Dirtbag Clothing has officially taken center stage. Just a few months ago, the Dirtbag Clothing shop on Garnet Avenue looked like it was closing down because of the national recession. Robert “Sarge” Pratt and John Alves had pulled down the clothing racks and started moving the merchandise out of the way. But the guys weren’t closing. On the contrary. The Dirtbags were getting ready for a soft grand reopening. And if what they did to the store catches on, they might have practically reinvented the way people associate music and clothes. Their stage-setting strategy seems to stem from their particular brand slogan: “Dirtbag is everything onstage, offstage and backstage,” said Mark Evans. Evans is one of the corporate masterminds behind the T-shirt/lifestyle brand’s evolution to become synonymous with rock music. Country music too, if everything goes their way. The 13-year trip from a single T-shirt to national recognition has thus far culminated in a distinct strain of local culture. The hybrid of entertainment and fashion in one location has attracted music and Dirtbag lovers alike to Pacific Beach over the last four years. A $100,000 metamorphic renovation in December changed the interior of the Dirtbag store completely. Black and red Dirtbag-emblazoned thongs and hoodies were replaced with rows of guitars, the most illustrious of which is an $18,299 double-neck BC Rich. Hats, metal skull belt buckles and other accessories are displayed in customized, heavy-duty music equipment cases that can be wheeled aside, transforming the sales floor into a small concert venue at night. A walk inside, and the eyes are instinctively drawn to the corner of the shop. There, artists rock out under green, blue and purple strobes that seem to radiate rock stardom upon whomever graces the black- and sliver-studded platform stage. It’s all part of a fully operational studio complete with 7-piece drum set and electric bass plugged into amplifiers and speakers. The stage itself rises slightly above the rest of the smooth concrete floor, elevating potential rock stars about six or seven inches up over everyone else. Their journey to Pacific Beach started 13 years ago in San Francisco with a single Dirtbag T-shirt. Co-founders Doug Canning and Alves were just a couple of buddies with an idea for a shirt company. A few font changes and many parties later, and the enterprise has expanded to include a web-based store in San Francisco, branded merchandise in 654 stores nationwide in 2007 and a “world headquarters” in Pacific Beach. Now it seems Canning and Alves, along with Douglas “D.W.” Whitsitt, Pratt, Evans and many other Dirtbags, have created their own Frankenstein of an outlet. The store itself, according to Alves, represents an industry “game-changer.” The tight network of business buds try to make their brand popular by literally attaching it to the some of the biggest names in rock and country music. “That’s what Dirtbag [has] always been about, sort of a music hangout. We just took [it] out of the garage and took it on tour,” Alves said. But Alves said they still want to stay grounded, connected to the swell of upcoming artists. Dirtbag endorses more than 100 unsigned bands that coalesce through their website, www.dirtbag.com. Even while trying to make it big, the group seems to stay rooted in the original Dirtbag atmosphere of music and friends. Through a growing online community of unsigned bands, famous friends and connections to local radio stations, the Dirtbag posse has been able to practically corner the backstage market while redefining what it means to be a Dirtbag in Pacific Beach.