the N1 Horsehide Jacket... built for a life well lived.
music: The Last Knife Fighter
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
the N1 Horsehide Jacket... built for a life well lived.
music: The Last Knife Fighter
The kinship between Black Bear Brand and The Last Knife Fighter is rooted in many of our philosophies and approaches towards life. Buddy get my knife was the song that brought us together. Here's a special acoustic version of Buddy Get My Knife by The Last Knife Fighter for Black Bear Brand in celebration of their kinship.
The American West, where a ghost of the wild west is still alive. It is raw, untamed, and vast; I love it, I feel free; it is magnificent.
I've ditched my helmet a couple hundred miles earlier in Montana. I'm riding into Wyoming through Yellowstone National park. Its summer, nature is alive, the colors, the smells... my senses are going wild, everything is intensified. I'm alive.
I'll be at a friends ranch in Moran, Wyoming.... soon.
music: The Last Knife Fighter
June 25th I jumped on my 1948 Panhead; tracked across Washington, through Montana… arriving in Wyoming on June 28th!
Here's a peak into my day hanging out with friends: Grant Colliher, Luke Darling, and Chris Douglas... at Diamond Cross Ranch.
We are meant to explore this earth like children do, unhindered by fear, propelled by curiosity and a sense of discovery. Allow yourself to see the world through new eyes and know there are amazing.
- captured by: Caleb Keller / music: The Last Knife Fighter
the unquestionable freedom found at Sea!
Josh Sirlin is in love with his 1948 Panhead. And with freedom, adventure. And so, the creative director of the Black Bear Brand went on a trip through America’s Wild West. To escape all noise and experience the rawness of nature from the seat of his bike. Always at his side: Josh’s Big Pilot’s Watch.
We are meant to explore this earth like children do, unhindered by fear, propelled by curiosity and a sense of discovery. Allow yourself to see the world through new eyes and know there are amazing adventures here for you.
filming: Bradley Wentzel / editing: Caleb Keller / music: The Last Knife Fighter
We are meant to explore this earth like children do, unhindered by fear, propelled by curiosity and a sense of discovery. Allow yourself to see the world through new eyes and know there are amazing adventures here for you.
captured by: Bradley Wentzel
the ramblings of a designer...
touching on the resurrection journey of 100 yr. old Black Bear Brand.
Stories of HUMAN CONNECTION in collaboration with SALT. Optics
SALT. x Black Bear Brand (part one)
Demand a deep connection with everything you invite into your lives!
Made To Order… with delivery by end of December. Merry Merry MF!
Designed in collaboration with friend and the mad scientist car builder Jonathan Ward of ICON 4x4.
Demand a deep connection with everything you invite into your lives!
Built for a life well lived…
photograph: Chris Dickinson
the rough out horsehide shirt/jacket.
Demand a deep connection with everything you invite into your lives!
friendship kick started from shared interests; grown by sharing our differences… and fueled by a passion for the exceptional!
the journey has just begun….
photographed by: Bradley Wentzel