Gear: Prologue

The New Series

The whole time I was making that series on Ivy style, I knew what the next in-depth podcast series would be about.

In fact, I had already started working on it. I’ve been working on it this whole time.

This is the first little glimpse of ankle. It comes out next week. I can’t believe it. I still don’t feel quite ready.

“The Heavy Duty Ivy Party Manifesto” from Men’s Club #183 in September 1976. Sourced from Ametora by none other than W. David Marx, of course

But how fun to launch with the most charming guy in the world, Shigeru Kaneko. Shigeru is a head collector and designer for BEAMS PLUS, a subsidiary company under the iconic Japanese clothing company BEAMS. And a huge source of inspiration for him is outdoor wear.

Shigeru’s collection of outdoor jackets is so huge, he chronicled it in a book.

The book is a font of historical research and knowledge, but the absolute best part is that Shigeru models all his jackets himself.

And you’ll be hearing a lot more about some of these brands in the coming episodes…

Eddie Bauer jackets from the 1960s

Eddie Bauer down flight suit for the US air force from WWII

1959 down sleeping bag/survival suit by Gerry for the U.S Air Force

Gerry’s “walkaround sleeper “short coat, adapted for the civilian market

Holubar 1970s

Chase Anderson and Clint Pumphrey from the Outdoor Recreation Archive in Logan, Utah. These guys were also SO helpful to me in my research too. They are the secret locus of the entire outdoor industry. Thanks Clint and Chase!

The “trailer” - or as I call it, the prologue- is now up wherever you get your podcasts. I’m not going to summarize it, it’s only four minutes long

(It took me so long to get it down to four minutes!!!! The short things are the hardest to make! Special thanks to my dear friend and next door neighbor and award-winning podcaster Sayre Quevedo for listening and helping me get those minutes down.)

But …essentially, Shigeru helped explain to me (through a translator), what makes American gear different from European gear. And this is what will bridge us from preppy style to our next series, and start us on our journey.

Shigeru came over to my apartment! I could learn some modeling tips from him

I record my episodes in this old phone booth and Shigeru loved it...

This is what Shigeru posted on instagram. He’s so good at instagram. Thank you Shigeru! I couldn’t agree more! Please stay tuned for the podcast!

Here we go. It starts next week! Thanks for coming along with me.