5 Menswear Brands on The Rise in The U.S.
5 Menswear Brands on The Rise in The U.S.
Young American brands making their mark. It's not who you think it is.
Brands like and Aimé Leon Dore, Rowing Blazers, and Noah (fairly) get all the love right now. But I have a large rotation of brands I keep within earshot, and I want to use this piece to highlight some great ones.
A couple of quick notes:
First, these brands are unique; they represent different lanes within menswear.
Second, each brand can evolve past a single product, expanding into other categories (if they haven’t already).
It’s fun to see how wide-ranging the styles are. Here we go!
1. Corridor NYC
Designer Dan Snyder started the brand from his 6th-floor walk-up apartment in NYC. It’s a labor of love, and he’s built the brand around using natural fibers, being ethically conscious, and creating this new Americana version of menswear with relaxed fits. They’ve doubled down on eCommerce over the last 12 months, but they traditionally focused on retail and wholesale partners.
Some of their retail partners include top menswear shops I love, like Canoe Club (Boulder), Indigo & Cotton (Charleston), and STAG Provisions (Austin, LA).
Their latest Spring collection was fantastic; it felt effortless and retro without trying too hard. Their Diadora collab’d sneakers on Huckberry are pretty baller too.
2/ Bare Knuckles
Jacob Keller is an OG menswear guy from the early blogging days. I originally followed him on his YouTube channel, Always Fresh Apparel, where he quickly became a well-known voice in the vlog/blog space. Then, he blew up on Instagram and helped run Machus, the upscale menswear boutique in Portland, Oregon for a bit.
He left that to do his own thing with co-founder, Cole McBride. They launched Bare Knuckles, where Jacob designs new collections seasonally, and Hellmart where they collect vintage and resell it.
What I love about BK and Hellmart is that they both have this bad-to-the-bone, I’ll kick your ass and look good doing it kind of irreverence to them. It’s tattered, ripped up, faded, worn-in menswear and they do a damn good job of it.
Here’s a sampling of the four collections they’ve done to date.
3/ SURF IS DEAD
Born in Los Angeles, SID is one of the few brands I’ve seen blend streetwear, skate, and surf culture into one brand. To me, they’re a modern-day example in menswear to what Stüssy was as a young brand, and I wish more people recognized that.
Chris Josol, the founder, has been in the menswear space for a while too. In addition to building SID, he’s also run Flagship Agency in the past, which boasted clients like United Arrows (Japan) and NEED Supply over the years.
SID is a nod to surf revival. It’s bringing back an experimental, psychedelic, punk, underground feel to menswear, something we all need.
Here’s a sample of previous apparel lines.
4/ Stòffa
If there’s a brand I think about wearing when I’m 50 years old, my hair is grey, and I’m driving around the Amalfi coast in a vintage Porsche, it’s Stòffa.
The Italian word, in English, translates to cloth. Stòffa’s founders birthed the brand after their years of work in tailored clothing at established brands like Ring Jacket and The Armoury.
What I love about this brand is that it combines inspiration from the finest Italian fabrics, traditional British tailoring, and Japanese sensibility. This wool, houndstooth coat is a perfect manifestation of that.
Outside of shopping online, you can meet in-person by appointment only, and before the pandemic, they focused on trunk shows in key markets like New York, London, and San Francisco.
5/ Wythe New York
Wythe’s focus on simplicity is a breath of fresh air.
“I started Wythe searching for icons of the past — the perfect oxford shirt, an authentic denim pearl snap, the grey sweatshirt worn to perfection,” says founder Peter Middleton.
As he tells it, Wythe is the dream of finding a lost Americana. There’s a flare of Wild West, heirloom vintage, Southwestern, and ivy/prep to the brand, all of which are a reflection of Middleton’s personal tastes and upbringing.
Here’s a sampling of the various products they’ve designed so far. Just look at these textures and colors…
And here’s a peek at their latest lookbook.
I see early inklings of Ralph in Wythe. It’s a brand with every bit of soul infused into it, and I’m excited to watch them grow!
What region should I cover next… Europe? Asia?
Let me know in the comments!
For Europe check out Form & Thread out of London https://formandthread.com/
Highly recommend checking out Imperfects out of San Diego. Very similar energy to these brands. Their surfboards are also beautiful https://www.imperfects.co/