Sergio Aragon and Jesus Gutierrez had been operating Gay Pride Apparel for a year and a half when they saw their creations out “in the wild.”
On June 28, the west Phoenix couple was at the Queer Liberation March in New York City when they saw “not one but three different people wearing one of our shirts.”
“I’m like, go tell her it’s us! We’re Gay Pride Apparel!” Aragon said.
But that wasn’t “the coolest thing that’s ever happened” to the co-owners since they launched their online apparel brand in January 2019.
No, their crowning moment was an unexpected celebrity shout-out from “Riverdale” and “Hustlers” actress Lili Reinhart.
On Aug. 16, Reinhart, who’d recently come out as bisexual on Instagram, wore a Gay Pride Apparel sweatshirt with the logo “Sounds gay; I’m in.”
This happened just days after Gutierrez quit his full-time job creating marketing campaigns at Tiffany & Co., he said.
“It was … a very reassuring moment of like, ‘OK, maybe we’re on to something,’” he said.
“Out of all gay brands out there, she picked (us),” Aragon said.
Gay Pride Apparel was born from a Phoenix love story
Gutierrez and Aragon, both 25, lived “blocks from each other” growing up in west Phoenix.
It wasn’t until after they’d graduated from college that they realized they were in love.
They met at Frank Borman School in sixth grade, and their friendship “really started to flourish” at Maryvale High School, Aragon said. Their similarities are uncanny: Both are first-generation Americans — their parents are from northern Mexico — with three younger siblings each.
“For me, growing up (in west Phoenix) really gave me this thirst and drive to do better and make sure that I can provide for my family,” Gutierrez said. “I think my dream was always to do something greater for the community. And it always stemmed from growing up in west Phoenix.”
Though they’d gone their separate ways after high school — Gutierrez to Arizona State University and Aragon to the University of Arizona — they maintained their friendship, which “slowly blossomed into a beautiful relationship both as a couple and now as business partners,” according to a press release. Together, they moved to New York City and worked for major retail brands.
Making Pride year-round: ‘Our community deserves better’
Gay Pride Apparel began as a “creative outlet and also as a way to kind of take back the Pride merchandise,” Gutierrez said.
The couple’s vision to “build a community of empowered, authentic and proud humans” was born out of seeing New York City transform for LGBT Pride month in June.
“Seeing the shift from May to June and seeing every single storefront put a rainbow and plaster rainbows everywhere was very, like, ‘Wait, where were you, like, two weeks ago?’” Gutierrez said.
When June 31 arrives, he said, clean-up is already underway. But the duo doesn’t see Pride as something to be celebrated for only a month.
“A lot of the companies would come out with seasonal products, and we kind of felt that our community deserves better,” Gutierrez said. “We wanted to be present year-round.”
In New York, Aragon and Gutierrez were inspired by the 50th anniversary in 2019 of the Stonewall uprising and learning about the history of the modern gay rights movement.
“We stick to our roots, and we … no matter what platform we have, whatever happens, we want to make sure that we speak up,” Aragon said. “We’re in the community, and it’s two of us. That’s what makes us, I think, a little bit special is that we are both LGBT-owned and minority-owned.”
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‘Acceptance and equality for all’
At Gay Pride Apparel, Aragon and Gutierrez say they seek ethically sourced clothing and accessories to “promote acceptance and equality for all.” They’re “not artists or designers,” according to Gutierrez, and their ability to create the illustrations featured on T-shirts, tote bags and mugs is self-taught.
They have teamed up with several artists — including Meg Lee, who identifies as a trans non-binary person and created the “Sounds gay; I’m in” design that Lili Reinhart wore — to expand their offerings.
The couple wants their customers and community to celebrate their individuality safely. Gay Pride Apparel packages arrive in discreet packaging. Purchases show up with an abbreviated vendor name on credit card statements.
These decisions were made with the “understanding that not everyone is out of the closet or lives in safe spaces where they can be themselves,” according to a press release. One dollar from each sale is also donated to a nonprofit organization of the customer’s choosing.
“We’re just authentically us, authentically representing a community,” Gutierrez said.
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2020 Pride was ‘a very somber time’
Between COVID-19 and protests against racial injustice, Pride month was different this year. At Gay Pride Apparel, Aragon and Gutierrez had to adapt to unprecedented events.
They scaled back their marketing campaigns for June and instead focused on “giving back to all the social justice movements going on,” Gutierrez said. “Our messaging became more about equality for everyone, not so much for Pride.”
The annual Phoenix Pride festival had been scheduled for early April, then postponed to November before it was canceled for 2020. Now it’s scheduled for April 10-11, 2021.
“There’s too much going on in the world during Pride for anyone to really be focusing on apparel items. So it definitely hurt us personally,” Gutierrez said. “So personally, professionally and business-wise, it was just a very somber time as opposed to (the usual) celebratory.”
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‘The dream that our parents came to the U.S. to give us’
It was during this time that Aragon and Gutierrez realized they were longing for Mexico City after their pre-coronavirus trip there this year. So they decided to make some major life changes.
“We fell in love with New York and moved there, then we fell in love with Mexico City, and here we are,” Gutierrez said. “Being here and seeing different kinds of queer people and seeing how they identify … the movement here is different than the movement in the U.S.”
“(I’ve noticed) how different it can be to express yourself here than it is like in the States — or in New York, specifically,” he added.
They have fewer neighbors who identify as LGBTQ in Mexico City, but the culture is “catching up” in terms of being progressive, the couple thinks. They also noted that same-sex marriage has been legal since 2009 in Mexico City, compared to 2011 in New York.
Moving their operations to Mexico was possible because both Aragon and Gutierrez had quit their jobs this summer to run Gay Pride Apparel together full-time.
“We left our corporate jobs and (are now) living the American dream and the dream that our parents came to the U.S. to give us,” Gutierrez said.
“We feel like being in Mexico City, we’re able to find ourselves more as who we are and where we come from,” Aragon said.
Reach the reporter at kimi.robinson@gannett.com or at 602-444-4968. Follow her on Twitter @kimirobin and Instagram @ReporterKiMi.
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