Founders Note

This brand was born in the dark.

Not the comfortable kind of dark. The kind where you don't know if you'll keep your business, your home, or your reason to get up in the morning.

I built a thriving cheerleading uniform brand called FullSwag. Then the pandemic hit. Two weeks became two months became two years. Sports in Ontario shut down. I kept the doors open anyway, spending for a future I wasn't sure was coming, going deep into debt, holding on.

By the time it was over, I was burnt out in ways I didn't have words for yet.

I stopped drinking but found comfort in other vices and distractions. I was searching for connection, to anyone and anything I could find while locked inside alone. The searching became its own kind of prison. I sat in the wreckage of who I thought I was.

And somewhere in that darkness, I found him.

The boy I had lost a long time ago. The man I was always meant to become.

What brought me back was the one thing I had been running from my whole life.

SELF LOVE.

Not the hashtag version. The real kind. The kind that looks at every scar and says, you're still here. That means something. The kind that rewrites the story you've been telling yourself about who you are and what you deserve.

I'd started creating LOL in early 2024 but kept hesitating. Something felt misaligned, like another business built just to survive, not to matter. I didn't want to repeat the pattern that had cost me everything before.

So I sat with it.

In December 2024, I lost a really close friend to suicide.

The grief cracked me open in a completely new way. His passing triggered my own demons. Thoughts of suicide that I'd carried since childhood came creeping back. A deep depression set in, the kind that makes daily living unbearable. Where getting out of bed felt terrifying. Where facing the world took everything I had.

I sat in that grief and depression for months.

And in it, I found my purpose.

After losing my friend, after sitting inside my own darkness, I finally understood why LOL existed. They say your greatest purpose is found inside your greatest pain.

They're right.

LOL-Live.Laugh.Love.Out Loud exists because of him. Because of me. Because of everyone who has ever suffered in silence. Because of everyone who has ever felt too small, too broken, too hidden to keep going. Because love, when it's real and worn out loud, is the thing that keeps us here.

LOL is committed to supporting the mental health and suicide prevention of the LGBTQ+ community. Because our community knows this pain in particular ways. Because we deserve to be seen, supported, and celebrated, not just in Pride season but every single day.

My dream is to one day establish a foundation in honour of my friend, dedicated to making mental health support accessible to everyone who needs it, regardless of their financial situation. No barriers. No waitlists. No one turned away. Because your life has value whether you can pay for help or not.

Every rhinestone on every shirt is a reminder.

You are not too much. You are not too little. You are exactly the light this world needs.

This is not just a clothing brand.

This is a movement for everyone who is ready to stop hiding their shine.

Wear it out loud.

Vilakone,

Founder of LOL