Steve Patton started Babylon Burning in 1976 in a small utility room in the back of his house in Bernal Heights, San Francisco, California. A local surfer, art school dropout, and Vietnam War Veteran – he knew little of the trade.

His initial setup was primitive, with a high reject rate. He would hang up the shirts to air dry, then take them down the street to the laundromat to heat set the ink in the dryer. But with time and experience, he accumulated customers and learned the business.

Steve almost named the business Crazy Baldhead Productions, after an early Bob Marley lyric, but was a little too shy at the time to exclaim the fact that he himself was bald. Instead, he went with a song by The Ruts called Babylon’s Burning.

In 1980, he got a spot on Valencia and 21st Street in the Mission District with his friend Jerry (co-owner until ‘83). They had a retail space in the front and a print shop in the back. They bought used silk screens and a few hand presses at auctions around the city, registered the business, took accounting classes, made payroll, and paid taxes. Babylon Burning did well during the 80s, printing many popular shirts for groups like Act Up!, Central American Solidarity Committee, Mother Jones magazine, the Women's Building, and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

There was a big rent increase in 1987, so the business moved into a unit on the fourth floor of the Southend Warehouse in SoMa at 2nd and Brannan streets and quit the retail business. After another rent increase shortly following the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, Babylon Burning moved to 63 Bluxome Street.

In 1999, Steve Patton sold Babylon Burning to his then employees Mike Lynch and Brian Von Bargen. In 2001, Mike bought Brian out of the business and has been running it ever since. Under Mike’s ownership, we survived the dot-com bubble, the Great Recession, the Pandemic, and an ever-changing social climate.

On December 3, 2022 there was a devastating fire at 63 Bluxome St. that forced us to relocate from our beloved home of 30+ years. Thankfully, through the support of our community, we found a new home at 939 Howard Street!

Our clientele includes hundreds of loyal well-known local businesses – from bars and restaurants to public schools and nonprofits – including 826 Valencia, McSweeney’s, Lucky 13, Toronado, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), SF Bike Coalition, KALW Public Radio, George Washington High School, SFMOMA Museum Store, and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.