Meet the Founder

Who are you? Who am I? Who are we?

Others have been telling our story. Now it’s time we tell it for real.

Why I Built This

I went to school for design. Then I developed carpal tunnel syndrome, and had to go back to doing manual labor instead.

Years passed then one day I discovered Garrett Augustus Morgan — the man who created the three-signal traffic light. It was February, Black History Month, and I’d come across a post on Pinterest highlighting the achievements and inventions of Black people. I read it twice. I sat in awe and disbelief for about five minutes. Then I got really curious and started digging deeper.

Here’s the part that stuck with me: nobody taught me that. Not in school, not from my parents, not anywhere. I had to find it myself, scrolling one night like it was an accident. Or fate.

So instead of just scrolling past it, I started building something.

What I Decided To Do

I didn’t want to write another article nobody would read, or post a caption that disappears in a feed by the next morning. I wanted something that stays on you — something you put on in the morning and carry into every room you walk into that day.

So I put Garrett Morgan on a shirt. Then another inventor. Then another. That’s BUILLTH — a growing archive, one name at a time, built to outlast a hashtag.

Never Forget. Now You Know.

Why It’s Built the Way It Is

No portraits. No dates. No patent numbers stamped across the chest. Just a badge, an invention, and a name — bold enough to read from across a room, honest enough to hold up under a closer look. If it’s on a BUILLTH shirt, it happened. Verified, not embellished.

This isn’t a February project. It’s not chasing a moment. It’s an archive, and archives don’t expire.

This Part Is for You

If you already knew Garrett Morgan’s name before you read this page — this brand was built for you specifically. You’re the reason it exists.

If you didn’t know it until just now — good. That’s the whole point. That feeling you just had, reading a name you’d never heard attached to something you use every day — that’s what every single BUILLTH design is built to do. Now you carry it too.

I just want people to know the truth: we built this world too. I want a kid who looks like me to see that and feel proud of where they come from. Knowing what your own people contributed can change how you see yourself — and maybe, in some small way, that makes the world a little better too.

We’re correcting the record. Now you’ve become a keeper of the archive.

— Anthony McLean, Founder, BUILLTH