Paul Griffiths is the founder of Babycakes, a legendary streetwear brand that became a staple among scene kids. Babycakes was one of the first and only early-internet fashion brands to translate into IRL success—Paul opened a storefront in Manchester and went on several U.S. and U.K. tours where he sold out Babycakes shirts at almost every stop, including Warped Tour ’09 (snaps from which you can see below). A reddit commenter who claims to be friends with Paul said he made over $10 million during the height of Babycakes’ success.
As the commenter mentioned above, Babycakes was started in Paul's bedroom when he uploaded a handful of t-shirt designs to myspace, which then caught on like wildfire in the late 00s and early '10s.
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| Early Babycakes interview in Fashion Central magazine |
So what happened to Babycakes? After a hiatus in 2017 that several reddit commenters attributed to mental health and financial struggles, Paul looks to be selling his designs again online, working on his art project OYMYO, and is still somewhat active on instagram—though his posts often lack captions or content, so it's hard to know exactly what he's up to.
Which is why I started sleuthing more on reddit: to figure out what happened to Paul and where he went. Surprisingly, most people only had positive things to say about him, except for one commenter who warns that "If you dig deep enough and discover the full truth about Paul your documentary will be a very different story, just a warning".....whatever that means.
Another commenter pins his decline on substance abuse and partying, but it's hard to tell what's rumor and what's fact:
Paul was admired by all, we all grew up on a council estate and majority were chavs/townies. Paul was of course a skater. But even the chavs admired him, me included. Despite his popularity, he didn't come off as arrogant or belligerent. He was always willing to help young skaters out and was really easy to talk to. His main friends that I saw him grow up with, kind of got a left behind a bit. And they seemed bitter about it. When he first went to Manchester I would hear stories about the crazy parties. And I actually really liked his gear. I think he was on a LOT of drink and drugs. I heard from one of his old friends (take with a pinch of salt, like I said, they were bitter) that Paul got punked out abit, apparently he was really enjoying the party lifestyle and when he was high one night some people offered him a deal where they would take over production and distribution and just cut him a wedge, he wouldn't have to do anything but design. Apparently, once it was signed over, they just dropped him and took all the logistics for themselves and Paul had nothing. It's been a few years since I've seen anything of him, last I had him on Facebook he'd constantly post these strange live streams with random sounds and ambience visuals that I don't really what they were. But there was alot that went on with his family whilst he was away that he's resentful about, he would go around Facebook settling scores with people that had spoken I'll of his family. That's about all I know. Dude was cool af back in the day and he created baby cakes from nothing but an idea. Can't deny that, bit something just went south at some point 🤷♂️
But by and large, former Babycakes models and employees all seemed to really enjoy working with him and vouched he was a stand-up guy, which makes his decline a bit sadder since he clearly had a lot of creativity and ambition. Here’s to hoping for a full Babycakes revival this decade.
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