This brand exists because of one person.
Christopher Barkley was the kind of person you'd point to and say — he has it figured out.
Born in Bellevue, Washington and raised in Duncanville, Texas, Chris was exceptional from the start. Gifted and talented program. Junior National Honor Society. Starting goalie for Duncanville High School's soccer team his freshman year — and Goalie of the Year his senior season.
He attended SMU in Dallas on a partial academic scholarship, graduated cum laude with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2003, and went straight to work at Lockheed Martin on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
Then he went to law school. Made Law Review his first year. Became an editor. Landed an internship at one of California's top intellectual property firms before he even graduated. Passed the California bar. Made partner.
Chris led the intellectual property practice group at McCathern in their Los Angeles office, using his engineering background to handle patent matters and technology law. He was brilliant at it. His clients knew it. His colleagues knew it.
He was also a loving husband to Theresa. A man who loved to travel, loved the beaches of Southern California, loved dogs, loved children, loved sports. The person in every room whose laugh you could pick out from across the building.
On January 16, 2022, Christopher Barkley passed away unexpectedly. He was 41 years old.
Why we built Sadboy.
Mental health doesn't care about your résumé. It doesn't show up on a LinkedIn profile or announce itself at dinner. And for men especially, the world has never made it easy to say anything about it out loud.
Chris carried things quietly. A lot of men do. That's not weakness — that's what the stigma does. It teaches you to hold it in, figure it out alone, keep moving.
Sadboy was built to push back on that. Through art, apparel, and monthly drops built around real themes — we create space for the conversations that don't happen enough. Every piece is a conversation starter. Every order puts 10% toward the Christopher Barkley Foundation, built in Chris's name to fight the stigma that costs us people like him.
This is not a wellness brand. This is not a nonprofit in a t-shirt. This is people who lost someone and decided to make noise about it.
The art behind the brand.
Every Sadboy drop is built around original artwork by Chris Babb — a professional artist and co-creator of the brand. Each collection explores a different theme, a different emotion, a different side of what it means to carry something and keep going.
The art is the conversation. The apparel is how you wear it into the world.
10% of every order goes to the Christopher Barkley Foundation. Buy a shirt. Do some good. Start the conversation.