RW / THE STORY
Presence. Moments. Authenticity. Belief. The story behind who we are and what we believe.
How did RW begin?
RW honestly began as little more than an idea we were trying out for the hell of it. It was originally “RoofWise,” a play on our roots in roofing. At the time, we really did not have a direction for the brand.
Then we fell in love with creating it—the apparel, the ideas, and honestly just making things we wanted to create—with the hope that other people might connect with the same things we did.
Now, the brand has become a much clearer representation of what we believe and the messages we want to share beyond apparel.
When did creating RW become something more?
Honestly, it was designing the brand, period. We got absolutely pulled into it—obsessed, maybe. Then we started designing the apparel and eventually held that first shirt in our hands.
RW gave us a place to bring the artistic side of the brand to life and keep pushing it further.
What was the first RW shirt we produced?
The first RW shirt we produced had the original Rhino graphic, which no longer exists. It had a piece of chalk in each hand and, honestly, was really just a thrown-together design.
We ordered it mainly to see whether the product material was worth investing more time into before perfecting the graphics. To our surprise, that shirt really was the spark. Holding it made the idea feel real: the quality was there, and there was something worth building.
What is RW centered around now?
We’ve built RW around moments. Time. Presence. We want the brand to feel like more than apparel—a way of life, or a symbol for something worth believing in.
The more life moves and throws curveballs, as it does, the more we value living each moment as it is. The most powerful thing can be that simple: sharing time with great people, smelling the ocean air, or even recognizing the strange beauty of being able to feel pain within a moment.
This brand was never supposed to happen—or maybe it was—but that’s exactly the point. It gave our creative side somewhere to go. We’re building it because we can, because it means something to us, and because we believe people have more control over their own story than they sometimes realize.
What do we believe about the past and what comes next?
We believe everything behind us unfolded the way it was intended to—or the way it was always going to. What happened may have brought a lesson, a change in direction, or something we still do not fully understand.
From this point forward, the conscious decisions we make can shape our future. That does not mean we are assigned a fixed fate. It means accepting what has happened, for better or worse, and using what we learned to become better present and future versions of ourselves.
We’re in the driver’s seat. We choose what comes next.
What does being fully bought in mean to us?
Belief is the thing. It’s that simple. Call it cliché, call it what you want, but it’s easy to overcomplicate literally everything in life. Boil it down: if we fully believe in something, who is going to tell us any different?
It shows through action, passion, and perseverance when s*** gets tough. How much are we willing to trudge through and still make it to the other side? How late are we willing to work? How much are we willing to learn? There are a lot of answers because it is a loaded question.
We cannot decide whether someone else is fully bought in. We can only see it over time—in the people who have been through the mud and remain as committed to what they are chasing as they were at the beginning. In the end, that is ours to decide for ourselves.
Does our belief mean sacrificing everything else?
Absolutely not. The most important thing, above all of it, is the people around you. The work matters. What you’re chasing matters. It really matters. But the people you love and the experiences you share with them are why any of it matters in the first place. We don’t build so we can leave those things behind. We build because of them. F*** any version of success that makes you forget that.
What does “When has it not worked out?” mean to us?
“When has it not worked out?” is a question we live by. It does not mean, “F*** it, everything will be fine.” It means that before we let every pressure in life collapse on top of us, we stop and ask the question. When has it not worked out?
That question gives us room to move forward with the belief that, one way or another, we will figure it out. That belief gets us through—not a guaranteed end result. What matters in those moments is recognizing that we do not want to stay where we are and choosing to do something about it. Honestly, those moments can be the simplest life gets.
Maybe it did not work out exactly how we pictured it. Maybe we still cannot see how the situation ends. That is not what matters while we are in it. What matters is that we do not want to remain where we are, so we put our heads down, work, learn, believe we will figure it out, and do something about it.
Remove all the noise and context, and life can become very simple.
This is where we are.This is not where we want to stay.What are we going to do next?
What do we want to see when we look back?
We do not want to look back decades from now and feel like we did not do enough with the time we had. That s*** scares us.
We want to look back and be able to say, “Damn. What an amazing ride it’s been so far.”
What could RW become for all of us?
We are not sure we can fully answer that yet, honestly. If we had to name what feels closest, we would say freedom. We would say positivity—not in a corny, “Oh, it’ll all be okay,” way, but in a real one.
If we can build RW into everything we believe it can be, we want to do it as honestly and genuinely as possible. We want a brand that makes great apparel while standing for something we truly believe in.
Belief is the thing. It’s that simple. Call it cliché, call it what you want, but life is easy to overcomplicate. Boil it down: if we are fully bought in and truly believe in something, who is going to tell us any different?
RW BEGAN
RW started as RoofWise—a play on our roots in roofing. That origin is still part of the brand and part of our story.
What began as a passing idea became a shared belief in presence, moments, authenticity, and choosing what comes next.
support@wearrw.com