Mens Lost Clothing

Lost Clothing began in 1985 when Matt Biolos and a bunch of school friends were into snowboarding at Mt. Baldy, skateboarding at the Pipeline in Upland, and surfing in Dana Point. They weren't too worried about winning this football game or that contest. They were "team lost". Thus the name "...lost" scribbled on books, t-shirts, benches, tables and eventually clothing. Matt Biolos began sanding surfboards at Surfglas and Herbie Fletcher Surf Shop fresh out of high school in 1987. He made his first surfboard at this time and called it a "Ratz Ass" like in "I don't give a .....". His second surfboard was labeled "mayhem"- obviously not taking things very seriously. (Mayhem Ordinance was Matt's high school music band). This name "Mayhem", for better or for worse, stuck. Matt shaped 20 boards the first year. Not too many people were ordering boards from Matt yet, so to make money he continued to sand surfboards and began to paint designs on them along with a handwritten Mens Lost Clothing wherever he could. Surfers like Christian Fletcher and Matt Archbold were getting Biolos' paint jobs. By working in an environment with master shapers (Timmy Patterson, Jim Fuller, Terry Senate, Randy Sleigh to name a few) and good surfers, he was able to develop as a shaper. Matt's friends had been telling him for years to put the word Mens Lost Clothing and his art on tees and try to sell them. By 1992, fueled in part by a suggestions from Timmy Patterson and Johnny Monson, Matt began putting his art on T-Shirts with a LOST logo. His roommate Mike Reola , a recent business school graduate, helped him handle the business side of things and they both worked on developing a plan to slowly grow and market the company with little or no money. This included help from numerous friends in the form of small loans, work in exchange for a couch to stay on, a parent's back yard to dye tee shirts, or a vehicle in exchange for rent. Some of these people (although not a complete list by any means) were Aaron Strand, Chad Godett, Max McGhee, Joe Rich, Jason Kenworthy, Ryan Divel, Jimmy Nudo, Matt Reola, Bill Woodcock, Tonan, Ramos and PR, Paul Berton Matt "Chicken" Willey, Bill VanDenBerg and Kawika Urso At this time Matt was producing about 500 Mayhem Surfboards a year and had guys like Strider Wasilewski and Christian Fletcher riding them. In 1993 Lost made its first video, titled "Momentum 3", which showcased the fledgling surf, skate and snowboard teams along with everyone who lived at the "Lost House". The video was renamed "Dysfunctional" after almost being sued by Taylor Steele. The video was meant to be a joke and only for their friends, but its popularity led them to produce their first real video titled "What's Really Goin' On" in 1995.
In 1993 Mens Lost Clothing hired its first team rider - skateboarder and current skate team manager Chad Shetler. In 1994 Lost hired Chris Ward, its first pro team rider (Chris was 15!), closely followed by Justin Matteson. In 1996 when another clothing company came along and offered Chris Ward six figures to break his contract, Lost surfboards was born. Mens Lost Clothing was now Chris' surfboard sponsor. Since those early days, Chris has grown into one of the most dangerous surfers on the World Tour. Today Lost continues to support skate and surf athletes and events as well as snowboarding and other sports. Matt and Mike, while running the company with partner Joel Cooper, continue to oversee all marketing and product. We could say "Since those wild beginnings, Mens Lost Clothing has spread slowly across the world. The Company has matured internally but continues to run off the same philosophy it started with. The Lost thinking now flows through its art, music, films, athletes and clothing…" ...but that sounds like some PR firm wrote that for us. So Lost is whatever you think it is...