It's always a pleasure to hear from new businesses who've made it their aim to manufacture menswear and accessories here in the UK. Two that have contacted me recently are Good Measure and CB Company. I haven't seen their products, but draw them to your attention as I know so many of you like to support British manufacture.
Good Measure is the result of an ambition to make an old school traditional sweat shirt in the UK.
See Good Measure for more information and to buy.'We have been trading two years with two years research prior to this, most of which was trying to find someone who could manufacture the quality of jersey we required for the project. Everyone we spoke to said it couldn't be done in England anymore and that even Sunspel have their sweatshirts made in Portugal and Turkey.Eventually we found a small family-owned firm who were prepared, able and had the right kind of machines to knit the heavyweight loop back cotton jersey and we were in business. Construction is handled by another small family owned firm to the highest standards.Good Measure is available in a small number of high quality retailers such as Oi Polloi in Manchester and London, Peggs Brighton, Son of a Stag London and Heather Grey Wall in Tokyo and Osaka'.
CB Company was founded recently by Cole Buxton who first contacted me nearly two years ago when he was a student of sportswear design. He has now gradated and set up his own business making back packs. Made in Cornwall, they came from his personal search for a well-made bag that was practical and durable.
The bags are made from over-engineered double-stitched acrylic canvas with military spec buckles and straps. See CB Company for more information and to buy.
£100 for a sweatshirt really?
ReplyDeleteI find myself going more and more to USA/Canada for kit and blogs they seem to have one thing we lack here: Good Value For Money.
My sweatshirt came last week:
100% cotton medium weight terry athletic cut with ribbed side panels for a perfect fit vintage varsity 4" ribbed cuffs and waistband
longer body and sleeve cut flatlock stitching for durability and next to skin comfort ribbed collar made in toronto in small batches of 100 pieces individually hand inspected $59 $20 p&p = £51
I will always support people (here or elsewhere)if its well made and priced fair.
This is not a dig/rant but I do think we need to think about VFM when we make stuff here.
The question iIhave to ask Charles is, do you know how much the workers who made your sweatshirt were paid? The reality is if we want a workforce in the UK that makes stuff and is paid properly then we need to expect to pay for that. Anyway the GoodMeasure sweat shirts are priced comparably to the best Canadian brand National Athlectic which are also to be found at Oi Poloi and Peggs both shops from which I regularly buy on line.My guess is charles that your sweat was either produced by sweat shop labour and/or is not premium quality.You get what you pay for.
ReplyDeleteWhy is there an obsession with reducing names to initials? For example, Cole Buxton heads CB Products from Cornwall. Why not call the brand COLE BUXTON - it's a superb name - and not overly long.
ReplyDeleteIf I bought one of the bags and someone admires the item it sounds better saying IT'S A COLE BUXTON rather than a IT'S FROM CB PRODUCTS or IT'S A CB.
Thank you everyone. To RW for his comments on our obsession with initials and to Charles and Anon for the interesting conversation about price.
ReplyDeleteAnon, you preempted me as I was going to make the same comments to Charles. I welcome all comments on the blog, but always struggle with comments that compare in such a theoretical way. Comparisons are risky unless you've actually bought and compared two garments. We can't compare the fabrics, quality of stitching etc without owning both and applying a skilled eye to the items being compared. Neither, as Anon points out, do we know how the workers who made the products are treated and paid. Neither do such comparisons look at the sustainability and environmental issues of transporting items of clothing thousands of miles when they can be bought nearer home.
Keep the comments coming, I'm grateful to all of you.
Answers about the sweatshirt:
ReplyDeletehttp://well-spent.com/seven-questions-foreign-rider-co/
I'm too poor to buy cheap goods (I need them to last!).
I'm a factory worker making chocolate in the UK for £8.84 per hour which is a lot more than a Sewing Machinists at Barbour gets paid per hour! "paid properly" indeed Mr Anonymous.
As a member of UNITE and The Green Party I take workers rights and environmental issues very seriously.
No middle men is how I save money on the Sweatshirt(Foreign Rider Co), Rugby top (Columbiaknit), Jeans (Brave Star), Underwear (Kiniki), Watches (TimeFactor)and so on.
I come here because of our hosts style. I like it and I like his thoughts about it and I try my best to copy it (in my budget) I'm not here to talk about Thorstein Veblen but artisanal sweatshirts at £100 a pop just seem a bit silly to me.
Thanks again, Charles. That's persuasively put.
ReplyDeleteGF
Pretty good discussion going on here. I actually am very much in the middle, as all points seem pretty valid. I'd say that if indeed you get plump for the £100 sweatshirt from Good Measure and it turned out to be the best one you'd ever tried then it's worth it (hoping it lasts a good few years of course). I think it's always good to go off recommendation from people who have impartial experience with several brands, but that's hard to find unless you ask direct in a store.
ReplyDeleteDavid, interesting you mention the environmental factor. Have you read Patagonia's "Let my people go surfing"?
Buckets & Spades
Thank you, Matthew - yes, there are certainly arguments both ways.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the book, but had heard of it and will look it out.
GF
Wow, those CB backpacks look terrific!
ReplyDelete