Our Story
I came up with the idea for Peculiar People in 2023, while I was serving a mission in San Antonio, Texas.
Before the mission I ran a marketing company. I started it at 18, built it for five years, and left it to serve.
One evening I was listening to talks from the April 1971 general conference. President Joseph Fielding Smith gave one called “Our Responsibilities as Priesthood Holders.” He quoted Peter, who described the Saints as “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people,” and taught that we’re peculiar because we don’t live the way the world lives. That’s where the name came from.
The next talk in that same session was “Prepare Every Needful Thing” by Elder Howard W. Hunter, who later became President of the Church. He opened it by talking about merchants, packaging, and how the way something is presented affects whether people pay attention to it. One talk about being a peculiar people, and right after it, one about products and presentation. It was hard to miss.
To me, Peculiar People are members who keep their covenants without making a show of it. They live in ways that look old-fashioned or strange to people outside the Church, and they’re fine with that. They wear their faith because of what they believe, not to get noticed.
Our Mission
We make apparel that give members an easy way to bring up the gospel.
People all over the world know missionaries by what they are wearing. It's unmistakable. When someone sees a Latter-Day Saint missionary they know the standards they hold, much about their values, and many people have questions. Many people will come up to missionaries and ask them the questions of their soul because they believe those missionaries have sense of the answer. Those questions start conversations that would have been hard to start any other way.
Most members want to talk about the gospel but don’t know how to open the door. Our apparel does some of that for you. On my mission, people's number one motivation to seek out Christ and to do good, was their family. Nothing speaks to wondering soul more than the temple of the Lord. There was always something so special about teaching about the temple. It’s where we come to know Christ. It’s where families are sealed and covenants are made. Almost every member has one temple that means something specific to them, usually because of something that happened there. We wanted to put that on a shirt.
The designs are original line art, done one temple at a time. We print on heavier, better-made garments instead cheaper fabrics so that our apparel feels high quality, is durable, and comfortable.
Our Vision
We’d like gospel conversations to start with someone asking about your shirt instead of a knock on the door.
We’re planning more collections around missions, family history, and other things members have a real connection to.
Whether you wear one to remember your endowment, your sealing, or just because you love the temple, we hope it gives someone a reason to ask.
- Evan