NQOY was built over time in Kevin Coates’ mind. Born and raised in Maryland, in an environment challenged by violence and substance use disorders. He lost close family to suicide and to homicide.
The adversities never stopped — not even when he earned a basketball scholarship to Colorado.
Never quit on yourself.
By 2021 he was working heavily in suicide prevention as a certified self-awareness coach, and was asked to give a speech at his university that year. He kept hearing the same thing from people, in different words: how much they wanted to quit.
So it occurred to him to take that mindset and give it physical form. Clothing became the way to express it — four letters somebody could wear, and somebody else could read across a room.
“I did not have to know who you were, your name or your story. I just wanted to send you a message of love and hope that could get you by for even the next minute, if that was what you needed.”
The phrase started at home, too — it’s what he says to his daughter, until she can say it back. A friend who prints and presses professionally, and who happens to be an artist, turns Kevin’s ideas into designs. New drops land every couple of months.
You can’t control what happens in this world. That part is settled before you get a vote. What’s left is what you make out of it — and these designs are what one man made out of his.
That’s why the bear exists, and why there’s a heart in the line. They’re not filler. They’re for the people who kept going when quitting was the reasonable choice, and for the kids who need to hear it before they’re old enough to say it back.
Every piece is made to order. Nothing sits in a box waiting for you. You ask for it, and then it gets made.
Kevin does more than print shirts
He coaches people through self-awareness work, runs adversity awareness training, and speaks — to congregations, to companies, to rooms of young people who look a lot like he did.
Book himIf you’re the one having the hard night — call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Free, 24/7, anywhere in the US.
Questions, wholesale, or something custom? Email Kevin.