A week or so ago, I read in the Scope of Work newsletter about a Colorado brand of hoodie called Melazana:

• Here’s a workshop and showroom tour of the Melanzana cut-and-sew shop in Leadville, Colorado. Here’s an interview with Melanzana’s founder, Fritz Howard. Melanzana produces all of their clothing in Leadville, a town of about 2600 people which, at over ten thousand feet above sea level, is the highest incorporated city in the US. This makes it challenging for them to expand production, and ultimately constrains their growth as a company. They handle this partly by selling the vast majority of their product in-person at their showroom, which actually requires appointments for most purchases and has a per-customer, per-visit limit on the quantity of clothing one can purchase. 
  
  I find Melanzana’s business strategy counterintuitive and unexpected, and I suppose it helps to explain the fact that I was totally unaware of Melanzana until a couple of months ago, when I was given one of their hoodies more or less by accident. What has remained a mystery, though, is the honestly shocking amount of attention this hoodie has received since then; it’s easily the most commented-upon garment I’ve ever owned, with both friends and strangers calling the brand out by name and complimenting the sweatshirt’s frumpy yet somehow athletic drape. I guess this is all to say that Melanzana seems to have forged their own idiosyncratic moral framework, and has somehow managed to convince a large number of New Yorkers that that framework is worthy of their attention.

I did a bit of looking and the video by MyLifeOutdoors was convincing – I managed to time a release on the site and bought the micro grid hoodie. It’s gonna get a lot of wear, and I figured it for something worth sharing. Melanzana reminds me of the Patagonia ethos – made for use, treats the employees well, does repairs and isn’t trying to grow endlessly. Good stuff.

Added to the YouShouldBuy tag, my highest praise.

(Oh yeah, Scope of Work is also a recommend.)