Part of my quest to buy “Made in the USA” is the quality that usually accompanies that ethos. With quality, one hopes, comes long lasting goods that should result in less waste, less money spent in the long run, and more time to bond with the things you buy. I recently invested in a few pairs of Tellason denim jeans to restock the denim selection in my closet after one pair after another waived the white flag. It’s been a long time since I bought raw denim, let alone raw selvedge denim. I’ve always loved what Tellason has stood for ever since we interviewed Tony Patella (who founded Tellason with partner Pete Searson) back in 2012. Take a look at that interview to get a little more of Tellason’s story. I knew that when the time came to get back into the raw selvedge denim game I’d be handing my…Continue Reading
Today we’re talking with Bron Heussenstamm of Alex Maine. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how Alex Maine came to be? As for my experience, I grew up in my parents’ surf shop, Newport Surf & Sport, Huntington Surf & Sport. I used to be the kid who would grab peoples’ ankles under the clothes. It’s just been my entire life, you know?, I’ve always been in the clothing and retail sales (industry).  So it’s something that I knew that I’d always want to get into. I went to USC and I was an entrepreneurship major. I started a couple businesses, didn’t really go the way that I was hoping with the partnerships and whatnot. So I took a job at Sanuk, doing their PR for a year. They’ve just been acquired by UGG, so that’s a good step for them. I knew that I wanted to…Continue Reading
Since we featrued Tellason a couple weeks ago and their premium denim, I wanted to repost this factory tour of Cone Denim. One of the gems we have in the USA. So much history… Few institutions garner the respect of their industry the way Cone Denim has. In the textile industry since 1895, they are a world leader in manufacturing corduroy, flannel, and most notably, denim. Denim aficionados around the world know what it means to have a pair of jeans manufactured out of selvage Cone denim. Cone’s White Oak Cotton Factory was built in 1905, and by 1908 became the world’s number one producer of denim. Like most manufacturing plants, a community was built around the mill it has remained a staple of White Oak and the Greensboro, NC area. The coveted premium selvage denim manufactured today uses some of the same equipment from over 100 years ago and…Continue Reading
Today’s interview is with one of the founders from We Are Runts (WAAR), Michael Quinones. Michael and Matt Davis started WAAR as a mission to bring Made in the USA to market with influences pulled from the surf, skate and motorcycle culture. They have dedicated themselves to bringing an affordable, 100% USA made, product to the consumer.   Can you give 50 BUILT readers some background on yourselves and how WAAR came to be? Matt Davis & I both have worked in the action sports and contemporary apparel market for about a decade now. All the brands that we have been apart of were developed and manufactured overseas with the intent on being more or less volume driven. We saw the issues of developing and producing overseas as startup companies. The constant ‘bait and switch’ that would happen with production, poor quality, and generally zero accountability for the issues at hand…Continue Reading
Denim and American culture are intertwined and have been since the 1870s. Built as an industrial work pant for miners and farmers in San Francisco, California and evolved into a staple in everyday fashion by the 1950s. It’s always been a source of pride to have a durable pair of denim manufactured from quality components. Tellason jeans are made in San Francisco with the highly coveted White Oak Cone raw denim from North Carolina and tanned leather patches from the state of Oregon. If you are looking for a quality pair of denim that reflects the industrial history of the USA, then take a gander at a pair of Tellason jeans. The above video was posted by Vertical Online.