Media was a great start, and having people “like” and “share” our photos and videos across the interwebs inspired us to keep thinking outside the box. How could we bring science and a love for our watery world into more peoples lives? As much as our videos and photos were reaching millions of people, those digital interactions were fleeting and we knew we could do more.

We hypothesized that clothing could be a canvas on which we tell science’s stories, and that every time you wear it, you’ll be a walking, talking advocate for the science it represents. We called the approach Advocate Apparel and overnight Waterlust evolved into a purpose-driven clothing brand.

We’re a small family-run business, but what we lack in numbers we make up for in enthusiasm and a love for hard work. Because we started from scratch, we’ve had to figure out first hand how to bootstrap and use teamwork to make the dream work. We wanted to introduce ourselves because if you ever reach out to us, one of us will respond.

We are not a perfect company - we make plenty of mistakes that mostly reflect the fact that we’re scientists who have stumbled into starting a clothing business. But like anything worthwhile, from training in a sport to writing a dissertation, you can often learn more from the screw-ups than you can from the successes. We promise to always aim high, and when we fall, to be honest, transparent, and get back up and do it better.