A lot of people are keep asking me how we originated the ideas for our exclusive “Secret Code Clothing” and the “Code Creatures” and “Code Characters”, so we thought we would put some of our story here for all to know and enjoy.

Well, I guess it can go back to when I read Hans Christian Anderson stories as a child. Even back then, I knew that his wonderful stories were filled with metaphors, similes and allegories, and that made it much more interesting for me. I’d sit back and wonder, “Hmmm, what was Hans thinking when he wrote that?”

The above were even more profound when I read Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, which were amazing books that were entertaining on many levels. They were children’s books, they were political satires, they were populated with allusions to real life people, they were filled with logic and puzzles and games, and more. It was also fascinating to know that the author’s name — “Lewis Carroll” — was actually a pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. What is amazing about these literary works is how they can still be enjoyed by everyone, whether or not they care about the hidden meanings that were threaded throughout the stories.

The Beatles had a great time having their songs seem like they were about one thing, while they were truly about things — or people! — that were completely different. Even if they did not plan the Paul Is Dead “game” and even if John Lennon did not know that Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds would be interpreted as a song about L.S.D., it’s very interesting that thousands — millions? — of people think they did.

People have always searched for hidden meanings through art.

Dracula, The Great Gatsby, Sgt. Pepper and the incredible works of Edgar Allan Poe — as well as countless other works of literary art — were also filled with cryptic clues and secret messages. The artists intended them to be. While in college, I studied 19th Century art and it was always fascinating to learn about how great Romantic artists incorporated allegories into their landscape paintings and even portraits. Goya was one of the best at putting cryptic and symbolic meaning in his art.

There is nothing I can say about Leonardo Da Vinci that hasn’t already been said, or Houdini, but is there anyone who has ever thought of these men who were not amazed by their accomplishments and all the “secrets” they knew?

Even fictional characters such as Sherlock Homes, Captain Kidd, the Shadow, Indiana Jones, and the amazing stories that George Lucas created were exciting to watch, as we followed our hero as he unraveled mysteries.

As a teenager, I became fascinated with Hedge Mazes and Labyrinths and started drawing them in countless notebooks. I always dreamed about the day when I would grow up and create my own, that would intrigue and excite visitors.

My friends and I used to read all about the important codes and methods of secret communication in use since ancient times. We especially loved all the codes used by spies. We began to experiment with our own codes while solving historic codes such as the Playfair Cipher, the Pigpen Cipher used by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War, Thomas Jefferson’s Wheel Cipher, the Beaufort system, and more.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many opportunities for “normal” people to use secret communications in “normal life.”

I first found out about Letterboxing about 10 years ago. Thanks to Wikipedia, here is some information on its history:

Modern-day letterboxing’s origins can be traced to Dartmoor, England in 1854. William Crossing in his Guide to Dartmoor, states that a well known Dartmoor guide (James Perrott) placed a bottle for visitors cards at Cranmere Pool on the northern moor in 1854. From this hikers on the moors began to leave a letter or postcard inside a box along the trail (sometimes addressed to themselves, sometimes a friend or relative) — hence the name “letterboxing”. The next person to discover the site would collect the postcards and mail them. The first Dartmoor letterboxes were so remote and well-hidden that only the most determined walkers ended up finding them, allowing weeks to pass before the letter made its way home. Increasingly, however, letterboxes have been located in relatively accessible sites. As a result, the tradition of leaving a letter or postcard in the box has been forgotten.

Clues to the locations of Dartmoor letterboxes are traditionally distributed in print format in the Dartmoor 100 Club’s regularly-updated catalogue. Letterboxes can be found in other areas of the United Kingdom including the North York Moors and have now spread all over the world.

Interest in letterboxing in the U.S. is generally considered to have started with a feature article in the Smithsonian Magazine in April 1998. The growing popularity of the somewhat similar activity of gloating during the 2000’s has increased interest in letterboxing as well. Clues to American letterboxes are commonly published on Letterboxing North America, Atlas Quest, and other websites.

Letterboxing led to my interest in Geocaching.

It was while having a great time solving and creating clues with Letterboxing and Geocaching that let me to create “T-Quest” & “Code Quest”, by the way. More on that at another time.

In 2001, an Alternative Reality Game called THE BEAST was created by a team at Microsoft to promote the Steven Spielberg film AI. Enough information about this, and other Alternative Reality Games, fills pages upon pages of books and articles and blogs and forums, so there is no need for me to describe what they are. Suffice to say that ARG’s had a major impact on my life. Wow, there are other people like me “out there!”

I have used secret codes and messages and cryptograms and substitution and transposition ciphers for as long as I can remember — even as a child, when I wanted to be an archaeologist. I am very good at creating secret codes and clues, too. This particularly came in handy while trading notes in class in middle and high school and publishing my first books (all under pseudonyms, of course!)

And that’s what brings us to the founding of Code Apparel.

Judging from the # of books on the above and the popularity of Letterboxing and Geocaching, it seems to me that there are plenty of people out there who would absolutely love the idea of wearing apparel that contain secret words and codes and messages in them. It’s an easy way to become a bit of an adventurer. After all, everyone likes to know secrets. And some people even like to keep secrets. Thanks to the Code Creatures, people can immerse themselves in secret adventures by doing something as simple as choosing which shirt they will wear on a particular day.

We promise to always keep you guessing. We promise to never bore you. We’ll always invite you to be in on the game. We’ll always invite you to be part of the story.

Do you have ideas for secret codes, hidden meanings in designs, clues, Code Creatures? Let us know.

Are you ready to join us?

What’s your secret?

Amber