That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup: what is the label?
Launched by the rapper Desto Dubb, That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup is a privately held apparel label run out of Los Angeles. ALOCS is the abbreviation it applies to itself, turning up both in its press material and in item names such as the A.L.O.C.S. T-Shirt. What the label sells reads plain on paper, covering tees, hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, denim and accessories, yet strange in practice, since the brand’s own name is the main graphic on most of it. Shoppers reach it under a dozen spelling variants, including alocs clothing, cough syrup clothing and the shorthand awful lot of cough syrup. On the premium hoodie record the company is THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC, with no apostrophe and a trailing ellipsis. Before anything else, note this: the brand writes “A Awful Lot”, not “An Awful Lot”, and the ungrammatical article is deliberate. It is normal to type thats a awful lot of cough syrup without the apostrophe, yet only the version with “A” fits the registered mark.
Who runs the label?
The founder and the chief executive is Desto Dubb, a rapper and entrepreneur from Watts in South Los Angeles. He was putting out music years before he sold a shirt, which goes a long way toward explaining how the company behaves. This is not a design studio with a rapper attached as a face; it is a rapper’s business, operated from the same crowd as his records. He has described other labels as built around an aesthetic, and his own as wrapped around himself instead. The result comes out in graphics that read like song titles and in drops keyed to events rather than fashion seasons.
Joshua Kashif Taylor is the registrant on the United States trademark for the phrase, and posts on the brand’s own blog carry a matching byline. His legal name is a much thinner paper trail than the internet implies. Other names do the rounds on unsourced commercial sites and are best left alone, since for every practical purpose he is Desto Dubb.
Where does the name come from?
The phrase reached the public through a viral clip in which an officer’s line became the brand name, and Desto Dubb turned that line into a business. The anecdote is retold in nearly every write-up, and it deserves care, since material online claims the clip was staged and no primary transcript settles it. Documentation reaches the commercial outcome rather than the encounter, and the trademark record records first use of the mark in November 2018.
The phrase itself points at promethazine-codeine cough syrup, the prescription medicine known in rap slang as lean, and the company does not pretend otherwise. Medical and horror imagery is scattered across the product names, from Big Pharma and Promethazine Tour to Paralysis and Drankenstein, and it works as a graphic vocabulary rather than an instruction. It also will not treat that as a selling point, and its own site displays a standing banner reading “! PLEASE DO NOT SIP DRANK AND SHOOT FIREARMS !”. Clothing is clothing, and what follows here is about garments and prices.
When did the brand start?
2018 is the year to use. Two records line up: the trademark filing gives first use of the mark in November 2018, and an AllHipHop profile published in November 2023 describes the label marking its fifth anniversary. Some coverage places the earliest selling during the pandemic, which conflicts with both markers, and the filing and the anniversary piece are the stronger pair. Two independent pointers to one year is more than most young streetwear brands can muster.
The start was literally a van. The brand’s own about page has Desto Dubb selling clothes out of a van in a parking lot in downtown Los Angeles, which is the origin it tells on itself rather than one assembled by a reporter. The method is still defined by that detail: small batches, direct contact with buyers, and drops announced through social accounts instead of wholesale calendars. The company runs an online store and physical retail by 2026, but the rhythm still looks closer to a van than a department store, with fresh batches landing every week or two.
What is actually on the rail?
At the core are heavyweight cut-and-sew basics wearing jumbo screen prints front and back. Tee names include King Of The Kill, Drankenstein, Juicebusters and Big Pharma, and the Classic Cough Syrup T-Shirt is published at 6.5 oz organic cotton. Hoodies hold the heavy end, with the Classic Cough Syrup Hoodie listed at 16 oz organic cotton and hand-dyed in Los Angeles, while sweatpants use a 14 oz cotton and recycled polyester fleece. The denim side is deliberately thin, since the Double Cup Cargo Shorts, a 14 oz garment-dyed cargo short with double-layer back pockets, is the only piece in that collection in 2026.
The brand is identified less by any graphic than by two details: the signature yellow woven label, named again and again in its own product copy, and the published fabric weight. Apparel spans XS to 3XL, denim and workwear sell by waist from 28 to 44, and neither a global size chart nor washing instructions is published. Set per garment, fit guidance is not uniform, because the classic pieces are called true to size while the lightweight jersey tees say plainly that they run small.
What does it cost?
The core prices are easy to hold in your head because they barely move. Reading the brand’s own store as of September 2026, a tee is about $150, a hoodie about $200 and sweatpants about $200. Denim shorts come in near $150, puffer jackets between roughly $200 and $250, belts and Dickies trousers around $250, while the Dickies jacket tops the range near $350. At the bottom a bandana runs about $25, socks and boxers fall in the $50 to $70 band, and women’s pieces roughly $48 to $160.
Prices and stock in streetwear change constantly, and that ladder is best treated as a shape rather than a quote. Cough syrup clothing lands at the upper end of independent streetwear on that band, well above mall-tier graphic brands and far below European luxury houses. It amounts to an authenticity signal: a $45 tee wearing this logo did not come from the company selling them at $150.
Where is it produced, and where can you buy it?
Los Angeles, which the brand prints on the garments themselves. “Made in Los Angeles” turns up again and again in the product copy, and individual pieces are described as hand-dyed and printed or screen-printed in the city rather than finished abroad. A Black-owned business is how the same copy describes the company. Local small-batch production explains the numbers at these price levels, because a 16 oz cotton hoodie made here was never going to be a $60 garment.
The company operates its own online store plus a small number of physical locations. The flagship is at 7669 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, and it also lists 312 West 5th Street in Los Angeles and 5410 Almeda Road in Houston. Because there is no store-locator page and no published opening hours, those addresses are worth confirming before travelling. Judge anything else claiming to be an outlet on the garment itself: the yellow woven label, the published fabric weight, the real price level, and whether the product name appears in the brand’s own catalogue.
Fact file for the brand
Below, the table gathers the details that survive checking and leaves out the ones that do not. The dates are sourced from the trademark record and dated press coverage rather than brand mythology. Read from the brand’s own store in September 2026, the prices are hedged, because they move. The addresses given are the ones the company lists on its own social profiles, with no published opening dates. Where a claim is contested, such as the origin clip, the row records what is documented. Treat it as a starting point for your own checks rather than a final word.
| Entry | Detail |
|---|---|
| Brand name, own spelling | That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup |
| Abbreviated form | ALOCS, sometimes written A.L.O.C.S. |
| Spellings shoppers commonly search | thats a awful lot of cough syrup, awful lot of cough syrup, alocs |
| The legal entity | THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC |
| Founder | Desto Dubb, rapper and businessman |
| Founder’s home ground | Watts, South Los Angeles |
| Registered trademark owner | Joshua Kashif Taylor, as listed in the US trademark record |
| First use on record | November 2018 |
| Where the selling started | Sales from a van in a downtown Los Angeles parking lot |
| The giveaway detail | Yellow woven label, plus jumbo front and back screen prints |
| Core pricing, September 2026 | Tees about $150, hoodies about $200, sweatpants about $200 |
| Manufacturing | Made in Los Angeles, described in product copy as a Black-owned business |
| Flagship address | 7669 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles |
| Further listed locations | 312 West 5th Street, Los Angeles; 5410 Almeda Road, Houston |


Recent Comments