Praying: How Two Friends Built a Cult Fashion Brand on Controversy

Praying built a cult following without a marketing budget, a celebrity endorsement deal, or even much of a plan. Two friends bored with their jobs started printing religious phrases on t-shirts and bikinis for their brand Praying, and within a few years the brand had Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, and Christina Aguilera wearing it in public.

What makes Praying worth studying is not scale. It is how a tiny brand turned a strong point of view, and the controversy that came with it, into its entire growth engine.

From Boredom to a Brand

Praying was started by longtime friends Alex Haddad and Skylar Newman, who launched the label in late 2019 while both were unhappy in unrelated jobs. Newman has described those early days as an unglamorous mix of dull work and too many hungover mornings, hardly the origin story of a brand that would later dress pop stars. Some later coverage places the public launch in 2020, which likely reflects the gap between the brand’s quiet private start and its first real cultural moment.

Two Friends, No Fashion Background

Neither founder came from a design background. Haddad worked at an architectural firm and Newman had a job at a software startup in New York before they reconnected and started making clothes together. That lack of formal training shows up as an advantage rather than a gap in their brand story, since it kept Praying free of the polish and caution that often flattens bigger, more institutional labels.

A Provocative Name

The name itself set the tone. Haddad described sketching the word “praying” bent over to one side, landing on something that felt “very powerful but also something that seems to be giving up.” That tension, between reverence and nihilism, between faith and irony, became the brand’s core creative engine long before it became a business.

The Aesthetic That Built a Cult Following

Praying’s visual identity mixes Y2K nostalgia, religious iconography, and deadpan internet humor. Slogans like “You Matter Don’t Give Up” printed to also read “You Don’t Matter Give Up” depending on how you look at it, or a hoodie referencing the “2008 Global Financial Crisis” that later sold out entirely, show how the brand treats clothing the way a meme account treats a caption: quick, self-aware, and disposable by design.

This is a different flavor of streetwear branding than most heritage labels pursue. Where an older streetwear brand builds a consistent visual language over years, Praying leans into being of-the-moment, printing whatever feels culturally relevant right now and letting pieces rotate out just as fast.

Growing Through Controversy

Praying’s biggest growth moment came from backlash, not a campaign. In August 2022, TikTok star Addison Rae posted a photo wearing the brand’s “Holy Trinity” bikini, a $100 set printed with “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit.” The post sparked a wave of criticism from people who called it disrespectful to Christianity, and Rae eventually deleted it. NBC News reported that Rae’s representatives, along with Praying and Adidas, did not immediately respond to requests for comment at the time, and the story was quickly picked up by outlets like Yahoo and multiple entertainment sites, giving Praying far more reach than any paid campaign could have bought.

The Adidas Detail Most Coverage Got Wrong

Much of the press at the time described the bikini as an Adidas collaboration, which added fuel to the controversy. Adidas later clarified that its actual partnership with Praying was limited to a specific sneaker release, the Supernova Cushion 7, and that it was “not connected to the product in question.” The confusion itself is worth noting: once a brand becomes culturally loaded enough, the public will often assume bigger backing than actually exists, which can amplify a story well beyond its real scope.

Celebrity Culture as Free Marketing

Beyond the Addison Rae moment, Praying built an unusually dense list of celebrity co-signs for a brand its size. Olivia Rodrigo has carried the brand’s pieces, Christina Aguilera posted her own version of the Holy Trinity bikini, and Megan Thee Stallion, Charli XCX, and Euphoria’s Chloe Cherry have all been photographed in Praying. None of this appears to have come from paid placements or agency deals. It grew from the brand being genuinely worn and shared within the same internet-native culture it was designed to comment on.

For independent founders without a PR budget, this is the most transferable lesson: a strong enough point of view can attract organic celebrity attention that no outreach campaign guarantees.

Scarcity as the Business Model

Praying runs almost entirely on limited drops rather than a standing catalog. Pieces like the $180 “2008 Global Financial Crisis” hoodie sell out shortly after release and are rarely restocked in the same form, which keeps demand consistently ahead of supply.

That approach relies heavily on scarcity marketing, but it also solves a real operational problem for a small, founder-run label: producing in small, sold-out batches is far less risky than committing to large production runs for a brand whose relevance depends on staying culturally current.

What Independent Brands Can Learn From Praying

Praying is proof that a clear, specific point of view can outperform a bigger budget. Founders often try to appeal broadly out of fear of alienating potential customers, but Praying shows that a sharply defined perspective, even a divisive one, gives people something to actually react to and share.

The second lesson is about production discipline. Small, limited drops let Praying stay financially light while its cultural relevance did the heavy lifting, rather than betting on large inventory that could sit unsold once a trend moved on. And the third lesson is about controversy itself: rather than apologizing or going quiet after the Holy Trinity bikini backlash, Praying kept the piece for sale and let the moment run its course, treating the reaction as part of the brand’s identity rather than a crisis to manage away.

Frequently Asked Questions about Praying