Dark Clothing Lighting the Way: An Inside Look at ‘Terror Tales’ and the Fright of Start-Ups
T. McClelland spotlights Jamie Heuer — designer, entrepreneur, and owner of the horror-themed clothing company, Terror Tales.
Deep in a hazy wood lies the path to creating a business. Behind each sharpened branch, each question of the orange-eyed owl, awaits a jump-scare decision unlike any previously known.
Creating a business is intimidating.
In a way, it’s expressive.
And it’s … fashionable?
To this young man, it is. Jamie Heuer, the founder of Terror Tales Clothing, proudly wears fear on his sleeves. With his eyes peeled, Heuer walks the path that few high school graduates would dare and looks for inspiration in the worst of life’s scares.
Themed as a cartoon skeleton, with black hat and white sweatshirt, vintage connoisseur Heuer sat across from me in his white-walled room, host to just a single corded telephone. It is just one of many items in Heuer’s possession that you hardly see anymore.
If you didn’t already know, the vintage look has made a thunderous comeback. Cultural icons, especially those of the hip-hop community, such as Kanye West and A$AP Rocky (See also his appreciation for thrift), have not only increased the prominence of vintage style, but have also helped raise the resale value of vintage clothing worldwide, simply by wearing older clothes. Now, with high resale values and low initial costs, flipping — or the searching for and selling of lower-priced used goods for a higher cost — has become common practice among those who are keen to contemporary style trends and are looking to make a quick buck.
This is how Heuer’s clothing career began. In my recent interview with the 18-year-old entrepreneur, Heuer spoke of how his fascination with vintage clothing started in his junior year of high school when his older brother, Conner Heuer, brought home a collection of vintage Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, and Polo Ralph Lauren. After quickly gathering his own stock of flippable clothing, the younger Heuer merged his gear with his brother’s, and opened up the online shop, Brothers in Garms, in 2016. Their shop, which is still functioning today, is dedicated to the selling of vintage clothing, streetwear, and sneakers, and has amassed nearly 3,000 followers on Instagram.
It was not an easy journey earning their following; Brothers in Garms directly cast Heuer into the fears of business. In its early days, the shop came face-to-face with its demise because, as Heuer put it, “The first website was really terrible, and we were an online store.” This scare was thankfully right up Heuer’s alley. The maneuverability of working with thrift clothing allowed Heuer to learn the vital knowledge of what did and didn’t work in the industry. The shop taught him what clothing would receive views, apart from his own stylistic preference, and gave him a realistic shot at turning a profit.
The ultimate success of the company may be attributed to one thing most directly: Jamie Heuer is fueled by terror. “As a younger kid, I used to watch shows like Tales from the Crypt, and I was all over the Goosebumps books,” Heuer said. In the same way that he benefitted from these youthful experiences, the early scares of Brothers in Garms would serve to help him, as well.
With both the knowledge of his first company and his personal taste in mind, Heuer sketched ideas for a clothing line of his own. It was during one of his sketching sessions that Heuer recalled being unusually distracted. On his television played one of his favorite shows, Cartoon Network’s Regular Show. “One of my favorite episodes was on. I didn’t know the name of the episode, so I checked it and saw that it was called ‘Terror Tales of the Park.’ That’s where I got the name. Terror Tales.”
At an outside glance, a handful of Terror Tales designs suggest tasteful incorporations of vintage hip-hop and streetwear styles. One sweatshirt design uses layers of bolded lettering, common now in the growing style of rapper and designer Tyler, the Creator’s Golf Wang. Another shirt uses an elongated stencil design resembling past styles of the popular brand Vlone. Above all influences, though, is an identifiable knack for dark artistic expression. Grim Reapers riding Lamborghinis that have gone up in flames, and skeletal hands shooting cue balls, symbolize the wild rides and gambles of Heuer’s dream.
“It has all been pretty tough. My parents wanted me to go to a university full time, but I felt like I could do this for a living,” Heuer revealed. “Then, […] the first week of Terror Tales I didn’t sell anything, even though I had spent months designing it all. It’s hard when you don’t see it directly pay off like that.”
This intimidation of the unknown often talks new entrepreneurs out of their dreams. In a way, Heuer sees his early struggles as one shared experience. Terror tales, he feels, are universally experienced, and can be worn by anyone, horror fan or not.
Heuer’s passions have traveled a long way; an early fascination has grown into an invaluable understanding of business etiquette ranging from Instagram marketing to full-scale website design. Passion and expression will be the tools that help Heuer continue on his path.
As his companies continue to grow in their followings, I asked Heuer if he had any final advice for others sharing his young experience:
“You have to just try to do it,” he said. “Put yourself out there, and don’t be afraid. Own it. Own your fear.”
