About Octane Apparel Co.

I founded Octane Apparel towards the end of summer ‘23.

After spending the summer working on my own cars, going on road trips, attending meets, and even visiting cafés aimed specifically at the culture, I realised I wanted to express my passion in a way that extended beyond just driving a ‘nice car’ (whatever you deem that to be). People often think we’re a nuisance and irresponsible - speeding through villages and breaking red lights, but that’s just not what the culture is about. Don’t get me wrong, there are the select few that sully the community for the rest. 

However, I wanted to showcase the sense of belonging that a common interest forges by focusing on the humour and light-hearted side of car culture. 

Our products are designed to encourage the community we all love. And yes, oil, grease and engines form part of that but the main component are the people. That’s what we’re about.

Octane was built using lessons learned from our sister brand - Tier 1 Clothing, which was founded in the aftermath of the death of my dad when I was in my 20’s back in 2020. While Octane does not share the same foundation of its conception, he still formed a basis for it. 

He used to tell me these stories where he’d be trading in his car for a newer model every 12-18 months when he was in his 20’s. He particularly loved Ford Escorts (RS models, of course). Growing up, this love of rally spec cars was rarely evident in our conversations though, which I do find quite odd looking back. I always knew him as a biker though, but cars not so much. Or maybe it was simply that the conversations didn’t resonate with me when I was younger and so he didn’t deem it fair to be pushing his own interest on his son. I really only started taking an interest when I was in my late teens/early 20’s. And even then, it wasn’t till I was about 24/25 that I owned anything resembling a ‘petrol head’s car’. And for those wondering, it was a MK5 Golf TSI GT, which I know isn’t exactly anything to write home about but getting 170 break out of a 1.4 litre engine is still a marvel that VW should be proud of. And let’s face it, the twin-charged 4 pot is just fun! While we rarely spoke about cars, or bikes, I’d still like to think that I fell in love with the culture due to the subtle influences he had on me. 

So, petrol head, gear head, car guy, car girl, grease monkey. Whatever you wanna call yourself, Octane Apparel was founded to celebrate the things we all love. Whether that's slammed shitboxes, lifted 4x4's, supped up sleepers, JDM, eurospec, or supercars. If it goes 'vrooom' we're here for it. 

Livin’ fast, takin’ it slow.