My love of Red Wing began early one Saturday morning when I was thirteen years old. My father came into my room and woke me up and drove me to the Red Wing store in my hometown on the East Side of Cleveland to get my first pair of work boots. The excitement of the gift of work boots from my dad quickly faded when I realized that I was then being conscripted into weekends and summers of manual labor. What I leaned about working for my dad was sort of surprising to me; I loved working outside and I loved manual labor. When the job was done, you are done. And each day held huge feelings of accomplishment. It was through this experience that my life long appreciation and connection to the Red Wing Shoe Company was forged.

A great part of buying a Goodyear-welted boot was the fact that I could have them re-soled, and even have it done multiple times. When you are doing physical work on your feet all day, it doesn’t take you long to realize that breaking in new boots adds a seriously unwanted wrinkle into earning a paycheck. My solution was to own two pairs of Red Wings. When the soles on one pair would wear out, I would send them in to be re-soled and would wear the back up pair while they were away. So if a pair was at the factory being re-crafted, the other pair would be comfortably on my feet. For me, breaking in new boots on the job was a thing of the past.

In 2005 I picked up the pictured pair of 100 year anniversary 875s at the Red Wing work store in my hometown. Back in ’05 I was living in New York and was no longer harnessing the wonders of hydraulics to smash things (professionally anyway), but I still loved wearing my Red Wings. Eventually my 875s needed to be redone and I shipped them straight back to the factory in Minnesota. Since we (my marketing company Paul + Williams; full disclosure) work with Red Wing now, I asked some folks there to snap some photos of my 875s while they were being re-crafted so I could share the transformation here.

The process is pretty significant as you can see from the photos below. The truly amazing thing is, the boots come back literally better than new. They fit you perfect and are as comfortable as ever — but have an entirely new outsole. It’s a wonderful thing. For this service Red Wing charges $95 (which includes shipping both ways). To me it is like getting a brand new pair of the most comfortable boots. I’ve had boots go through this process five, six, seven times and they only get better with age.

Little did I know that my dad would impart so much wisdom that fateful Saturday morning, but I sure am happy he did.

The New York Times today published a startling article discussing the manufacturing of the Apple iPhone and the economic impact of the company’s production decisions over the past several years. The crux of the piece centers on Apple’s global supply chain and the dominance of Asia when it comes to electronic manufacturing. The article also questions whether it would be possible to make the iPhone in the United States and how the shift of manufacturing by U.S. companies has impacted the American economy and the middle class. As an American, the article is utterly terrifying.

Some excerpts from How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work:

For over two years, the Apple had been working on a project — code-named Purple 2 — that presented the same questions at every turn: how do you completely reimagine the cellphone? And how do you design it at the highest quality — with an unscratchable screen, for instance — while also ensuring that millions can be manufactured quickly and inexpensively enough to earn a significant profit?

The answers, almost every time, were found outside the United States. Though components differ between versions, all iPhones contain hundreds of parts, an estimated 90 percent of which are manufactured abroad. Advanced semiconductors have come from Germany and Taiwan, memory from Korea and Japan, display panels and circuitry from Korea and Taiwan, chipsets from Europe and rare metals from Africa and Asia. And all of it is put together in China.

In its early days, Apple usually didn’t look beyond its own backyard for manufacturing solutions. A few years after Apple began building the Macintosh in 1983, for instance, Mr. Jobs bragged that it was “a machine that is made in America.” In 1990, while Mr. Jobs was running NeXT, which was eventually bought by Apple, the executive told a reporter that“I’m as proud of the factory as I am of the computer.” As late as 2002, top Apple executives occasionally drove two hours northeast of their headquarters to visit the company’s iMacplant in Elk Grove, Calif.

But in the last two decades, something more fundamental has changed, economists say. Midwage jobs started disappearing. Particularly among Americans without college degrees, today’s new jobs are disproportionately in service occupations — at restaurants or call centers, or as hospital attendants or temporary workers — that offer fewer opportunities for reaching the middle class.

“We shouldn’t be criticized for using Chinese workers,” a current Apple executive said. “The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.”

I hear a lot of Americans say that we don’t need manufacturing anymore, but the truth of the matter is: jobs at Wal-Mart rarely turn into anything better than low wage retail jobs. And they certainly don’t hold much promise of economic advancement. As the Times points out, it’s all about job multipliers.

Read the full article here.

One more thing while I am on my soap box. Reporting and news like this is the reason why The New York Times is worth supporting through digital subscriptions, or better yet, through traditional subscriptions. Just my two cents.

Nick DeWolf spent nearly his entire life carrying around a camera and documenting the places he went and the things he saw. The scale and scope of this is incredible, especially when you consider it was all done in a time before digital photography. Over the past four years I have been following his life, roll by roll and slide by slide, through Flickr. The photos are being shared with the help of DeWolf’s son-in-law Steve Lundeen, who has been methodically scanning and cataloging DeWolf’s life’s worth of photos — a project nearly as daunting as the original.

The photos have been working their way through the 1960s into the 1970s until recently when pictures from a vacation to Europe in 1959 began playing out through the Flickrstream. The trip begins in May of 1959 on an SAS flight from Idlewild Airport (now called John F. Kennedy International Airport) to Stockholm, Sweden. From there the adventures continue on through France, Switzerland and Italy. The images from this journey are some of my favorite from the tens of thousands that have been published by DeWolf.

View the entire photo collection by Nick DeWolf here.

Talking about Shelter Half a while back, I noted the further development of L.A.’s La Brea Avenue as a new little area of interest for retailers. There have been great stores in this part town for a long time, Union and American Rag being probably the two best known and most widely respected. General Quarters is one of the newish shops to join the menswear fray on La Brea. The store got a lot of call outs when I was working on an update to the LA shopping map and it wasn’t until recently that I had a chance to stop by. While the store is not “just opened,” I think it was worth highlighting here for those that don’t spend much time in LA.

General Quarters is sort of hitting on a lot of retail hot buttons that we have all seen over the last few years from a décor standpoint, but the shop carries a tight selection of brands — many of which are known — and some small and quasi-undiscovered stuff. It’s a digestible mix, so would probably say that the shop is light on product. I didn’t think so, I saw it more as non-threatening. I think also that General Quarters had a lot of strong personal touches that seemed done in a way to represent the owner’s taste; it didn’t seem done to fit the mold or work within a trend. It seemed natural and unpretentious unlike a lot of shops that I visit. That said, it wasn’t ground breaking either.

General Quarters (good name too) is a good shop that will get better with time. That and some hard work I think it will grow into something really great and become a shop that will rival its neighbors. If you happen to find your self on La Brea in LA, stop by and take a look.

General Quarters | 153 S. La Brea Ave. Los Angeles, Ca. 90036 | (323) 937-5391

I first heard a few month’s back that Greg Chapman (who most recently launched the Perfecto Brand for Schott NYC), Nate Warkentin and Chris Grodzki (from Stanley & Sons) were all working together on a new collection of workwear called H.W. Carter & Sons. The thing was, it wasn’t necessarily all new. The mark and rights to H.W. Carter & Sons was acquired and Greg, Nate and Chris got together to put a collection together and relaunch the company, one of America’s oldest work clothing makers. Along the way Greg came to me for some marketing help and we (by we I mean Paul + Williams) started working with the brand (full disclosure and all that good stuff). The interesting thing is, H.W. Carter’s & Sons is an old company. Originally founded back in 1859 by Henry W. Carter in Lebanon, New Hampshire it soon after became widely regarded (especially in New England) for its overalls and workwear. Henry Carter himself became widely known as a showman and extravagant fellow, often marketing his company wildly throughout the Northeast.

This initial capsule collection, which just launching online and in stores (Unionmade, Context, Smith & Butler, Portland Dry Goods) spring summer season, is made up of some work wear staples like chore coats, utility shirts, aprons, work trousers and bandanas are all made in America based on historical H.W. Carter & Son pieces. As someone that loves American workwear (even if it has been supplanted on the Tumblrs by Neapolitan tailoring), this launch is an exciting undertaking by three talented guys. I’m proud to have helped it all come together and also to see people’s response to the new fall 2012 collection (which is a much bigger collection and more representative of what Greg, Nate & Chris can do) which is being shown this week for the first time at Capsule. What H.W. Carter & Sons has done is classic workwear, something that I really love and something I always said I will continue to support. [H.W. Carter & Sons]

Today the good people of the International Watch Company unveiled their new range of pilots watches at the SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie) watch trade fair in Geneva, Switzerland. As it so happens, I’m in attendance at the show and got a chance to check these guys out first hand. The Schaffhausen-based watchmaker released the Top Gun Miramar Chronograph Automatic (named for the location of the Top Gun USMC training base) in advance of the show, but today the company unveiled the full Pilot’s Watch collection — much to my enjoyment.

The first serious watch I ever purchased was an IWC Portuguese Automatic — something I started dreaming about when I was in my twenties. Eventually in my early thirties I was able to pull the trigger on the “watch of my dreams” and a shiny new IWC came home with me. Little did I know at the time, but buying watches is a slippery slope — though definitely an area I have become much more interested in after buying my first real watch. So now for better or worse, I have a list of watches that I want to own at some point. An Audemars Royal Oak, a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, everything from Rolex I don’t already have and finally an IWC Big Pilot.

At first the big pilot turned me off. That giant crown (which is the way it is so pilots could adjust the watch with their thick gloves before planes were pressurized and temperature controlled) was not for me. It was just too attention grabbing. Over time I have grown to love the Big Pilot and the new “Top Gun” version with ceramic case (image below) is an interesting update to the collection and a watch that is a new addition to my growing list of desired timepieces.

Big Pilot Top Gun (Reference 5019)

The Big Pilot’s Watch TOP GUN combines the classic functionality of the traditional Pilot’s Watch with state-of-the-art technology. High-tech materials and modern design elements. The compact 48-millimetre case is made of high-tech ceramic and the crown of titanium. The largest self-winding movement from IWC will continue running for 7 days.

Pilot's Watch Worldtimer

Pilot's Watch Mark XVII

Spitfire Chronograph

Pilot's Watch Chronograph Top Gun (Ceramic Case)

Pilot's Watch Double Chronograph

Big Pilot's Watch Top Gun Miramar

I’ll be covering SIHH for the next few days from Geneva, so expect more watches and highlights from the fair. Live coverage as always, is happening behind the scenes on the ACL Twitter, and more and more on Instagram: @acontinuouslean

The Woolrich John Rich & Bros collection gets better every season. The brand is a product of the Italian apparel group WP (who also created Woolrich Woolen Mills, the Barbour Beacon collection and others). Since I spent most of my time at Pitti with my good friend Aaron Levine, I forced him to model our collective favorite piece from the new collection — a tweed arctic parka.

The collection also includes more designs from my favorite To Ki To and a whole lot of other great designs. I didn’t necessarily understand the collection at first, but in the past couple of years it has really grown on me and I almost find it more of a draw than WWM, though that’s not to take away anything from what Mark McNairy has done with that collection. I’ll post up some of that stuff shortly — it is an impressive group of clothes and very representative of Mark’s quirky nature.

More bags from the Frost River x Wooolrich John Rich & Bros collaboration. This is made from an especially developed Woolrich wool and produced and made in Minnesota. File this under: need.

“American Girl” in front of Caffè Gilli, Florence, Italy 1951 by Ruth Orkin.

Additionally, I am sharing a lot of great stuff (at least what I believe to be great stuff) through instagram, so follow @acontinuouslean for that channel of ACL Pitti adventures. More soon enough.

Still made in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire England using original manufacturing methods, Globe-Trotter luggage has over the years built a cult following among well heeled travelers the world over. The process of making these incredible instruments of exploration has largely remained the same for over a hundred years — something not too many luggage makers can boast (though there are still a handful who can).

The company recently released a video highlighting the making of its iconic cases. More on that construction process from the Globe-Trotter craftsmanship page:

Each case is uniquely constructed from vulcanised fibreboard; a special material invented in Britain during the 1850’s consisting of multiple layers of bonded paper. Handles are produced by the leather team who also form the iconic Globe-Trotter corners over a period of 5-days on antique Victorian presses.

Globe-Trotter has a rich and celebrated history as the maker of some of the finest suitcases ever invented. At a certain point they even added handles and wheels — blasphemy to some, salvation to others. The photo gallery under the heritage section of the Globe-Trotter site features some fantastic images of Globe-Trotter cases used throughout the years. The pictures are so amazing to me, I couldn’t resist posting them. Most companies would kill for this type of legacy. Inspiring to see from this video that the company is still producing cases in England using the same construction methods and exacting standards of quality. [Globe-Trotter]