Scott Allison’s business Artizen Apparel is strictly organic — nothing more, nothing less.
The new clothing store near the corner of 6th Street and College Avenue in Tempe produces clothing made of organic material. Allison avoids the use of polluted cotton because as he puts it, the fibers are “garbage.”
“The big boxy T-shirts (made of non-organic cotton), I don’t like them because they look like garbage, they feel like garbage, they’re just garbage,” he said.
Allison, who graduated from ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts in 2006, recently relocated Artizen Apparel from Florence, Ariz., to Tempe.
Allison started the business in Florence in 2009 and opened the new location this past June.
“I wanted to be in the University area; it just seemed to be the place that made the most sense,” Allison said.
College students are the targeted demographic for Artizen Apparel, he said. At the Florence location, the surrounding population was made up of mostly old people.
The organic clothing store features original apparel designed by Allison.
The storeowner said he started the clothing company because one day he noticed a T-shirt with an eco-friendly message but found it wasn’t produced in an eco-friendly manner.
“I thought to myself, ‘What about this T-shirt is a part of the solution? It’s still a part of the problem,’” Allison said.
Most of Allison’s T-shirts have a humorous but somewhat serious message.
“I like to question things a little bit,” Allison said. “If something is political (then) I like it to be a little bit humorous.”
The most popular T-shirt displays a peace sign formed out of guns.
A friend of Allison’s who was pro-guns looked at the T-shirt in a manner Allison had not considered.
“She was like, ‘That’s cool because without guns we wouldn’t have peace,” Allison said.
Allison said he is excited his store is near the Tempe campus and wants to integrate his shop into the ASU community.
“I want to have a relationship with the School of Art,” Allison said. “I really would like to do a lot of student shows to showcase their art outside of the University.”
Allison said he would even consider allowing students to design clothing for Artizen Apparel.
The storeowner said so far students have responded well to the new location.
“We’ve actually sold more clothing here so far than we did in Florence in a year,” Allison said.
Political science and transborder Chicano studies junior Christy Contreras said the location was convenient as she passes it on her way to the Tempe campus from the Veterans Way and College Avenue light rail station.
Business management and entrepreneurship junior Marcella Nicosia likes the design of the T-shirts and the organic-based clothing.
“I think that’s what everybody should start doing. I thought it was a good concept and I hope that (the store) stays open,” Nicosia said.
Reach the reporter at shurst2@asu.edu
