The middle lane was empty
There is a gap between expensive logo clothes and cheap clothes that fall apart. We walked into it.
We were looking for a hoodie. A specific kind of hoodie. Heavy enough to feel real. Plain enough that nothing on it had to be defended. Priced so a working person could own one without thinking about it. We could not find it.
The expensive options were embarrassed of being clothes. They were covered in logos and seasonal colour and someone else's name. The cheap ones came apart in three washes. The premium ones were quietly priced for people who work in finance.
The middle lane was empty. So we walked it.
The four lanes
Most clothing brands sit in one of three places. There is the cheap and disposable lane. There is the expensive and logo-heavy lane. There is the premium and quietly-priced-for-hedge-fund-employees lane.
The fourth lane is the one we went looking for. Heavy fabric, no logo, made properly, priced so an ordinary person can buy one without a financing plan. Almost nobody is in this lane. We don't know why. We suspect the answer is that the maths only works if you don't hold stock and you don't restock and you don't run sales.
That is the maths we accepted.
The brand in one paragraph
WRTH makes two pieces. A heavyweight cotton hoodie, around 430 grams per square metre. A heavyweight cotton tee, around 305 grams. Five colours per garment. Three colours shared across both. Two colours unique to each. No logos. Made when you order. Two weeks to your door.
The hoodie is fifty-five pounds. The tee is twenty-eight. We could charge more. We don't.
What we are not
We are not a luxury brand. We don't want to be. Luxury brands are about exclusion. We want as many people as possible to own a piece they can wear for years, in a colour they actually like, made of cloth that gets better with use.
We are not a fast brand. We don't want to be that either. Fast brands are about velocity. We want the slowness of a heavy garment that arrives two weeks after you ordered it and stays in your wardrobe for ten.
We are a small studio in a small corner of the country trying to make heavy clothes for the cold months. The middle lane was empty. We walked it.
— the studio
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