Lawncare by Day, Streetwear by Night: How Joshua Riley is stitching his way in the fashion industry

Joshua Riley in one of his infused hoodies. // Courtesy photo

After a heated argument with his parents back in 2020, Joshua Riley made a decision that would change the trajectory of his life. As a sophomore at Mizzou, Riley dropped out of the university, packed up his belongings, and left for Los Angeles.

With 1,500 miles of asphalt ahead of him, he was completely betting on himself. All of his eggs were officially in one basket: Ojusha, a fashion brand that he has built from the ground up.

As he was driving through the Great Plains of western Kansas, Riley was confident in the capability of his brand, a necessity as he was putting everything on the line.

“I’m not gonna lie, that was a pretty emotional time, but I just knew,” Riley says. “The whole way there, I was getting sales on my phone, I was getting Shopify ‘cha-chings.’ So I’m like, ‘I know that I can make this work, and it is working right now, so what do I have to lose?’ And I just sent it.”

Riley’s fashion footpath did not begin when he took off for the Golden State but rather when he was a student at Belton High School. Looking for a creative outlet for self-expression, he began buying Gildan hoodies, then would use fabric paint and iron on a makeshift logo that he bought from Joann Fabrics. His original brand, Lethe, was born out of this avenue of authentic self-identity.

Shortly after, friends of his began asking for hoodies. Then came friends of friends. Quickly, Riley found himself selling these Gildan hoodies with a slapped-on emblem to classmates for $20.

“Eventually, it got to the point where every day I would come to school and see anywhere from two to five kids wearing a Lethe hoodie,” he says. “That was just a sick feeling for me, and I just wanted to continue growing from that.”

Seeing that he had successful traction among his peers, Riley remained committed as he enrolled at the University of Missouri to pursue a college degree, but this came at a cost. Garment daydreaming quickly resulted in grades declining.

“I was just tired of putting in time for classes that I didn’t really like,” he says. “At the beginning of college, I had Lethe going and just wanted to put all of my focus into that.”

After skating through freshman year, Riley founded his mowing business, Evergreen Lawncare, the following summer, mowing up to six or seven yards a day. The motivation behind this business venture was to save money for branding and marketing his clothing business.

Shifting from his original brand, Lethe, he got connected with a PR agent in Pennsylvania, JJ Carter, to help guide him in the right direction to grow a more curated clothing brand: Ojusha.

Together, they used the money that Riley had saved up throughout the summer of 2020 to launch ads on social media.

“I just grinded it out and saved up a good amount of money, and I started running Instagram and Facebook ads,” Riley says. “JJ is the one who predominantly ran the ads. I focused on designing the clothes and consistently posting content on social media.”

Carter’s advertising advice was a direct streamline to growth and ultimately more profit for Ojusha. Through the advertisements that he launched, Riley met another business partner, Brock Butler, who resided in LA. Together, they worked collaboratively, each sewing different sweatshirts that were being sold on the Ojusha website.

Courtesy photo

Putting it All on the Line

As the summer was coming to a close, Riley had to decide whether he was going all in with his business or going back to school. His parents preferred the latter.

“It was at the end of summer before I would go back to college. I was telling my parents, ‘Oh yeah, I’m gonna go back to college and focus on that,’  but in the back of my head, I knew that I wasn’t because I had saved all this money.”

Although he initially thought he wouldn’t step foot on Mizzou’s campus again, he found himself in Columbia as fall classes began. Two weeks into his sophomore year, Riley’s grades were already in the dumps due to his hyperfocus on growing the business. It was time for him to come to a verdict, knowing that he was checked out from school.

Contradicting his parents’ wishes, Riley saw the opportunity to make his way out to LA on a whim, having a newly found West Coast business partner that he could lean on for the time being.

“All I knew was I was 100% invested in Ojusha and the direction that it was going, so I packed my car immediately, hit up this kid who was selling my clothes in LA, and I drove to LA,” he says.

At that moment, Riley and Butler were designing clothes in a Redondo Beach studio apartment while Carter was on the other side of the nation running all of their marketing campaigns. Together, they were sending out anywhere from 15 to 25 orders a day.

Mowing and Sewing

Fast forward three years, and Riley is still steady at the sewing machine. The primary pieces he creates include split hoodie and infused hoodie designs.

His split hoodie pieces that initially began selling in 2020 consist of a flannel or denim shirt sewn together with a vintage style, one-color hoodie to make for a 50/50 look diagonally down the middle. These designs typically cost customers around $85, although Riley is holding a sale during the holiday season.

“The split hoodies are really striking. People either really love them or they really hate them,” he says. “And I think that’s super important in a product because it strikes people’s emotions. It makes people drawn to them. Either negatively or positively.”

Courtesy photo

The infused sweatshirt design is a little more high-end, and it is obvious why. These custom-requested pieces take Riley about ten hours to hand-craft at his sewing machine, which does not include the time it takes for him to go source all of the materials that it takes to fabricate. By the end of his ten-hour shift, he has a one-of-one product composed of various textiles and fabrics that run customers anywhere between $200 and $450.

“It takes a shit ton of my energy. What makes it really worth it is seeing people love my pieces and wear my pieces,” he says. “That just means the world to me, to be honest.”

He has grown his brand substantially, reaching about 12,000 followers on Instagram and having sold his products to NBA athletes Jaren Jackson Jr. and Justise Winslow, as well as Youtuber Jc Caylen.

“It was amazing meeting somebody that you have only seen on YouTube or Instagram in person,” Riley says. “Especially just the fact that he liked my art, my clothes.”

Looking back on his humble beginnings, Riley attributes a variety of social media creatives to sparking his early innovations. One in particular, Jagonte, an abstract and tattoo artist, has championed Riley’s work since he first started seeing growth.

Riley ended up being the first person to get Jagonte’s artwork tattooed on him, which has now spiraled into countless others carrying his illustrations permanently on their skin.

Riley ended up sending Jagonte a custom piece that he designed simply as a token of generosity for his patronage, in which Jagonte returned the favor by uploading a video of him donning his one-of-a-kind sweatshirt to his 25,000 Instagram followers, granting Riley some new clout.

“Ever since I started growing a following on Instagram, Jagonte has been a really big supporter,” Riley says.

Courtesy photo

As Riley moves forward, he believes that he will continue to see success within the fashion industry, although it does take time. He keeps a stable hand with side hustles such as his lawn care business and DoorDash until it’s time to scale Ojusha to the next level.

Mowing lawns by day is what enables him to pursue his passion and design the industry’s next big trends by night. While it makes for long days, he understands that making his dreams a reality comes with hard work.

“It’s a lot of work for not a lot of rewards upfront. But you know, long term, it’s gonna pay off,” he says.

But he does not see himself merely growing in the fashion industry. After purchasing 46 clients for next year’s mowing season, Evergreen Lawncare seems to be on the upside as well.

“I just love the hustle, bro. I love the grind. I like seeing results and growing something,” Riley says.

Keeping his nose to the grindstone is all that Riley has in mind as he continues through the winter season, one of his busiest, considering the weather conditions, and into the new year.

“You have to keep the end goal in your mind no matter what. If you do that and you stay focused on that day in and day out, then you’re eventually gonna find it,” he says. “And honestly, I still haven’t found that yet, but it’s still fresh in my mind. I know I’m gonna be good in the end.”

Banking on his own confidence and vision is what put Riley in the car, ready to tackle anything, figuratively and literally, that lay in the road ahead. There is no reason for him to stop now.