About Us

Hey y’all, we’re the Butcher Brothers!

Let us tell you how the Madman Mentality all got started.

Life changed for us in an instant. Our dad moved away to start a new life and it was just us two and our mom.  We were typical teenagers to start with, but our attitudes really started to take a nosedive.  We were being disrespectful to our mom, we were lazy and didn’t do anything to help around the house, and all we wanted to do was sit around, watch TV, and play video games.  We were spiraling quickly and headed nowhere good.  Then one day, a day we refer to as “The Great Awakening”, our lives changed forever. 

The day before The Great Awakening our mom gave Uncle Jason, Major in the Airforce, pilot, dedicated military contractor, and one of the scariest guys on the planet, a phone call. She was at her wits end with us. We wouldn’t get up when we were told, wouldn’t get anything done that she had asked, our attitudes were getting uncontrollable, and she didn’t know what to do with us.  Jason told her he’d handle it…and that may have been the understatement of the century.

Friday June 1^st, 2018. Our uncle, Jason Pool, swung the door open at 5:00am in the morning and flipped on the lights. As we’re trying to figure out what was happening our uncle yells in a drill sergeant voice “you have 2 minutes to get dressed appropriately...we’re working out.” At this point we were scared to death and didn’t know what else to do but get up and get dressed as fast as possible.

We got outside with 10 seconds to spare.  Jason then told us to grab Big Bertha, a 180lb military truck tire, out of his truck and start flipping.  As a Sophomore and Freshman who were pretty weak at the time, the tire intimidated us and we could barely flip it. 

One flip by one we made our way down our block.  Our hands were beat up, cut, bruised, bleeding, and covered in black from residue off the tire. After we made it back to the driveway we thought surely we’d be done, but Jason had other plans.  He told us, “Sometimes, when you think you're done, you actually have more to give.”. So we started flipping down the street again. 

After the second round we thought for sure there’s no way we could do any more.  But this time, Jason told us to start fireman carrying each other. We wanted to quit so bad, but he wouldn’t let us quit no matter how hard we tried. So, up and down the street we went for miles on end (literally, miles) carrying each other to the point where we were about to throw up and pass out, but we kept on moving forward. After what seemed like an eternity and then some, we stopped.  Uncle Jason got into his truck and pulled out to the street. We thought we were finally done and he was heading home. Wrong. He pulled into the street, rolled down the window, and said “alright boys... push this truck until I get tired.” So we pushed that 4,000lb truck for over a mile until he rolled down his window again and told us to stop. With tears in our eyes, our body’s aching, cut up, bruised, sore, and stripped of all physical strength we had, we legitimately collapsed to the ground.

We could not fathom having anything left to give and Jason having anything else planned for us.  But he told us there was one last thing we had to do…fireman carry each other back to the house.  We looked at each other with pain, fear, and tears, but we knew we had to do it.  As we started the last fireman carry, Jason started blaring “Eye of the tiger” from Rocky for us.  That song gave us the strength to carry each other for another half mile all the way back home. Finally, we were done.  As we collapsed on ground in tears, Jason stands us up and says to us “This never would have happened if you got up when you were asked to.”  And let us tell y’all, that was the best day and the best thing that could have ever happened to us. 

After that day and every day since, Uncle Jason mentored us, taught us to go to the gym everyday, taught us responsibility, taught us how to take pride in our work, taught us how to be men, and continued to push us to our limits with “Madman workouts” (The Great Awakening but progressively harder).

 When we would find the energy and the willpower to push ourselves past complete exhaustion and do something out of the ordinary, he would call us Madmen. We never felt prouder or more accomplished than the times we earned the right to be called a Madman.  We started living for the word Madman, and it showed up in all aspects of our lives.  As the weeks and months passed and we applied this “Madman Mentality” to our everyday lives, our grades skyrocketed, our attitudes improved, our gains in the gym flew off the charts, our productivity has been better than it has ever been before, and we progressed in our journey towards becoming men. (We even earned our Eagle Scout ranks!) Our lives changed forever and for the better. We’ve accomplished far more than we ever dreamed we’d be able to and are Madmen today because of the unwavering support, love, and dedication from our Uncle Jason and Mom. 

Because of our life experiences, we know it’s tough to get going on your own.  We also know how freeing and incredible it feels to unleash your inner Madman and know that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. 

(Picture Above - 2.5 hours of pulling those tires + weight vests up the main road out of Palo Duro Canyon)

Not everyone has an “Uncle Jason” to teach them to be fast, intense, and aggressive in what you do.  But what everyone does have, is the ability to take this type of mentality to heart and apply it like we did.  That’s why we started the Madman Mentality brand.  We want everyone to experience the freedom, excitement, and success that being a Madman brings to your life.  We want to be there to motivate and help others achieve their goals and learn that there is NO limit to what you can do.  Madman Mentality started as a t-shirt company, but it is so much more than that.  It’s a movement. It’s a group of like-minded individuals who are reaching the absolute limitless potential within themselves. It’s people living with the Madman Mentality.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us along the way, who has supported us, who stayed in the fight even when we were lazy, skinny, and ungrateful teenagers.  Thank you to everyone who believes in us and the Madman Mentality brand.  Thank you to everyone who has supported this brand even when we were handing out paper order forms and collecting cash. Thank you to our friends and family and to all of those who inspire us.  Lastly, thank you to our Lord and Savior who has blessed us with family and friends who support and love us, a free country in which to live, and the ability to grow into the Madmen we are today.

Sincerely,

Rafe & Braxton