INTEGRITY is what you do when no one’s looking.
if Virtue signaling was measured in cups of water we would be drowning. Suddenly everyone appears concerned with Sustainability and social awareness .
I have been fighting an uphill battle and making difficult sacrifices long before PR campaigns and fancy verbiage manipulated some virtuous topics.
I sacrifice and struggle intensely to build my products in the US. Honestly a portion is because of authenticity, Where better to produce Blue Jeans?
Patriotism can get very ugly as there is an incredible irony as we heal from centuries of racism and near extinction of our lands native people. While slavery was supposed to end with the Civil war and ultimately with Juneteenth, American industry has found a loophole in shipping its manufacturing overseas. Slavery is still legal elsewhere.
I can go on for volumes about how outsourcing jobs have devastated our county and caused much harm to its manufacturing hosts. Sending our jobs overseas has cost millions of jobs here, and fueled crime and other harmful social behavior. There is an immediate and direct correlation to the explosion of crime and extreme poverty here with the exporting of jobs over there. And supporting those exported jobs is not serving them either,
Nobody wants to live in a factory working 18 hours for 30 cents a day. Nobody.
Additionally the environmental impact of overseas manufacturing is devastating, most places with inexpensive labor do not enforce or even slightly encourage any environmental conscious rule. Extreme pollution there for fast fashion and disposable clothing here.
My products are handmade with extreme integrity and uncompromised construction. All of my Denim, Leather, Wool, Hardware, down to my thread is produced in the USA. I prefer to sell my denim products “RAW” as this means the fabric has not been put through wash and distressing processes, avoiding wasted energy, water, and pollution
In full disclosure with extreme rarity when a US made material is unavailable it will be imported from a responsible source (UK, Japan, S Korea, etc.) This is a intense challenge as the US is constantly shedding manufacturing jobs.
Wearing a Raw pair of jeans takes a bit of patience to break in and wear down to that perfect vintage wash the long way, but this is true AUTHENTICITY and LUXURY. Raw denim is unmatched in durability and sustainability. And if you didn’t already know cotton denim is a product of agriculture it is farmed and natural, like a salad!, I wouldn’t suggest eating them though, but they are biodegradable.
The leather from my jeans labels to belts and accessories is Bark tanned. This process is long, slow, and labor intensive. It uses “vegetable” matter (tree bark) to preserve the leather as opposed to chromium salts that are extremely toxic and found in 99% of manufactured leather goods today. Bark tanned leather ages superiorly, it gains patina and charm with age, and is ultimately biodegradable.
I am doing my best to contribute and preserve our manufacturing integrity and heritage.
Additionally maybe its related to being an artist and mechanic I have a fascination with vintage machinery and strong sentiment. As Michelangelo believed a soul or Angel to be trapped in a block of marble for him to carve out and set free.
“The greatest artist has no conception Which a single block of marble does not Potentially contain within its mass, But only a hand obedient to the mind can penetrate to this image.”
My collection of vintage machines adds charm and character to my workspace and products. They may not be as alive as the marble but they have sentiment and life of their own. And are technically recycled as a few I salvaged and saved from shuttered factories.