Business Review: C28 Christian Clothing Store in Fairfield, California

In the past couple of decades modern Christianity has made several futile attempts in reaching out to the youth culture by trying to enmesh with trendy clothing. If "No Fear" was in style, there was a "Fear God" shirt right behind it in similar lettering. If Hypercolor was the trend, shirts that said "Hyper for Jesus" were created, and so forth and so on. It all seemed so hopeless. And now there is Not of This World, the main clothing line sold by the C28 Christian clothing store. The oC28 I visited was at the Solano Mall in Fairfield, California. Currently there are about a dozen more scattered around malls in California and also one in Florida. And if everything stays on the trend I am seeing in Northern California, there will be many more in the near future.

C28 stands for the Bible verse Colossians 2:8. that text reads in the New American Standard Version "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." In other words, follow Christ and his principles, not the ones in this world because Christ is "not of this world". How creative!

I was baffled by the line of Christian clothing because the Not Of This World clothes I had seen in public were very stylish and required a little bit of inquiry before you discovered that within the clothing pattern were words of scripture.

C28 actually sells more than just clothes. There is a huge display of CDs, racks of jewelry and extremely popular "NOTW" car decals, and a television blasting videos of modern Christian rock bands such as MXPX, Audio Adrenaline, As I Lay Dying, and the David Crowder Band. This store clearly was going for EVERY angle in promoting a Christian lifestyle that could easily blend into modern society without falling into the cheesy, obviously trying too hard marketing that went on in the 80s and 90s. Don't you remember those horrible "No Fear" knock-off shirts that read "Fear God"?