This summer Martha, as she shops for art stuff, will be searching the thrift racks for seersucker shirts that I’ll list here and pass along to you folks as Outdoor Sports and Biking Apparel, probably $20 each.
I might stencil OYB insignia and slogans onto the backs, to turn them into TeamWear.
A lady who does embroidery lives just down the street so we could put your name on a pocket for another $5 perhaps.
Then come cooler weather Martha will add Wool to her shopping list. Well, that’s what’s on her list already, but she’ll keep her eye out for Light and Medium weight wool shirts, and extra-thin cashmere pullovers, which I’ll then list for cheap, too.
This stuff will all be half as much as new, which will hopefully be OK.
I’ll also offer embroidery on the Woolens.
We’ll get wool and tweed pants, too, in various weights.
We’ll likely knicker-up half of them.
I’ve decided to do this because I’ve tried the whole range of high-tech sportswear and especially for winter and cool weather use, wool button-up shirts rock so hard and so much above other sportswear that I have to do what I can to help folks out in this regard.
For instance, I found that for skiing in temps from 5F-to-30F that there’s ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AS GOOD as a combo of an extra-thin cashmere sweater worn against the skin plus a medium weight Woolrich shirt on top. In the breeze or when standing around or moving slowly, toss a vest on top. There’s also nothing more versatile than this set-up, if only in the button cuffs which let you easily roll up your sleeves.
And the stuff just doesn’t stink up! That is, it, in effect, stays clean for a solid month of daily action. That’s something worth selling, and using.
We’ll acquire tweed vests as well.
This crazy extra product line might be extended One Crazy Step further as well: I might just sew up a few World’s Best Cold Weather Bike Jackets (International Model Perfection). I’ve been using mine, to great effect, for 20 years now. I’ll find heavy wool Woolrich ShirtJacs and sew panels of MATCHING color canvas panels to the front of the chest and arms, and I’ll slit and hem the arm-pits and across the area below the shoulder-blades. This item makes cycling a joy from 5F-to-45F. (At the colder temps just add another wool layer underneath.) Martha says I’ll have to do the arm-panel hand-sewing (arms don’t fit under the machine).
Finally, I would really like to get a great sublimated bike jersey graphic design to have a batch of 10 made to sell for $50 each.
Like all products I sell at OYB, the reason for adding a Fashion Line is to give fans a way to get something great AND support the cause of indie outdoor media at the same time. (Maybe “information wants to be free” but goodies’n’gift items are a great way to support a [rare] media outlet that you care about.)
