Releases from Freenote Cloth

This week, on the precipice of celebrating our nation’s quarter-millennium anniversary, we have a small, singular release focused on Freenote Cloth, which has become America’s best-in-class heritage menswear brand and producer. To tell the story, we have a collection featuring a new Sashiko Midway, the 1950s Rinsed Indigo Belford, and the famed Workers Chinos in several colorways.

Made with the finest Japanese fabrics, exceptional custom trims and hardware, and produced to a durable, refined standard in California, these pieces from Freenote embody their recipe for success and novelty in a space where we think we’ve seen it all. For the Freenote faithful, you already know; for those who have not yet experienced the surprise, little details, and western-meets-workwear edge in style and construction, this release is a fine place to get on the horse.

Manufacturing is difficult, especially in the developed world, and even more so in the United States. We’ll leave the causes for another day. Still, many brands committed to making quality goods in the United States have either failed or scaled beyond the reach of accessible infrastructure, eventually moving production overseas. While there is always a banner cry to “make stuff in the States,” the reality of that proposition is filled with far more resistance than momentum. Legacy producers with their own factories who often specialize in a single category of goods, have an advantage, but even that road is rough. Freenote launched over a decade ago as a brand operating across various factories in Southern California, often using only a fraction of each facility’s capacity.

Like us, Freenote has always taken the hard road. Driven by Andrew Brodrick’s relentless drive to improve production and Matt Brodrick’s commitment to designing inspiring pieces, this bold brother duo has achieved what some would call impossible. They have grown to take over some of the best category-specific factories and workshops in California, producing almost exclusively at a quality level normally seen only in heritage goods from the top makers in Japan.

It’s astounding and laudable, and we are pleased to be among their chief advocates and collaborators. Support what they do because it is difficult, exceptionally well executed, and rooted in the historical values of America worth carrying forward: grit, determination, and the willingness to press forward against all odds.