Skater Owned & Sewn, Pick Pocket by Josh Stafford Upcycles Clothes

“Skater Owned & Sewn” –  that’s the tagline for Pick Pocket MFG, and it’s a damn good one. Josh Stafford is a professional skater that has created his own company out of shears, stitches and your favorite old t-shirt that you just can’t seem to trash. And he did it without even trying, at first.

What started out as a way to save some personal memorabilia in a meaningful way has become a true one-of-a-kind business. Stafford offers skaters, and anyone else who can contact him, an opportunity to upcycle their own treasured, but maybe tattered, t-shirt into a one-off pocket tee or custom crew neck.

Not only does he upcycle his customers’ clothes but he makes a new line every season of tailor-made gear from hats to pants in addition to the prototypical pocket tees. He’s also out there collaborating with other brands and individuals as well as supporting skateboarding in any way he can.

Between keeping up with his normal demand, he’s now stitching up and sending out customized face masks to help people through the pandemic, Stafford has officially got his hands full with Pick Pocket MFG. To top it off, he has partnered with his neighbors The House of Vista for a “Social Distance and Destroy” safety initiative campaign that you can follow on instagram @SocialDistanceAndDestroy. Still, he took the time to tell us all about it.

“I started out selling a few pocket tees just to friends who thought the ones I made for myself were pretty cool—they weren’t.” — Josh Stafford

Let’s start with a brief breakdown of the brand. What is Pick Pocket MFG?
I had the idea one day when I was trying to make room in my closet. I had a bunch of shirts that I never wore anymore because they were too thrashed or small or whatever, but couldn’t get myself to trash them because I liked the graphic or there was some sentimental value to them. So I chopped a couple up and made some pockets out of them and put them onto new shirts. Eventually, I learned how to sew properly, and ever since I’ve just been cutting up old shirts and materials to upcycle into something new and wearable again.

People bring me their old shirts, for me to make pockets, patches, masks, etc out of them to have something unique.  Everything is made to order. I have a selection of garments I can sew stuff onto you can pick from. I also have my own designs and collections I put out, but I’m most stoked on being able to make people’s once-favorite tees wearable again in one way or another.

What type of products do you create, and where do you source materials?
I make pretty much whatever people want me to try and make for them, haha. Recently I have been making masks out of old shirts, but for the most part, it’s a ton of pocket tees and hoodies. I’ve recently started doing more with pant alterations, so we’ll definitely see more of that in the future.

I’d say at least 90% of where I get my pocket/patch material is from old clothing. I’ll go to thrift stores, but lately, I get a lot of stuff donated to me from people that just want to see their stuff go somewhere other than the trash.

Where is Pick Pocket available for purchase? What is the history of selling the brand?
I started out selling a few pocket tees just to friends who thought the ones I made for myself were pretty cool—they weren’t. The first two were made by hand without an iron or a sewing machine, and looked horrible. For a long time, I would just make them for friends, do farmer’s markets here and there and sell on Etsy. I still do the Oceanside Sunset Market every Thursday from 5-9 pm.

Now, I have my website along with a storefront in Vista that I opened about three months ago, and that’s pretty much where I’m at all the time. It’s next door to The House of Vista skate shop, which has carried my stuff for a while now.

Slappy’s Garage skate shop was the first shop that carried PPMFG and I’m forever grateful to Jason Carney for that. Since then I’m in a handful of shops (Pacific Drive, Local Skateshop, Urban Ave, Sonoma Originals) and would like to sell to more skate shops, for sure.

I want to support the shops and the type of people who supported me growing up. I love skateboarding, and you’ll definitely see an influence in it, but it’s not a company that’s specifically for skateboarders. Everyone has at least one shirt they have and never wear, but can’t get rid of.

Has the brand ever been involved in any collabs?
I’ve done a handful of minor collabs with some homies for sure, whether its art or just our little brands coming together. I did one with Zack Dowdy who ran Typical Culture Zine, with art by my tattoo guy and skate homie, Connor Getzlaff. Shuriken Shannon and I used some photos he took of Wes Kremer to make some pockets out of.

The most special so far was with Jeff Grosso. He invited me up to his house six or so months ago to go through his closet of shirts to do a collection of pockets out of his stuff. Since his recent passing, we just finished the pre-order for the re-run of the shirt I designed with Grosso, as a benefit where all the profits from the shirts will go to his son Oliver. It went really well and we were able to sell around 500 shirts.

What about side projects? Is Pick Pocket currently working on anything rad? Any big projects from the past or planned for the future you can mention?
Right now, I’m working on a collab with Back Street Brewing, one with The House of Vista for their five-year anniversary, and two others I’m super excited about but can’t say anything about yet.

Who all reps for the Pick Pocket Posse?
Honestly, I have so many homies that support me, the Posse extends pretty far. I’m lucky some of my closest friends wear my stuff.  Alex Perelson, Clay Kreiner, Sam Beckett, all of which I lived with for three years, up until recently. I just finished a video titled ‘POSSE’ featuring myself, Jesse Arrowood, Guy Azulay, and CJ Titus and Clay Kreiner have a ‘doubles’ part, that will be online hopefully sooner than later.  Trey Wood also reps my stuff super heavy, Sean Imes, Shuriken Shannon, I know I’m forgetting people, but all my homies rule.

Any closing statements?
Go skate, try to sew, support the little guys, scare yourself sometimes, tell your friends you love them, and don’t throw away your old shirts… Give them to me, haha.