- Dead Dirt founder champions regional culture and intentional rollouts in sports fashion.
- From corporate rejection to designing for 16 NWSL clubs, Wells emphasizes building opportunities.
- Advocates for overdue investment and unique identity of women's sports.
Domo Wells, the visionary behind Dead Dirt, is not just designing sportswear; she's crafting narratives that bridge fashion, music, and the black American experience, fundamentally reshaping how we perceive sports culture.
In an industry often criticized for its cookie-cutter approach, Domo Wells, founder and creative director of Dead Dirt, has emerged as a powerful voice for authenticity and intentionality. Her journey began not with a grand plan to build a brand, but as a container for her ideas, born from a decade in music and a realization that her corporate path wasn't fulfilling her creative aspirations. Faced with rejections from traditional design opportunities, Wells took matters into her own hands, creating Dead Dirt as a testament to building one's own opportunities and having autonomy over one's work.
Wells's philosophy, deeply embedded in the name "Dead Dirt," emphasizes the necessary process of tilling soil before it can yield fruit. This approach is evident in her groundbreaking collaborations, most notably with the Washington Spirit women's soccer team. She brought a music industry-style rollout strategy to sports, focusing on deep research, community engagement, and a true understanding of regional culture. This intentionality, she argues, is not innovative but simply "how it should be done" to build genuine connection and heritage, contrasting sharply with the quick-turn, shallow efforts often seen in the industry.
Her impact extends beyond individual teams, as Dead Dirt now designs for 16 clubs across the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Wells passionately advocates for the overdue recognition and investment in women's sports, highlighting the stark disparities with men's leagues. She insists that women's sports must be treated as a distinct entity, not a mere copy-paste of men's models, acknowledging the unique physiological and cultural aspects that define female athletes. This commitment to nuanced storytelling and authentic representation is at the core of Dead Dirt's mission.
For aspiring creatives, Wells offers powerful advice: don't be afraid to say "no" to projects that don't align with your vision, and crucially, put your independent work out into the world. Her own success, she reveals, stemmed from creating in her living room, attracting opportunities that truly resonated with her unique style. She reframes career "pivots" as "builds," viewing life's challenges and rejections as necessary forces that push one towards their true purpose. "You don't know if you can fly till you jump," she asserts, encouraging creatives to embrace the uncomfortable and trust their inherent value.
“I won't call it pivot. I call it a build. You're the sum of your experience in this moment, right? And so everything that you know, do whatever, all those things inform how you behave and act in your work right now.”
