Fine Culture was built in a town of 828 people in western Montana. That’s where our studio lives—and where this brand grew from nothing but ideas, risk, and obsession.
Fine Culture started my sophomore year of high school. At first, it was just printed tees through Printify (iykyk). Curiosity turned into obsession, and obsession turned into learning how real manufacturing worked. The first real release was the Fucked Faces Tee. TikTok did what TikTok does, and after a month of tacky videos, we sold 300 shirts.
From there, collections became more intentional. SIGHTS introduced our first recognizable mark—the Crosshairs logo. ARMED WORLD followed with graphic tees, hoodies, and our first hat. Then came COLD KILLER, a fully cohesive drop that proved Fine Culture could feel like a world, not just products.
The summer of my junior year, my mom bought me a $20 sewing machine. That changed everything. I started making 1/1 pieces—experimenting, failing, learning. Some of the best work I’ve ever made came from that machine.
Then things stalled.
After the PEACE AND ANARCHY collection, I hit a wall. No momentum. No money. Too much overthinking. I dropped handmade bags and a $10 tee—sold zero tees. That moment felt like the end.
But it wasn’t.
I knew I wanted to design wilder, more ambitious pieces—and I wanted them manufactured properly. I took almost every dollar I earned working as a grocery store merchandiser and put it into ten samples. Ebony Denim. Drab Trousers. Sage Rage Hoodie. Jakit. Meraki Denim. Crow Denim. A month of nonstop designing with the mindset that if this failed, Fine Culture was over.
Then came TikTok—again.
Thirty-plus videos. No ads. No endorsements. Just belief.
The Sage Rage Hoodie dropped first. Release weekend, we sold 98 hoodies. Over $10,000 in sales—organic. After three years, that was the first time it felt like the brand was actually becoming what I envisioned.
Then came Ebony Denim.
On March 15th, after shoveling snow off the deck, I prepped the site. Thirty minutes before release, there were 300 people waiting. That day we did $50,000 in gross preorder sales.
That moment changed everything.
It proved that I could design what I genuinely loved—and people would connect with it too. Since then, we’ve fulfilled over 15,000 orders.
Fine Culture isn’t slowing down.
We’re just getting started.
ENTRY 2
December 14 — 11:32 PM
Writing where I left off.
Five minutes ago we hit order #15,737. I’ve started using order numbers as a way to track time. Feels more real than dates.
Black Friday went good this year. Not perfect, but good. Learned a lot about what works and what absolutely doesn’t. It’s obvious I can’t keep moving the same way if I want Fine Culture to keep growing. My role has to change. My priorities too.
Not really sure what my headspace will be like when I write the next entry. Curious if I’ll read this back and feel different.
This year was a lot of relearning. A lot of change. Looking at how far FC has come is still kind of crazy. It feels unreal, but at the same time it always felt like it was supposed to happen.
Weird feeling living inside something that used to be just an idea.
On to the next one.
On to the next one.
ENTRY 3 -
Date/Time - TBD
Do something wrong. Do something right.
- Walid Mustafa
(aka Mr. FC)
