Jack Carlson

Designer, archaeologist, author, and former U.S. team athlete — a true Renaissance man. Give us some background and insight on your journey.

Interview conducted by:

• Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
• CEOCFO Magazine

Jack Carlson: Ha! I have an eclectic background. I never saw myself ending up in “fashion.” But I’ve always been very interested in clothes. I wrote a book called Rowing Blazers when I was in grad school studying archaeology. I thought it was going to be pretty niche. It was kind of an anthropological look at the blazer tradition at rowing clubs around the world. Most people don’t realize that the blazer originated in the sport of rowing! But the book took off in the menswear world, thanks in part to the support of Ralph Lauren. Its success gave me the idea of starting my own brand. I wanted to create a brand that was dedicated to the classics -but that did the classics in a way that is more inclusive, subversive, and thoughtful than other brands. I wanted to adapt some of the ideas of street wear, like frequent collaborations and smaller “drops,” rather than big collections. And I wanted to create a classics brand that is also dedicated to giving back to the community and to doing everything in a thoughtful, ethical way.

CEOCFO: What drives your passion?

Jack Carlson: I’m passionate about designing clothes that bring joy into the world. I’m passionate about making things that are a little bit preppy, but have nothing to do with the stuffiness and elitism that the word usually conjures up. I’m passionate about pushing the industry in the right direction in whatever small ways we can, in terms of how and where we are making our products and the kinds of materials we are using. I’m passionate about collaborating with amazing brands that I have loved for a long time as well as celebrities and sporting heroes I’ve admired since I was a kid. And I love creating and bringing things into the world that don’t or wouldn’t exist except for Rowing Blazers.

CEOCFO: What’s the vision behind Rowing Blazers?

Jack Carlson: Rowing Blazers is about nostalgia, color, and sport. It’s about a timeless American and British aesthetic with modern values. It’s about the belief that clothing should be fun. I think with everything we do, we try to embody all of those things, whether it’s a watch collaboration with Seiko, or the other small brands we carry on our site, or a new category we’re releasing.

CEOCFO: How has the company grown and evolved? What surprised you along the way?

Jack Carlson: The company and the brand have grown like crazy in the past two years. It’s becoming a name that people recognize. Even that is a surprise. I don’t mean that to sound like I had low expectations for what we would achieve, because I’ve always had very high expectations and high standards for myself and for the brand. But this whole world is still new to me, and it always just blows my mind when I see an NBA player or a world- famous musician wearing something I designed.

CEOCFO: According to your site, Rowing Blazers is a community. In what way? How does this approach reflect your values?

Jack Carlson: We are a community and that informs everything we do. If we were just a clothing company and if we didn’t care about building and fostering our community, we would probably operate much differently. But that’s not something that I would be interested in, or that I would wake up in the morning and feel excited about. I think this approach informs what we do in a couple of ways: For one, we only pursue projects and collaborations that are genuine to who we are and to who our community is. Of course, not everything we do is going to be for everyone. Our community is as diverse and eclectic as we are and as our influences are. But we aren’t ever going to do something that is disingenuous or inauthentic to who we are. We do a lot of brand collaborations, but we turn down even more. We only pursue the projects that are true to who we are.

The other way that this community aspect informs what we do relates to how we give back. We believe actions speak louder than words. “Esse quam videri”: to be, rather than to seem. And we believe in putting our money where our mouth is, and donating to causes we believe in. We’ve partnered with Row New York, Play Rugby USA, the NAACP, Stop AAPI Hate, Save the Children, The Robin Hood Foundation, Social Change Fund United, Athletes Against Anxiety and Depression Foundation, The Bee Conservancy, and many other organizations.

CEOCFO: Would you tell us about Row New York? Why is that organization important to you?

Jack Carlson: Row New York is extremely important to me. I first met Amanda [Kraus], who founded Row New York, and Jennie [Trayes], who worked there with Amanda, in 2014. We were having a book launch party for my book at Ralph Lauren, and I wanted a portion of all the evening’s sales to go to Row New York. At the time, I thought: This is a nice program. It gives kids who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to try rowing some exposure to the sport. I didn’t realize how robust a program it really is. It serves so many kids and it’s a very competitive program! These kids go on to row and study at some of the best university programs in the country. It’s really amazing. And it’s changing the face of the sport for the better. It’s helping to make the sport not only more accessible but also more diverse — which I think is extremely important.

CEOCFO: What have you learned from past activities that helps shape Rowing Blazers -what to do in business and also what not to do?

Jack Carlson: My rowing background taught me a lot. It taught me about competition. About determination. I first raced at Henley, which is kind of like the Wimbledon of rowing, in 2004. I got knocked out in the first round but kept going back again and again and again. Every year I made it a little further. It’s a big bracket, like Wimbledon or March Madness. I made the semifinals (the final four) in 2011. I made the final in 2012, and we lost by 3 feet. And finally won in 2013, nine years after I first raced there. It also taught me a lot about teamwork. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when a group of diverse people sync up and pull together in the same direction.

CEOCFO: What’s next for you?

Jack Carlson: Rowing Blazers has lots of exciting projects coming up this year! I don’t want to give away too many secrets, but you can follow us at:

• @rowingblazers on Instagram
• @rowingblazers on Twitter
• Rowing Blazers on Linkedin
• Follow Rowing Blazers on Facebook

Originally published at https://www.ceocfointerviews.com.

Dr. Jack Carlson is the creative director and founder of New York-based fashion label Rowing Blazers. He earned a Ph.D. from Oxford, and before starting the label represented the United States at three World Rowing Championships, winning bronze in 2015. His academic focus was on Roman and Chinese archaeology, and he worked as a field archaeologist in Italy before launching Rowing Blazers.

He is the author of the best-selling book Rowing Blazers, which gave the brand its name. Rowing Blazers is known for its jackets, rugby shirts, sweaters, and accessories — as well as its frequent collaborations with iconic brands and philanthropic organizations. Rowing Blazers is also known for its commitment to ethical sourcing, fair labor, and high quality, as well as its commitment to diversity and its subversive, inclusive take on the
classics.

What is Rowing Blazers all about?

Rowing Blazers is an American clothing brand with a cult following, we also call it a design lab for the classics, we’re passionate about authenticity, quality, and craftsmanship; and simultaneously to irreverence, inclusivity, sustainability, empowerment, and fun. There’s a sense of humor, often a hint of irony and subversiveness, to everything we do. Our sense of community, timeless aesthetic, dedication to historical research, and commitment to making pieces that will last a lifetime are also central to the brand.

We work with some of the best mills, factories and workshops on the planet, and we hold both ourselves and our partners to the highest standards. Almost all of our clothes and accessories are crafted in Europe and the U.S. by people who are skilled in traditional techniques and whose commitment to the planet, and to ethical, sustainable production matches our own. That’s one reason why we are entrusted to make blazers and other products for some of the world’s leading sporting organizations, including the U.S. national rowing and rugby teams. Rowing Blazers is also a community. We’re known for our collaborations with like-minded brands big and small; our diverse clientele, which include some of our own heroes from all walks of life; and our partnerships with artists, athletes, musicians, and iconic establishments.

Rowing Blazers also serves as a platform for other brands we like and whose values we share, with a particular emphasis on women- and BIPOC- founded brands. You can find some of these brands in our online shop alongside our own products. Rowing Blazers also frequently collaborates with causes and movements in which we believe, and we put our money where our mouth is when we speak out on issues and events that matter to us by donating to a wide range of charitable organizations, including our principal charitable partner, Row New York.

Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?

I took an unusual path into the fashion industry. Before starting Rowing Blazers, I was an athlete, a member of the U.S. national rowing team. I was training full time and working on developing the brand was my side project. Before that, I was a high school teacher; and before that, I was a graduate student in archaeology, working on a Ph.D., where my side project was writing a book about clothing. That book was called Rowing Blazers, and it formed the foundation for the brand. The book was supposed to be a niche thing, mostly for the rowing community. But it really resonated with what was going on in menswear and fashion, and it just kind of took off in this way I never expected. That was my introduction to the industry, and that
gave me the idea of starting the brand.

The idea behind Rowing Blazers has always been to do the classics, but in a much more thoughtful way than anyone else was doing: a real emphasis on authenticity, doing things the right way, traditional and ethical production. The other big pillar of the brand is irreverence. We are a bit more subversive, a bit more tongue-in-cheek than others. We draw a little bit from the world of streetwear: lots of collaborations, frequent product drops — these have always been an important part of the idea of what the brand is all about.

What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?

• Scrappiness. This was a skill I really learned from rowing. You can’t just have a bunch of great ideas. You have to be willing to roll up your sleeves everyday. You have to be able to figure out how to adapt to challenges you never could have imagined. Not on paper, but in real life.
• Commitment. What I mean by this is a commitment, almost a stubbornness, to your own values and to what you stand for. At Rowing Blazers, our values, and the strength of our commitment to our brand are some of our greatest assets.
• The ability to bring together a great team. Although I’m the founder of the brand, it’s the people with whom I work that really deserve the credit for making the brand so successful in such a short space of time. We have a brilliant, diverse team at Rowing Blazers.

What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?

The most important thing is staying true to our brand identity and to our values. The company is in a rapid-growth phase, so I think the key is not figuring out how to grow, but the key is figuring out how we stay really true to who we are as we grow. Our values are our guiding light: a dedication to the classics and to authenticity; a sense of irreverence and subversiveness; ethical production; putting people and the planet ahead of profits; giving back to the community.

How have the pandemic and Lockdown affected you or your new business?

When the pandemic hit, it was very scary. We had no idea how it would impact our business, or for how long. We just knew, relatively quickly, that our Manhattan flagship store, together with our pop-up shops in Brooklyn and L.A., were going to have to close for extended periods. Our whole future was uncertain. We also didn’t know if people were going to continue shopping online, or how the pandemic would impact our e-commerce business. But it also provided a great opportunity for the entire company to come together. We took a number of steps with two goals in mind: to be able to take care of our team as well as we possibly could, and to ensure the company’s survival. Of course, the two goals go together. Among the steps we took, I’m proud to say that I took my salary to zero, and my co-founder took his to almost zero also. We were determined not to have to let any full-time employees go because of the pandemic.

Working remotely wasn’t always easy. We had a number of new employees who started right around the same time as the pandemic began, and they effectively had no time working in person and getting to know the rest of the team in real life or how we do things. There were other pandemic-related challenges too: it was very difficult to produce and receive new products. Of course, the pandemic put a lot of manufacturing onto an extended pause; and shipping was also a nightmare. Additionally, much of our inventory was stuck at the Brooklyn and Los Angeles pop-up venues, and we were unable to access it for extended periods. It was frustrating and scary at times, but it was inspiring to see how everyone pulled together. It required a lot of scrappiness, but the result was our best year yet.

How do you separate yourself from your competitors?

Coming out of the world of sports, I’m a natural competitor. But I actually think collaborating is more important than competition. One of our greatest strengths is our ability to collaborate with a wide variety of organizations, brands, and people. As I mentioned earlier, Rowing Blazers carries other brands as well as its own products, with an emphasis on women- and BIPOC-founded brands. We also create collaborative collections with other apparel brands — big brands like FILA and J. Crew and smaller brands like Noah and Tracksmith. We collaborate with, rather than compete, with these brands.

What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?

• Not expecting the unexpected. When I was starting out, I had no idea how many times a month, week, day I could be blindsided. When it comes to making clothing, buying fabrics, working with factories, warehouses, shipping companies, and so on, there is just so much that can go wrong that you can never imagine. All of that multiplies when you have a physical store, as the team grows, when people from all over the world are visiting your website.
• You can’t make everyone happy. No matter what you do, and no matter how good your intentions are, there will always be people who don’t like what you’re doing. You don’t need to spend a lot of energy trying to make those people happy.
• Not having enough balance in my life. It’s important to unplug; to take the night off; to have real weekends; to work out. I’ve learned a lot and have much better balance now.

Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?

I think the most successful form of marketing for us is word-of-mouth and other forms of organic marketing. Anyone can buy an ad, but it means so much more when you see someone with good taste wearing the brand or when a friend tells you about it. We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of high-profile celebrity clientele wearing Rowing Blazers, almost always totally organically. People can tell when someone is wearing a brand just because they like it, not because they’re paid to wear it.

If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?

I’d use it for travel, dinners, coffee, drinks… and what I mean by that is this: I’d use it to connect with people. The right people. People who can help. Who know the things that I don’t. Who I admire and respect. That’s essentially what I did at the beginning of this journey, and that’s how I met my business partner, David. I came to New York, and I had a list of people to meet. People from the apparel industry. I spent five days bouncing around the city like a pinball, meeting lots of people who were far smarter and far more experienced in the world of fashion and apparel than I was. David was the very last person I met before leaving New York, and we just really hit it off. He’s a veteran of the industry, and without David, I don’t think the brand ever would have gotten off the ground.

What is your favorite quote?

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam: “I shall either find a way, or make one.”

This quote is often erroneously attributed to Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who led an army, complete with elephant cavalry, from Africa through Spain, over the Alps, and into Roman Italy.

What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?

My advice is to surround yourself with great people, and with diverse people. One of Rowing Blazers’ greatest strengths is our team — and the diversity of that team. We have so many different voices represented when we meet and discuss new projects — in terms of gender, age, race, identity, background — and I think that’s a big part of what has made us so successful.

How can readers get in touch with you?

Readers can get in touch with me through my website. I always love hearing from people!

Author Interview: Art Bell, Founder of Comedy Central, Tells His Story

Originally published at https://billionsuccess.com on February 25, 2022.

It isn’t uncommon for a designer to derive inspiration from their own experiences and tastes when it comes to the types of clothing they produce. It is rare to find someone who has as unique a background as Rowing Blazers’ founder Jack Carlson. It’s even more so to see how that unique life is translated into a look that has caught the eye of some of the most relevant fashion brands, celebrities, and sports clubs in the world.

For the unfamiliar, the New York-based Rowing Blazers does make blazers. But it also produces outerwear, tees, bottoms, polos, and a whole lot more.

The original style has caught the eye of Saturday Night Live ‘s Pete Davidson, the U.S. Rowing Team, the U.S. Men’s and Women’s National Teams, the NBA, Sperry, and (yes) Babar the Elephant, among others.

It’s an eclectic grouping, for sure. But the threads come from an eclectic background, versed in an unlikely collection of tastes and experiences, many of which emanate directly from Carlson.

Which raises the question: What has Jack Carlson done and been through in order to create a line of clothing that appeals to the preppy rowers, the sporty rugby and NBA fans, the ’80s and ’90s retro fiends, and … archaeologists?

Jack Carlson Started in Beantown

Size does matter, but not always in the way one might think. Like a lot of kids growing up in the Boston area, Jack Carlson was a big baseball fan. But he was also not a very big kid.

“I grew up as a little kid playing baseball, but a bunch of my friends were doing rowing and they needed a coxswain,” he says. “I was a little guy, and they asked me if I would join the team. I did and really enjoyed it. Was just there with all my friends.”

For the uninitiated, the coxswain on a rowing team is the person who steers and directs the other members to work in unison. They can easily be found as the one person who is facing the other direction in the boat and is typically quite small in stature (the lower weight allows the rowers to move their craft more quickly).

Jack Carlson was good at it. After participating in the sport through high school and then at Georgetown during his undergraduate days, Carlson was able to continue in graduate school at Oxford.

Carlson made the U.S. national team in 2011, although the team didn’t perform as well as hoped.

It took Carlson three years to get back on the team, and after competing for the U.S. in 2014, decided to hang it up and continue studying … archaeology.

“I basically retired from the sport after the 2014 World Championships,” Carlson says. “I went back to Oxford. I finished my Ph.D. I came back to the U.S., and I was teaching Latin and coaching rowing at a boarding school in Massachusetts.”

Carlson says he got a call from an old coach who asked if he wanted to try for a medal in lightweight men’s eight (no men over 159.8 pounds allowed) in the 2015 World Rowing Championships.

Carlson and the U.S. team competed in France that year and took home the bronze.

While that was the end of Carlson’s rowing career, the sport had a profound impact on his future professional endeavors.

“When I was in high school, we went over and raced at an event called Henley Royal Regatta in England, which is a big rowing event,” Carlson says. “It’s similar to Wimbledon, but for rowing.”

Also similar to Wimbledon, there is a fashion component to the event.

“We got knocked out in the first round, and this gave me a lot of time to hang out in the spectators’ area,” Carlson says. “In the spectator’s area at Henley, everyone has to wear their club blazer. They’re stripy blazers, brightly colored blazers, with contrasting trim. They have emblems on the pockets. There are all sorts of traditions and rituals and myths about the blazer at every rowing club.”

Carlson says the traditions, the pageantry, and the dedication to the blazer was very impactful for him.

“I was just fascinated. I’d always been interested in clothes, and this brought together my interest in clothing with my interest in, of course, the sport of rowing,” Carlson says. “I got to chat with a lot of the other competitors and spectators and hear some of these stories. I thought,’ ‘Someone should actually write a book about this. It’d be interesting.’”

Jack Carlson Actually Did Write a Book About This

Seven years after his time at Henley, and while still studying archaeology at Oxford, Carlson decided he should be the person who writes a book about this. He titled it Rowing Blazers.

“That’s what I did. It was my side project for a few years,” Carlson says. “I would just go when I had a couple of weeks free there, a couple of weeks free here. I would just go to these different rowing clubs, whether it was in the Netherlands, Australia, or South Africa. All over the place. I would just be going to these rowing clubs with a photographer. We’d shoot some of the rowers wearing their blazers. Often they were world champions, Olympians, or world record holders.”

Carlson finished the book, figuring it would be a “passion project” that resonated with the niche community of competitive international rowing.

But interest in the looks shown in the book was not limited to the rowing set.

“Ralph Lauren actually picked up the book and hosted a series of book and launch events for the book,” Carlson says. “I worked very closely with the Ralph Lauren team. That was my first taste of the industry, not just writing about clothes, but actually working with a company, a major company in the industry. It gave me the idea of starting my own brand.”

Indiana Jones and … the Temple of Cool Clothes

While Carlson readily admits his time on the rowing circuit was the primary driver behind the looks that Rowing Blazers puts out, there were other influences as well.

One of those was … Indiana Jones.

“He’s got such great style,” Jack Carlson says. “It’s how everyone, I think, of my generation who studied archaeology got into it; they just watched Indiana Jones when they were a kid.”

Initially looking to get a master’s degree in archaeology via a two-year program at Oxford, Carlson received a Clarendon scholarship to stay on and complete a doctorate.

So what does this have to do with clothes other than the fact that the character of Indiana Jones is an undeniable fashion icon?

Quite a bit, actually.

As Carlson put it, “Archaeology is the study of material culture.”

Perhaps people think dusty bones and buried treasure, but it’s more than that.

“So much of what I do is studying vintage clothing, studying fabrics and construction techniques, and so on,” Jack Carlson says. “I think that’s informed a lot of what I do with the brand.”

Going Retro, Rowing Blazers Style

Retro, done right, really doesn’t go out of style. Bell-bottoms, popularized in the late 1960s, saw a rebirth in the mid-1990s. Television shows like Stranger Things cater to the nostalgia of the mid-1980s even though it was first released in the mid-2010s.

But the key is doing it right. In the 1980s, for example, people pinch-rolled their jeans instead of embracing bell bottoms. Timing is everything.

This makes the influences of Carlson’s youth, the 1980s through the early 2000s, a perfect nostalgic cultural period for the 2020s.

“I think so much of what we do is inspired from that time period,” Carlson says. “It’s inspired by the things that I grew up with. I think we’re not the only brand, obviously, that’s taking inspiration from that time period, but I do think we are among the brands that are the most consistent in our dedication to drawing inspiration from that era.”

Rowing Blazers is a collaborative company by design. And that allows Carlson opportunities to not only reinvent the looks he loved growing up but also to work with some of those companies.

“One of the really fun things, too, has been getting to collaborate with brands that I grew up with, like Fila and Lands’ End,” he says. “Just delving into the Fila archives and looking at all of this incredible stuff, like ski gear from the late ’80s and the early ‘90s.”

Brands like Fila are making a bit of a comeback recently, in no small part due to the injection of modern flair companies like Rowing Blazers provide.

“There’s just so much cool stuff,” Jack Carlson says. “I don’t want to say it’s underappreciated, but I think there’s so much that’s untapped. One of the things I love with Rowing Blazers is getting the opportunity to go down those rabbit holes. To draw inspiration from something that some people might know about and might know is cool, but we can also show a whole new audience something that they might have forgotten or might not have realized existed. That’s a big part of the fun for me.”

Rowing Blazers

With the eclectic background of Carlson as a driver for design, Rowing Blazers has certainly put forth a collection of threads that defies any conventional categorization.

And that’s where Carlson wants it.

The company touts its product as “irreverent”, which might be a bit of an understatement.

Taking a tour of Rowing Blazers’ website, one is seemingly transported to a place where one can choose “adult clothing” (such as a blazer or traditional sweater) and then make it what most clothing isn’t: fun.

Sweaters span the gamut from a traditional black crew sweater with an oversize NBA logo on the front to a cashmere sweater featuring the calming presence of beloved children’s character Babar the Elephant.

Women’s bottoms include polar fleece joggers inspired by the early 1990s Fila color patterns as well as a pair of white ski pants with a vertical spelling of “Babar” in bright red lettering.

Carlson enjoys the fun his clothes provide that most others don’t.

“I think what I wanted to do was take those classics and combine that classic aesthetic with a sense of irreverence, with a sense of being a little bit subversive, being a little bit tongue in cheek,” he says.

In addition to being fun, Carlson hopes his take on some niche fashion, such as what’s worn at traditional rowing and rugby clubs, allows more people to experience the styles on their terms. Just as long as it’s not in a mall.

“We wanted to bring in some of the ideas and philosophies from the world of streetwear, meaning doing frequent collaborations and doing regular product drops instead of doing just big seasonal collections,” he says. “Being primarily direct to consumer, instead of having a big wholesale network, or being in malls, or having big flagship stores all over the world.”

As Rowing Blazers continues to grow both as a business and as a creative leader in fashion, one can bet that Carlson’s unique perspective will continue to drive it in a direction that is the road less traveled.

Originally published at https://thebossmagazine.com on February 24, 2022.

“I’m proud to say I wasn’t cool. I was an eclectic dresser. I picked up stuff traveling with my family over the years. Italian soccer jerseys; hand-me-down Lacoste polos from my mom; rugby shirts I bought at cathedrals in England and stadiums in Ireland; and bootleg Garfield and Tintin tourist tees I collected in Argentina, Turkey, and at the Great Wall.”

So declares Jack Carlson, the founder of Rowing Blazers, explaining the inspiration behind his cult American clothing brand known for its take on preppy clothing. Carlson, a three-time member of the U.S. rowing team and World Championships medalist, founded Rowing Blazers in 2017 after writing a book of the same name about the myths and rituals related to the iconic blazer sported at rowing clubs around the world.

It All Started at School

Jack Carlson’s love of all things rowing began at school in Cambridge, Massachusetts — the place he calls the “spiritual home” of rowing in America.

Carlson says that since the age of 11, rowing has been his principal sport. He rowed throughout his teenage years in high school, in college at Georgetown, and at Oxford in the United Kingdom, where he competed in the Oxford-Cambridge lightweight boat race before going on to win Henley in 2013, a personal career highlight.

Carlson attributes his love for rowing to the sport’s legacy and traditions, particularly in England, where it is steeped in history and pageantry. There, spectators are required to wear club blazers and ties in the case of gentlemen, and large hats or fascinators with dresses that fall below the knee for the ladies.

During his racing debut at Henley as a teenager, an unfortunate first-round knockout meant Carlson spent the next five days as a spectator. It was this, Carlson says, that piqued his interest in rowing blazers. Conversations with other spectators concerned no other topic, and there were club blazers as far as the eye could see. “Every nation, every club, every college, I discovered, has their own eccentric set of blazer traditions,” he recalls. “I thought: Someone ought to write a book about this!”

Writing the book as a passion project, Carlson traveled the world to see — and collect — an array of vintage blazers. He noticed that nobody was making traditional club blazers anymore. With this in mind, alongside the success of his Rowing Blazers book — Ralph Lauren was so inspired by it that he hosted the book launch events for it — Carlson founded the Rowing Blazers menswear brand four-and-a-half years ago.

Creating a Cult Icon

Over the years, many of the old traditional tailors who historically fashioned blazers for rowing clubs had closed down. Of those that stuck around, many stopped producing them in the traditional fashion, instead opting to merely buy blanks and sew patches on them.

When Jack Carlson released his book, however, lots of clubs began contacting him asking where they could get a proper, traditional rowing blazer. The rest, he says, is history.

Rowing Blazers was officially established in 2017 in New York City, producing collaborations in Manhattan’s Garment District and in Europe. It should come as no surprise the brand’s very first product was the rowing blazer.

While making blazers is an important part of the brand, Carlson has always envisioned doing a lot more with it, including collaborations. The brand’s first was with J.Crew. Carlson says J.Crew reached out to Rowing Blazers out of nowhere to mark a pivotal moment for the brand. Since then, Rowing Blazers has worked with Barbour, Babar, Lands’ End, Harry’s Bar, Fila, the NBA, and many more.

Carlson creates his Rowing Blazers collections based on what he’d like to see in the world. Describing his tastes as eclectic, they cover everything from 1820s vintage and 1950s American preppy to 1990s street. “Everything we do is a reflection of that,” he says.

“I’d like to think our campaigns carry a sense of authenticity. By being eclectic, by being a little rogue, by having a healthy sense of irony in everything we do, that’s what makes what we’re doing less stuffy, less exclusive, and more fun.”

What’s Next for Jack Carlson and Rowing Blazers?

Recently, Rowing Blazers opened its first international pop-up in Seven Dials, London. Located at 16 Earlham Street, Jack Carlson’s pop-up shop was spread out over 872 square feet and featured a curated product edit from the autumn/winter 2021 line.

While the store was only open throughout the Christmas period, it marked a major milestone for Rowing Blazers. Commenting on the opening, Carlson said, “Seven Dials is such a vibrant neighborhood and to be among so many other like-minded brands is great for our first U.K.-based physical retail store.” The brand’s autumn/winter 2021 range also sold at Selfridges’ flagship store on Oxford Street.

In a recent interview, Carlson hinted that the brand is working on a lot right now.

“We have a three-way collaboration with Babar the Elephant and Fila tennis coming out around the Open,” he says. “There are some amazing, idyllic illustrations of Babar and his family playing tennis. Halcyon days. It’s a great vibe. It’s fun channeling that energy into a collection. Later this year, a second project with the NBA, and a couple of ski-themed capsules.”

Soon, Carlson hopes to launch a custom blazer and suit program, which he has been working on for several years. As for the Rowing Blazers book that started all this off, Carlson says he’s working on a new edition featuring rowing clubs that weren’t in the original, from Japan to the Bahamas and beyond.

From the brand’s recent growth in the U.S. and its temporary physical expansion to the U.K., it’s clear Jack Carlson has big things planned. With his touching reverence for British life combined with his American can-do attitude, Carlson is bringing the classics back to the mainstream.

Originally published at https://fault-magazine.com on February 24, 2022.

Classic American style has its origins in the sporting kit of Oxford and Cambridge universities, where the very first blazers were created in bold colours for college rowing clubs. Striped, piped, trimmed and badged, these blazers took on a significance beyond mere apparel. They showed you belonged to a small and elite club of athletes and college contemporaries, all pulling together in the name of collegiate competition. Over the decades, the rowing blazer has opened up its membership. The college teams still revere their colours, but the wider world of menswear has also benefited by incorporating the blazer into sartorial circles in the guise of ‘preppy’ Americana, a style of dressing that Ralph Lauren has extolled to wonderful effect.

It’s why we have been itching to get our hands on a made in New York menswear brand called Rowing Blazers, founded by Jack Carlson. Jack is a three-time member of the United States national rowing team. He won a bronze medal for the U.S.A. at the 2015 World Championships and has also won the Head of the Charles Regatta, Henley Royal Regatta, and Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. He earned his doctorate in archaeology at Oxford, where he was a Clarendon Scholar, and his undergraduate degree at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. His research interests include the visual trappings of status and power; the art and archaeology of the Roman Principate and Qin-Han period China; heraldry and vexillology; men’s clothing; and Neapolitan pizza. We caught up with him recently to learn more about the brand and his love of collegiate style…

Tell me briefly about your history with rowing, and why you love the sport.

I went to school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, right on the banks of the Charles River — which is kind of the spiritual home of rowing in America. It became my principal sport from when I was about eleven years old. I carried on at Georgetown and after that at Oxford. I raced in the Oxford-Cambridge lightweight boat race, and the heavyweight reserves boat race, before going on to win Henley in 2013, which was one of the highlights of my career. It was a strange experience competing at rowing events with several thousand (or in the case of the boat race, several hundred thousand) spectators. At most American races, you might have a few family members and the occasional girlfriend standing on the bank! When I was at Oxford, I spent most summers back in the U.S. training and competing with the U.S. national team. I represented the U.S. at three World Championships, culminating in a bronze medal at the 2015 Worlds.

I love rowing, because it has allowed me to keep reaching and striving for more. I also love it for its culture. Every sport has its own history and traditions, of course, but I think the fact that rowing has remained an amateur sport, and that it is the archetypal collegiate sport has meant that it is, in some ways, even more rooted in its history and traditions than others. It also creates a kind of universal fellowship among rowers around the world. Ultimately, this sense of fellowship, on a more personal level — the set of bonds and friendships I formed with the many teammates I’ve had over the years — is what I love most about the sport.

What was it that made you fall in love with the sport’s sartorial history?

I was lucky enough to take part in some of rowing’s grander events and traditions at a young age: the Head of the Charles, of course, and Henley Royal Regatta in England. Henley is a bit like the Wimbledon of rowing. It’s steeped in history and pageant. Spectators — including competitors when they aren’t racing — are required to wear club blazers and ties for gentlemen, and large hats or fascinators with dresses that fall below the knee for ladies.

My first time racing at Henley was with my high school, and we were knocked out in the first round. This was devastating, of course, but the silver lining was that it gave me five days in the spectator enclosure, where I chatted with oarsmen young and old from all over the world about — what else? — their blazers! There were club blazers in orange and purple stripes; special blazers sewn out of old curtains; filthy blazers on which the stains and spills were worn like badges of honour; and quite a few blazers that had been through the old Dutch rowing tradition of blazer fighting: a ritual in which collegiate oarsmen grab one another by the jacket lapels and wrestle — usually creating huge rips in their jackets and often tearing off a pocket or even a sleeve in the process. Every nation, every club, every college, I discovered, has their own eccentric set of blazer traditions. I thought: someone ought to write a book about this!

Are there any particular anecdotes from said sartorial history that you unearthed that you particularly love (bonus points if you can amuse me)?

First and foremost is the origin of the blazer. Virtually everyone owns a blazer of some description, but few realise that the blazer was born in the sport of rowing. The idea of a blazer — a casual flannel jacket with patch pockets, a soft shoulder, and metal buttons — originated in Cambridge and Oxford, where the very first blazers were warm-up jackets for oarsmen. Rowers would wear their blazers to jog down to training, while warming up in the boat, and, on cold days, while racing. These early blazers were often made in bright club colours, stripes, or with contrast grosgrain binding. They helped spectators on distant riverbanks tell which crew was which. Because they were so distinctive, they became status symbols, and oarsmen began wearing them to social events and meals. One of these early brightly coloured jackets even gives us the word “blazer” — the scarlet jackets of Lady Margaret Boat Club at Cambridge University were nicknamed “blazers” for their “blazing” red colour. The word stuck, and before long was used for any jacket of this type.

Another of my favourite anecdotes relates to the famous Curtains Blazer of Hampton School in England. The school’s normal rowing blazer is yellow with black stripes. But win the “treble” (the triple crown of scholastic rowing: the national championships, the Head of the River Race, and the Princess Elizabeth Cup at Henley), and you’re eligible for a “Curtains Blazer” tailored from the school dining hall’s medieval-style curtains.

What drove you first to write the book and then to spin that off into the brand?

The book was really a passion project. It brought together several of my interests: sartorial history, rowing, heraldry. It took me around the world, and I got to see (and in some cases collect) a vast array of vintage blazers. I realised that were a lot of idiosyncratic features to these vintage blazers, and that no one was really making proper club blazers anymore. With this in mind and the reception that the book received in the menswear world, I started thinking about the possibility of starting a menswear brand to make proper blazers on the original mode, both for rowing clubs and for the discerning customer in general.

How has the brand evolved since you began producing garments?

From the beginning, I’ve wanted the brand to reflect my eclectic interests and my philosophy about clothing and style — which is classic, quirky, youthful, and authentic. Since we launched, we’ve expanded beyond blazers. The rugby shirt has become another major category for us, and we’re just as obsessive about authenticity there. Most of our rugby shirts are made from a special kind of heavyweight, high-tension cotton jersey that is made on vintage knitting machines. I’m very particular about the details: some, for example, have working cuffs; there’s one based on a vintage Ireland rugby shirt that has an off-centre placket — which is how the original was made! So while the assortment has expanded, the spirit has stayed the same. We think it’s possible to make these really authentic, old-school classics, but to wear them in a youthful way that is anything but stuffy. If you look at a product like the number tee, for instance: it’s roots are in the sport of polo. But it also has a whole history in underground youth culture in the late ’80s and early ’90s. I’m a bit of a nerd, so I like learning about and embracing all of that history.

What have been some of the challenges of growing the business?

Like any small business, there are challenges all the time. I’d say the biggest challenge, which is ongoing — and which is a good problem to have — is just keeping up. A lot of our products are often sold out. In some cases, that’s by design; in many cases, it’s simply because we are growing more quickly than we realise! It’s a good challenge to have, but it’s still a challenge.

Tell me about your production and why USA-made is important for your brand — although I also gather that may be British made as well soon?

We like making things in the U.S. because it gives us a bit more control and peace of mind, and because the quality is generally very good. But it’s not a virtue-signalling thing. I think there’s a vogue now for brands to be holier-than-thou about where they’re making things. We’re proud to make a lot of our products in and around New York, but I don’t want to fall into that camp. We make some things in the U.K. as well, some things in France and Portugal, and now also a few things in China too. The most important things for us are the quality and also, of course, that our products are made in a sustainable, ethical way.

RB is an unabashed love letter to preppy style — but what is prep to you? Why do you like it?

I grew up in the age of Abercrombie and I was the one kid at my school that didn’t own a single piece of Abercrombie & Fitch clothing. Instead I used to wear vintage clothes: from 1930s blazers to handed-down Lacoste polos and weird local rugby shirts I would pick up on summer holidays in Ireland or Italy. Then when I was 17 or so, Ralph Lauren launched Rugby, and suddenly everyone was “preppy.” All my friends and classmates were dressing in outlandish versions of what I had been wearing for years. “Preppy” is such a funny word, because some people will think of Sloane Rangers and J. Press, and some, unfortunately, will think of Vineyard Vines. So I try to avoid the word. I suppose what I’m trying to do with Rowing Blazers, though, is to do “preppy” but to do it right: to do it without being elitist, stuffy or costumey; but also to do it in an authentic way, without bogus “crests” or monograms slapped all over everything. To make sure everything we do has real meaning, is made the “right” way, and is highly wearable.

Originally published at https://therake.com.

Dr. Jack Carlson founded the New York-based apparel brand ROWING BLAZERS nearly five years ago. He’s also an author, archeologist, and former elite athlete. He competed as a member of the United States rowing team at three World Championships, winning a bronze medal for the U.S.A. at the 2015 World Rowing Championships. He has also won the famous Head of the Charles in Boston, where he grew up, and Henley Royal Regatta in England.

Before starting the brand ROWING BLAZERS, Carlson wrote a coffee-table book, also called Rowing Blazers. The book, which Carlson wrote as a passion project primarily for the rowing community, took off in the menswear community and became something of a cult classic. Ralph Lauren hosted the book launch, and inspired Carlson to found his own brand.

Carlson holds a Ph.D. in archeology from Oxford University and a B.S.F.S. from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he studied Chinese and Classics. Carlson has also worked as a field archeologist, excavating in Italy’s Mugello Valley, north of Florence, and he has written on a wide variety of topics — from British heraldry to Iron Age weaponry; from Chinese monuments to Roman triumphal arches.

His interests include the visual and sartorial trappings of power; Roman and Chinese art and archeology; heraldry; menswear; and streetwear. Carlson has been elected a Fellow of The Explorers Club, the Royal Numismatic Society, and the Royal Asiatic Society. He also serves on the board of Row New York, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young people through the sport of rowing, regardless of background or ability, and has been outspoken about the need for increased access to the sport and the need for more diversity in rowing — partnering with boat manufacturer WinTech to promote these goals.

ROWING BLAZERS has partnered with Row New York, Play Rugby USA, Stop AAPI Hate, Food Bank for NYC, the British Lung Foundation, the NAACP, the Social Change Fund, and the Robin Hood Foundation, among other charitable partnerships. The brand has received industry praise for its diverse campaigns and commitment to ethical sourcing.

In its four-and-a-half years, ROWING BLAZERS has collaborated with a wide range of brands, including Sperry Top-Sider, Noah, J. Press, Lands’ End, Eric Emanuel, J. Crew, Puma, Seiko, Barbour, FILA, Warm & Wonderful, Gyles & George, Beams Plus, and the NBA. The brand has been worn by such celebrities as Pete Davidson, Mindy Kaling, Timothée Chalamet, Ziwe Fumudoh, Dwyane Wade, Emily Ratajkowski, Hailey Bieber, Tan France, Ashley Graham, Macklemore, Carmelo Anthony, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim Howard, Millie Bobby Brown, Ronny Chieng, Whitney Peak, A$AP Nast, Russell Tovey, Madelaine Petsch, Dax Shepard, David Byrne, Rick Ross, Mario Carbone, Randall Park, Rick Ross, Romeo Beckham, and Russell Westbrook.

Jack and his work have been featured in The London Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Antiquity, Esquire, Monocle, Foreign Policy, Vanity Fair, The New England Classical Journal, The New Yorker, Hypebeast, GQ, and Vogue.

How did you get started in this business?

I was fortunate to take part in some of rowing’s coolest events when I was in high school: the Head of the Charles, of course, and Henley Royal Regatta. Henley is steeped in history. Spectators and competitors wear colorful club blazers while in the spectator area. My first time racing at Henley, we lost in the first round. It was brutal, but it gave me five days in the spectator area, where I had the chance to talk with so many other rowers from around the world about their blazers and the traditions behind them. There were blazers made from old curtains; stripey blazers; stained, dirty blazers that had never been washed in decades. Every club, I learned, had their own special set of traditions. I thought: someone ought to write a book about the rowing blazer. And a few years later, that’s exactly what I did.

The book was really a passion project. It brought together several of my interests: history, rowing, and, of course, clothing. I realized that there were so many idiosyncratic features to these original blazers. With this in mind, and the reception that the book received in the menswear world, I started thinking about the possibility of starting a brand to make proper blazers on the original style, both for rowing clubs and for customers in general.

From the start, I’ve wanted the brand to reflect my diverse interests — and to be classic, quirky, youthful, and authentic. We’ve expanded way beyond blazers, of course. The rugby is another major category for us, and I’m just as obsessive about authenticity with the rugby as I am the blazer. We make our rugby shirts from a special type of heavyweight, high-tension cotton jersey knitted on vintage knitting machines. I think it’s possible to make these really authentic, old-school classics, but to wear them in a way that is anything but stuffy.

I also wanted the brand to reflect a commitment to community, and to stand for something good. Rowing Blazers undertakes frequent charitable partnerships, especially with organizations focused on youth access to sport and social justice, and that’s the manifestation of that commitment. At Rowing Blazers, we also are very particular about ethical sourcing and ethical materials, which is another manifestation of that commitment.

How do you make money?

We sell products, mostly clothing and accessories. Sometimes other brands pay us to collaborate with them, and sometimes we consult privately for other companies on branding and design. We are primarily a direct-to-consumer company, which I think is important as it allows us to control our own story, and our own relationship with our community. Most fashion brands traditionally rely more on wholesale than direct-to-consumer, but when a company does wholesale, its retail prices either have to be significantly higher, or it must find ways of cutting its costs of production in order to have enough margin for the wholesale account to take a significant cut. And, with wholesale, it’s much more difficult to control one’s brand adjacencies, narrative, and presentation. That’s why we focus more on direct-to-consumer.

How long did it take for you to become profitable?

It took some time, because we were focused first and foremost on creating really special products and building a great brand. To me, it was most important to build a great foundation. The more solid the foundation, the taller the tower that can be built on top of it.

When you were starting out, was there ever a time you doubted it would work? If so, how did you handle that?

Ha — there were many times when I thought this wouldn’t work. Before we even launched, I was trying to juggle training on the national rowing team, academic research, teaching, and trying to start a brand. Sometimes I’d think: “What am I doing? This is silly.” And there have been plenty of times along the way since launching that I worried I was in over my skis. But I was fortunate to have the support and counsel of amazing partners, friends, family, and teammates. And that’s really what has kept me on track and motivated. I’m still very fortunate to have great people around me. We have an incredibly talented team of all ages and from all walks of life.

How did you get your first customer?

I remember when we flipped the switch to make the website live in May of 2017. We already had a small social media following and had let that group of people know that the launch was coming, so there were a few people who were aware — and maybe even waiting in anticipation. But when we flipped the switch, I wondered if anyone would actually turn up to our party! I was refreshing Shopify every few seconds. About five minutes after it went live, I remember we got our first sale. I thought to myself: it must be my mom! But I checked and no! It was someone I didn’t know at all from Rancho Cucamonga, California! That was a cool feeling.

What is one marketing strategy (other than referrals) that you’re using that works really well to generate new business?

Honestly, I don’t really think about “marketing strategy.” I just do what feels right for the brand. It’s amazing how far that has gotten us: just putting the right vibes out into the universe. We’ve had major brands reach out about collaborating: brands I’ve only ever dreamed of working with, like FILA, Barbour, Sperry, Seiko. These brands reached out to us, not the other way around. We’ve spotted some of my favorite celebrities wearing the brand, when no one ever reached out to them or worked with their stylists: they just ordered from the website. This is stuff you can’t even plan. You’ve just got to put the right energy out into the world.

What is the toughest decision you’ve had to make in the last few months?

It’s difficult to pick one. We have to make tough decisions almost every day — without any kind of play book, and without any real right or wrong answers. I think I’ve become more decisive over the years, just understanding that my gut is usually right, and understanding that it’s often less about making the right decision, and more about making right by the decision.

What do you think it is that makes you successful?

I think Rowing Blazers is successful because we have a strong sense of who we are. Even though we draw on diverse and eclectic inspirations, we are very clear on our aesthetic, and even more importantly our values. Our values guide all of our important decisions. They inform Rowing Blazers’ charitable partnerships; our collaborations; how and where we make our products, the kinds of materials we use, and more.

At Rowing Blazers, we produce almost all of our products in Portugal and the U.S. — and all in workshops and mills dedicated to quality, tradition, and human wellbeing that are clean, safe, and reputable, providing workers with fair working conditions and fair pay. Our factories are OEKO-TEX® certified, meaning they adhere to strictly-controlled processes that do not involve harmful substances or chemicals. We also avoid fur, angora, shearling, horsehair, exotic skins, down, and feathers. We also utilize alternative technologies and innovative materials wherever possible — like Cashball®, which is a sustainable down alternative. When we collaborate with other brands and they produce collaborative collections, we also hold those companies to rigorous standards of ethical production. We also work to upcycle waste materials (the fashion industry produces over 90 million tons of waste annually); our masks, end-of-the-day rugby shirts, and patchworks are all made from upcycled pieces of fabric that would normally be considered waste. We are rigorous and earnest in our attempts to promote human, animal, and environmental welfare, and that’s an important part of our identity.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?

It’s impossible to pick one. Every week, every day, has amazing moments. A new capsule or collection. A new product I dreamed up that’s become a reality. A new brand reaching out to collaborate. A new celebrity wearing the brand. Of course, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies. There are ups and downs; a company like ours is a rollercoaster. There’s always some fire to put out. Our business is extremely fast-paced, often very challenging, but very exciting and rewarding.

What does the future hold for your business? What are you most excited about?

We have so many exciting initiatives coming up this year, including some new collaborations, and some new iterations on some existing collaborations — including our unbelievably successful Seiko collab. But I’m also excited about our team. Our team has grown quite a bit in the past few months, and I think we’ve assembled an incredible — and incredibly diverse — group of people at Rowing Blazers.

What business books have inspired you?

I hate business books in general, but I do like Shoe Dog by Nike founder Phil Knight. But I like to spend more of my free time reading fiction — or traveling, or watching movies, or meeting new people and hanging out with old friends. That’s where so much of my inspiration comes from, and inspiration for the brand.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I’d tell my younger self to find balance earlier on. To take more evenings off. To unplug more. To spend more time outdoors and in nature. I think I’ve found more balance recently, and it’s both better for me, and better for the business.

Are you willing to be a mentor? If so, how should someone contact you?

I’ve been mentoring young people interested in the industry for years, and it’s very rewarding. I myself came into the apparel industry as an outsider. It’s a crazy, bizarre industry, truly unlike any other, and it can be extremely difficult for an outsider to break in. I’ve been fortunate to have some incredible mentors myself, and giving back is the least I can do.

Connect With Dr. Jack Carlson:

• http://www.jackcarlson.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/jackcarlson/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacklcarlson

Originally published at https://inspirery.com on February 11, 2022.

Jack Carlson — Founder of Rowing Blazers

Jack Carlson is the founder and creative director of the brand Rowing Blazers. Before launching the label, he earned a doctorate in archaeology at Oxford and worked as a field archaeologist in Italy. He was also on the national rowing team, and represented the U.S. at three World Championships. He won a bronze medal at the 2015 World Championships and also won the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta and the Head of the Charles Regatta.

Since starting Rowing Blazers in 2017, Jack has collaborated with brands ranging from J. Crew to the NBA, and from Seiko to Barbour, creating collections that combine a love and knowledge of classic, vintage, British and American sportswear, with a taste for streetwear and a penchant for doing things the right way. The brand is known for its ethical production, producing most of its collections in Portugal, the United States, and the United Kingdom; and also for giving back to the community: Rowing Blazers has partnered with charities ranging from the NAACP to The Social Change Fund.

Outside of his work with the brand, Jack has also been an outspoken advocate for making the sport of rowing more diverse and more accessible and volunteers for organizations dedicated to this cause.

Where did the idea for Rowing Blazers come from?

I was racing at a rowing event called Henley Royal Regatta in England. It’s kind of like the Wimbledon of rowing. It’s very traditional, and all of the competitors, when they aren’t competing, and all of the spectators, wear traditional club blazers in bright colors, or crazy stripes, or with embroidered emblems on the pockets. I met rowers from all over the world, and I learned about the stories and traditions behind their blazers. I thought: someone should write a book about these blazers. They brought together so many of my interests: menswear and clothing in general; history; and sport.

A few years later, I decided I would write the book. It was a side project for me, and I thought it would be fairly niche: really just for the rowing community. But when the book came out, it took off in the fashion and menswear communities in a way I never could have imagined. That success gave me the idea and the motivation to start my own brand. The two main pillars of the brand I wanted to start were authenticity and irreverence. I also wanted to create a brand that brought together my love of the classics and of vintage clothing with some of the things I loved about streetwear: the unexpected collaborations, the frequent product drops. Just as importantly, I wanted to create a brand that was making things using traditional, sometimes even “old fashioned” techniques, in places and workshops that were dedicated to ethical manufacturing, human wellbeing, and minimizing waste and other environmental impacts. I’m a vegetarian, so I also wanted to make sure we avoided materials like fur, angora, shearling, and so on.

In coming up with the idea for the brand, I also wanted to create a brand that had a strong sense of community, and that gave back to the community and to charitable causes. I wanted that to be something the brand does regularly; to be part of Rowing Blazers’ DNA. I’m proud to say in the four years since the brand began, Rowing Blazers has partnered with a wide variety of local, national, and international charitable organizations, with a particular focus on youth access to sports and social justice.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

I spend a lot of my day on calls: Zoom calls and Google meetings, looking at new designs, planning photoshoots, talking with collaborators and partners, and so on. I feel very fortunate to work with an amazing team. The Rowing Blazers’ team is second to none in terms of its creativity and passion. It’s also very diverse, and so is our company’s leadership. This is something I’m particularly proud of, and which I think is important for our success: people might not realize it, but about half of Rowing Blazers’ leadership team are women, and large proportions are BIPOC and LGBTQIA+.

When I’m not on Zoom calls with our team and with our partners, I like to work somewhere with ambient noise: in cafes or restaurants. It somehow helps me focus. Lately, I’ve been trying to make sure I spend at least a couple of hours everyday outdoors, no matter what the weather, running, walking, or doing some other kind of activity. I think that’s so important for my productivity and focus too.

How do you bring ideas to life?

At Rowing Blazers, I take so much of my inspiration from the past: from vintage clothing, but also from my own past: my childhood in England and Massachusetts, growing up in the ’90s, my time at Oxford and working as an archaeologist in Italy. All of these things form a base from which I build. To me, I try to bring these inspirations to life with a sense of authenticity (to me, this means doing our homework, and being rigorous in what we create); a sense of irreverence (to me, this means never being 100% literal, but having fun and being a little tongue-in-cheek, a little subversive); and creating whatever we are creating in an ethical, thoughtful way.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I think people are increasingly becoming “cultural omnivores.” They are curious and thoughtful about a wide range of worlds and movements and tastes. They aren’t as easily pigeonholed into the categories and labels that the media and big corporations like them to fit into. I like this and it excites me, because it resonates with me, and because Rowing Blazers itself has such diverse, eclectic inspirations.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

I don’t know if it’s a habit exactly, but I have very high standards for myself and for anything we put out into the world. If it’s not excellent and interesting and well executed, what’s the point? I think I take these high standards with me from being in elite sport for so long. Rowing races at the World Championships can come down to hundredths of a second. There isn’t much room for error or for giving anything less than your best. I think this is one of the things that has helped make the company so successful in such a short period of time.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell my younger self that everyone is just figuring it out as they go. There’s no playbook for starting and building a successful clothing brand, for example.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

House of Gucci was a good movie!

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

I just always come back to who we are as a company and what we stand for. I think about this everyday, and it guides so many of our important decisions. It’s what has informed so many of Rowing Blazers’ charitable partnerships; and it’s also guided the brand collaborations and partnerships we do; and, of course, it’s guided how and where we make our products, and the kinds of materials we use. I think if you don’t keep your values in the front of your mind, you might lose track of who you are. It would be very easy for us to find cheaper ways of making our products for example. This could enable us to sell more of them, and to offer them at a lower retail price to our customers. But we don’t do that. Quality is too important to us; the people making our products are too important to us; and the planet is too important to us.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Collaborating. We do a lot of collaborations with a wide range of brands and businesses, big and small, young and old. Our collaboration partners include the NBA, but they also include my favorite pizza place in New York: John’s of Bleecker Street. They include old-school heritage brands like Sperry and Barbour, but they also include young streetwear brands like Noah and Eric Emanuel. What they all have in common is that Rowing Blazers has an organic connection to each of them.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

I’ve had to overcome lots of failures and challenges as an entrepreneur. I knew almost nothing about the apparel industry when I had the idea of starting the brand, and I’ve had to learn on the job for the past five years. Fortunately, I’ve had great partners and a great team who have made the learning curve much easier. But there have still been countless times when products don’t come out how they are supposed to; when things are late; when problems occur that you never even could have imagined: we once had a technical glitch where, for about 20 minutes, nearly everything on our site was $39 — including blazers and jackets that are supposed to be closer to $1000. Some people got a really great deal that day! All you can do to overcome these things is move forward and learn from your mistakes.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Time travel! Don’t know how it would work, but I bet people would pay a lot of money for it.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

The best $100 you can spend is eating a nice meal with great company. It doesn’t need to be fancy. But going somewhere with a good atmosphere, eating good food, not looking at your phone, and just catching up with friends is the best way you can spend an evening and a little money.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Lately, I’ve been trying to avoid software and web services as much as possible, in favor of just talking with people or meeting people over calls — or in person. I guess you could say Zoom or Google meets. But I try to avoid anything much fancier than that.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Shoe Dog. It resonates with me because it is a book filled with unexpected challenges, and how scrappy you might need to be to overcome them.

What is your favorite quote?

Aut viam inveniam, aut faciam: I shall either find a way, or I shall make one.

Key Learnings:

• Stay true to your values. There might be easier or cheaper ways to do things, but without your values, you don’t have a brand.
• Hold yourself to the highest standards you can. If you’re not doing great work, why do it?
• Work with a diverse range of people and partners, both within your organization and externally.

Originally published at https://ideamensch.com on February 11, 2022.