The Quality Makers: Paige Mycoskie of Aviator Nation

Paige Mycoskie is the founder of Aviator Nation, a 1970s-inspired California lifestyle brand known for its perfectly distressed hoodies and sweatpants. In February 2006, she was working at a surf shop in Venice, California, and purchased a sewing machine. With it, she started making clothes for herself at night after work, hoping to create something softer than what was available in stores. 

Almost two decades later, Forbes estimates her net worth at around $380 million, and Aviator Nation has grown into an internationally known brand. She shared that journey with us in the interview below.

What led you to start Aviator Nation, and how has it evolved since then? 

I was finding most of my clothes in thrift stores and at Goodwill back in 2006, but many times the broken-in tees and sweats I was buying didn’t fit the way I wanted them to and/or didn’t have the graphics I wanted to wear. I used to draw and paint a lot, and I had drawings that I thought would be cool on a hoodie or a tee, so I turned my garage into a workshop and learned to screen print and sew. 

Pretty soon I realized I was obsessed with making my own clothes and I was making everything I was wearing. As soon as I taught myself to make patterns and sew garments, I realized I had a huge passion for making clothes. I would stay up all night making clothes for myself. When I started wearing the clothes around town, people approached me asking me where I got them. My friends started putting in requests for items they wanted, too. 

A bit later I decided to get a booth at the Abbot Kinney Street Festival for $500 and sell my clothes to my neighbors (I lived half a block from the fair). In that one day, I made $8,000 from people buying my designs. This is when I realized that I had a brand on my hands.

How is Aviator Nation different from other loungewear brands?

One of the big things that makes us different is that we produce our garments in America. I also still design all of the garments myself with the help of a couple of assistant designers. I love what I do, so I’ve remained extremely hands-on over the years. I also believe our quality is as good as it gets. We do rigorous testing on our fabrics; the garments are made by hand with many hand-stitched details. We do not do things fast; we always do things with the utmost quality in mind. I use the best quality materials, and we go above and beyond to make garments feel special and one of a kind. Some of the more intricate designs take several weeks to construct.

What's one of your proudest accomplishments tied to the brand?

I am most proud that I’ve continued to manufacture the garments in America and never taken a dollar from an investor. I’ve self-funded the company from the start, and for years when times were hard, I paid my employees out of my personal checking account. I am also very proud of the fact that I did not lay off a single employee through COVID-19 when we were forced to shut down all of our stores and our factory for several months. My factory workers and close to 400 employees received paychecks every week. That was one of the scariest times of my career, but I never left my employees empty-handed or scared they would lose their jobs.

I worked harder that year than I ever had before, and I grew so much as well. I was forced to pivot with the challenging times we were given. A small group from my team joined me to make the magic happen that year and demonstrated incredible strength to fill the orders that came in during COVID-19, so I’m incredibly proud of my team for the efforts they displayed, too.

How has the product line expanded over time?

Our hoodies and sweatpants are still the foundation of the brand, but we now sell high-quality luxury outerwear, swimwear, activewear, backpacks, footwear, denim, headwear, shorts, tees, and a full kids collection. 

We are also often approached about partnerships and collaborations, and I try to choose companies that align with our passions and feel authentic to Aviator Nation. In the beginning, we did mostly music collaborations with festivals because I am a huge music festival girl. Right now, we are doing a lot of sporting event work in both professional and college sports; it’s a super exciting area of focus for us. I really enjoy doing limited edition collections, and I find this is a great way to make that happen.

How much are you involved with the product development process these days?

I’m still very hands-on with the products. I personally approve every screen print, stitched stripe, dye color, fabric, patch, etc. Our quality is extremely important to me, so I like to stay super hands-on with the garments throughout the process of making them.

Currently, I’m building a sewing studio in my home to start making garments again from scratch. I think having my sewing studio in my home again will help me create new products faster. Sometimes, it helps my team to send them something that is exactly what I want. I did this recently with our patch collection: I placed all the patches exactly where I wanted them on the garments and sent them to my team to replicate. 

I originally painted all of the murals in my stores, and today, I still try to paint at least part of every store we open. I still design the murals, but now I have a team of girls who paint many of the stores. Our stores are truly art projects and a huge passion of mine, so I take a lot of pride in the details that go into them. I also still select every record and its placement on the walls in our stores. My dad still hammers the records up for me, too, the same way he did it 15 years ago when I opened my first store on Abbot Kinney in Venice.

Has your role with the brand evolved as it has grown?

My role has stayed the same; I still do the same things now that I did 19 years ago. It’s just all on a larger scale and with a lot more pressure. We now have over 600 employees, all of whom depend on me to keep their families fed.

My other personal mission is to be a brand that never goes away. I’m not looking to sell out; I’m looking to keep a brand alive and hopefully have my children take it over someday. The fashion industry is extremely competitive, but I’m here for that.