I make things I can love first. Not a trend. Not a season. One honest piece I want to own and wear until it wears in with me. If it does not win me over, it does not exist. When it does, I know I have something. Then maybe you will love it too.
The name is older than me. George G. Black started Black Bear Brand in Seattle at the turn of the last century. He opened a small room at First and Jackson with five sewing machines and made blue denim overalls. The brand clothed the Pacific Northwest for the better part of a century. It made denim, wool jackets, shirting, corduroy, tin cloth, and coveralls for people who lived and worked outside. Then it went quiet.
I found the name in 2014, unowned. I chased the mark until it was mine, and I brought it back. I build on what George G. Black started. The promise is the same. A thing can be built to last and be worth keeping for a life.
I make with intention. I work with masters. The denim is selvedge, woven in Okayama, Japan. I have gone back to that cloth for more than ten years, learning it, wearing it, chasing the exact hand and fade I carry in my head. The corduroy is made in Japan. It is one of the pieces I am proudest of.
The leather jackets are cut from hides tanned at Horween. They are a signature of the brand. Every year, three new Harris Tweeds are woven by hand for us in Scotland. From those three cloths I build three jackets. When they are gone, they are gone. Some pieces I make here in Seattle, close to home. I run all of it. The design, the making, the story. No part of a Black Bear Brand piece goes out without passing through my hands.
I design from my own life. I ride a 1948 Panhead. I go to Japan for the work, and I carry ink out of Tokyo. I ride the American West. What I live becomes what I make. Every piece begins as something I want for myself.
I chase what I am dreaming of. I do not always know if I will reach it. That is the part I love.
I want to make a thing you keep. A thing that takes on your years and looks better for the wear. Rugged and refined. Tough for a real life. Made beautiful enough to love.
It is not a product to me. It is a way of living.
A Way Of Life.
- Josh
