You need a stripe guy, talk to our cutter Larry. He's like a surgeon.
Step 1: Our fabric is custom knit and dyed at a mill in Los Angeles. For the track jackets we knit our signature cotton and modal fibers into a heavyweight fleece. The mills refers to this as “3N” fabric because they add a third needle to the loom to achieve a heavier and denser fabric. Nerddddd Alert.
Step 2: The dyed fabric is then laundered to remove any additional shrinkage. This is done at a different vendor in LA whose name is Ron and he sounds exactly like Will Farrell in Anchorman.
Step 3: The fabric is shipped up to San Francisco where it is hand cut by our main man Larry. His hands are basically like a surgeon’s. If you ever get shot in the Mission go to Kirin Cutting and have him stitch you up.
Step 4: In addition to the primary fabric (it’s called “self” if you’re trying to impress your friends in the biz) we also have to cut all of the trim. For this particular jacket there were actually five different fabrics being used:
1) Self fabric – our signature heavyweight fleece
2) Rib for the bottom band
3) Elastic sewn into the rib – In our last version we used self for the band and found that it would stretch out too much over time so we knit elastic into this version so the jacket will keep its shape
4) Pocketing – we used a heavy duty cotton for the pocket linings that can withstand more wear and tear than our super soft jersey (we hope your hands will survive the slight decrease in softness)
5) Jacket Stripes – we actually used the same heavy duty nylon that is used for board shorts in making our stripes. Not that stripes have to be particularly strong, just thought this material looked cool.
Step 5: Antique nickel zippers are cut to our specs for each size. You need a good zipper guy? Let’s talk. Always go YKK. They are the Rolls Royce of the zipper game.
Step 6: With all of the trim and fabric knit and cut its off to see Xiao Ling at the sewing house. She is delighted to see that we are only sewing 50 of these things in three confusing colorways. Actually she is not happy at all and encourages us to make more t-shirts.
Step 7: Production samples are made in each colorway. All three are incorrect. One of the nice perks of making stuff in San Francisco is that we can catch mistakes like these.
Step 8: Sewn garments are finally ready. They look great so it’s off to the east bay for embroidery.
Step 8a: Say three hail mary’s and pray the bus doesn’t tip over on the bay bridge
Step 9: Jackets are ready for pick-up Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. Shotgun not driving. Two traffic-filled hours later Franny returns to the office with some sweet new jackets.
Steps 10-12: Ok, I guess its only a 9 step process, but we already sent out the email and there is no way that more than four people have read this entire thing.
Xiao Ling was not happy about the five different fabrics we used on this jacket
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