Hip, edgy clothes carry spiritual message
11:10 PM PST on Sunday, January 16, 2011
By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise
C28 blends in easily at the Galleria at Tyler mall in Riverside. The store window features edgy styles similar to those on display at the No Fear shop across from it.
But look more closely at C28 products and you'll spot biblical verses, crosses and "Praise the Lord" amid the graffiti-like designs on the T-shirts, hoodies and sneakers.
C28 is hip, but it's also Christian. It operates under a philosophy that accepting Jesus as your savior doesn't mean you have to dress in boring clothes.
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David Bauman / The Press-Enterprise
Aurelio Barreto, CEO of C28, a Christian-lifestyle retailer based in Corona, stands in the company display room with many of the T-shirt styles that are popular with young people. "When God put it in my ear to reach kids with the gospel, he wanted me to do this in malls," Barreto says.
Aurelio Barreto III opened his first C28 at Tyler in 2001 and later expanded to Temecula, six other California cities and two franchise locations in Virginia. The Riverside resident also founded the Not of This World merchandise line that includes the NOTW logo -- the T is a cross in the O -- visible in countless car windows and bumpers cruising down streets in the Inland area and throughout the country.
The phrase is from Colossians 2:8 -- the inspiration for C28 -- a biblical verse that teaches that Jesus' followers don't belong to the world but to Christ.
Barreto, 51, views his Corona-based company as a ministry. Employees pray with customers and keep track of those who dedicate their lives to Jesus. Barreto deliberately opens C28 shops in malls to reach people who wouldn't otherwise set foot in a Christian store.
"When God put it in my ear to reach kids with the gospel, he wanted me to do this in malls," Barreto said.
RICH BUT EMPTY
Before Barreto created C28, he co-founded Dogloo, which made igloo-shaped doghouses and other pet products. He sold the Corona company in 1998 for more than $20 million and prepared to retire at age 38 and live off his fortune.
Barreto thought he had it made: A beautiful wife, a $150,000 Porsche Turbo, a life of leisure ahead of him. But after jetting off to Hawaii and then New Zealand to begin his retirement, Barreto became so depressed that he contemplated suicide.
"I said, 'God, if this is all you have for me, I want to die,'" Barreto said. "Once you get the American dream, it doesn't make you happy. You don't worry about bills, you can fly first class, you can have nice meals. But that doesn't give you peace."
At the time, Barreto was donating hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to charities. He sent his kids to an evangelical Christian school and attended an evangelical church every week -- although looking back, he said it was to "earn my points. I clocked in and I clocked out."
THE AWAKENING
Barreto later realized that he was a Christian in name only. After an intense discussion with the principal of his children's school, he dedicated his life to Jesus and, coming back from a dirt-biking trip to the High Desert, noticed a tiny, hip-looking Christian store in Victorville. That gave him the inspiration for C28.
Barreto said he started Not of This World because he couldn't find enough cool clothes to fill his store.
Not of this World and Truth Soul Armor -- a Christian-clothing company that Barreto is in the process of buying -- are now online and in 3,000 stores, including non-Christian outlets such as No Fear, Buckle and Tilly's, Barreto said.
At the Riverside location of the Berean Christian-store chain, Not of This World is by far the biggest seller, store manager Nancy Walden said.
Walden, who has worked in Christian retail for 25 years, said Not of This World was the first Christian clothing line to frequently update styles to keep pace with fashion trends.
C28 is the only Christian-store chain geared toward young people, said George Thomsen, chairman of CBA, a Colorado-based Christian retailers association.
"It's unique in that he's created an environment where kids feel welcome," said Thomsen, general manager of The Harvest Store in Riverside. "It kind of has the cool factor. It's not just the message. The message is paramount, but it comes in really nice packaging."
PURITY RINGS
Mixed among the clothes at C28 are stainless-steel rings with "True love waits" messages of sexual purity; writing journals; "Forgiven Energy" drinks, and youth-oriented Christian books, CDs and DVDs.
Some clothes are bolder than others, like a blue T-shirt with "Live Without Jesus Die Without Jesus" in big white letters. Others have subtle messages, such as "Truth" patches on plaid shirts.
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Frank Bellino / The Press-Enterprise
The C28 store in Temecula's Promenade mall looks like many trendy youth fashion sites.
Adam Gelbach, 23, regularly shops at C28.
"I like it because it's Christian stuff but it's cool," the tattooed Gelbach said as he perused shirts at C28 in his torn jeans, keys hanging out of a back pocket. "There's a lot of stuff at other stores with skulls and crossbones, but I don't like the design and it's not the message that I want to send."
Mary Anne Stephens, 57, said C28's styles aren't for her. But the Victorville woman likes bringing her two teenaged daughters to shop there, because she doesn't have to worry about foul words or low-cut blouses.
"It reinforces what I've told them all their lives," Stephens said.
Next to her at C28 on a recent afternoon was 16-year-old Valerie Stephens, clad in a plaid shirt adorned with "Jesus Perfect Love" that she wore over a purple thermal top that says, "Cast Out Fear."
"Everything says something that expresses what I believe is true," Valerie said.
Customers sometimes wander onto the spray-painted cement floors of C28's industrial-look Tyler store thinking they're in Hot Topic, an edgy, teen-oriented secular retail chain, said Eve Debayona, the store manager.
When employees explain C28 is a Christian store, some ask where Hot Topic is and leave, said Debayona, who at age 24 is one of the older employees. But others stay.
Some become Christians that day, said CoLene Barreto, 24, C28 district manager and Aurelio Barreto's daughter.
"There's a lot of hurting people walking through the mall who are shopping because of a void in their life," Barreto said. "People here talk with you and pray for you."
EXPLAINING THE BIBLE
Employees are hired in part on their ability to explain biblical verses on store merchandise and pray with customers, she said.
Riverside employee Fenella Filip, 20, of Corona, said she likes dispelling misconceptions that casual walk-in customers have about God. Many young people view Christianity as a harsh, judgmental religion, she said.
She pointed to a red hoodie on a rack that quotes I Peter 2:3-4. It teaches that beauty comes from within, not from fancy clothes, jewelry or hairstyles.
"They ask what it means, what it's getting at," Filip said. "They ask, 'Is that what Christianity is all about?' "
That sometimes leads to more questions and, in some cases, to customers accepting Christ into their lives on the spot, she said.
More than 16,000 people have accepted Christ through C28, most at the stores, others online or at C28 outreach events, including free Christian-music concerts the company has sponsored at the Promenade mall in Temecula, Barreto said.
The C28 website includes prayer boards, a sign-up pledge to not have sex before marriage and a choice of ministries to direct a portion of the purchase price of merchandise.
C28 stores have been losing money since the economic downturn began, although the online business and the clothing lines make enough money to keep the business profitable. Barreto said he keeps the stores open to keep reaching non-Christians. He declined to reveal profit and loss numbers.
Barreto, who attends Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church in Riverside, said he is motivated every day by the change his company can make in customers' lives. He clicked on voicemail on his Android phone and played back a message from an employee in his San Jose store.
A customer had told the employee that his faith was shaky and he didn't know what he believed. The employee prayed with him and the customer then said he wanted to accept Christ into his life.
"That," Barreto said, "is what it's about."
Reach David Olson at 951-368-9462 or
dolson@PE.com
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