Winter Storm Jonas

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Winter Storm Jonas came through New York and I went down to "Absolutely Yours" on Myrtle Ave with a twenty-dollar bill burning a hole in my pocket and bought a brand new blue plastic sled.  Yes, apparently sleds cost twenty dollars now.  

Feeling very much like Ernest Shackleton must have felt in the early days of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition -- with our wool sweaters and our steely resolve to leave no hill un-sled -- we ventured through the snow covered streets and made our way towards Fort Greene Park.   There we joined the neighborhood's other great little explorers -- with their snow suits and their leaking noses and their unqualified enthusiasm for the weather -- and found the best way to drop off the 6 foot perimeter ledge into a snowbank.

After a thoroughly exhausting afternoon, I called my friend Andres Sebastian (@andxseb) and we decided to run it back the next day (this time with a camera!)  Many thanks to Sebastian and his friends Kieri (@kieri.elena) and Carolina (@artbymcw) for helping design the shoot.  

See the rest of the shots here!

 

Marginal Way Photos!

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Join our friend Aidan Eastwood as he tries on his first pair of Rousers and walks the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine.  This shore walk boasts both historical and geological significance in the region -- with the town's oldest man made structures lining a path along the most revealing shoreline rock formations.  What better place to test the endless versatility of Rousers Overalls than by climbing over basalt, quartzite, phyllite,* and slippery wet seaweed!  I think you'll agree that Rousers retain their grace, refinement, and sense of fun even when photographed against hundreds of millions of years of Earth's history.   

*http://www.maine.gov/dacf/mgs/explore/bedrock/sites/feb02.pdf

Special Edition Rousers!

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If you're anything like us, you probably spend 20-25 minutes a day (at least) daydreaming of overalls: wild, fantastic overalls with white-gold threading and demure, modest overalls with a hidden silk lining, depending on your mood and disposition, of course.  We've been thinking long and hard about what might define our next set of overalls -- what fabric, cut, and styling choices will bring out the inner Rouser in all of us.  

Well, with that in mind, Rousers has made a new friend in San Francisco based apparel company Betabrand!  After the successful launch of our Original Rousers, Betabrand invited us to launch a totally new line of Rousers on their website.  And what will this new line look like? What fabric will we use? What kind of styling changes will we put in? That is up to you to decide!

Our collaboration starts with a "Think Tank" in which you can give us ideas on fabric choice, cut, and whatever styling you want to see in your next pair of Rousers.  Go wild, get a little weird, and leave us a comment here on the think tank: 

https://www.betabrand.com/think-tank/vote/rousers-slim-fit-special-edition-overalls.html

We're just giddy to be coming up with a new set of Rousers.  And Betabrand has already proven to be a fun and creative collaborator.  So please stop by our Think Tank, leave a comment, vote, and share it with any potential Rousers in your life.  We'll see you there.

And While you're at it, check out this video we made to try to answer the age-old question: what's better than pants?



McIntire @ Marshall's Beach: Rouser-shoot

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For most of us, the iPhone has replaced the need for a standalone point and shoot camera. And quantity has (largely) overtaken quality when it comes to our photostreams and instagrams and snapchats. Even Rousers photoshoots are often a game of lets-take-1000-photos-and-see-what-sticks. 

But some people, like our friend Sam McIntire, pursue digital photography as both an art and a technical craft. Hearing Sam talk about light hitting water, or the technical details of shooting in RAW, is like hearing us talk about... well nothing (except maybe overalls). Sam was good enough to accompany us (co-founders Matt and Aidan) down to Marshall's Beach in San Francisco this week to take some fresh shots of the Rousers Original. 

 

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Sam McIntire is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur and photographer. Check out one of his recent photo-essays here from the Nepalese Himalayas. 

Why we're fans of (music + art) festivals

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In our headlong rush into personalized digital worlds—apps to replace the grocery store, Kindles to replace the library, blog forums to replace the town hall—concerts and festivals yank us back, even just temporarily, to shared experience. There’s something breathtaking about seeing 10,000 people sway side to side, or jump up and down, on the same beat. And it feels, well, normal, to sit in the grass surrounded by strange faces without immediately swiping left or right.

While occasions like Coachella, or your Friday night jam band, offer the obvious allure of sex, drugs and rock and roll, the appeal extends to something more fundamental. We want to be together. We want to let go of the ego that rationalizes who we ‘are’ and why we are ‘different’. We want to move. Some of us even want to rip our shirts off in the mosh pit... which makes sense conceptually…

Celebrity status appeals to some more than others, but there undeniably must be a rush associated with creating a shared experience for a massive audience. From Father John Misty acting out a semi-erotic fantasy onstage, to Madeon faking his own death and rebirth just before the beat drops on his hit single, artists get to take the crowd on a ride through their imagination. And we each willingly leave our own private experience of the music to temporarily live it together.

There are certainly nobler forms of shared experience—thoughtful protest, charity events, civic debate—but if festivals wake us up to the people around us, then even this Dionysian end of the spectrum is worthwhile. We may not be changing the world while we groove, but at least we’re reminded that there is a communal world out there and maybe we bring some of that back to 'real world'. The world certainly wouldn't be a worse place if we all hopped to the same beat every once in a while.

Surf's up in Santa Teresa

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Taking advantage of the relative lull at Rouser's HQ (as our factory finalizes production), Matt jetted south for a month of surfing in Santa Teresa, a small town on Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula. 

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A slight delay out of Newark turned my 38 minute connection in Panama City (a vibrant metropolis of 1.5M with less-than-intuitive airport signage) into a 12 minute mad dash. I made the flight but apparently outran the baggage handlers, so arrived in San Jose with nothing more than my passport, a credit card and the overalls on my back. And that was all I needed. 

“I arrived in San Jose with nothing more than my passport, a credit card and the overalls on my back.

And that was all I needed. ”
"For every occasion": Rousers work well for surfing in a pinch (the bib serves as a decent rash guard)

"For every occasion": Rousers work well for surfing in a pinch (the bib serves as a decent rash guard)

Santa Teresa is a laid-back surf town, strung out along several miles of dirt road near the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. The beautiful sand beaches, surrounding nature preserve and consistent year-round waves attract an array of visitors, yet Santa Teresa maintains the air of a place that doesn't much care what's happening in the rest of the world. Daily life is a melange of 'stay awhile' visitors (many of whom return year after year) and local Tico culture, oriented around the ocean.  

The hot, heavy air in the tropics invites a slower pace of both thought and action. Morning and evening have a slight bustle— street-side vendors spray their sidewalks clean early and re-pile their heaps of fruit and fish. Evening grows in intensity again as shadows lengthen and cervezas are cracked open. But midday, beneath the hanging heat of a beating sun, is almost languid. People walk with an unhurried amble. A truck rolls slowly through town spraying a mixture of molasses and water on the dirt roads to keep the dust down. There is less sense of 9 to 5 intensity here. 

“Being out on a board, early mornings and late afternoons, inspires a daily acceptance, both literally and spiritually, of our place in the natural order. ”

Surf culture is fundamentally a tropical mindset, even in places where the societal pace is more bustling and 'modern.' Being out on a board, early mornings and late afternoons, inspires a daily acceptance, both literally and spiritually, of our place in the natural order. Surfers can't control the swells, or the wind, but know they can paddle like hell when the right wave comes along. Even then though, once I'm committed and pouring energy into the water beneath my board, the wave might close-out or not break at all. 

So surfing becomes a form of meditation. And a community like Santa Teresa constantly feels the flow of that meditation— dictated by nature's power and ultimate uncertainty. A 'good session' can mean catching one or two great waves and a bad session... well... you can always just bob around in the warm water, chat with the other surfers and watch the sun melt into the darkening ocean. 

Many thanks to Kate Baker for the majority of these beautiful images. And to Morgan Boek for sharing his Go Pro shot. And to Santa Teresa for the daily good vibes. 

Rousers Letterpress Printing in Providence, RI

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After finalizing our logo, we immediately started work on designing our product tags and info cards with our friend Rachel Gaudette.

Rachel is a longtime friend and a self-proclaimed “lady of all things paper”—she works in small photo presentation company by day, and freelances doing letterpress and other custom paper projects by night through her own venture, ‘Dearest Me Paper Company’. 

With keen eye for printed design, and plenty of experience producing high-quality paper products, Rachel was an obvious partner to help us develop our logo items. Rachel does all of her letterpress work at a community print space in Providence, RI.

Rachel has done Calligraphy, Wedding Invitations, Custom Scrapbooking (last client was the co-founder of Life Is Good), Customer Paper Goods (ie. stationery, business cards, promo materials, etc).

Rachel has done Calligraphy, Wedding Invitations, Custom Scrapbooking (last client was the co-founder of Life Is Good), Customer Paper Goods (ie. stationery, business cards, promo materials, etc).

After finalizing the design for our hangtag, Rachel suggested heavy weight cotton paper, which feels great and really shows off the letterpress printing. We went with a recycled kraft paper for our info cards (we'll be sending a few of these out with each pair of Rousers and we hope our early customers will help us share)!

Rachel's "The Paper Pursuit" Blog: 
gaudette.wordpress.com

Feel free to reach out to her at: rachel.gaudette@gmail.com

Rousers Logo Re-Design!

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We made great progress this week on drawing up our new logo with Evan Azcuy, an artist and  a good friend of Rousers!  

An experienced graphic designer and artist, Evan was able to take our idea (a walking pair of overalls), and create several basic templates across a range of styles -- some looking more graphic and others more hand-drawn -- for us to choose from.  Our final design settles somewhere between a drawing scribbled on a diner napkin and something from Auguste Rodin's lesser known "Overall Phase."

Several designs did not make the cut.

Several designs did not make the cut.

evan

With Evan's help, we are re-designing our printed materials (business cards, retail hang-tags, etc.), and are planning to have them letter-pressed soon!

Images can often set a tone in a way words cannot, and it is exciting for us to have one which we feel represents our look and aspirations. We're very pleased!

Made in the U.S.A.

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New Years Rouser-lutions!

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Happy New Year! If your resolutions are anything like ours, you’re eagerly awaiting March so that you can take off your belt, turn up your cuffs and start feeling as good as you look.

To make sure 2015 is indeed the Year of the Rouser, we’ve been working hard on the production front to finalize plans with our manufacturing partner in Philadelphia and source our final fabric (which will be coming from one of the few remaining American textile mills). As we prepare for the first production run, we will continue taking pre-orders on our website— so make sure your friends and family know that it’s not too late!

We’re beginning to line up a few collaborations with photographers, and other young brands for the coming months. As always, your input and suggestions are very much appreciated.

We'd really appreciate if you'd be willing to help us build our Instagram presence by following us here: www.instagram.com/rousersoveralls

Cheers,

The Rousers Guys

A sampling of the dozens of gray cotton-twill fabrics/ finishes that we've evaluated for final production

A sampling of the dozens of gray cotton-twill fabrics/ finishes that we've evaluated for final production

We are currently finalizing pre-production logistics with our manufacturing partner in Philadelphia

We are currently finalizing pre-production logistics with our manufacturing partner in Philadelphia


Press Release: We hit our $25K Kickstarter goal!

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Local Startup Raises $25,000 to Sell Stylish Modern Overalls

Boston, MA; December 10th, 2014 – In three short weeks, a new New York / Boston startup selling stylish modern overalls has raised its first $25,000 in the form of pre-orders on Kickstarter, successfully reaching the campaign goal.

The Rousers Guys (left to right): Aidan, Matt, and Ben

The Rousers Guys (left to right): Aidan, Matt, and Ben

The Rousers concept was born in early 2014, inspired by the simple desire of the three founders—Matt Jorgensen, Ben Waller and Aidan Nelson—to own a pair of slim-cut overalls. Realizing that men’s overalls hadn’t gotten an update in decades, the guys began experimenting with sketches and rudimentary patterns over the course of the next year. Matt left his job in August 2014 to pursue the venture full-time. Reaching their Kickstarter goal means that the guys will be able to do their first production run in January/February 2015. Rousers will be produced in the USA.

Rousers were born from a recognition that overalls bring a lot to the table for the modern man, in terms of both function and style. “While we love a good, hardworking pair of overalls as much as anyone, there are many occasions where overalls simply don’t fit. We want to change that,” said Jorgensen, who’s leading the charge on launching the brand. Instead of the utilitarian construction of classic overalls, Rousers are made of cotton twill fabric and cut slim like your favorite pair of chinos. They were designed with careful attention to detail, from herringbone pocket linings to tortoiseshell buttons.

The Kickstarter campaign was designed as a market test for the nascent company – to both gauge whether there was sufficient demand for their product, as well as to generate enough working capital to be able to offer a greater variety of colors, fabrics and fits through their website. While reaching the Kickstarter target is great news, the most exciting news for the group is that there is substantial demand for fashionable overalls. Rousers orders have come from over a dozen countries ranging from Australia and South Korea to Egypt and Germany. “The people have spoken,” said Jorgensen, “overalls not only feel great, but they can also look pretty darn good.”

The $25,000 in orders represents almost 300 orders for Rousers’ overalls, and with still a full week left in their Kickstarter campaign, it looks like the company will far exceed that goal. Rousers will retail for $145, but the Kickstarter pre-sale price is $99.

The full Rousers backstory can be found at: www.businessverycasual.com/press-kit
The Rousers team can be reached at: theguys@businessverycasual.com

www.businessverycasual.com
Instagram (RousersOveralls) :: Twitter (@RousersOveralls)
Facebook (RousersOveralls) :: Blog (RousersOveralls.tumblr.com) :: Kickstarter (Rousers)

Amazing Progress!

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Amazing Progress! 

Since launching just 48 hours ago, we’ve raised nearly 50% of our goal from 150 backers! We were named a staff pick, and today we are the featured Fashion project on Kickstarter. An amazing start to the month-long campaign - we can't wait to see what the next 27 days bring.

This week’s launch was a bit distracting as you might imagine, but our plan is to get back to finalizing some of the manufacturing details next week. Specifically, we want to make sure we nail the little details with the apparel engineering experts at the factory (like how buttons are sewn, or pockets are cut) so that the final product exceeds expectations. 

Experiments in developing our lookbook, and advice from an expert!

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We were lucky enough to be introduced to Angela Su (pictured at left), a former menswear buyer at Bloomingdale's, current digital strategist at Trendalytics and general fashion-world insider. She has an amazingly astute eye for design, and has been kind enough to advise us on styling our models (among other things!). She even came along to our latest photoshoot and helped us put together some more varied and creative looks (see below).

This is type of informal, but incredibly generous support that's making Rousers a reality. Thank you Angela!

Photo credit: Angela Su

Photo credit: Angela Su