Built Different

THE STORY BEHIND BRANDON HURLEY & FOREVER CREWSADERS

TACOMA, WA — Forever Crewsaders began with a simple idea: if I couldn’t find something that felt like me, I would create it myself.

Every brand was starting to look the same. I wanted something different, something that represented who I was and the things I was into.

So instead of waiting for somebody else to make it, I learned how to screen print and started printing my own shirts.

That frustration turned into creativity, and eventually that creativity became Forever Crewsaders.

FIGURING OUT MY OWN WAY

I was born with cerebral palsy affecting the right side of my body. When I came into this world, I was purple and blue, covered in IVs and tubes, and spent the first months of my life in an incubator.

Growing up taught me pretty quickly that there is more than one way to do something.

Instead of spending my life focused on what my body couldn’t do, I learned to adapt and figure out my own way.

That mentality eventually found its way into almost everything I do.

On the board — where it all started.

SKATING DIFFERENT

Skateboarding is probably where you can see it the most.

My cerebral palsy affects the way the right side of my body moves, so my skating developed differently too.

That’s part of why you’ll see finger flips, no complies, fast plants and other tricks mixed into my skating. I learned to work with my body instead of trying to force myself to skate exactly like everybody else.

I don’t need my skating to look like somebody else’s. I just need it to be mine.

MORE THAN A BRAND

Forever Crewsaders grew out of all of it.

Skateboarding. Music. Clothing. Creativity. Independence. Doing things yourself and figuring things out when the conventional way doesn’t work for you.

It was never supposed to become another clothing company that follows whatever everybody else is doing.

It represents creating your own lane and staying there even when it would be easier to follow somebody else.

Don’t let somebody else decide what you’re supposed to look like, how you’re supposed to create, or what you’re capable of doing.

That’s what Forever Crewsaders means to me.

I started printing my own shirts because I didn’t want to look like everybody else.

It became something much bigger.

FOREVER CREWSADERS

SKATE. CREATE. KEEP MOVING. STAY OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Behind the scenes.

MORE THAN SKATEBOARDING

Skateboarding has been a huge part of my life, but it isn’t the only thing that keeps me moving.

I lift weights, play basketball and occasionally pick up a baseball just to see if I can still throw a curveball.

Then there’s the creative side.

I design and make clothing for Forever Crewsaders, film videos, work on the website and make beats. A lot of the music you hear in my YouTube videos comes from beats I made myself.

Sometimes I’m creating a skateboard trick. Sometimes it’s a shirt. Sometimes it’s a beat or a video.

The medium changes. The mentality doesn’t.

Keeping the crew going.