MAKERS SPACE: WHERE I'M FROM

How a Columbuscentric clothing brand went from bedroom project to household name in less than a decade

By Jack McLaughlin Photos by Aaron Massey

Story Design by Victoria Smith

Today, the Columbus-based apparel brand Where I’m From is available in 200 Dick’s Sporting Goods and 115 DSW storefronts across the country. The brand also supplies the Columbus Blue Jackets and Clippers with regular products from their new 20,000 squarefoot warehouse, and boasts licensing deals with NFL superstar Joe Burrow and former Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield.

So co-founder Andrew VanderLind understands if there’s a bit of difficulty accepting the fact that, when the company first launched more than eight years ago, it did so from the onebedroom apartment VanderLind shared with his wife, Casie VanderLind.

“I remember we had to move out a dresser to make room for everything,” he said with a laugh.

According to VanderLind, the brand began as a branch-off of an earlier apparel line that the pair created. Casie VanderLind is a cancer survivor, and the duo used the money from their 2014 wedding to start a non-profit clothing brand that was focused on cancer awareness.

The concept was fulfilling for the VanderLinds, and quickly successful (all proceeds were donated to patients who were fighting the disease at the time), but after some time, the gravity of their source material began to take a toll.

“We loved what we were able to do, but it was really heavy subject matter, day in and day out,” Andrew said. “And by this time, we had learned a lot about apparel, and a lot about what Columbus wanted. So we thought, ‘Let’s make something that celebrates what we love.’”

And that’s exactly what they did. In 2014, with the help of co-founder Ryan Naiper, Andrew and Casie VanderLind officially created Where I’m From, a new clothing line dedicated to the founders’ love of the state they call home: Ohio.

Vintage t-shirts, hoodies and more touting Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati are all represented regularly. And while the VanderLinds aren’t forgetting where they started from–and the brand includes plenty of wholly serious designs–they’re also choosing to embrace a lighter, quirkier side with Where I’m From.

Examples include a top-selling hoodie featuring the face of Bengals’ quarterback Joe Burrow donning chic orange shades alongside the text “Joe Brrr,” in addition to a Columbus-themed shirt representing the Clippers’ famous Dime-A-Dog initiative, alongside many, many more.

So many more, in fact, that Where I’m From now offers sizable collections of shirts inspired by seven other states, more than a dozen cities (nine of which are outside of Ohio) and the sports teams that call these places home.

Despite the brand’s expansion, VanderLind said that Where I’m From apparel is produced entirely within the United States, something very few other clothing lines can say for themselves.

“One of the crazier stats we share is that only two percent of the clothing worn in the United States is made here. We’re really proud to be a part of that two percent,” VanderLind said.

↓ Where I'm From Apparel concepts ↓ Where I'm From co-founder Andrew VanderLind ↓ Where I'm From Apparel Stock

Doubling down on Americanmade goods has more than a few benefits, he added. Not only does it allow the company to sidestep dealing with customs and port holdups, it affords them a closer relationship with their production facilities. This means, if there’s a design tweak they’d like to try with a product, it’s easier to implement. Their all-domestic production even allowed the brand the flexibility to pivot into creating fabric masks for a six-week period during the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.

And while all of these are serious benefits, VanderLind says there's one more reason for using for using entirely American-made clothing, and it’s the most important one yet.

“We knew early on we wanted to do this, and a huge part of it is the pride we take in it,” he said. “We’re thinking about the places we call home, it’s in the name of the company. After all, this is where we’re from.

To learn more, visit whereimfrom.com