Our Story
My name is Tommy, and LEVEL5DESIGNS is more than just a clothing line. It represents something I spent a long time trying to find: a reason to keep moving forward.
For most of my adult life, I struggled with alcoholism and addiction. Eventually, I reached a point where I knew I had to make a change. I traveled from New York all the way to Florida and checked myself into rehab.
For the first time in a long time, things started falling into place.
I began eating right, working out, changing my perspective on life, and finding my faith—which, at one point, I honestly thought was damn near impossible. I was getting stronger every day. At one point, I was doing nearly 300 push-ups a day.
More importantly, I started feeling like myself again. For the first time in years, I could see the man that the people who loved me had always seen.
Then everything changed.
About a month before I was supposed to finish my program, I started having serious stomach problems. I was admitted to a hospital in Florida, where I spent the next two months and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
It was hell.
The only family I had nearby was my father, who drove five hours round trip every day just to sit with me in that hospital room. During those two months, I went from a healthy 250 pounds to around 176.
I used to joke that I looked like Captain America before the Super Soldier Serum.
Eventually, I got strong enough to make the trip back to New York. I thought getting home would mean I was finally on the road to recovery.
Instead, I spent another month essentially bedridden.
I knew something wasn't right. I was bloated, I could hear strange sounds coming from my stomach, and I kept telling myself that eventually things would get better.
Then one day, I knew they had gone from bad to worse.
I called an ambulance and my wife.
When my mother-in-law arrived, she said I was gray. She couldn't find my carotid pulse. The ambulance rushed me to the hospital, and they told me I was "bottoming out" on the way there.
My wife met me at the hospital.
Doctors ordered a CAT scan. I honestly thought I was dehydrated and that they'd give me some IV fluids and send me home.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
A team of doctors came rushing in. I could see the urgency on their faces before they even explained what was happening.
My colon had ruptured. Waste was leaking into my body.
I needed emergency, life-saving surgery.
They were removing my colon.
In an instant, my life changed.
The mental and emotional progress I had worked so hard to build during recovery was rocked to its core. I spent another month and a half in the hospital, fighting to recover and trying to figure out what my life was going to look like from that point forward.
Eventually, I had to face a new reality.
I had a permanent ileostomy.
I was physically different. My life was different. And mentally, I was struggling to figure out who I was now.
But somewhere in all of that, I made a decision.
I wasn't going to let this new life beat me.
I was going to make this bag my bitch—not the other way around.
So I started rebuilding.
Little by little, I got stronger. I returned to work in construction full-time. I continued working on myself. I stayed sober. I started looking toward the future instead of constantly looking back at everything I'd lost.
And eventually, I started thinking about something I'd wanted to do for a long time:
Create my own clothing line.
The idea for LEVEL5DESIGNS began while I was still in the hospital. When life had stripped away almost everything I thought defined me, I realized there were still things I wanted to create, dreams I hadn't chased, and a life I hadn't finished building.
So I decided to start.
LEVEL5DESIGNS is my way of turning all of that into something positive.
The designs are inspired by resilience, personal growth, individuality, humor, and the courage to start over when life doesn't go according to plan.
I'm not here because I have everything figured out.
I'm here because I'm still fighting.
I'm still creating.
I'm still learning how to live this new version of my life.
And I'm incredibly grateful to be here doing it.
If something I've been through can remind even one person that their story isn't over just because life knocked them down, then maybe all of it means a little more.
This is LEVEL5DESIGNS.
Built from the fight. Inspired by the comeback.
Much love and respect,
Tommy
