The Engineer Stripe
The Engineer Stripe
A striped cloth that belonged to this company and to no one else.
When I found this brand it was a ghost. The name was dormant and unowned, and almost nothing about its past was written down anywhere. Everything I know about it now came out of chasing it, piece by piece, for thirteen years.
First and Jackson
George G. Black started Black Bear Brand in Seattle at the turn of the twentieth century, at First and Jackson. A 1927 Seattle Times account is one of the sources that pins it down.
In 1914 he had a building designed and put up for the company in Seattle. That building is now an official Seattle landmark. The company kept going until 1982.
The range then was denim, wool jackets, shirting, corduroy, tin cloth pieces and coveralls. The signage carried the line Black Bear Means Long Wear, which there is a whole post about on the journal.
The Hunt
From the day I took this on I went after anything I could get. Catalogs. Original garments. Photographs. Anything at all.
I hold original Black Bear Brand catalogs from 1917. I have uncovered more of this company's history than anyone has to date, and there is still a great deal nobody knows.
The Stripe
The Black Bear Brand engineer stripe is a cloth particular to this company. It ran in a blue version and a tan and khaki version, and it is not a stripe you find anywhere else.
I found engineer stripe coveralls from the original company. First two of them, then three. They are roughly a hundred and ten years old. One of them fits me perfectly, which is a strange and very good feeling to have about a garment made before your grandparents were born.
I was just as fixated on the original tin cloth pants, for the plain reason that I wanted a pair for myself to wear.
What Is Coming
All of that is coming together in a vintage release with TCB in Japan.
There is a vintage Black Bear Brand engineer pant and a vintage engineer coat. The pant is the one I care most about. Everything I chased for over a decade points at it.
Both pieces get their special release at our first pop up in Japan, in Ebisu, Tokyo, on October 2, 3 and 4. That is the first place anybody can see them in person.
A hundred and ten years is a long time for a stripe to sit in a drawer waiting for somebody to come looking.
A Way Of Life.
Shop the Story
the Vintage Engineer Pant with TCB
the Vintage Engineer Coat with TCB
Related Reading
Black Bear Means Long Wear: The 1914 Factory