Word vomit: boxes & barbells university

I remember those movies from the ’80s—the ones that followed athletes in high school or 
college. It didn’t really matter which. What stuck with me were the shirts: the aesthetics of the time. Simple. Generic. Almost forgettable on paper, yet unforgettable in memory.


University name across the chest. A logo. “Physical Education” or “Athletics” printed underneath. All basically the same. And you know exactly what I’m talking about.


Those pieces were raw. Honest. Perfectly of their time. Somehow aesthetically pleasing without trying to be. They worked in that moment, in that setting. And for whatever reason, that imagery burned itself into my head.


That’s where my nostalgia lives.


That era feels like a golden age the point where my memory really starts. Larger-than-life characters. Fitness culture taking shape. Physiques, grit, and identity all colliding. That’s the mindset that hooked me. That’s the place I keep returning to when I think about design, movement, and why BOXES & BARBELLS exists in the first place.


So when I started thinking about the next collection, I knew I wanted to go back there.


I’ve teased this idea before. One of our past pieces, The Universitywas as simple as it gets: “Lifting Club” printed across the chest of a sports-gray champion sweatshirt. No noise. Just a statement. People loved it. And honestly, it might still be one of my favorite thing I’ve ever made.
Not because it was complex but because it was focused. Minimal. Clear. And the impact was huge. Not just in sales, but in how precisely it captured what I wanted to say. It landed exactly where I hoped it would.


I also teased a future collection Freshman year. Then, like most things in my brain, it got buried under forty-seven other ideas I wanted to chase. That’s just how I work.


But now I want to come back to it.


I want to return to this idea of freshman year, 1987, everything left on the field, in the gym, in the weight room. After school. No distractions. Just iron, sweat, and identity forming in real time.
I keep seeing those simple design aesthetics. One word that always stuck with me: LIFT. A big and badass, old-school lifting club. Fictional. After school. The kind you lived for.


So why not go further?


This becomes the After School Lifting Club, a division of BOXES & BARBELLS University.


Yeah. That’s it.


A fake school. A fictional identity. Teasers, stories, visuals all tied together. It connects back to our previous collections. Last spring, we introduced the letter B, and I knew then it wasn’t done.
I want to bring that B back this time in an American Gothic / Old English style. It ties to the hardcore and punk roots I grew up with, but it’s also classic sports iconography. The kind of letter you’d see on an old MLB cap or a varsity jacket.


Just a B.


A team letter. A school letter. High school, college, whatever you want it to be in your head. It’s all fictional. You can’t enroll. You can’t join.


But you can wear it.


We built the identity around BOXES & BARBELLS University, with the B as the statement piece. The mascot stays as the hyena, a deliberate choice. Everyone uses wolves, bears, and other obvious “badass” animals. But hyenas? They’re smarter. More ruthless. Underrated.
And yeah, if you’ve read anything I’ve written before, you know I love the hyenas from The Lion King. That tracks.


The hyena is the mascot. The After School Lifting Club is the culture.


We play with this whole fictional world. A made-up place that feels real enough to remember. Because the strongest brands, the ones that actually last, are built on imagery you can see. Stories you can step into.


If you can picture it, you can believe it.
That’s where this starts.
And this time, we’re taking it all the way.