About Gunnison Supply

I grew up about ten miles from Sandy Hook, so I always knew Gunnison Beach was there. I first went in my early 20s, around 2000 or so, mostly out of curiosity.

And I didn’t get naked.

Which is pretty funny in hindsight, considering I was standing on a beach surrounded by nude people. I was nervous and self-conscious, probably wondering if I looked good enough naked, which is exactly the kind of thing you worry about before you spend any real time around a bunch of people who have no problem being in the buff.

I only stayed an hour or two that first time, but when I left I remember thinking, hey, that was actually really cool. There were people of every shape and size just hanging out, talking, swimming, reading, relaxing, and generally not giving a shit.

So I went back a month or so later, and the second time the clothes came off. A handful more visits over the next few years, but I stopped going for a while later in my 20s. Life got busy, relationships changed, work got in the way, and then I happened to date someone who was into nude beaches, and things were rekindled.

One of the things I like most about being naked? The freedom to stop caring so much. No tan lines, the sun feels good, and you realize bodies are just bodies.

You might be over whatever number your doctor says your BMI should be, you might be under it, you might have scars from an accident years ago, or you might look in the mirror and see things you wish were different. Everyone has those insecurities, but when you’re at a nude beach nobody’s sitting there judging you. They’re just getting some sun and enjoying the beautiful weather.

And once you start going you start to understand that people come in all shapes and sizes. And that preconceived notions fed to us our entire lives by tv and movies are pretty much trash. Some people are skinny, some aren’t, some are in great shape, and some aren’t even pretending they’ve ever set foot in a gym. Nobody cares, and when everyone is nude there’s nothing to hide behind. It’s just people being people.

Over time, Gunnison became something I really looked forward to. The last couple of years I’ve also gotten more social there, because if you go often enough you start recognizing people who tend to sit in the same general areas. Eventually you say hey, then you talk, and then you start knowing people. My wife loves it too, although work and life commitments make it harder for us to get there together as often as we’d like.

Earlier this year, something random happened that eventually turned into what you’re seeing on this whole Gunnison Supply thing today.

There was that whole thing with the couple who climbed the Empire State Building, put up a flag, and then got engaged. For a couple days people online were making parody versions of that flag with different names and businesses on them, and the lack of the mats in 2026 was a hot topic in there. So I made one for Gunnison using ChatGPT and posted it in the Gunnison Facebook group.

A couple weeks later, I was at the beach and somebody had actually turned my fake flag into a real flag. I walked over and said, “Hey, that was me who posted that,” and she gave me a Gunnison sticker. (Thanks Mary) I thought that was cool, so I started making a few Gunnison-specific stickers of my own, mostly because I figured it’d be fun to hand them out, make people laugh, and maybe meet a few cool people.

That was the whole business plan: free stickers. Very sophisticated.

I posted in the Facebook group one day that I was at the beach and had some stickers if anyone wanted one, and people who weren’t there started asking if they could buy them if I mailed them.

That was the first moment I thought, huh, maybe there’s actually something here. So I looked around online, there really wasn’t much variety. A lot of it was basic shirts with GUNNISON BEACH across the front in college-style lettering. Nothing wrong with that, I just had other ideas.

Not some giant business opportunity, and definitely not some “we’re disrupting the nudist apparel space” nonsense. I just figured maybe people wanted some Gunnison stuff that was a little different. A little more than just words on a shirt. Stuff that represented the various mix of people that Gunny draws to it. Because when you’ve been there you know it draws people from all walks of life. Older and younger, all races, all lifestyles. Which means people want different things and have different styles.

That’s what I wanted Gunnison Supply to be: Gunnison-specific stuff because that’s my home beach and where all of this started, but broader nudist stuff too. Some silly, some sarcastic, some a little inappropriate, and some subtle enough that you might wear the shirt somewhere completely normal and only another nudist would really understand the joke. Eventually I’d like it to be about half Gunnison and half general nudist designs.

I’m not trying to build a million-dollar company out of this. You’d have to be dumb to think you could make a fortune by selling clothes to people who want to be naked on a beach. And I already have a full-time job that can be insanely busy at times and painfully slow at others. But my brain doesn’t shut off, so I’m usually thinking about a hundred different things at once anyway. This became a fun place to put some of that energy.

If the store makes enough to cover the website and Shopify costs every year, great. If it barely sells anything and I lose a hundred bucks, whatever, I’ve wasted more than that on dumber things.

The point is just to make stuff I think is cool, funny, and clever, and hopefully other people think so too. My favorite designs so far are probably the ones that don’t scream “NUDIST!” The hidden-bits Gunnison design is probably the best example, because it looks clean, but if you know, you know. Same with the upside-down pineapple replacing the O in Gunnison, it’s subtle, it looks good, and it makes me laugh. Though I do have a soft spot for the Gunnison meat market shirt, cause he’s caked up.

But that’s why I’ve dumped hours and hours into this with my free time since August. I can barely figure out some of the website/shopify things but I keep going until they’re right.

Nudism doesn’t always have to be serious. Sometimes it’s just being comfortable with yourself, enjoying the sun, meeting cool people, and not caring so much.

And since apparently society has decided we can’t be naked everywhere, I figured we might as well have some fun clothes for the rest of the time.

If someday I’m out somewhere and see a random person wearing one of these shirts or a hat, I’m absolutely going to walk over and say, “Hey, I made that,” and chances are we’ll probably have something to talk about.