In 1999, Joe Jarvis graduated from Ohio University with a degree in philosophy. Now, he owns his own streetwear brand: The Cola Corporation.
“I wanted to name my brand after the most American thing I could think of,” Jarvis said. “But racism is a lousy name for a brand. So I named my brand after the second most American thing I could think of, which is Cola.”
Right out of school, Jarvis got into fashion copywriting; however, in 2019, his passion for fashion took a turn.
“I was just really frustrated with what I perceived to be the flamboyant stupidity of American politics, and I just felt like I had to do something,” Jarvis said.
Cola launched during President Donald Trump’s first term to “express frustrations” with the “U.S. political climate,” as stated on the brand website. Designs mention the Los Angeles Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which led to mentions in popular media outlets including The New York Times, KTLA5 and Yahoo News.
“I just started the way anybody would,” Jarvis said. “I bought some blank T-shirts and blank sweatshirts. I found the local screen printer, and that was it.”
Jarvis keeps physical inventory so everything Cola sells, he can examine beforehand. Jarvis said this allows for more quality control.
Quality is not the only aspect Jarvis values as part of his brand. Every order is shipped with a card that lists the brand’s six beliefs: all people deserve safe housing, all people deserve nutritious food, all people deserve universal health care, all people deserve quality education, all people deserve meaningful work and fascists are not people.
“People can say whatever they want about me, but people always say that I'm political,” Jarvis said. “To me, really, it's more about, and I don't say this with any self righteousness, it's just common morality. I think at this point, politics is really more about morality than anything else … because this has gone way past policy differences.”
Many of Cola’s pieces could be considered political statements. Some items feature product descriptions to give the customer more context into the thought put into the design and any reference it might be making.
A current collection is the Failed State collection, featuring T-shirts and sweatshirts designed with the varsity letter style font. Instead of a university’s name though, they read “Failed State.”
“You take something that is very identifiable … but there is something wrong, so they look at it. I used that font intentionally,” Jarvis said.
The Failed State collection prices range between $45 to $80. The Cola Athletic collection has jerseys and shirts, among other items with prices ranging between $35 to $230. Design statements vary, with some reading *"Exercise Free Speech” or “THIS WAR IS SO F------ ILLEGAL.”
“Joe's level of artistry is so off the hook,” said Jane Hamill, a small business consultant at Fashion Brain Academy in Chicago. “His brand is really different, not only in the topics that he (deals with) and the history of things and the storytelling, which he's brilliant at, but then the way that they're presented is very different.”
The collection that put Cola into the spotlight in 2024 is the ACAB collection. The acronym is typically used in protests and rallies, meaning “All Cops Are B-------,” according to ACAB Meaning. Cola’s ACAB collection designs include, but are not limited to, “all cats are beautiful, “F--- the NYPD” and anti-ICE designs.
The “F--- the LAPD” shirt caught press attention after the the nonprofit that supports the LAPD tried to copyright the acronym. The design features those words on a basketball, resembling the Los Angeles Lakers’ logo. Many designs in the ACAB or ICE collection intentionally take familiar logos and put a twist on them.
“My designs cause a lot of glitches,” Jarvis said. “People will look at what you're wearing, look away, and then look back.”
Filings with the LAPD were not the last run-in with a law enforcement agency for Jarvis. In 2025, a shipment of a new T-shirt design — a Chicago cop being attacked by bees — was held at O’Hare airport in Chicago.
Jaba Tsitsuashvili is an attorney at the Institute for Justice. Although the Institute for Justice never represented Jarvis, Tsitsuashvili was in contact with him about the situation surrounding the Customs and Border Protection seizure of Cola’s goods.
“It's pretty well established and well known that creating, and selling and distributing protest apparel, including apparel that mocks the police, is (a) core, protected First Amendment activity,” Tsitsuashvili said. “(The United States) government cannot retaliate or in any way inhibit Americans’ right to create that kind of apparel.”
Tsitsuashvili said no statement can be made claiming CBP’s move was a targeted seizure.
Although it faced challenges, Cola prioritizes connecting with customers alongside quality and the six beliefs. For most customers’ first orders, Jarvis handwrites a note on the six beliefs card.
“Joe is such a sincere person who does what he says he's going to do when he says he's going to do it,” Hamill said. “There's nothing about what he does that isn't authentic to Joe.”
