It all started with a stupid post by a friend of mine over a decade ago... let's call him “Sam.”

“Sam” was the singer of a critically acclaimed New York band. One of the coolest dudes in the city - knew the door guys at every hotspot, always had beautiful girls around him. 

One day Sam posted a selfie. 

(Now mind you, this was pre IG filters). And for whatever reason, Sam wasn't particularly bothered by the fact that his lips were catastrophically chapped.

Our boys, however, weren’t gonna let him off so easy.

The comments were merciless:

"Bro! WTF is wrong with your face?"

"Haven't you ever heard of chapstick?!"

"Dude - are you ok?  Did you just walk out of Chernobyl?!"

Sam's response  -  "Man, f*** that. Creams, lotions, chapsticks - all that s**t’s for p*ssies" - was simultaneously absurd and inspiring.

Like how ridiculous - just put on some chapstick bro - it’s not a big deal. But it was inspiring because I realized that a lot of dudes were carrying this same limited belief system. I started doing some research and discovered that almost half of us don’t even own a single skincare product. (Honestly - I get it - there’s just something about skincare that sucks - it’s like acknowledging that your youth is gone and you’ve embarked on an irreversible march towards death.) 

I had always used a simple all in one moisturizer that I bought at my corner bodega (I learned the hard way that freezing NYC winter winds will rip your face off if you don't have protection). I wasn’t a “skincare guy,” but I saw my friends aging poorly as we entered our 30s so I just committed to doing that one thing every day. And honestly, it made all the difference.

One day out of nowhere my product was discontinued. I started trying to find deadstock on ebay. Then I tried other products, but not only were they all so expensive, (turned out my facecream had an ingredient called Retinol which drove the price up, but probably what kept my face from aging faster than it needed to), I also didn’t like the way any of them felt. Greasy, smelly, heavy. I thought about Sam and said screw it - let me make my own and share it with my bros.

It took me a few years to figure it out - hardest challenge was that I also wanted it to be a sunscreen - a true all-in-one. But what I didn’t know was that sunscreen is considered a drug in America (!!!??) - so I had to find a lab with special FDA licenses to develop it. What didn’t take me long though was coming up with the name. Don’t ask me why - but twenty years ago my friends and I started stupidly putting bro into everything - Broseph, Brofessional, Bromeo. And I decided to put Brotege as the company on my Midtown credit card (the official company name was Midtown Band, LLC  (Midtown was taken duh - and we weren’t feeling particularly creative the day we filed our LLC paperwork), but I was tired of people asking me if I was in a band every time I used it). I committed to the bit so hard that I even registered the .com . . . in 2008!!! So when I wanted to start this company, I realized I already had the perfect name for it. After all, I'm making this for my bros. Not for professional skincare sommeliers. 

My goal in starting Brotege was to help guys like Sam who are turned off by the way skincare companies speak to them. The whole notion of skincare is ridiculous to your 16 year old self, and if you can’t find a way to laugh at it, you’re doing it wrong. But even though I wanted the tone to be funny, I wanted the formula to be serious. One product that can do it all. A no whitecast SPF that's low enough for grease-free daily use, but strong enough to protect you from the sun; Retinol, (which I learned is one of the only ingredients scientifically proven) to fight aging; and a light-weight moisturizer to protect your face in the winter without feeling like you’re wearing aquaphor. I also needed the product to be simple, easy to use, and affordable. It had to look different - and it had to work. After years of developing this quietly, I finally decided to pull the trigger on it last year. 

You have to be a little bit crazy to think you can start a skincare company - especially when your only background in ecom had been selling leftover tour merch online - and your understanding of skincare is more about the things you don't like (and not so much actually like knowing what you're doing). But my favorite songwriters were always the ones who had no musical training - and in a way starting a company is kind of like starting a band no?  - so why the hell not? 

2025, our first year in business, was insane. So many tough lessons - so many new problems to figure out. But it was also super sick. I set out to do this and didn’t know if anyone would care. We’re still a tiny brand, but after seeing the response, seeing the reviews, and going through 30k tubes of brotege (and if one of those were bought by you - THANK YOU fr!), it feels like we’re onto something real here. 

We’re figuring it out as we go. Making mistakes, pivoting in real time, (f* it we’re doing it live!) and listening to what our supporters (and haters) have to say. So please hit me up if you have any thoughts or feedback or just wanna say gfy. Thank you for reading all this and thank you for being a part of this journey. 

2026 is gonna get weird so stay tuned.