About Us

About us

Magenta Outdoor is a clothing brand to help raise awareness for mental health, born from personal circumstances and experiences. Finding comfort and positivity from what you wear whilst advocating mental health awareness is why we exist. Magenta Outdoor is a small business based in Northern Ireland. Helping others to cope with their mental health by sharing my story and the brands message of: “FIND YOUR OWN PATH!” It brings me a sense of purpose and a huge amount of pride. Which in turn helps me cope with mine. To give you an insight of the reason we exist. please read my story below.

 

The Story

I am a father of three, a husband, and now a businessman. I am someone who suffers with anxiety, depression, and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Tough is an understatement for what I have been dealing with during this stage of my life. Of which I had told myself that “I was ok!”, and “I can carry on!”, this was because I was too proud to admit that there was something wrong and I wouldn’t ask for help until it was too late. When I realised and admitted to myself that I was not ok, I felt like everything had gone wrong at the same time. I lost my job/career, my confidence, my identity and my sense of purpose and I couldn't understand why. My kids are wonderful, my wife has been fully supportive and a great mother, I have the most amazing family that have always looked out for my career and followed me wherever it had taken us around the world.
There was something that had triggered inside of me and whatever it was, I knew I was not coping. Seeking help was next and with that, I had to wait quite an extensive amount of time to receive any formal treatment on how to deal with any of the previously mentioned problems of which resulted in panic attacks, lack of/no sleep at times, lack of self-care and motivation. To receive treatment, I was required to relocate to Northern Ireland. This was difficult, starting fresh, somewhere new, meeting new people etc.

 

However, during all this Magenta Outdoor had been a tiny lightbulb shining within me. I had taken up mountain biking again with a close friend. This helped me and became a massive part of my recovery. I had found a way of forgetting my trauma I have been going through, thanks to him I had found the first step of my niche. Mountain biking saved me! It helped me to focus on the task in front of me and balanced me in a way very few things in my life could. It helped me to work through my pain when I felt hopeless. When I am off mentally and haven’t been on my bike, my mental health issues rear their ugly heads. However just one crank of those pedals, combined with the exhilarating feeling of nature flying by I feel free and at ease.

 

Exercise has been proven to help people with depression, anxiety, and general mental health. Which for many, go hand in hand. My life experience has shown me that I need to ride or be outdoors to feel calm, balanced, and focused to understand my self and to move forward with my life.

Over the years during this struggle, I have become conscious and more aware of self-talk and how it affects us. I often hear my own self talk telling me, “Your terrible!”, “You should get out and ride more or go to the gym to lose weight and you’ll be faster!”, etc. Often the negative self-talk leads us to say things like, “I’m sorry I am so slow” or “sorry, I am not feeling that jump or tech section today”, when we are riding with friends. It pains me to hear things like this, as I know I do it myself a lot! I catch myself wanting to say sorry or make an excuse when I am not feeling my best. I feel that you should never have to apologize or make excuses for not wanting to do something or for having a bad day when our brains and bodies are not connecting, resulting in the lack of confidence in yourself.

In my first few years of mountain biking, my fitness level was not on par with my friends which made it hard to keep up on the climbs. Often, I allowed my anxiety to take over which led to bad runs and mistakes on the trails. What I hadn’t recognized was that in fact my friends didn’t care how fast I was. They just wanted to ride with me and see me and the group riding and enjoying what we had so much love and passion for.

 

So Magenta Outdoor started as a way for me to remind myself that I can have an impact on other people’s lives. As well as my own, and that things will get better by understanding why you are required to “FIND YOUR OWN PATH!”.

 

When I put my brands clothing on and I look in the mirror, I instantly feel more positive. Seeing my brand on the trails, in the gym or in general day to day society and realising people would mention and remember the quote and highlight mental health awareness in such a way that makes me feel good! I hope that people, the ones that are willing to support my brand and spread the message will equally feel as good as I do. For that reason, the decision was made to give it a go. See if I can help others live with a little more positivity and help spread some happiness.

 

Ultimately, I want this business to become one of the best Mental Health clothing brands globally, because it is truly here to stay! So please help us spread the good vibes and help others that may suffer from Mental Health issues too, we can all get through this together by sharing the awareness and to remember to: “FIND YOUR OWN PATH!

 

Thank you.