AC// The story

Thestory

[How it all started]

Action was simply an idea of mine to keep me from ever having to conform to a normal lifestyle of a 9-5 job.

Me = Samantha Starling (as seen above)

I started Action Clothing when I was 15 years old. Growing up, I've never had a normal lifestyle. I've been on the road constantly since I was a small child, being homeschooled after completing 1st grade (my brother races motocross, it's hard to explain).

I've never liked the idea of having to stay in one place, much less hold a real job. Infact, I'm terrified of it. I've always been interested in music, art and fashion and wanted to do something with those things... and I wanted to be able to travel whenever I wanted. Everybody wants to find their dream job... I created mine.

At first, I started a clothing company called Valid. I didn't get any further then coming up with a pretty lame logo and a website. Never made any product... I was like 10, I didn't know what to do or where to even begin looking.

My family was chosen to appear on an episode of ABC's Wife Swap. Apparently we're pretty interesting people, haha. The twist was "Motocrossers who ruin the earth with their dirt bikes switch with environmentally conscious pagan witches". No joke.

The mom we got on our end turned out to be pretty cool. She thought that we should take some time off from motocross and focus on what I wanted to do. I didn't complain.

In the show, I was the sister that liked to do photography. Don't get me wrong, it is something that I love, but it's not what I wanted to do at the time. The directors/producers/etc. all planned this photography exhibition scene in the show where I went out and took photos then displayed them around the house. It was pretty lame, but I went with it. I had something bigger in mind.

The night before the "exhibition", my friend Danae and I went to Wal-Mart and bought blank T-shirts, iron on letters and anything else we thought was cool. We stayed up until 3am designing about a dozen different shirts and tank tops. The next day, I told everybody to wear the shirts at the exhibition. It was a really good opportunity to start what I wanted to do. That was how this whole thing started.

When filming came to a wrap, I came up with a website and had some REAL shirts made. The show aired about 2 months later and EVERYBODY was asking "What are those Action Clothing shirts?!". It was probably the best free advertising ever.

Since then, Action has grown a lot and is growing even more. It's also still a never ending project to keep me from getting a real job, but it's also grown into a lot more then that. It's become a lifestyle. A reason for my current lack of sleep. A passion.

- Samantha

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