About Rivithead
It was the late ’90s. The internet was still in its infancy, and goth fashion was mostly DIY—pieced together from thrift stores and creativity. This was before mass online retail took over. Amazon didn’t exist yet, and while Hot Topic was starting to flood malls with black clothing, it leaned more skater punk and had almost no online presence. Tired of not finding the gear I wanted—especially online—I built Rivithead. One of the first online alternative fashion stores. Not just one of the first goth shops—one of the first e-commerce stores, period.
Our first warehouse was a small upstairs office above a recording studio in Emeryville, California. Bands came and went—and I’d hang out downstairs between shipments, meeting some pretty big names at the time: OMD, Peter Murphy, Salt-n-Pepa, Big Freedia, just to name a few. It was an exciting time. The goth scene was roaring, and life was good.
In 2012, we opened our first retail shop on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley. It felt like a homecoming. But like many small businesses, we got priced out after four years when our landlord decided to double the rent. With no recourse—Berkeley didn’t have rent control for commercial buildings at the time—we packed up and moved. Now we’re based in Sacramento, still shipping, still fighting, and still deeply rooted in the scene.
Rivithead has never been about chasing trends, joining the mainstream, or getting rich. I’ve been running Rivithead for over two decades because I love the people, the music and the scene.
If you’re here, you probably get it. Thanks for keeping it alive.
~ David