A BEAR FOR WEAR: Resurgence of slow fashion and putting hands to work, and resting on nearly 100 years of heritage, Black Manufacturing is uniting its “union of makers” with its newest leather-jacket collaboration, colluding in the Pacific Northwest where the “outdoors and industrial collide.”
Fixed on quality and made-to-order utility, Black Bear Brand’s product selection includes leather jackets, heavyweight shirts of wool and tweed weave, knit accessories and collaborations such as that of the latest Black Bear Brand x Langlitz Leathers featuring Horween Leather Co. horsehide, tanned specially for the collaboration.
Since 1914, when George G. Black built the namesake manufacturing center to foster the growth of the label, the emphasis has been on providing product with purpose. And this “union of makers” is tethered to the Black family’s founding mission to dissolve competing sweatshop conditions and place emphasis on worker welfare and emotional resonance.
WWD spoke with Josh Sirlin, creative director, curator and principal at Black Manufacturing, the overseer of Black Bear Brand and its “union of makers,” which is essentially “sharing what’s behind the product” and “participating in the creating,” as Sirlin stated.
Softening production timelines, each leather jacket begins with a “personal consultation with each customer during the ordering process” to perfect sizing
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