We are meant to explore this earth like children do, unhindered by fear, propelled by curiosity and a sense of discovery. Allow yourself to see the world through new eyes and know there are amazing adventures here for you.
captured by: Bradley Wentzel
the ramblings of a designer...
touching on the resurrection journey of 100 yr. old Black Bear Brand.
Stories of HUMAN CONNECTION in collaboration with SALT. Optics
SALT. x Black Bear Brand (part one)
explore - participate - LIVE
Black Bear Brand has been part of the Pacific Northwest landscape for over 100 years.
We are the cowboy, we are the biker, we are the artist, we are the adventurer; and we require a deep connection with everything we invite into our lives.
Demand a deep connection with everything you invite into your lives!
Made To Order… with delivery by end of December. Merry Merry MF!
Designed in collaboration with friend and the mad scientist car builder Jonathan Ward of ICON 4x4.
Demand a deep connection with everything you invite into your lives!
Every painstaking step in the process done by the indigo soaked hands of our close friend Kai at his organic INDIGO farm in Kyushu, Japan!
Built for a life well lived…
photograph: Chris Dickinson
the rough out horsehide shirt/jacket.
Demand a deep connection with everything you invite into your lives!
friendship kick started from shared interests; grown by sharing our differences… and fueled by a passion for the exceptional!
the journey has just begun….
photographed by: Bradley Wentzel
Preorder opens 10/26! (colors… 1: Navy/Indigo and 2: Natural/Army
Join Brent Underwood as he discovers a Black Bear Brand jacket in a 100 yr. old abandoned California mine!
Another BlackBearBrand... ghost sign was found!
Last Saturday afternoon a friend in Snoqualmie WA while power washing the exterior wall of his motorcycle shop uncovered the likely 90 yr. old Black Bear Brand advertisement!
This building was built in 1924 and was general store through the 1940s.
A JOURNEY FUELED BY HUMAN CONNECTION AND CREATIVE EXPLORATION with the IWC Journal
A designer should embrace adventure, leaping at opportunities to travel, collaborate, and to find inspiration. Exploration, learning, and human connection are paramount to me. The quest is driven by a passion for design, materials, processes, and uncompromising details, which often leads to the places where ruggedness, beauty and romance collide. - Josh Sirlin
Japan is captivating! It was the third year of the resurrection of the 100-year-old Black Bear Brand that I first visited Tokyo to create with some amazing craftsmen. Those business relationships quickly led to some very strong friendships. Early on, I was invited to visit Free Way Custom Motorcycles in the city of Oita for a vintage motorcycle ride. I have since become close friends Kenichi Mizutani, a legend for building custom and antique motorcycles. Like many that I’ve collaborated with in Japan, Kenichi is uncompromising in his craft. Read the complete story on the IWC Journal.
Standard Of The West.
The journey of resurrecting a 100 yr. old brand.
art by: Nicholas Coleman
The Black Bear Brand resurrection story is fueled by the romance of the west. We are the cowboy, we are the biker, we are the artist, we are the adventurer; and we require a deep connection with everything we invite into our lives.
The journey of resurrecting a 100+ yr. old brand ~ The Black Bear Brand resurrection story is fueled by the romance of the west. We are the cowboy, we are the biker, we are the artist, we are the adventurer; and we require a deep connection with everything we invite into our lives.
Black Bear Brand ghost sign in Sultan, Wash.
The United States first became a carnival of signs around the end of the 19th century, when advertising took hold like never before. Back then, there were no rules about signs–where or how big they could be, or how much valuable wall space they were allowed to take up. Commercial buildings, barns, depots, grain silos: any place people gathered or traveled past was fair game!
Sultan, Wash. played an important role in the building of the Burlington Northern Railroad. During the railroad construction Sultan was a key supply station and then grew into prosperous logging town.
Water Testing Our Collaboration Surfboard…
I was paddling out with Jason Tilley of Tilley Surfboards for our first session with a collaboration board we created. The marine layer was thick and the ocean and sky were separated only by their slight variation of grey, blurring the boundary between the two. The morning was cool and the water was still warm enough that wearing a hood was a preference and not a necessity. We paddled out into chest high rollers.
Anticipating the next wave with such reduced visibility required focus, and so I missed the full meaning of something Tilley said to me while we were waiting for the next set. He wanted me to look at something off to my right but I didn’t see much.
I’ve heard stories about how one sense is enhanced by a deficit in another, and maybe it was the uniformity of the environment that deprived me of crisp vision, but either way the first I caught of it was the smell. It was overwhelming. It was as if the ordinary smell of the ocean had intensified a hundred-fold. Not rotten—just the smell of bait fish, maybe shrimp, and of salt in the air. And then I saw it: the top of a massive whale. I’m unsure what kind it was, but I was close enough to feel the pressure of the water it parted as it moved by. I’m unsure why it came so close to shore. Perhaps it was curious about what we were doing.
- josh sirlin
Built For a Life Well Lived.
photography by: Chad Lyons
