Meet Eliana and Matthew Sheade | Co-Owners of FCK The Stigma Apparel

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eliana and Matthew Sheade and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eliana and Matthew, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
We’re both Arizona natives, born to two therapist parents. Our father is a cognitive behavioral therapist specializing in adults and couples and our mother is a Registered Play Therapist specializing in children and adolescents. Our parents met in Grad school at ASU, majoring in social work so mental health is a foundational aspect of our family. It was our parents’ dedication to helping others and bringing awareness to mental health stigmas that drove us to start FCK The Stigma. We wanted a stylish and noticeable way to help normalize the discussion around mental health by Fighting, Confronting, and Knocking out the stigma around mental health and getting help(see what we did there). Every day, we’re grateful to have grown up in the environment we did because we don’t take advantage or dismiss our mental health. A big part of our personal missions is helping those in need and lifting up our community so it’s really nice to be able to come together to achieve that shared mission.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
FCK The Stigma is a mental health-based apparel brand whose mission is to help Fight Confront and Knock out the stigma around mental health and seeking help. One of the biggest obstacles when starting was time management. Both of us are full-time students and very active in our community. Our struggle was more than just finding some time to work on building the brand, it was finding a time that worked for both of us on a consistent basis. Once we got some better time management, it made it ten times easier to get some real movement going toward creating and spreading the brand. Another key element that got us to where we are today is monthly quality checks. Every time we put in the effort to make sure the material is good, customer satisfaction is high, the website looks good, etc., etc. we are just making the brand better and better. It’s important to understand that a business will never be perfect or feel perfect, but growing and changing every day to a better version of the brand is as close as we can get to true perfection.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If our best friends were visiting the area for a week, We’d plan them a fun and food-filled trip around town. All the kids at both our schools love going to the different food options at Uptown in Central Phoenix. Whether it’s a Shake Shack burger, a pizza cookie from Lou Malnati’s, or some AJ’s pastries, you can’t go wrong with an option that’s both tasty and convenient. Arizona also has some great malls. We’d go to Scottsdale Fashion Square for some more expensive goods or to catch a live theater performance at Desert Stages Theatre. Desert Ridge is another super popular place to go. We could get copious amounts of candy at IT’SUGAR or go and watch the latest movie at AMC Theatre. One thing we don’t take for granted here is a nice cool breeze. What better way to feel that than a sunrise hike up one of the McDowell Mountain Sonoran Preserve’s beautiful desert trails? While we’re there we can also head over to Ancala Village for a healthy and fast breakfast at D’Lite. Another must is the Musical Instrument Museum. It’s full of visual, physical, and audible experiences that one can appreciate and awe at no matter what age they are. Like I said before, this trip would be food-filled. You can’t come here without some of the amazing pizzas at Base Pizzeria. On the last night, you want to go big before they go home. We’d go Go-Kart racing at Octane Raceway, do Double Dare-style escape rooms at Bam Kazam, and end off with a fancy dinner at the famous Geordie’s at Wrigley Mansion all in the same day.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
In 2020, sitting around the kitchen table, we watched our parents, who own a private therapy practice, figure out how to shift their business to be able to still reach out and help people in the midst of the pandemic. More and more cities were locking down, school breaks turned from two weeks to multiple months, and people were struggling mentally to adjust during COVID. We saw that some of the people struggling were our own friends and family. We wanted to find another way to help our community talk about what they were going through and realize that it was normal to not feel okay. It was our friends, family, and community who have been there for us so we wanted to give back to them by helping them talk about their mental health and making spaces for breaking the stigma around mental health and seeking help.

Website: https://www.fckthestigma.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fckthestigmaapparel/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FckTheStigmaApparel