Dirty Devil Apparel

DIRTY DEVIL APPAREL
by Jason Walsh

Sometimes just being in a band, or two bands isn’t enough. Sometimes artists search for other ways to channel their creative outlets; whether visual art, physical activity, writing, filmmaking, or tearing apart a V-8 engine.

In the case of Roger Miret, there are several outlets. The frontman of Agnostic Front for nearly three decades has his side project, The Disasters, as well as his car club, The Rumblers, which has helped feed his passion for classic cars and motorcycles. However, Miret hasn’t stopped there.

A few years ago, the seeds were planted for developing an apparel company that not only spoke to his hardcore history that began on the streets of the Lower East Side in New York City in the early 80s, but also to his passion for “old-school” vehicles. Dirty Devil Apparel was born. I had the chance to speak with Miret about his thriving new endeavor as a clothing line entrepreneur and also learned and exciting new development in the continuing legacy that is Agnostic Front.


JW: What got you inspired to do this?

MIRET: The sheer full inspiration behind Dirty Devil is my lifestyle. The actual line is a reflection of my whole career and everything with music, with cars, with bikes. I’ve been involved within the scene for many years, and in being involved within the scene, going out to shows, and checking out different apparels and stuff, I started thinking about what I would like to do apparel-wise and what I feel is missing. I have really cool new designs working with my partner, Todd Huber, on art and layout and stuff like that and then bringing it to the home of Lucky 13, everything fell into place.

JW: When did you first start doing this? When did this come to fruition?

MIRET: We’re two-and-a-half years into full operation. We’ve been going back and forth through ideas now for I think four years. The first year and six months it was just ideas and then we brought in this whole operation in 2007.

JW: As far as the designs and artwork, is it you and your partner Todd or do you have other people helping you out with that?

MIRET: Well Todd does some of the art. He does a lot of the layout and the concepts and ideas are solely mine, and I verify with Todd and he figures out which artist we’d like to work with for the actual concepts and ideas and then we pitch them at few different artists. We had Chris Martin working with us for a while and he also went on to work with Jesse James for a while, but now he’s not with Jesse James and he’s doing freelance again. We’ve had a couple different artists. We had Horace Palami from Spain working with us, Larry Garcia, and we had Craig Holloway do one piece. I have quite a few different artists and Todd has been doing some of the better selling pieces.

JW: And it’s not just t-shirts and sweatshirts? You’ve got a whole line of stuff outside of that?

MIRET: Yeah, it’s full out apparel. It’s t-shirts, and there is some hoodies, and then we have shorts, we have pants, belt buckles, wallets, belts. We have some baby stuff, we have women’s shirts. We have cardigans for girls and jackets for both boys and girls. It’s a full line. If you go to the website, you’ll be able to some of the stuff.

JW: Yeah, I was looking at the catalog and you even have “onesies” for little kids.

MIRET: Yeah. I have a little 22-month-old daughter right now and I’m expecting my first son, my little baby boy in about eight weeks, so I had to design some cool stuff for them to rock around when I go to shows (laughs).

JW: Yeah, you’re going to be needing a lot of those.

MIRET: Haha…yeah.

JW: So have you enjoyed doing this, you know being kind of outside of music, outside of your enthusiasm for cars and motorcycles. Has it kind of been a fun project?

MIRET: Yeah, it’s a fun project. Anything that involves that type of creativity or any kind of hands-on stuff, I love doing. You know, I love creating. I’ve been loving creating and inspiring people and stuff like that. That’s part of everything I love to do and I like to see a finished product and like you said, everything works hand in hand, you know, it works with my hardcore rock ‘n roll type of lifestyle and also with my Rumblers car club, which I founded twelve years ago. You know ever since I was a little boy, working in my dad’s garage, everything just comes hand in hand, you know. I’m a certified Harley Davidson technician too. I’ve worked alongside some of the great people like Indian Larry, Von Hines, English Don, you know the early Psycho Cycle and all that stuff crew. It’s all cool and everything’s coming together which is cool.

JW: What’s thee feedback you’ve been getting from people, not only from within the hardcore scene, but at car shows, bike shows, things of that nature?

MIRET: I’ve been getting positive feedback. The actual brand is doing well even in a declining, struggling market. We’re still hanging in there and above water which is great. The feedback is great, when I go to my own shows and I’m playing with Agnostic Front, I see people out there wearing Dirty Devil clothing of some sort. I also see it when I go to car shows and it feels good. I go to different stores, here a local store in Arizona called Go Cat Go, and they carry it. It’s pretty much in a lot of places and people are opening up to it, which is really cool. Hot Topic just took on an 800 piece trial order which is really cool and all I can do is hope for the best because it’s something I believe in and I feel good about.

JW: How does that make you feel knowing you can go to the mall and actually see some of your clothes in a store there?

MIRET: Well, um…I don’t know yet (laughs). I haven’t experienced that, you know. The way Hot Topic works is that they just put it in selected stores here and there. They’ve already done a run on the East Coast with Dirty Devil, but this is just a bigger run they’re doing now. But you know, I’ve had Agnostic Front shirts here and there, at different Hot Topics and stuff. You know the truth of the matter is that it feels good to see that and there’s a demand and people are searching and looking for it. The website has it. But it feels good. I feel like I’m accomplishing something.

JW: Very cool. I have one last, non-clothing related questions I wanted to ask you? I read you got a new drummer for Agnostic Front. Tell me about that.

MIRET: Well our new drummer is not anybody new to the scene. He’s a veteran and I don’t know if you’re familiar with band called Leeway.

JW: Oh yeah…

MIRET: Another great band from the 80s, having to do with the direct New York crossover hardcore type of stuff that was going on. So Pokey (Mo) is a veteran playing drums for us. I have yet to rehearse with him or even play with him because I don’t live in New York, and I will be on stage with him Wednesday (last April) and I expect nothing but the best from him. He’s a pro, a really great drummer, and the guys have been working with him, so I’m excited.

http://www.dirtydevilapparel.com/