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David Harlan and Brendan and Joe Kelly

Credit: Courtesy of Rosalie Kelly

Ever since Goliath talked trash to the Israelite army, big guys have been getting a bad rap. Even in this age of colossal suvs and super-sized fast food, it's not easy being big. Just ask Irish-Italian brothers Brendan and Joe Kelly and their brother-in-law David Harlan. With all three at or above six feet tall and weighing in at 200 pounds or more, they know what it's like to not have enough legroom on a plane, or to be limited in their choices of wardrobe. But they didn't get angry about it; they got entrepreneurial.

The trio launched Big Daddy Clothing Company, which produces a line of men's apparel that starts at size large and goes up to 6XL.

Big Daddy gear has become a must for pro athletes, including basketball great Shaquille O'Neal, who at seven-foot-one reportedly sizes up in a 6XL top and a 54-inch waist. The company also counts football favorites like Oakland Raiders star defender Warren Sapp and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb among its clientele. In fact, former New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis became such a fan of Big Daddy clothing that in 1999 he became an equity owner in the company.

	It didn't occur to the brothers that having God in their mission statement could be a problem.

Not surprisingly, you can't talk with Big Daddy's Brendan Kelly without hearing a lot about fabric—but it's not just cotton and denim to which he refers. The Kelly family has a rich heritage of designers, artists, and entrepreneurs who have passed down their traditions. But more than this, woven into the family business is a heritage of faith.

"From day one, faith has been a huge part of the fabric of our family," says Brendan, who grew up in the church. "Anytime we sat down to do something important, whether it was a basketball game, or sitting down to dinner, or coming up with the business plan for our company, having God in our mindset was always something that came very naturally."

In 1992, recent college graduates Brendan and Joe Kelly sat down at the kitchen table and hatched a business plan to start a clothing company targeted at young men like themselves. The fledgling entrepreneurs spent the next two years working day jobs, but their nights were spent at the library researching the apparel industry, or holed up in their parents' garage at work on their budding company.

"We went in very naively," recalls Brendan. "We knew we had a lot of ambition and a lot of perseverance, but all those things would soon be tested."

Although the company's first big move was only from the garage to their parents' basement, the brothers, joined by brother-in-law David in 1995, had bigger plans in store. In college, David earned the nickname "Big Daddy"—for both his stature and his basketball skills. With him aboard, Big Daddy Clothing Company was officially on its way.

"When we sat down to write the first mission statement, we knew that certainly God would be a part of that," Brendan says. "We had no reason not to include Him as part of the statement, which became: To establish Big Daddy as the world's most popular brand of clothing, while making God proud of all that we do."

As the trio shopped their business plan around to potential investors in the Philadelphia area, it didn't occur to them that having God in the mission statement could be a problem. But they soon found not everyone understood, or supported, blending faith and business.

"We didn't think twice about it," he says. "Jesus had been such a guiding influence throughout our lives, and we knew that it would be no different as we began this new venture."

Over the 10-plus years that the brothers have been in business, they have had over 100 meetings with investors. For Big Daddy Clothing Company, that one simple sentence in their 45-page business plan has inadvertently become a barometer at those meetings.

"It opened our eyes that for a lot of people, unfortunately, there is this total separation of spirituality from other aspects of their lives. For us it was all one fabric. The mission statement became an automatic filter," says Brendan.

But the reaction was not all negative. "The admiration that other people expressed over our convictions was as refreshing as the other responses were disappointing. It was inspiring to us that there were a considerable amount of people who really appreciated and admired our conviction—even more than those who gave us negative feedback."

In 1996, the first line of Big Daddy gear was shipped to retail stores—a line of brightly colored T-shirts proclaiming statements like "Big And Proud" and "Livin' Large" that were test-marketed in four Casual Male Big and Tall stores. Soon the orders expanded to 20 outlets, and within a year-and-a-half, Big Daddy was in over 300 Casual Male stores. They began to attract the attention of department stores like JC Penney and Dillard's, and by 1998, Big Daddy expanded from T-shirts to add blue jeans to their mix.

The company also expanded to add more family members. When they couldn't afford to pay anyone, mom Rosalie came to her sons' rescue as office manager, a job she still holds today—although now she gets a paycheck. When a major trade show in Atlanta came up, the entire Kelly and Harlan families loaded up a U-Haul, making the trek from Philadelphia.

"There are a lot of sacrifices that everybody has made on behalf of the company," Brendan admits. But with God at the core of their business, combined with a little Kelly perseverance, Big Daddy Clothing Company is now an $11 million retail brand. Their expanded line of jeans, T-shirts, jerseys, hats, fleece, and even underwear, is sold on nearly every continent in the world.

And despite their material success, the brothers have stayed faithful to their call to "celebrate life" and "make God proud." The company supports a variety of charitable organizations, including the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, which serves more than 500 meals to needy individuals each day and provides shelter for 250 homeless men, women, and children every night.

"We know in the landscape of things we're still a very small company, when you compare us to the Tommy Hilfigers of the world and multi-billion dollar corporations," says Brendan. "But we have a great foundation that we've built, on family and on faith."

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