The concept came from darkness. Children see light where adults cannot.
My name is Stephannie, owner and creator of Glare Gang. In January 2020, my nephew Xavier was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and told he would not survive from the start of the diagnosis. He was originally going to do treatments in Texas where he lived and wanted to come to San Diego to visit his family before treatments started. He brought along his young sons, Xavier Jr. & King.
They never really left as Xavier's treatment began here where all of his family lived. Eventually his three children and his fiancé / mother of his children would move to San Diego as well.
Xavier's treatments were changed three times. That year, Quarantine was in full effect. Most of the time I travelled to his treatments or appointments, I was not allowed to come inside. I would sit in the car, worrying myself cause I did not know what was going on. I had to be strong, but it was really dark.
Every morning, his son Xavier Jr. would wake up and open the blinds telling me it was too dark. He was such a bright light I started calling him Sunshine Man. He was exactly like his daddy when his daddy was his age. Always full of light and joy. To me, he was and is a Superhero. Watching his father change everyday and not understanding why. His mother going to work everyday; basically the figures of normalcy were not available to him and his siblings as often yet he was still full of joy.
One day on one of those visits to the cancer center, while sitting in the car, I decided to make my real life SuperHero a character for other children to enjoy. I wrote out a timeline for the things I needed to do to make it happen. The trademark lawyer I was planning to use ran a sale. The creation of the character Jordan Majestic was almost complete. Long story short, I paid for the trademark service ahead of my timeline. I got the first trademark opinion letter back and it was unfavorable, meaning I would be denied the mark because there were so many other marks containing the word "sunshine". During that process, watching all of these new cartoons with the babies I came up with the idea to make all three of my nephew's children SuperHeroes. Seven is the number representing completion so I needed four more characters and I chose some of their cousins. Why? Because to me they were all SuperHeroes!
Needless to say, the names I was coming up with kept returning unfavorable. I shared this with my cousin Denise. She went on her phone and looked up synonyms for Sunshine (I wanted to call them the Sunshine Squad) and immediately offered Glare Gang. I didn't like it but I submitted it anyway. I started coming up with acronyms for the word "glare" and had my friend's & family's children vote, as well as some adults from my circle. By the time I got all of the votes back and a favorable letter for the name, my nephew was gone.
We lost Xavier November 19, 2020. I thought I had time to show him what I was doing, but I did not. I only got to share one aspect of the concept with him, and that was the name Jordan Majestic. The conversation went like this:
"X, what do you think of the name Jordan Majestic?" X paused, then looked at me like he wanted to say something but then again he didn't. Then he spoke. "I don't know, Auntie. I mean you know who Majestic was in Get Rich of Die Trying." Me and Kalel, Xavier's little brother, just laughed. He smiled. He was always good as long as I was laughing.
The children above are his children, the inspiration for this brand. The characters have amazing SuperNatural Powers, trying to spread positivity to all the children on planet earth. One day, they will get an understanding of what happened to their father, a real understanding. This brand is designed to give them options in life, options we did not have and their father did not have.
My sincerest desire is that the development of these characters give HOPE. Children are the light in the dark. These children are still bringing light to my family in a dark time. Grief has no expiration date. As they light up our lives, I hope we will be able to return the favor when they get older and have feelings about the darkness they feel about not having their father.
X, I hope we make you proud!
My name is Stephannie, owner and creator of Glare Gang. In January 2020, my nephew Xavier was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and told he would not survive from the start of the diagnosis. He was originally going to do treatments in Texas where he lived and wanted to come to San Diego to visit his family before treatments started. He brought along his young sons, Xavier Jr. & King.
They never really left as Xavier's treatment began here where all of his family lived. Eventually his three children and his fiancé / mother of his children would move to San Diego as well.
Xavier's treatments were changed three times. That year, Quarantine was in full effect. Most of the time I travelled to his treatments or appointments, I was not allowed to come inside. I would sit in the car, worrying myself cause I did not know what was going on. I had to be strong, but it was really dark.
Every morning, his son Xavier Jr. would wake up and open the blinds telling me it was too dark. He was such a bright light I started calling him Sunshine Man. He was exactly like his daddy when his daddy was his age. Always full of light and joy. To me, he was and is a Superhero. Watching his father change everyday and not understanding why. His mother going to work everyday; basically the figures of normalcy were not available to him and his siblings as often yet he was still full of joy.
One day on one of those visits to the cancer center, while sitting in the car, I decided to make my real life SuperHero a character for other children to enjoy. I wrote out a timeline for the things I needed to do to make it happen. The trademark lawyer I was planning to use ran a sale. The creation of the character Jordan Majestic was almost complete. Long story short, I paid for the trademark service ahead of my timeline. I got the first trademark opinion letter back and it was unfavorable, meaning I would be denied the mark because there were so many other marks containing the word "sunshine". During that process, watching all of these new cartoons with the babies I came up with the idea to make all three of my nephew's children SuperHeroes. Seven is the number representing completion so I needed four more characters and I chose some of their cousins. Why? Because to me they were all SuperHeroes!
Needless to say, the names I was coming up with kept returning unfavorable. I shared this with my cousin Denise. She went on her phone and looked up synonyms for Sunshine (I wanted to call them the Sunshine Squad) and immediately offered Glare Gang. I didn't like it but I submitted it anyway. I started coming up with acronyms for the word "glare" and had my friend's & family's children vote, as well as some adults from my circle. By the time I got all of the votes back and a favorable letter for the name, my nephew was gone.
We lost Xavier November 19, 2020. I thought I had time to show him what I was doing, but I did not. I only got to share one aspect of the concept with him, and that was the name Jordan Majestic. The conversation went like this:
"X, what do you think of the name Jordan Majestic?" X paused, then looked at me like he wanted to say something but then again he didn't. Then he spoke. "I don't know, Auntie. I mean you know who Majestic was in Get Rich of Die Trying." Me and Kalel, Xavier's little brother, just laughed. He smiled. He was always good as long as I was laughing.
The children above are his children, the inspiration for this brand. The characters have amazing SuperNatural Powers, trying to spread positivity to all the children on planet earth. One day, they will get an understanding of what happened to their father, a real understanding. This brand is designed to give them options in life, options we did not have and their father did not have.
My sincerest desire is that the development of these characters give HOPE. Children are the light in the dark. These children are still bringing light to my family in a dark time. Grief has no expiration date. As they light up our lives, I hope we will be able to return the favor when they get older and have feelings about the darkness they feel about not having their father.
X, I hope we make you proud!