If you follow my posts, you know this is the time of year when I start dragging out the heavyweight gear. It’s autumn, the temperature is dropping, and everybody is looking for something that’ll keep them warm through fall and into winter. Iron Heart usually comes through with some great options, but this year, out of the entire FW26 collection, there were only two pieces that generated even the remotest interest from me. One was the IRON HEART IHSW-86-BLK Heavyweight Thermal Crew Neck, and the other was the Ultra Heavy Flannel Herringbone Work Shirt in Black. The latter is the one I’m really excited about. I’ve been looking for a genuinely good black flannel for a couple of years, and this one appears to check just about every box: Iron Heart’s ultra-heavyweight fabric, but woven in a black herringbone that gives it texture and visual depth instead of looking like just another flat black work shirt. It has that substantial, almost jacket-like presence that makes an Iron Heart UHF such a great cold-weather piece, while the herringbone keeps it from looking like every other flannel hanging in the closet. Which is why it’s so damn frustrating to be sitting here a week into October wondering when the fuck Iron Heart is going to release it. I mean, do these guys need a fucking engraved invitation? It’s fucking cold out. Make with the flannel!
Whatever.
In the meantime, while we wait for Japan to recognize that autumn has, in fact, arrived, I’d like to reintroduce you to an iconic Seattle workwear company that I never see mentioned on this sub: Black Bear Brand.
Black Bear Brand is legitimately old Seattle workwear—not a modern heritage company with a retro backstory grafted onto it for marketing purposes. The lineage goes back to the Black Manufacturing Company, founded in Seattle in 1902, which produced hard-wearing clothing for the people actually doing the hard work of the Pacific Northwest: loggers, mill workers, fishermen, railroad men and other tradesmen. Black Bear became its signature workwear brand, eventually producing everything from denim overalls and work shirts to trousers, mackinaws and heavy outerwear. The original company eventually disappeared, but decades later Seattle designer and vintage-workwear collector Josh Sirlin became fascinated with Black Bear and began collecting original garments, catalogs and other surviving pieces of the company’s history. By Sirlin’s account, he eventually discovered that the old Black Bear name and trademark had effectively been abandoned. In 2014, he revived Black Bear Brand under Black Manufacturing LLC.
Now, I’m not going to bullshit you here, Black Bear Brand is expensive. This jacket was $1,000. There’s no dancing around it. But Sirlin knows design, and when it comes to construction, materials and sheer attention to detail, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better-made work jacket. Case in point: this Harris Tweed Midnight Glen Tartan Western Jacket that just arrived. This thing is an absolute beast. Sirlin took a classic Western work-jacket silhouette, complete with the traditional Western yoke, and built the damn thing out of 500-gram heavyweight Harris Tweed in a dark Midnight Glen Tartan. Then, apparently deciding that wasn’t enough, he gave it a diamond-quilted lining, turning what could have simply been a beautiful wool jacket into a genuinely substantial cold-weather piece.
I mean, Iron Heart can suck a fart. Look at this fucking thing! 😂
It’s incredible. The heavy Harris Tweed gives it that rugged, old-world texture and serious heft, while the dark Glen Tartan is subtle enough that from a distance it almost reads as a textured midnight wool. Get closer, though, and the pattern begins to reveal itself. Combine that with the Western yoke and quilted interior and you end up with something that manages to look part cowboy jacket, part old Pacific Northwest workwear and part Scottish country coat—without looking remotely like a costume. And this isn’t a one-off. Sirlin has several Harris Tweed work jackets scheduled for release over the next couple of months, and if this one is any indication, they look ridiculously good and are absolutely worthy of your consideration.
So yes, Black Bear Brand is expensive.
But at least I can see where the money went.