I spent a decade managing a $50M a year fashion business.
Now, I'm building something else.

Here's the truth: I was deep inside the fashion beast. As a Senior Buyer for American Eagle at Alshaya Group, I managed menswear— by the time I quit, we had 60 stores across the Middle East, with my area bringing in about $50 million a year. I handled it all: buying, supply chain, distribution. I came to know that world quite well.

I was good at my job. Perhaps, too good. I saw everything: the constant churn of "new" collections that were just last month's designs with a stripe or different color logo or collar. The pressure to sell more, focused only on profit. I felt my braincells dying dealing with numbers all day so in 2017, I started Damned Designs—a knife and EDC brand. I taught myself design and managed everything from production to customer service. For four years, I lived a double life: corporate buyer by day, Solopreneur, designer and brand builder by night.

Then COVID hit. I got "stuck" in India, and that forced pause changed everything. With distance from the life I hated in Kuwait, I grew Damned designs to $10k a month in revenue. When it was time to go back, I just knew I couldn't. I resigned in December 2021.

Not only did Damned Designs give me the financial runway and the confidence to go all-in on my own thing, it taught me the real, hands-on business of running a brand—the messy, practical lessons my corporate job never could.

And, my own style developed. I found myself moving towards oversized, comfortable clothes that were built to last, and I simply couldn't find what I was looking for.

Rotten Hand is where it all comes together.

11 years of insider fashion knowledge + 8 years of running a company + countless years of frustration as a consumer. It's all bootstrapped—no investors, so I don't have to compromise. My one goal is to prove that you can build a fashion brand without exploitation and waste and with it, a community of likeminded individuals.

Tagua nut buttons instead of plastic. Premium peach skin finish, sustainable packaging. Fair wages instead of exploitation. I designed everything myself, spent a full year finding the right fabric, and then made 400 shirts and sent them to friends across the world—from Ibiza to Paris, Thailand to Singapore—to test in real life.

So we're starting with one shirt. Two sleeve lengths, Three sizes. Nine colors. But there's a lot more to come!