Mark 'Willsy' Wills
Glitched Pixel Founder & Creative Lead
The Protagonist With a Glitched Idea
First off, thank you. Seriously. Out of the gazillion pages on the internet, you somehow landed here, at the home of Glitched Pixel — and that’s humbling as hell.
For those unacquainted, let me introduce myself: I’m Mark Wills, but many call me Willsy, your friendly gamer dad and the solo yolo mofo behind this quirky little gaming apparel shop. Glitched Pixel is my grassroots baby, birthed in the quiet, somewhat internet-challenged town I call home near the ass-end of New Zealand. Out here, pedestrians walk faster than our internet speed — and most of them are retired!
But I kid… Most of the retiree’s ride pimped out electric scooters! ;-D
Glitched Pixel launched in January 2025, and let me start by saying that it wasn’t even a sparkle between my neurons one year prior. I’ve spent 15 years in the IT industry. I loved it… until I didn’t. Somewhere along the way, that spark fizzled out and a new spark ignited with a craving for a new journey — something personal, creative and more fulfilling.
Turning 40 has a way of putting things into perspective — Enter midlife Cough! crisis Cough! mode (Let’s call it what it is, shall we?) — and for me, that perspective came in the form of a gentle whispering (okay, shouting) in my ear. A yearning for change which manifested into what I dubbed the “Triple F’s” — Family, Flexibility, and Fulfillment — simply put, the 3 pillars of happiness that I value most.
I have a loving and supportive wife of nearly 20 years, and two adorable — albeit bonkers — young children. 2024 brought a challenge upon our family that prompts one to sober up from the groundhog churn of 9-5 employment and smell the roses. Family is the No.1 priority and always has been in my life, but evidently it took a sobering reality-check for me to realize that life’s priorities can become hazy amid employer commitments and client stress. Flexibility and self fulfilment also took a back seat as the “career” teeth sunk deeper.
life changes have made the regiment and commitments of 9-5 employment no longer resonate with the tune of what I value most in life. While my employers are excellent people to work for, truth be told, the thought of continuing to pursue someone else’s dream for another 15 years instead of pursuing my own dreams, creativity and discovering my own true potential scares the living shit out of me.
From 8-bit Dreams To Real Life Pixels
Cue my YOLO moment. You know the kind — those rare life-changing trains that pull into the station called “your life” and invite you to step aboard. I’ve let too many of those trains pass me by over the years, but not this time. Glitched Pixel rolled into my station, and I hopped aboard for want of pursuing something more creative and fulfilling with my life. I’m still employed full-time at present and Glitched Pixel is merely a side-hustle at this very early stage, but I hope one day that may change and this journey develops into something incredible — only time will tell.
Glitched Pixel emerged from a desire to inject some much needed vibrance and fun into the gaming apparel industry. There’s no team of executives here, no venture capitalists pulling strings — just me, a gamer dad from the ass-end of New Zealand with a bonkers idea to craft stupidly bright and fun gamer gear for players who want more than mass-produced cookie-cutter brands that are often as uninspiring as the NPC dialogue in a 2005 Role Playing Game. Glitched Pixel exists because I hope to change that. Gamers deserve a streetwear brand that feels cool, personal, and unapologetically fun.
Every design, every product, and every typo-riddled blog post to grace this website is a love letter to the gamers who’ve glitched, laughed, raged, trolled and leveled up through the comical carnage and hopeless hilarity that the last three decades of games — online, offline, glitched or perfect — have brought us.
Glitched Pixel is here for the underdogs, the button-mashers, the midnight snackers, and everyone in between. I want to build a community, one glitch at a time — and I’m thrilled to have you along for the ride. So, if you’re down for a bit of chaos, a healthy dose of laughs, and some truly enjoyable gamer gear, welcome to the family. Glitched Pixel isn’t perfect — but that’s kind of the point.
Plans For The Future
Behold! Our long shopping list of level-ups
Below is a list of goals and achievements I’ve set for the Glitched Pixel brand. Given our immediate goal is growth and sustaining enough revenue to support ourselves, I have not assigned timelines to any of these goals as the path ahead is unclear this early in our journey.
With an ambitious shopping list of goals and one man at the helm, I graciously ask for your patience throughout the growth phase of Glitched Pixel. My hopes and wishes are that Glitched Pixel grows to support my family and itself within the first year of launch. After the brand is firmly on its feet and providing a stable revenue, my mission will be to scale up resources to help with delivering the goals below and beyond. Check em’ out, we welcome any feedback or suggestions via our ‘contact us‘ page. Thank you fellow Glitchers!
Among the first of many goals is to expand our range of gamer gear dawning our unique gamer graphic art. Not only do I have many more ideas and fun gaming designs sitting in the wings, but expanding our range is also high on the agenda.
Our goal is to grow our existing range of hoodies to include options like “naked” hoodies, “naked” meaning just our vibrant hoodies without the gamer graphic art on the garment. We also plan to expand into items like mousepads, hats, mugs, stickers, gaming and car seat covers, artwork, t-shirts and much more. Sign up to our newsletter and follow our blog to receive progress updates and new product announcements.
These days, the word “blog” seems old skool and boring compared to TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Insta-fluff. If that’s the way the world truly feels about blogs, then you can call me old skool, because I’m a stickler for telling stories, sharing experiences and dumping my brain farts into old fashion words on a page.
It’s something of a creative outlet to poltergeist vomit my quirky perspectives onto a page for others to digest with a smile on their face — Hah! — Eww, that literally translates to “readers, eat my vomit with a smile on your face”… Bahahaha! Well, that’s how I write, so take it or leave it. You get the point. Keep an eye on my Blog page for updates on when this will come to fruition 🙂
The humble ol’ newsletter thrives like a stubborn relative at a family gathering. The newsletter may be old skool, but it’s got moxie, and at Glitched Pixel, moxie is our fuel of choice.
In a world of fleeting digital connections, the newsletter offers something rare: a tangible reminder that sometimes, the most refreshing notification is one that can’t be swiped away. Its superpower? Bypassing the attention economy’s chaos. No pop-ups, no ads yelling “BUY THIS,” and best of all — no cookies tracking if you read it in your PJs. It sits in your inbox like a wise mentor, saying, “Read me when you’re ready… or when you’re bored on the toilet”. Keep an eye on our website to be the first to know when our newsletter will be live.
Building a hub to share war stories, gaming memes and much more is a key component for this burgeoning community — and Discord and gamers go hand-in-hand, so a private Discord server seems like natural fit. I may need some help from the community to get this up and running though, because I’m no expert on setting up and managing a Discord server. Join our newsletter to keep tabs on news about this in future.
Do I, or Don’t I? That’s the tricky question.
These days, social media has woven its way so deep into the fabric of our society it can become challenging to operate life or a business without it. That said, we all did it several decades ago, so I’m tempted to try operate without it, but it will ultimately come down to the pace in which we grow. If Glitched Pixel struggles to gain traction, I may do some social media stuff for Glitched Pixel at a later time, but I’m not a huge user or a big fan of social media, so we’ll see how this pans out in future.
This might sound like a bit of a rant, but lets call it what it is, shall we? Besides, this story probably serves as a sobering warning to anyone with facebook, if that’s you, read on.
Recently, my trust in Meta has diminished greatly after my personal Facebook profile of 18 years was permanently disabled by Meta without warning. The ban was no thanks to an unknown prick who somehow linked a dodgy Instagram account to my FB profile and got it banned in the wake of their prolific rule breaking.
In attempting to recover my profile, Meta offered absolutely no way to appeal the unfair decision, or contact them. Meta’s customer support is for lack of a better term — Dogshit! — It’s literally non-existent. Take my advice, if you depend on Facebook heavily for contacts, community groups and especially business, I would seriously consider a recovery plan or reducing your dependance on the platform, because your FB profile can up and disappear in the blink of an eye, and you’re left with a lot of stress and literally no way to plead your case and recover it.
Honestly speaking, I want Glitched Pixel to succeed and become my day job, but for it to survive the long-term and become a name synonymous with the ‘joy of gaming’ and ‘not taking life too seriously’, It’ll be essential for the Glitched Pixel brand to collaborate with influencers from around the world in both the gaming industry and other prominent entertainment sectors.
This includes you too! It’s equally as important to collaborate with the very people who enjoy and support this vision. So, follow our blog and join our newsletter for opportunities to collaborate with me in designing some of our future products, competitions and social events.
Gaming expo’s are the place for up and comer’s to show off their games or wares to the world. But more importantly, to meet the very people that make our dreams a reality face to face. It is for much the same reasons mentioned above that I hope one day for Glitched Pixel to dawn its wares and meet our fans at many gaming expo’s around the world, including eSports events. Join our newsletter to learn where and when we’ll next be in town.
It’s early days yet, but in the future we envisage holding competitions that provide rewards like free giveaways, discount vouchers, your very own product design, Steam vouchers and much more. To be the first to know, join our newsletter and follow our blog for all details.
Sometime in the future, another goal is to expand into personalizable items that allow customers to write their own messages to be printed on the product. Other ideas include allowing customers to pick and choose what graphic art peers best with their own choice of garment or product design. Follow our blog and join our newsletter for more on this in future.
While I have a clear vision of what I want Glitched Pixel to become, I know having a singular vision can potentially lead to tunnel vision resulting in missed opportunities for constructive discussion from varying perspectives. I firmly believe that customers hold the purest form of direction that any brand needs to succeed, and while all parties may not agree on every topic, ignoring the customers chance to be heard would be a perilous decision.
It is for this reason I aim to introduce a voting and feedback system in the future. Features in mind include; granting members of our site the ability to vote on upcoming designs concepts, design modifications, marrying hoodie designs with clipart, competitions, color choices, product deletions and much more. I have yet to determine how this will work, but sign up to our newsletter and follow our blog learn more about this in future.
Part of what led me to pave my own path and build something my own was because of my recent experiences navigating some of life’s stormy waters. I’m still not clear of these waters, but it’s teaching me much about myself, mental wellbeing and that I’m far from alone in these unforgiving seas.
It’s for these reasons I intend to be candid and transparent about mental wellbeing by sharing my own journey and learnings in my blog and potentially incorporating subtle links to mental health awareness within the brand as well. How this will come to fruition is yet to be determined, but join our newsletter and follow our blog to learn more as this develops.
Building a brand without connecting with fans is like playing a multiplayer game solo — you’re missing out on all the fun (and the XP)! I believe that collaborating with customers and hanging out in-person is like a series of epic side quests that level up trust, loyalty, and mutual appreciation. Together, we’re not just building a community; we’re creating a guild of legends!
My hope is that the Glitched Pixel brand garners a modest following of loyal glitchers who not only enjoy our designs and products, but also share our vision for vibrant fun and stupidity. Sign-up to our newsletter for updates on potential gatherings in future.
Sponsoring events and community groups is like dropping loot boxes in real life — everyone wins — albeit there’s probably much less carnage and head tapping.
We’re a wee way off yet, but once Glitched Pixel has grown and found its feet, one of our goals is to give back where we can. Whether it be sponsoring in-part or in-full an eSports team, a tournament, or a school/community event, we aim to be here for the long game and helping communities around the world level up. Sign-up to our newsletter to be the first to know when we’re in a position to sponsor events.
Game development — it’s a long shot, but the thought of one day building my own game, or being involved in building a game I enjoy brings good vibes, no harm in dreaming big!