The spirit of the brand: western roots with a psychedelic twist, boots under the stars, celestial bodies swirling over mesa landscapes. Not vintage western in a sepia, serious, "old west" way. Western in a "what if a cowgirl went to a rave in Sedona" way.
The Full Story
Our Story
How a Chief Vibe Officer, a Chief Creative Dreamer, and a corgi named Shimmer built a wearable art brand in the basement of a 1917 Masonic Temple in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Chapter One
Where Weird Meets Wild
Weird & Wild West started the way the best things usually do: with a feeling that wouldn't go away. Nick Jones had spent years absorbing the strange, saturated energy of Arizona. The kind of energy you feel standing at a Sedona vortex at sunset, or driving Highway 89A through Oak Creek Canyon with the windows down, or walking Route 66 in Flagstaff when the neon signs flicker on and the ponderosa pines go dark against a tangerine sky.
Arizona is not one thing. It is ancient and futuristic, spiritual and irreverent, brutally hot and impossibly beautiful. It is red rocks and dark skies, desert wildflowers and cosmic dust. It is a place where people come to find themselves, and sometimes lose themselves, and sometimes both at the same time. Nick wanted to bottle that feeling, starting in Flagstaff, where 7 of our designs were born.
Not in a tourism-brochure, "Visit Arizona!" kind of way. In a "this is who I am and where I belong" kind of way.
The kind of feeling you get when you put on a shirt that says something about you without you having to say a word.
Chapter Two
The Art Behind Everything
Then came Brigitte De Marco.
Brigitte is the founder of Prickle & Pine Designs, an artist with a style so distinct you could spot it across a crowded market: bold outlines, flat saturated color fills, a 70s poster influence that makes every cactus look like it belongs on a concert flyer and every sunset look like someone turned the saturation up to eleven.
With 11,400+ followers on Instagram watching her create, Brigitte had already built something rare in the Arizona art world: a name. A following. A style that people recognized and wanted to wear.
Nick brings the weird. Brigitte brings the wild.
Together, they created something that neither could have built alone: a wearable art brand where every single design is an original, every product tells a story, and every customer knows exactly who made the art on their shirt.
In a world of 10,000+ Etsy listings using purchased SVG templates, that matters more than you might think.
Chapter Three
The Underground at The Temple
When people ask where Weird & Wild West lives, the answer is almost too perfect to be real: the basement of a 1917 Masonic Temple building at 2 E Aspen Ave in downtown Flagstaff.
The Underground at The Temple is the physical home of the brand. It is part retail space, part creative den, part vibe check for anyone walking through Flagstaff looking for something they won't find in a chain gift shop. The walls are covered in Brigitte's art. The shelves are stocked with stickers, tees, hats, and mugs. And somewhere nearby, a corgi named Shimmer is probably napping.
This is not a pop-up or a weekend booth. This is a real place, in a real building with real history, on a real street in a real mountain town. When you buy from Weird & Wild West, you are not buying from a faceless dropship operation.
You are buying from two people and a dog in a basement in Flagstaff. And that is the whole point.
A Brief Interlude
About Shimmer
Every brand needs a mascot. Most brands get a logo designed by an agency. Weird & Wild West got a corgi.
Shimmer's official title is "Vibes." Her responsibilities include napping near the register at The Underground, appearing in brand content looking photogenic, and reminding everyone that life is too short to not pet the dog.
She takes her work very seriously.
Chapter Four
What "Dust on the Boots, Glitter in the Soul, Neon on the Horizon" Actually Means
Every brand has an aesthetic. Most of them pick a lane and stay in it. Clean and minimal. Outdoorsy and earthy. Sporty and mainstream. Weird & Wild West picked all the lanes at once, and then painted them hot pink.
The sound of a Saturday night in the Sonoran Desert if someone brought a disco ball and a turntable. Saturated sunsets and saguaros silhouetted against skies that look like they were designed by someone who thinks pastels are for cowards.
The energy: colorful, chaotic in the best way, the kind of place where you walk in for a sticker and leave with a whole identity.
Chapter Five
More Than Merch
Weird & Wild West is not a merch shop. It never was.
When Nick and Brigitte organized Flagstaff's first Howl O Ween Pet Parade, 100+ costumed pets showed up. They raised $777 for High Country Humane. Two dogs got adopted that day. A corgi dressed as a hot dog won best costume. (It was not Shimmer, but Shimmer was robbed.)
When they launched the AZ Melts Ice collection, it was not a marketing angle. It was a stance: wear your Arizona pride and support something that matters.
The brand's values rotate on a banner at the top of every page: "Free Shipping On All Orders" sits right next to "Support Human Dignity" and "Stay Weird." Because shipping policy and moral compass are equally important things to tell people about.
Support Human Dignity
Every AZ Melts Ice purchase supports The Florence Project, providing free legal services to immigrants facing detention in Arizona.
Shop the causeThe Receipts
$777 raised · 2 dogs adopted
100+ costumed pets marched for High Country Humane. Shimmer did not win the costume contest. (Shimmer was robbed.)
How we give backFree Shipping On All OrdersSupport Human DignityStay Weird
The Core Thesis
"Weird & Wild West is not a merch shop. It is a wearable art brand that channels Arizona's desert mysticism, Route 66 nostalgia, and cosmic cowgirl energy into original designs you cannot find anywhere else. Every product features art made by a real human (Brigitte De Marco), sold by a real community (Nick, Brigitte, Shimmer, and the Flagstaff crew), and rooted in a real place (Flagstaff, The Underground at The Temple, Route 66, the Arizona desert). In a market flooded with 10,000+ generic SVG-template listings on Etsy, W&WW is the one brand where you know exactly who made your art and why."
That is worth $5 for a sticker and $29 for a tee.
Chapter Six
The Ecosystem
Weird & Wild West does not exist in isolation. It is part of a constellation of connected ventures, each reinforcing the others, all rooted in Arizona:
Freaky Foot Tours
Walking tours through Flagstaff that sell W&WW stickers along the route. Your tour guide might be wearing the merch.
freakyfoottours.com →The Underground at The Temple
Physical retail in the basement of a 1917 Masonic Temple at 2 E Aspen Ave, Flagstaff.
theflagstaffunderground.com →Prickle & Pine Designs
Brigitte's art brand and the creative source of every single W&WW design.
prickleandpinedesigns.com →Retail Partners
Find W&WW stickers at Plantae (112 E Route 66, Flagstaff) and Hotel Congress in Tucson.
hotelcongress.com →No other brand in this space has a tour company, a physical retail location, a named artist with her own following, AND retail partners all reinforcing the same brand. That is not something you can replicate with a Shopify theme and a paid ad budget.
The end of the story is the start of yours
Ready to Get Weird?
Explore the designs, meet the team, or just come say hi at The Underground.
Or in person: The Underground at The Temple, 2 E Aspen Ave, Flagstaff