It started as underwear and became the most worn garment on earth. Josh Sirlin on the plain white t-shirt, and how to tell a great one from a cheap one.
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The prize was never the finish. Josh Sirlin on purpose, the long chase behind Black Bear Brand, and why the pursuit is the thing that keeps you alive.
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Down is the best insulation on earth and the least understood. Josh Sirlin on fill power, cluster size, and the vest built for a Pacific Northwest winter.
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Indigo is the only dye that leaves on purpose. Josh Sirlin on Japanese indigo, rope dyeing, and the reason blue jeans tell you where you have been.
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Running Black Bear Brand taught me more about leadership than anything else in my life. Josh Sirlin on setting the standard and refusing good enough
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Most men get beach style wrong, all loud prints and flimsy fabric gone in a summer. Josh Sirlin on ease with real substance underneath.
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Every good idea I have ever had came from somewhere else. Josh Sirlin on how travel and other people’s cultures shape creative work, from Okayama to the Outer Hebrides.
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Born on French farms, stolen by artists, and still the most useful jacket you can own. Josh Sirlin on the chore coat, and the Harris Tweed version he dreamed about for years.
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Cheap clothes are the most expensive clothes you will ever buy. Josh Sirlin on building a wardrobe of fewer, better pieces that age into the best things you own.
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Heat is where most wardrobes fall apart into cheap synthetics. Josh Sirlin on how to stay cool in real clothes — linen, slub, open weaves, and shorts with dignity.
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No garment has traveled further than the blue jean: from the mine shaft to the runway. Josh Sirlin on how work pants conquered fashion, and how to wear them well.
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The pearl snap wasn't a style choice — it was a safety device. Josh Sirlin on the smartest fastener in menswear, and how to buy a snap shirt worth keeping.
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Half the buttons, twice the character. The popover came off the workfloor and the deck — here's why it's the most underrated shirt a man can own.
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Poor man's velvet, cloth of kings, uniform of rebels and professors alike. Josh Sirlin on why corduroy is the most underrated cloth in a man's closet.
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The western shirt looks simple, but every line on it was solved by someone who needed the shirt to work. Josh Sirlin on the anatomy of the greatest shirt America ever made.
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Welsh hillsides, American logging camps, and a Seattle music scene all wove the flannel shirt into an icon. Its history — and what separates a great flannel from a flimsy one.
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From ships' sails to the Klondike gold fields to Seattle's logging camps, waxed cotton is the toughest weatherproof cloth ever made — and it ages like nothing else.
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From the boxy first "blouse" to the V-stitched trucker everyone pictures, the denim jacket is a century of American design. Its evolution — and what makes a great one.
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In a world built to throw clothing away, repairing it is radical. The Japanese turned that act into an art form centuries ago — boro and sashiko — and it's the deepest inspiration behind everything we build.
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Some logos are designed last quarter. Ours was earned on the American frontier more than a hundred years ago. The story of the Black Bear mark — and the Original Logo Tee that carries it.
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