These days, it’s easier to find a still operational Blockbuster Video than a middle ground between the left and right, but there is one thing that both parties agree upon, and have agreed upon, for decades: Carhartt. Everyone loves Carhartt. And according to a recent story from Esquire, a lot of work goes into making it that way.
For 128 years, Carhartt’s core values have run parallel to those held by America’s working class — both parties are into durability, authenticity, creativity, and hard work — and both entities are emotionally allergic to bullshit, making Carhartt and Blue Collar America the perfect match.
But while other brands have succeeded in making good workwear, few have managed to permeate the rest of the fashion culture as effectively as Carhartt has.
“Carhartt represents everybody,” Brian Trunzo, Senior Menswear Trend Forecaster at WGSN, told Esquire. “It represents the right and the left. It represents the fashion folks and the non-fashion folks… It comes down to its authenticity. Everything they do is real.”
Because of that authenticity, the story posits, Carhartt has managed to cultivate arguably the most diverse customer-base in fashion, while avoiding the scrutiny that other America! brands — like New Balance and L.L. Bean — can’t seem to escape in 2017. Carhartt even outsourced production back in the ‘90s and no one really cared.
“Since 1997 it’s been predominantly produced in Mexico, rappers and Europeans love it, and yeah, maybe it likes hunting, but it’s also into jazz festivals and celebrities. Carhartt has become the model for a brand that has matched a degree of progressivism with working class values, all without alienating its conservative white consumers.”
And as the brand’s sales figures climb “well over the $500 million mark,” it would seem like they’re only getting stronger with age.
You can read more about it at Esquire.
