About Death or Glory!

The Story So far…

Death or Glory first came into being in 2013 under the name STLTHY, which was later changed to its current and much more fitting name. The concept behind creating the brand was to provide a creative outlet for my love of art and design.

It took a few months and a lot of hard work, but before long I started to see the fruits of my labour as a small but dedicated following. I was thrilled to be making headway, and even more excited when I became the UK supplier for a popular US interior parts brand. It was an excellent opportunity to expand my business and build my brand profile over the next few years. However, as much as I loved working with the brand, I ultimately had to make the difficult decision to part ways due to the high cost of import duties and other factors. Despite the setback, I remained determined to keep pushing forward with my clothing designs.

Around this time, I decided to revamp my brand and give it a fresh new identity. After much contemplation, I finally settled on the name Death or Glory, which perfectly encapsulated the bold and fearless attitude that I wanted my brand to embody. Before this, I had been using the tagline "Death or Glory!" for about a year, and it just made sense to carry that same energy to the brand name.

This rebrand allowed me to flex my creative muscles and try out some styles I've wanted to incorporate for a while. I'm a big fan of tattoos and alternative fashion, so bringing those influences into my designs has been a real treat. It's so satisfying to see my work take on a new life and feel more authentic to who I am as a designer.

What’s in a name?

If we're talking about the original STLTHY name, there was nothing more behind that other than an abbreviation of an old username I used on various forums (StealthyGecko), but what about Death or Glory?

As mentioned, it was initially the brand's tagline, but was there any meaning behind it? There was some thought that it was me trying to be "different" when others in the drifting scene were using the term "go hard or go home" There have also been some that believe it stems from a love of Iron Maiden, a comic book of the same name, or even the Royal Lancers armoured cavalry regiment. While I love Iron Maiden and an excellent comic book, none are true.

The truth is that it was and still is a mission statement for myself about my mental health. At this time, I had just been diagnosed with depression, and while the diagnosis did answer some questions, I still had to find a way to live with it.

I was trying to work on a design one night and had a moment of clarity. I could carry on letting this creature known as depression consume (Death), or I could stand and fight (Glory!) Shortly after that, I re-branded it as "Death or Glory!" Doing this was my way of trying to create something positive out of something so vile.