File this under, better late than never. A few weeks back I got to check out the new items from the second round of Levi’s x Filson collaboration. I went to a little preview for the collection and liked what I saw. Afterwards I got to thinking and wanted to check our the items in person and post some pictures – which you are now finally seeing. All in all, I think this new collab capsule is a nice update to the previous co-labeled goods. The Hunter Trucker is a definite winner in terms of concept and execution. In person the shelter cloth looks a lot more olive than it appears on the Filson website (which looks more sage to me). Also included in the collaboration is a Tin Cloth Sawtooth shirt, a slubby-denim looking hunting vest and a pair of Tin Cloth 505s.
After the Hunter Trucker – which again, is awesome – I liked the 505s the best. I wear USA-made 505s a lot and this is, in my opinion, a smart combo between Filson fabrics and Levi’s styles. (It should also be said that I do some work with Levi’s at my day job – but they didn’t pay me to write about this and the collabs are not a project I work on. But nonetheless, full disclosure and all that good stuff.) It’s cool to see interesting products come out of a partnership between two very old and very iconic companies. If I had to put together a dream combination of companies, I don’t know if this would be very far down the list. That makes me think, if I was in-charge of doing this program what would I do? Who would you pair together? It’s a fun game to play and I’m interested to hear what you guys have to say. Who’s your dream collaboration?
Nigel Cabourn and Carhartt
Mcnairy and Altadena Works.
Bought the trucker jacket just two weeks ago. Hopefully with the early fall weather hitting Boston this weekend, I’ll be able to wear it.
I kept staring and staring at it, then trying it on, and then a different size, etc… until finally I had to have it.
ugh- I love the truckers… esp this colab version with Filson. However my damn arm span of 6 foot 2 is just too long for the large.. and the XL looks rather dad’ish on my size 31 inch waist. I wish they would create a tall version like filson’s normal coats.
Michael Williams x Boglioli.
Billy Reid X Pendleton, Dickies X Woolrich
I want the rug, stool, and the jacket from the first picture.
Everything is awesome. I’d wear that jacket everyday. The name is funny..Hunter Trucker Jacket. Are we hunting truckers? Trucking hunters?
Barbour x Tokito, wait that already happened….
I bought the trucker. Amazing design but the oil ruined two shirts…
I think it was overkill on the oil this round.
Levis pairs so well, being the basic American staple of all time.
You’d want to say “Alden + 501,” except they go together perfectly already. Or “MLB + filson,” except filson bags and Mets caps work perfectly as is, too.
Makes me think that the cooler combinations would be a combination of American & “other” brands. Like, “barbour + Filson jacket,” “Jack Purcell + Henry Poole,” “seize sur vingt + orvis.” Except those combinations would result in $700 sneakers.
What would be super cool is if someone like Columbia Records paired with, I dunno, Schott. “Presenting archival, era-accurate recreations of America’s favorite memories – the ‘Born to Run’ Jacket”
I’d like to see Daiki Suzuki take on Carhartt, in an officially sanctioned way…
Best collab I’ve ever seen (but can’t afford) is Junya x Levi’s.
Agree that Barbour x Tokito is nearly perfect (and nearly unaffordable!).
Denim jackets — or any waist-length jacket — don’t do much for me. They create a weird (to me) emphasis on the upper leg/waist area, and unless you’re perfectly proportioned tend to draw the eye to hips/rear/crotch etc…
@Peter
Unless a garment is deliberately designed to be asexual, drawing attention the the hips/rear/crotch is the — ahem — point.
Engineered Garments x L.L. Bean
I really liked the trucker but it was so waxed up that I ended up returning it. Little short on my torso as well. Looks great, they should hold off on using so much wax.
@jiheison: I meant in an unflattering way, esp. if you have wider hips.
It really depends on your physique, IMO. Of course to each his own.
There are demin nerds and there are grammar nerds. I noticed that you wrote “check our the items” which I am assuming should be “‘check out the items’?” Regardless, great post. Props from UPNY.
@ Peter check out Opening Ceremony. Great deals on Barbour x Tokito.
@ David check out http://www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com if you like grammar that much. I’m sure they’ll have other suggestions for you.
@Jc Haha! I am half-white but sometimes my lighter side takes over. I should probably say something like “The Book is better than the blog.” That would be the white thing to do.
@ David That would be The perfect thing to say!!
I think Filson can learn a lot from working with Levi’s.
Filson is just starting to sell-out and cheapen their brand. Levi’s did it ages ago.
To be perfectly honest, I’m okay with Revi’s because I hardly remember when most of their stuff wasn’t made in Asia. But Filson is a different story. I thought our summer love would last a lifetime. Then I started to see these cheap “additions” to the catalog. Adding to the Filson catalog? That’s like amending the Constitution: It should be done infrequently and with careful consideration of the consequences. And all of the new stuff was junk. Well, I thought, if they want to make nylon bags for New Yorkers, it’s no skin off my nose. Then I was in my local dealer and we noticed something funny about a few of the flyweight shirts: they were made in China. Filson had started sending the old patterns to the factory making the new junk. At that point my hunting partner and I just started buying up anything we thought we’d ever want to own from Filson. We were getting while the getting was good. And sure enough, in addition to shipping the old styles overseas they’ve also dropped some classics from the line. It’s all too predictable.
Now Revi’s has brought some exclusive production of old patterns back to the US. And the stuff is nice. It’s no longer working class, but I had a tough time ever squaring the Filson prices with a tradesman’s budget. Maybe in the future Filson will bring their brand back selectively after they’ve finished moving it abroad. At a premium, of course…
Ralph Lauren X J Press.
BOOM!
Jean Paul Gaultier X Affliction, Armani Exchange X Tommy Bahama.
Victorias secret and levis!
Birdwell x a.p.c.
Patagonia x Kim Jones
L.L. Bean x Comme des Garcons
Alden x Colette
Fred Perry x Rolex
Cabelas x Tim Hamilton
Vuarnet x Jil Sander
I should get paid for this.
I just want some Air Force 1’s made in the U.S.A.
Pity but I’ll probably never get a chance to examine one of these in person. I’m too far south and the only store nearby that carries Filson only has a few things. But it looks interesting, if not perfect. I have several Filson garments, however, and I have my opinions.
I suspect that many would be surprised at finding Asians at work in West Coast factories, from Filson to Ben Davis. Asian women, at that. So having it made overseas isn’t as terrible as all that and anyway, I live in Virginia and something from Washington state is in a sense, imported.
Waxed garments aren’t perfect either, although highly practical under some circumstances. I wear my oil finish cover cloth field jacket all winter long. It tends to take on a shine in places where it rubs against the car seat but otherwise, no complaints. But as far as Levi-style (cowboy) jackets, everyone makes them too long. It should be waist length, not hip length.
Remember when imported products were thought to be better than American made products?
@BlueTrain
“I suspect that many would be surprised at finding Asians at work in West Coast factories, from Filson to Ben Davis. Asian women, at that. So having it made overseas isn’t as terrible as all that and anyway, I live in Virginia and something from Washington state is in a sense, imported.”
Do you see no difference between people of any description working in the US, (at least theoretically) earning US wages in factories governed by US workplace standards, and people working overseas and almost certainly benefitting from neither?
Do you see no difference to your own life between a trade imbalance between the US and China and a trade imbalance (if there even is one) between Washington and Virginia?
Its true that those jackets should be waist length.
If you earn US wages, you pay US prices and anyway, I’m not so sure there are any US workplace standards, given what we occasionaly hear in the news. Ever work in a factory? I worked in a plant where most wages were near minimum wage–and most of the workers were Asian. And I’ve done farm work, on which minimum wage does not apply.
Ever worked in a factory in SE Asia? I haven’t worked in a factory in a non-first world country, and no I don’t think that American factory workers are lavishly paid or completely protected from hazard.
But that is not the question. The question is whether they are better paid and treated than non-US workers.
Actually, the question is whether the additional cost to provide better wages and workplace standards is worth paying for.
Freemans Sporting Club X Mr. Freedom
woolrich woolen mills + ll bean
Those are good questions. The first one is harder to answer, going on impossible. The second one is easier but still difficult but not new and besides, there are other issues. We should want American workers to have a living wage, yet that very thing creates issues in itself, which will get way off the subject.
To return to the imported product versus the domestic product, it seems that typically when production is moved off shore, the temptation to make the product even cheaper is too great and you then have literally cheap merchandise. It doesn’t necessarily happen but products from SE Asia and India clearly do not have good reputations. In contrast, products from Europe and Britain certainly do, but they’re imported just the same.
Whatever the case may be, American producers like Filson, Carhartt, and even Ben Davis all face a changing marketplace and of course they always have. They all want to grow and they can’t do that by providing the very same products to a diminishing market, which is to say, work clothes as worn by actual laborers or sportsmen (hunters with money). So they have to do something or end up like Oshkosh and make no work clothes at all.
Anyway, today I wore a Filson dry finish tin cruiser. For me, rather more practical than an oil/wax finish. It’s American made.
@BlueTrain
Indeed, no easy answers. I am glad to see Ben Davis mentioned around here.
BLUETRAIN
The Levi’s Stores in Richmond, Tyson’s Corner and Georgetown all have a small selection of Filson products.
@JSQ. Amen to that. I’m pretty sick of seeing what’s happening to Filson. When the production moved overseas, the quality went downhill fast. Did the customer see a drop in price? Nope. But you can bet your Horweened leather ass they cost a lot less to produce. Fortunately, I’ve got enough Filson to last a lifetime, the rest can come from Bemidji and Pointer. Same goes for Hardy reels. Only thing they make now are replicas.
Drew,
I never even knew there was such a thing as a Levi’s store, much less one that carried Filson. Hudson Trail Outfitters used to carry a few things but no longer does, Clark Brothers (the Red House) beyond Warrenton still does and will cheerfully order anything. LL Bean at Tyson’s gets most of my spare change but their “traditional” garments have gone off a cliff compared to Filson.
I also have two Bemidji wool jackets, too. Pendleton is still classy but only for wool shirts (and women’s wear) but mostly I’m reduced to buying antiques on eBay. Heaven knows how much more literally brand-new, 30 year old stuff is out there.
That jacket looks so good in your photos, and so boring on the Filson website.
The Hunter/Trucker jacket is an amazing fit and look, however it should be limited to markets in which it is appropriate to wear such a piece. Namely, not LA where I spotted it on the street.
Dream collab: Nice Life Apparel Co. x Johnson Woolen Mills and Pendelton x Lands End
This jacket is making me crazy I want it. Filson + Levis = match made in heaven
Big Filson fan, but quality seems uneven lately. Tin Cloth chaps for upland walking are unbeatable, and leather goods are great, yet a canvas shirt arrived with buttons barely attached. For trad outerwear I lean toward Barbour, but for serious hunters or tradesmen, Filson is hard to beat. Love the blog.
Pendleton x Selfedge
I need blanket lining in my jeans.
Sweden is cold.
Junya x Facebook
Supreme x eBay
McNairy x Youtube