How Rehab Inspired Me to Create a Recovery Apparel Brand

Amend Apparel started in a place I didn’t expect: rehab. I was on Bowen Island, British Columbia, going to groups, doing stepwork, and trying to get stable in recovery for the fifth time.

The treatment center had a rack of recovery shirts and hoodies for sale, and everybody loved them. They were flying off the shelves. People weren’t buying them because they needed clothes or because it was cold. They bought them because wearing recovery apparel meant something. It was a way to say, “I’m sober, and I’m proud.” That’s when it clicked. I could use my background in screen printing and graphic design to create a recovery brand. Something a bit different, something interesting, something new.

I went home with that idea and got to work. I started sketching more designs, building a website, and making the kind of recovery shirts I wished existed, stuff I would actually wear. The process kept my hands busy and my head in the right place. Before long, the idea turned into something real. People started asking for the shirts, wearing them, and treating them like a badge of honor, just like I’d seen back in treatment.

Now, seven years later, Amend Apparel is still here. What started as sketches in a rehab notebook has turned into one of the top spots to find AA shirts, NA shirts, and sober clothing for people living recovery.