ALOCS Mesh Shorts Explained Relaxed Fit Notes

That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup: what are you looking at?

That’s A Awful Lot Of Cough Syrup is a self-owned Los Angeles clothing label founded by rapper Desto Dubb. It trims itself down to ALOCS, an abbreviation that appears across its own 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 odd in practice, since the brand’s own name doubles as the main graphic on most of it. On the filing the company is THATS A AWFUL LOT OF… LLC, with no apostrophe and a trailing ellipsis. Shoppers look for it under a dozen different spellings, including alocs clothing, cough syrup clothing alocs mesh shorts and the shorthand awful lot of cough syrup. Before anything else, note this: the brand writes „A Awful Lot“, not „An Awful Lot“, and the ungrammatical article is a choice. Plenty of people type thats a awful lot of cough syrup without the apostrophe, but only the version with „A“ fits the registered mark.

Who is behind it?

Desto Dubb, a rapper and entrepreneur from Watts in South Los Angeles, is the founder and chief exec. He had been making music for years before he sold a shirt, which tells you most of what you need about how the company operates. This is not a design studio with a rapper attached as a face; it is a rapper’s business, run from the same circle as his records. He has cast other labels as built around an aesthetic, and his own as wrapped around himself instead. You spot the result in graphics that read like song titles and in drops keyed to events rather than fashion seasons.

The United States trademark for the phrase is registered to Joshua Kashif Taylor, and posts on the brand’s own blog carry a matching byline. The internet implies more about his legal name than the record carries, and that record is light. Other names get repeated on unsourced commercial sites and are best left alone, since for every practical purpose he is Desto Dubb.

Where did the name come from?

The public first heard the phrase 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 runs through nearly every write-up, and it deserves care, since material online claims the clip was staged and no primary transcript settles it. What is documented is the commercial outcome rather than the encounter, and the trademark record lists first use of the mark in November 2018.

The phrase names promethazine-codeine cough syrup, the prescription medicine known in rap slang as lean, and the company does not pretend otherwise. The product names are loaded with medical and horror imagery, from Big Pharma and Promethazine Tour to Paralysis and Drankenstein, a graphic vocabulary rather than an instruction. It declines treating that as a selling point, and its own site carries a standing banner reading „! PLEASE DO NOT SIP DRANK AND SHOOT FIREARMS !“. The clothing is clothing, and the remainder of this piece sticks to garments and prices.

When did the brand start?

2018 is the year to use. The trademark filing puts 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 dates the earliest selling to the pandemic, which conflicts with both markers; the filing and the anniversary piece are the stronger pair. Having two independent pointers to a single year is more than most young streetwear brands can produce.

The beginning was literally a van. On its own about page the brand describes Desto Dubb selling clothes out of a van in a parking lot in downtown Los Angeles, an origin it tells on itself rather than one assembled by a reporter. The method is still described 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 does it actually make?

At the core sit heavyweight cut-and-sew basics wearing jumbo screen prints front and back. Hoodies are the heavy end, 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. Tee names take in King Of The Kill, Drankenstein, Juicebusters and Big Pharma, and the Classic Cough Syrup T-Shirt is published at 6.5 oz organic cotton. Denim is deliberately kept thin, and 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 given away less by any graphic than by two details: the signature yellow woven label, invoked again and again in its own product copy, and the published fabric weight. Fit guidance is set per garment and is not uniform, since the classic pieces are called true to size while the lightweight jersey tees say plainly that they run small. Sizing reaches XS to 3XL on apparel, with denim and workwear sold by waist from 28 to 44, and neither a global size chart nor washing instructions is published.

How much does it cost?

Easy to hold in your head, the core prices barely move. At the brand’s own store, as of September 2026, a tee is about $150, a hoodie about $200 and sweatpants about $200. Near $150 covers denim shorts, puffer jackets run between roughly $200 and $250, belts and Dickies trousers around $250, and 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.

Streetwear prices and stock move constantly, which makes that ladder a shape rather than a quote. The band places cough syrup clothing at the upper end of independent streetwear, well above mall-tier graphic brands and far below European luxury houses. It is likewise an authenticity signal: a $45 tee wearing this logo did not come from the company selling them at $150.

Where does it come from, and where can you buy it?

Los Angeles, and the brand says so on the garments themselves. Across the product copy „Made in Los Angeles“ recurs, and individual pieces are described as hand-dyed and printed or screen-printed in the city rather than finished abroad. The same copy also presents the company as a Black-owned business. At these price levels local small-batch production explains the numbers, since a 16 oz cotton hoodie made here was never going to be a $60 garment.

Alongside a small number of physical locations the company runs its own online store. At 7669 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles sits the flagship, and the company also lists 312 West 5th Street in Los Angeles and 5410 Almeda Road in Houston. No store-locator page and no published opening hours are provided, which makes those addresses worth confirming before travelling. Anything else that passes for an outlet is best judged on the garment, meaning the yellow woven label, the published fabric weight, the real price level, and whether the product name appears in the brand’s own catalogue.

The brand fact file

The details that survive checking are gathered in the table below, and the ones that do not are left out. Read from the brand’s own store in September 2026, the prices are hedged, because they move. The dates are sourced from the trademark record and dated press coverage rather than brand mythology. The addresses 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.