wicked end · el paso, texas

OUR PROCESS

an honest look behind every piece.

No AI.

everything you see here is built by a human.

there is no generative ai in wicked end artwork.

if i need an image, i go find it. if i need a texture, i make it or scan it. drawings, lettering, symbols, photographs, old print, strange references, tiny details. everything has to be found, made, cut apart, edited and put together by hand.

i still believe the searching matters. the hours matter. developing your own eye matters. finding something nobody else thought to look for matters.

wicked end is human-made art. now and forever.

FOUND. SCANNED. DRAWN. BUILT BY ME.

Our Artwork.

⠀

i make the artwork myself

most of what i make starts with my own drawings, lettering, sigils, symbols and ideas, then gets built out piece by piece through graphic design.

but a big part of wicked end has also become finding the right photographic material. i don’t want every shirt to start with the same ten stock websites, pinterest boards or images that show up when everybody types the same thing into google.

so i started going backwards.

i hunt through thrift stores, goodwill, ebay, estate sales and anywhere else i can find old magazines, books, advertisements, catalogs and printed material. horror magazines, old fashion editorials, forgotten photography, strange advertisements, pulp art, old model shoots.

i bring that material home and scan it myself. from there i can pull individual elements apart, crop them, recolor them, distort them, redraw sections, remove what i don’t need and start combining them with my own artwork.

i also spend a lot of time digging through public domain archives. there are photographs, illustrations, books, advertisements and pieces of printed history that have been sitting untouched for decades.

some pieces might start with a photograph from an old magazine. another might start with something i drew. another might come from a public domain image that gets completely torn apart and rebuilt. most of the time it ends up being a mixture of all of it.

A hot girl from a 1993 Scream Queens mag, mixed with a concept from Rob Griffin (incredible mask maker, checkout out his Unsplash) that combines Jason, Leatherface, and Pinhead. Combine that with modern sigilism and there you go that's fucking Pretty in Chains.

that’s probably my favorite part of making these now. taking things that were never meant to exist together, sometimes made decades apart, and working them until they feel like they were always supposed to be one image.

every wicked end piece is built specifically for wicked end. old physical source material, original artwork, archival imagery, typography, texture and graphic design all worked together until it becomes something of its own.

you decide a lot of what gets made, too. we put designs up, people vote, and the winners get produced. some come back. some disappear forever. i like it that way.

The Meaning.

a lot of it comes from addiction.

addiction was a dark cloud over my childhood. it was there every day, during the years that were supposed to shape me the right way.

then i fought it myself as an adult. hospitalizations. ruined chances. years of trying to get back what it took.

i’m not always thinking about that when i’m making something. sometimes i make a piece just because i think that mfers gonna look badass. but the more i look at the work, the more i see it coming through anyway.

it shows up in different ways. sleep paralysis from drop 1 was based on a nightmare i had a lot as a kid, falling out of bed onto the floor and not being able to move while my door opens and something walks in. but now that i think about it, even that stems from having an addict gaurdian so there it is again actually.

shackled is more political, more about society. the chains we've created for ourselves, handed over to powers we can’t even see. trapped in something bigger than yourself, and not even knowing who’s holding the chain anymore. absolutely stuck.

so the meaning isn’t always one exact thing. sometimes it’s just a graphic that looks badass. but a lot of it still comes from the same place. what i grew up around, what i went through, and what stuck with me.

where the ideas actually come from.

Our Marketing.

the marketing is handmade too.

every drop email you've ever gotten from us was built by hand. not a template. not a plug-in. i sit down and design every single one, top to bottom. the layout, the type, the photos, the spec sheets, the little details you probably don't even notice. hours on each one. i've got hundreds of them and i'll show you.

the videos are the same. every timelapse, every behind the scenes clip, every ad. filmed by me, in the shop. no stock footage. no agency. no ai writing the captions or generating the b-roll.

i'm not saying this to be precious about it. i'm saying it because when you get an email from wicked end, you're getting something a person made for you. that's the whole point of this brand.

drop emails, part one drop emails, part two drop emails, part three drop 3 posters + ads

The Fabric.

inside los angeles apparel.

the shirt matters as much as the graphic, honestly maybe more.

i’m dead serious about the shirt itself.

there is nothing worse than a thin shirt that sticks to your skin, or a boxy tee that’s so boxy it basically turns into a crop top. or a perfect fit that only lasts until the first wash.

i’ve hunted for blanks. tested them. washed them. worn them. hated most of them.

for a while, the 1801gd from los angeles apparel was the one i kept coming back to. 6.5 oz cotton, made in the u.s., solid shirt. still one of the better blanks out there.

but we finally found something better.

most brands do the opposite once they start growing. they find a cheaper shirt overseas and keep the margin. we spent more and upgraded it. i wear these every day. i want the best, so i make the best.

we moved to cotton collective’s 7.5 oz oversized box tee.

and this is the part i care about most. it’s 100% us-grown cotton, cut and sewn in the usa. then it’s screenprinted here in el paso, packed here, and shipped from here. almost nobody in this space can say that. most brands won’t even tell you where the blank comes from, because the answer is a factory overseas they’ve never stepped foot in. every wicked end shirt starts in american cotton and ends in a box that left el paso.

it’s heavier than the 1801gd, but softer in hand. the collar is thick, the good kind. the stitching is cleaner. the sizing has been more consistent from the pieces i’ve tested. the fit is boxy through the body with a dropped shoulder. that old 90s streetwear tee. no crop. crop tees are big right now and that’s cool, i just want to make something you’ll still want to wear in five years. we don’t hop on trends. we make a timeless tee.

not because it sounds good on a product page, but because you feel it immediately when you put the shirt on.

the graphic gets people to look. the blank is what makes you keep wearing it.

7.5 oz cotton. soft. made in the u.s.

Printed Local. Not Outsourced.

dtf printing is everywhere now. fast, cheap, easy to scale.

no hate to dtg or dtf. they have their place, and they make sense for a lot of brands.

but for wicked end, screen printing is the direction that feels right.

it takes longer. it costs more. there’s more setup, more testing, more room for things to go wrong. but when it’s done right, the print feels like it belongs on the shirt.

from drop 3 onward, every piece is screen printed locally in el paso. not mass uploaded, not outsourced to some random print-on-demand setup, not made after you order it.

we make the drop, print the run, pack it ourselves, and ship it out from here.

the goal isn’t to make the easiest version of this. it’s to make the version i’m actually proud of.

i want to sleep at night knowing i put something really fucking good into the world. not thousands of shirts with graphics that start peeling after a few washes.

everything ships from our own space inside the printshop now. same building the shirts are printed in. and this fall we’re opening the first actual wicked end location here in el paso. not that long ago this was just a website.

don’t take my word for any of this. we’re sitting at 4.9 stars across hundreds of verified reviews. read what everyone else has said.

inside the shop. watch it on instagram →

Transparency.

SEP 11, 2026 WICKED END · COST SHEET

a single shirt, plainly

Blank · 7.5 oz USA-made heavyweight tee ~$5–$6

100% US-grown cotton. cut + sewn in the USA.

Print + fulfillment · on-demand designs (Drop 1 & 2 reprints) $14.45

printing, handling, folding, packing, labeling + fulfillment.

OR · pre-produced screenprint fulfillment $5 first item
Additional apparel in same order $1.50 ea.

screenprint was produced and paid for separately ahead of time.

Poly mailer · insert · sticker ~$1.50–$2.50

supplied by wicked end. every package still costs something.

Shipping label · postage ~$4–$7+

varies by destination, weight, and number of garments.

Payment processing ~$1.50–$2

shopify + payment platforms take their cut on every transaction.

Marketing · when used ~$5–$10+

not every order comes from an ad. when one does, acquisition has a cost.

Direct cost before overhead varies

by production method + order.

Retail price $48

and that still isn't the whole cost.

  • website · domain · hosting
  • shopify · app subscriptions
  • klaviyo · email marketing
  • equipment · printers · computers
  • screens · emulsion · pre-treat
  • ink · solvents · maintenance
  • poly mailers · insert cards
  • stickers in every order
  • shipping labels · postage
  • transaction fees · platform cuts
  • taxes · accounting · fees
  • marketing · ads · creative
  • photography · models · samples
  • artwork · design time
  • blank freight · inbound shipping
  • inventory management
  • quality control · garment inspection
  • screen setup + production runs
  • fulfillment labor
  • packaging inventory
  • samples + test prints
  • time printing
  • time packing
  • time filming
  • time posting
  • time answering customers
  • returns · exchanges · replacements
  • customer replacement shipping
  • misprints · reprints · mistakes
  • inventory loss · damaged blanks
  • holding inventory before it sells
  • storage · workspace · utilities

this is what it actually costs to use better blanks, produce locally, fulfill every order properly, and keep improving the product without cutting corners.

so yea — i love this shit.

it's not for the money.

— Josh · Wicked End