Press

01/13/2003

Rockin' baby gear debuts: Mark DeVito's line of baby clothes caters to metalhead moms and dads

Contra Costa times
By: Randy Myers

Aidan's starting to show the signs.

He loves to scream. He loves to shout. But what really nails it is that theboy looks positively wicked in black.

Aidan DeVito's no ordinary crybaby from the East Bay: He's a headbanger in training.

Yeah, it might take a long time after he gets out of diapers to really appreciate, say, the artistic aspirations of the lyrics to Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me." But the rock of ages is upon him.

The 11-month-old inspired his proud poppa, Mark DeVito, a die-hard heavy-metal buff and graphic artist, to launch Metal Babies, a new line of baby garb that parodies the concert T-shirts of the giants in metal including AC/DC, Metallica, and even Black Sabbath. The clothes range from $12-$18, and are available online at www.metalbabies.com.

Ostensibly, these one-pieces and T's, which bear the logos of "Maternica" instead of Metallica and CD titles such as "Nappeth baby Nappeth" rather than "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath," are for kids. But let's get real: Metalheads are the ones logging onto the Net to shell out the bucks.

"It's more for the parents," concedes Mark DeVito from his Berkeley home.

Metal Babies was born of the 36-year-old's frustration over the standard rainbow colors of baby clothing and shirts featuring bunnies and dump trucks embossed on them.

"I had a really hard time finding clothes that didn't make my kid look like an Easter egg," DeVito said. He knows of what he speaks, recalling, quite vividly, "the little suede vest with strands" that his mom made him wear when he was a tyke.

DeVito has designed shirts for Metallica and works 9-to-5 at Oakland's Cinder Block, a company that produces concert-tour T-shirts. His own business is about a month old, and is still getting its walking legs.

So far, Metal Babies has received about 15 orders, including one from MTV. Word of this niche line is slowly getting out, with members of metal bands such as Metallica and the East Bay-based Exodus getting a kick out of them.

"If the parents are rocker or a metalhead, it's perfect," said Gary Holt, the guitar player for Exodus.

This certainly isn't the first time that babies have been dressed up according to parental taste in music. A punk line of clothing for wee ones is available, but unlike Metal Babies, those items are of a more potty mouth nature.

"I knew that it didn't have to be offensive or demonic or anything like that," DeVito said. "It's baby clothing, after all."