Dontae Mathis (Owner)

Dontae Mathis an E.Saint Louis native was no stranger to the streets or making bad decisions in life that he regrets and uses as his learning experience and platform to do better for himself and his family. After fire arm charges landed him behind bars, Dontae vowed to make change for himself in hopes to have a positive impact on his community. Just days after his release, Dontae began attending a local community college in hopes to obtain a 1 year Juvenile Corrections Certification. After much thought and the influence of 2 of Dontae’s college professors, Elaine Premo and Deb Stephens who combined had over 40yrs of Criminal Justice, and teaching experience, and working with gang impacted individuals, encouraged Dontae to further his education, noticing a fire in the young man and felt he would be an asset to a community. During a work study/internship, Dontae was to volunteer for Catholic Community Services working with at-risk youth.

Catholic Community services eventually hired Dontae after 2 months of volunteering as the Independent living coordinator and youth mentor. This is where Dontae mentions it all began for him. Working with youth was his passion, providing other options or opportunities rather than criminal thinking or acts of violence was his message to the youth. Dontae would find himself commenting on some of the youths t-shirts often until one day he decided to invest into some equipment for pressing shirts. Dontae eventually taught the youth how to print shirts and created a program for the youth to print apparel for the organization. While working for the organization, Dontae was still in school and went on to receive his Associates Degree, an Oregon Transfer Degree in addition to the Juvenile Corrections Certification from Chemeketa Community College, This was only the beginning; in 2004 Dontae started Like Dat Entertainment, Like Dat Latino and Like Dat Apparel where he occupied commercial space with full studio and apparel printing services located in SE Portland. As the company grew, Dontae found himself not only running the business and managing 12 artist/producers he also was responsible for branding the artist and booking events.

Like Dat Ent/Latino artist have opened up for such artist as E-40, Baby Bash, Snoop Dogg, Too Short, CBO and more to say the least. After becoming exhausted with the constant being shifted different directions Dontae saw more value in working behind the scenes and focused more on his graphic and design work as well as providing the artist with apparel and designs. Enter Like Dat Apparel, Dontae has created or printed such images for Nike, Adidas, Portland Trailblazers, Seattle Mariners, Small and large organizations, Non-profits and community causes. Like Dat Apparel designs have been worn and recognized by Nike, Celebrities , Athletes, News Channels, and Entertainers. In 2012 Dontae connected with former MLB star Brian Hunter to form Designated Hitter Foundation, where the 2 traveled the West Coast with other former MLB players and Legends of the game in efforts to raise money and school or art supplies for underprivileged communities. Dontae Mathis was responsible for the vision and mission of the Designated Hitter Foundation (DHF) and also created the logo’s website and communicated with other organizations and community leaders to support the causes. This is the same year, Dontae received an Humanitarian award from Cuzzalo Ink CEO (Lederrik “C-Lim” Nesbit) at an award ceremony held in Los Angeles for his community efforts and hard work. Not only did Dontae get chosen to produce apparel for Made Sicc music owned and operated by Brotha Lynch hung but Dontae and C-Lim eventually became business partners and have produced several mixtapes including some of todays hottest acts. Dontae aka Mac Tae, joined forces again with C-Lim later the next year assisting with the Brother Lynch Hung tour, the Tech N9NE (KOD) tour, and the Strange Days tour featuring Strange music artist.

In 2014 Like Dat chose to remain anonymous as they created the RIP shirt for “Emilio Hoffman” who was killed in a school shooting at Reynolds High School, the images ended up on the front page of the Oregonian and left a lasting imprint in the eyes of many. This act of community support is what Dontae says he lives for, supporting others in need and sympathizing with the tragedies of the community. In 2017 Dontae Graduated from Warner Pacific University achieving his Bachelors of Science in Psychology and Human Development while still continuing his education. In 2018 Dontae occupied space on one of Portlands busiest roads called Foster. While taking close to a year to remodel and get supplies of his hard earned money, without loans, grant or funding from any outside sources, Dontae spent countless hours, painting, hammering, cutting and preparing for the opening of Like Dat Apparels very first retail apparel store. Just one month after losing his eldest son to a horrific car accident, Dontae continued his mission to become a Independent black owned business.  May 3, 4, 5, Cinco De Mayo weekend, Dontae opened the doors to Like Dat Apparel with the help of Mr. Pete (Solid Kings), Anthony “Big Citric” Campos (George Lopez, Solid Kings) and comedian Phill Medina.

The opening was a hit and many friends and community supporters came to see the new store opening in the community. The opening was followed by a comedy show downtown Portland at the Jack London Revue where Like Dat Apparel sold merchandise and offered custom airbrushed apparel from Like Dat artist Vince Osborn who’s resume includes Drake, Katie Perry, Marc Echo and more. Like Dat Apparel is a custom print, graphic and design company located in SE Portland owned and operated by one dedicated and ambitious Black Man Dontae Mathis, a son, a father, an activist, a mentor, a brother, a human. Show your support to a brother who chose not the life of crime, but the life of change. Dontae currently works for a non-profit organization as a Youth Mentor and Case manager, he is also currently a full time student working towards his Masters of Science in Management. The Master of Science in Management, emphasis in Organizational Leadership degree program focuses on the theories, models, research findings, and best practices found in the interdisciplinary, organizational leadership studies field, applicable to businesses and not-for-profit organizations. Mr. Mathis is definitely dedicated to being a part of the change in his community and continues efforts to uplift and inspire a hint of hope in those who may feel hopeless. Like Dat Apparel has alined its efforts with Multnomah County parole and probation offices to offer community service hours at its location for youth who may have fines/restitution or ad educational tips or trainings in the retail field to their resumes.  

You can do anything you put your mind to, never stop never give up, treat people how you want to be treated and great things will happen for you, and if nobody else shows up to work, just know YOU have to. All gas, No breaks. -Dontae Mathis Sr.