed up, Chris decided his best bet was to just make the clothes himself… and thus nice as heck was born. The name was drawn off a phrase we constantly used, which was “nice as fuck.” Chris thought this phrase printed on a tee would look edgy with a touch of class, against his parents’ approval, yet ultimately settled for a less-vulgar name.

Chris designed the original box logo, and through a technique, he learned in middle school, began screen printing on blank tees in his basement. The demand for shirts began to exceed the rate at which Chris could print them so he sought help in his two best friends, bringing the dream to life in 2017.

Taking nice as heck seriously has been the best decision we have ever made. Having just completed our sophomore year in college – Cam at Chapman University, Matt at the University of Southern California, and Chris at Syracuse University – we spend our summer days running the company out of our office. This unique bi-coastal situation has been a driving force in our ability to create brand awareness from the concrete jungle that is NYC, all the way to the sunny beaches of LA. Living in Los Angeles has given us an aspiration to open our flagship store here in the near future.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Each collection’s drop has been an adventure in its own. We try to uniquely present our clothing each season through our media and marketing, keeping our audience on their toes. We have ran into many challenges along the way, and one of the biggest difficulties has been adjusting to our college workloads while applying as much time as we can to grow nice as heck. Beyond our college careers, we have been working towards making our company more environmentally conscious, which has been a challenge on its own.

Our clothes stress environmentalism and minimalism, which is motivated by our passion to help the earth in anyway we can. This has inspired some of our products, including reusable straws and a “Save Our Trees” tee that supported planting trees, which in return has brought us success. This is important to us because even the smallest amount of awareness helps and for us to have a positive influence on the environment means a lot. Although it’s been a challenge coming up with unique ways to protect our environment, it’s something we will never stop doing.

With anything you are trying to create, there are always hurdles and it comes down to your ability to capitalize and learn from past experiences.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with nice as heck. – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Our company stemmed from our passions as children. We are all grateful for our parents, who encouraged us at a young age to pursue interests such as snowboarding, skateboarding, camping, hiking, and many other outdoor activities. Our original home of Chicago and the surrounding area offered us a place to grow into the people we are today. When we began creating our clothes, we never wanted them to be complicated or flashy. Our clothes are curated to be ready-to-wear fashion, stressing quality fabric and functionality. We are everyday adventurers, and we aren’t scared to say we ruin our own clothing sometimes, otherwise we wouldn’t have any stories to tell. Many companies rarely value functionality and quality, but rather turn to only style. The clothes and items we currently make reflect our desire for versatile clothing with style, from our comfortable jackets, hoodies, and crewnecks, to our tees, long sleeves, and hats. But beyond that, we enjoy applying our creativity to items that stress our love for the earth.

Nice as heck is a platform for us to create, and that is what excites us everyday. We aren’t just another clothing company; we are people trying to inspire others to live out their own lives through experiencing, rather than just observing. What has been most exciting about building this company up has been when we are out somewhere, and someone compliments our clothes unknowingly. Simply the fact that they think our clothes are special enough to warrant a random gesture of appreciation keeps us going full-tilt ahead. We continually get feedback from people saying how much they love our name, and the funny thing is the name came about well before the company began.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Our interests growing up have morphed us into the people we are today. We have obviously found a lot more hobbies to pursue and places to explore, but our same passion to experience life firsthand has always been present. Our parents enjoyed taking us along on their adventures and pushing us to get outside. From an early age, we all learned to ski and later switched over to snowboarding (sorry skiers…). Snowboarding was an early experience that has been very directional in our lives. The freedom we experienced on the mountain quickly drove us to discover more board sports. Skateboarding then became a passion for us from the first time we tried back when we were 12 to 13, and so the other board sports followed. The feeling we discovered from these hobbies became the driving force to the creation of nice as heck. We were hooked on the adrenaline, freedom, and peace we found conquering nature on our boards. Our creativity from these activities quickly translated into our desire to create minimal clothing, ready for the everyday adventurer. We truly feel that everyday we live out our nice life, and that’s what we want to share with the world. We experience so many things in our lives, and focusing on these experiences, whether big or small, drives our passion. That is what living your nice life is.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.niceasheck.com/
• Phone: 847-909-4074
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credit:
All photos shot by nice as heck and alto visuals

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.