December 13, 2022 • 22 mins
JAGO is a menswear brand creating versatile, functional and timelessly styled products to be worn everyday and beyond - worn For Life's Adventure. The brand embraces adventure in its broadest sense - far beyond outdoor adventure only - living for variety and spontaneity. They believe their versatile approach to style and function is particularly well suited to the flexible work-play lifestyle so many of us now live in this post-Covid world. In a world of too much complexity and too much consumption, and in an industry suffering from an over-specialism gear fad, never has there been a more appropriate time to have fewer, better, longer lasting, more sustainable products.
In this episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast we interview Alex Orr, Founder of JAGO about the founding story and purpose of his outdoor clothing brand. Our host Peter Brooker and Alex talk about upstart funding, working with Bear Grylls, relaunching the brand after the Covid-19 pandemic, the new Totum Cotton Gilet made with British Millerain fabric, and the 'A Life of Adventure' hardback book.
Whilst we have your attention, be sure to sign up to our daily MenswearStyle newsletter here. We promise to only send you the good stuff.
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Episode Transcript
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PB (00:10):
Hello welcome back to another episode of the menswear
style podcast. I'm your hostPete Brooker and today I'm
talking to Alex or he is thefounder of J Go Jackets and a
little bit about J Go Jacketsafter a mini adventure exploring
ways to co found an outdoorclothing brand with the king of
adventurer Bear Grylls J go isback. Jager is a functional
(00:32):
clothing brand creatingversatile products to be worn
every day and beyond worn forlife's adventure at Jayco. They
embrace adventure in itsbroadest sense far beyond
outdoor adventure, only livingfor variety and spontaneity. So
they started making gear to takeus from the work to the wild,
allowing us to have fewer,better, longer lasting, more
(00:52):
sustainable items. And yeah, Ihad a great time chatting to
Alex, really inspiring youngman. He's entrepreneurial, and
he's got his head screwed onthat's for sure. And I really
think you'll enjoy this. And ifyou fancy checking out the show
notes, menswear style.co.ukThat's where we'll put all the
links. And you can also checkout Jayco jackets.com. Also, to
(01:15):
buy these wonderful items. Andyeah, here we go. In his own
words, Alex, or from Jaycojackets.
Unknown (01:22):
Thank you. Yeah, so I'm Alex or, as you said, I'm
founder of functional menswearbrand J go, who sort of main
focus is providing versatileclothing for the City and
beyond. I originally started thebrand back in 2016, I think I
was at university studyingsomething totally unrelated. I
(01:44):
studied biotechnology. Before Ithen put the brand kind of on
ice, because I tried launching anew sort of outdoor clothing
brand with one of Jagerscustomers. Mr. Bear Grylls,
which is quite an adventure.
Various kind of amical amicablethat unfortunate reasons that
(02:06):
sort of never took off. But Ifelt I had, you know, some
really good momentum with Jayco.
Before that, and basically justcouldn't fight the itch to pick
it back up and give it anothercrack and build on the momentum.
And we've had a very supportiveand encouraging customer base
from from round one, if youwill, to often still reaching
(02:29):
out to me, so I've basicallycaved in. Here we are, again, be
visiting away and jig isrelaunching this week, which is
very exciting.
PB (02:37):
Interesting. And so talk to me about the initial steps when
you first got the brand off andrunning, and where are the
garments made? And how did youraise the capital to get it off
the ground.
Unknown (02:50):
So it was that that first stage, I guess it was it
was almost a different thingaltogether. But it was, whilst I
was at uni, I managed to puttogether somehow managed to
persuade some people to loan mea little bit of a bit of money.
But sort of talking 10 grand wasall very small fry. And I was
(03:12):
just bootstrapping everything,which is ultimately kind of what
I'm doing again now. And thenthat the products were made in
the UK, handmade in England. Andit's all very kind of super
premium 500 quid jackets made ofthis amazing fabric called
Femto, which some of yourlisteners I'm sure know about.
But that's sort of how it wasdone originally. And then now
(03:37):
many years on, I guess I'm sortof funding it with what was the
sort of proceeds of the leftoverfrom from Jager one, as well as
just any savings savings I'vemade in the meantime.
PB (03:51):
So jagah was a success, though. I mean, it's sold and
then got an audience andobviously, Bear Grylls took
notice. It was
Unknown (03:59):
a great success, I think, in that, you know, it
wasn't, I wasn't sellingmillions, but I was selling
enough to have it feel like,considering it was all organic,
and early days, I was gettinggood traction. But at the time
was just literally justgraduated when when bear and I
got talking and, you know, heis, without doubt the world's
(04:19):
most famous adventurer. So itwas it was just sort of a no
brainer at the time to do that.
And, you know, we even discussedmaking it kind of bringing him
boredom to Jayco for a bit andreally try and be as creative as
possible to work out the bestway to do it. That didn't
happen. So. So yeah, and that'sthat sort of now Jagers back to
just trying to be this versatileclothing for, you know, everyday
(04:41):
and beyond. We call it forlife's adventure is what we're
trying to create clothing for.
It's all encompassing, and Iguess it comes from a philosophy
on life really that You know,gaago, we want to embrace
(05:02):
adventurer in its broadest sensefar beyond kind of outdoor
adventure only. And living forvariety and spontaneity. So we
want gear that's can take usfrom what we call the, I guess,
work to wild, allowing us tohave fewer, better, longer
lasting and more sustainablepieces.
PB (05:24):
Just before we get on to the relaunch, I am interested about
the Bear Grylls section, becauseit does feel like there was a
chance you wanted to seize theopportunity and maybe catapult
the brand further or establish anew brand and work along with
bear and that would have goneoff in a huge different
direction for you. But then, wasit frustrating was it was a lot
(05:47):
of time that passed? Andeventually, was there things
that just couldn't work out? Imean, you don't want to go into
the minutiae, I understand. Butthere was, it must have been a
long spell where you were kindof really pulling your hair out
and trying to get this off theground.
Unknown (06:01):
Yeah, so it was, first of all, it was it was an amazing
experience. And I sort of relishthe opportunity to have it but
like you say, going from Jagerwhere there was some good
momentum, and I felt things werestarting to get some decent
traction, and kind of start,potentially, you know,
snowballing a bit to then putthat down to essentially start
(06:24):
from scratch and idea new waysinto how we could essentially,
you know, best Build A BearGrylls chronic clothing brand.
It was that was I guess a littlefrustrating. But but but also an
awesome thing to do. What thereason why it ultimately didn't
didn't work was it COVID Onceagain, it really things, just
(06:47):
timings became difficult.
Communication of people, youknow, we're looking for a bit of
investment in people, suddenly,we're just, you know, battening
down the hatches from a kind oflending perspective as well. So
there's just all sorts of thingsthat went against us and various
new contracts coming in andbears kind of TV side, which is,
(07:08):
obviously his bread and butter,his media, and just press sort
of meant that timings didn'tnecessarily work out quite how
we both wanted or, or kind ofenvisioned when we were starting
off. So we just decided thatactually, the timing was
probably right, this timearound.
PB (07:28):
That's a shame. Well, I mean, not many brands survived,
let alone started up duringthose times. And I guess, even
if you didn't start somethingthat would bear or intend to at
that time, keeping Jayco goingthroughout the pandemic years
would have also been a realchallenge, right?
Unknown (07:48):
Yeah, I think so. But, you know, there's always the
word F. And I always think backto had I just focused 100 grand
on that. And given it my allwork could have been. And I
think, I do think there's some,and I'm still excited by now.
And I don't think it's too late.
It's such, I think, the kind ofgaago brand, which is that very
versatile piece. For a much moreflexible workplace, a world that
(08:12):
so many of us now kind of livein the lifestyles we lead, is
actually really kind of thatthat whole world has been
accelerated by COVID with peopleworking from home a bit more and
being more flexible. So I think,from that perspective, it kind
of COVID suits or just jagahsuits that kind of shift in
perspective how people live abit, especially with mean when
(08:38):
you think about we can when wecan travel people started to do
a bit more micro ventures athome and, and I think jagah in
the kind of functionality of theproduct, whilst being a nice,
more, you know, everyday styleof things. You you feel good and
look good in having that kind ofperformance and functionality
(08:59):
for your, you know, WeekendAdventures or weekend warrior
stuff is actually kind ofperfect. So COVID, in some
sense, I think has probably beenquite good for the brand. Yeah,
PB (09:15):
it's true, I guess. People started their own mini home
adventures, wherever it'srenovating their basement or
turning their garage into a mancave. You could have launched
like, Man Cave clothing, orsomething. And I don't know if
bear could have got on boardwith that. But there would have
been what? Certainly were raiseda few eyebrows. Yeah. It
Unknown (09:37):
sounds like the right.
PB (09:42):
I mean, I mean, I'm surprised he hasn't already got
his own line, or maybe he hasnow and take this within the
spirit that's intended Alex thathe perhaps hadn't collaborated
before with maybe a householdname in order to get a line
going or household names wouldhave approached him and said
Have you come on board and putyour name to this? And? And
(10:04):
we'll make a packet together?
Unknown (10:07):
Yeah, I think Well, I think things like that had
happened with various outdoorbrands in the past. But we were
just looking at ways of doing abit more baby properly immersed
in it rather than sort oflicencing out the brand. But I
feel that yeah, that'sultimately kind of where we the
angle we were coming at it from,to kind of be, yeah, owning the
(10:29):
business rather than licencing.
PB (10:33):
Interesting to talk about the relaunch now. So what is new
about J go to, as opposed to Jgo one.
Unknown (10:42):
Yeah, so I think with all this time that's passed,
since since J go. One, I mean,obviously, I mentioned with
COVID. That was a long time ago.
So actually, it's been a whilesince since the Bear Grylls sort
of adventure. And actually, inthat meantime, I've I've ended
up doing other things to becomea toilet qualified accountant.
(11:06):
But with all that time, it's hadthat I've had a lot of time to
think about the brand. Andultimately, I've just had to
answer your question and be ableto get much more focused on
reassessing the brand and itspurpose and kind of getting more
clarity on that. And I thinkthat has been more around the
performance side. And theversatility side, I think we
(11:28):
were a bit Jager one was a bitmore maybe kind of have a
slightly more Alpine andmountainous heritage to it. And
now I think we have kind ofbrought versus trying to bring
the kind of versatility, peacemuch more to a more urban look,
and much more urban flexibility.
Because beforehand, we weresaying we were versatile, but I
(11:52):
think to be truly versatile. Youneed it, you want to be able to
wear it every day. And it'sintegrate into your kind of
daily life. And so our focus hasbeen on kind of enhancing and
sort of embracing that stylewhilst maintaining performance.
So that's been the key
PB (12:10):
and kind of how many products are we started to run
over you Alex? How many productsand and ranges are we releasing
now.
Unknown (12:20):
So we're actually just re launching with one piece this
week, which is a men's cottoninsulated Julie is using British
British fabric from Britishmillerain, which is I think one
of the oldest mills in thecountry were established in 1880
(12:45):
or something. So they've got areal heritage to them. But it's
as I say, it's an insulatedjulienne moat, like most yellows
and puffers, you know, that kindof synthetic fabric, whereas
this is cotton. So it'sincredibly, incredibly soft. But
ripstop. So kind of come to thegreat durability, and then
installation and lining sort offully recycled. Yeah, and then
(13:11):
as part of as part of therelaunch, so we had a kind of
self made timeline and deadline,which was to launch time, sort
of now should Christmas, then wefound out that actually, this
year's aren't going to be readytill just after Christmas. So
(13:31):
not wanting to deviate from thetimeline, we've kind of come up
with a creative Plan B. And thatwas it's been inspired by I
don't know if you know, thebrand away travel, they make
suitcases. Sort of a bit of asort of Rockstar startup brand
in the States with huge fundingmassive valuations. But what
they did is they created acoffee table, that was exactly
(13:54):
what we've done, too. So, aspart of the relaunch, going live
this week, we've come up with abook called A life of adventure,
where we've interviewed 30 odd25 to 30 amazing men and women
from all walks of life all doingincredibly cool and adventurous
(14:16):
things. And the idea is to kindof give people something
tangible then go on to thewebsite in the next few days and
preorder the GLA just for thenormal price of this year and
we're going to send out thesenice Limited Edition a hardback
coffee table books that you willreceive now. Yeah, so you get
PB (14:40):
how do you do the books? And are they are they made to order
these books? So like for youpersonally, if I ordered the
jeely or are you kind of sittingon a stock of about 200 They're
like, we're sitting
Unknown (14:52):
on a stock a stock books. Yeah, a lot of books.
Okay.
PB (14:58):
So nice, but that gives me It was a nice little sweetener.
Unknown (15:02):
Yeah, exactly. And like nice. It's been such a fun
adventure to interview thesepeople like I mean the one
you've got on screen now the guyat the front Jeff Mackley sort
of calls himself a storm chaserand you he'll repel down into
actively erupting volcanoes. Andit's just absolutely crazy. And
then there's but then there'sother people like David Yarrow,
(15:24):
world famous sort of fine artwildlife photographer. Lots of
entrepreneurs fans of Bremenwatches and Rafa also, so the
thing is, as I said, earlyJagers kind of view on Adventure
is seeing it and embracing it inits broadest of senses. And we
want life's adventure to beabout variety. And so we wanted
(15:46):
to look beyond just that kind ofoutdoor adventure, spirit
faster, higher, kind ofstronger, that kind of stuff.
That's not just what we'reabout. We're about kind of
inspiring it in any nature,basically.
PB (16:02):
Nice.
Unknown (16:03):
Oh, these guys,
PB (16:05):
is there going to be like a launch party where all of these
30 people could be in the sameroom? Because the amount of
women you'd get to this pie? Forexample, they've got good old
fashioned working titles likewhat do you do for a living?
Well, I'm a graphic designerWell, that could mean 100
Different things right? I mean,design what kind of graphics
typography website anyway andnone of it's very interesting.
(16:28):
Whereas if you're a bombdisposal experts and you just
give that line to go over acouple of the groans that's it
you're done. No problem. Noproblem. I mean, this book for
the alpha males I love it yeah,I need to get my hands
Unknown (16:44):
on fortunately no no no no dinner this time around but
maybe if it's a wild success Ican check if it's good to get
together
PB (16:55):
Yeah, it was pretty cool. We should at least you know
Whatsapp group. Oh, yeah, pleaseplease Sorry, I know it's not
completely meltdown
Unknown (17:04):
now you got some some say we got this girl Celia
Fernandez he's a Red Bull Cliffdiver and stunt woman she's epic
freediver Jana Tana just say allsorts of cool people that just
basically living lives that weall want to live. So yeah, share
(17:24):
share their stories in the hopethat inspires you to get out and
kind of live more adventurous toview the world for more
adventurous and
PB (17:33):
I love that. And it's so in keeping with the brand as well,
of basically getting off yourbutt and doing something outside
and enjoying the world outdoors.
I don't think you've got asingle interview of a podcaster
in there, I bet.
Unknown (17:49):
Well, you'd be surprised there is one Oh,
really? Oh, okay. But
PB (17:57):
it's gonna be like a rock climbing podcast or something.
Unknown (18:00):
Yeah, he interviews adventures
PB (18:09):
look, it's, I guess it's a decent sidebar to the product
not coming out in time. But Imean, it's still gonna be in
time for people on New Year'sand January is a cold as balls
mountain. So it's FebruaryMarch, just having this
conversation with my girlfriendthe other day about how people
slide into November December andfigure that it will creep up to
Christmas. And that's as cold asit gets. In England, especially,
(18:33):
I mean, the the real bit ofmumps, like February and March
when you think you're all donewith winter, you should be in
spring already. That's when youget the blizzards and, and the
weird storm names that come fromEurope. So I mean, you're not
late to the party at all, justby having this out a few weeks
later.
Unknown (18:52):
I think with the G day, it's, you know, is an all year
round piece that sort of likelayering that you can layer or
just have as the outer so
PB (19:01):
and I say this time. I see a lot of the time at Smart events,
like a friend of mine was at awedding the other day. It was
cold as balls, but he didn'twant to have like an overcoat.
It was an outdoor wedding. Youdon't want to have like a huge
bridge coat, you know, sittingdown watching a wedding. So he
still had his suit on. And it'sjieli underneath the suit and
(19:22):
that complimented it well,
Unknown (19:25):
yeah, they go. Yeah, that's true. versatility. Works.
Wow.
PB (19:30):
That's right. That's right.
So, Alex, so we've got any plansfor any kind of pop ups or
concessions as any bricks andmortar in the pipeline.
Unknown (19:42):
Nothing as such in this foreseeable future over the sort
of next next few months. verymuch focused online, on our
website, checker jackets.com.
But with time, it's definitelysomething to look into. And I
think with that With this sortof, from a brand perspective,
you know, Jayegi literally wantsto just bring a bit of fun and
(20:04):
adventurous spirit andmischievous spirit back into
daily life and to bring ourfollowers on that journey. I
think, you know, brightening upspirits is something that we all
could do a bit more of, or havea bit more in our lives. So to
best achieve that, I mean, youwant to create these physical
spaces that people can come toand kind of get immersed in so
(20:27):
with time it's definitely sowe're looking into but with a
with one today, I think we mightstruggle to fill out a store at
the moment so sure, we'll we'lldo our best to kind of create
create that world digitally, atthe moment.
PB (20:44):
Talking about digitally where can people find you on the
socials? Do you like to hang outanywhere in particular?
Unknown (20:51):
Mainly Instagram, and also handle the at jagah
jackets. Jg Oh, and then also,obviously, our website Jager.
jackets.com.
Did you have to put all thistogether yourself? The website?
Yeah, it's been a, it's been akind of crazy, crazy journey. I
mean, I had an amazing help froma kind of design agency with
(21:16):
regards to kind of patternmaking cards with the design
itself as it will be me. Butactually kind of turning it into
something that can be followedby a factory has been robbed,
definitely the help there. Buteverything else, it's just one
man band, which is quite theadventure in itself. So
PB (21:35):
yeah, that's really why I like having people like you on
the show. Alex is, you know,people that are making a go of
it, they've got an idea andthrowing things behind it. And
it's, you know, I applaud theentrepreneurial spirit in
general, and especially when theproduct is good and, and made in
Britain. So, the website onceagain, Jayco jackets.com, but
(21:57):
we'll leave all the links overon the show notes at Menswear.
style.co.uk In the meantime,Alex, thanks for coming on.
Unknown (22:04):
Pete Thank you very much for having me. It's been
great to be on great chatting
PB (22:16):
you've been listening to the menswear style podcast be sure
to head over to menswearstyle.co.uk For more menswear
content and email info atmenswear startup code at UK if
you'd like to be a future gueston the show. Finally, please
help support the show by leavinga review on iTunes or wherever
you're listening to thispodcast. Until next time
Hello welcome back to another episode of the menswear
style podcast. I'm your hostPete Brooker and today I'm
talking to Alex or he is thefounder of J Go Jackets and a
little bit about J Go Jacketsafter a mini adventure exploring
ways to co found an outdoorclothing brand with the king of
adventurer Bear Grylls J go isback. Jager is a functional
(00:32):
clothing brand creatingversatile products to be worn
every day and beyond worn forlife's adventure at Jayco. They
embrace adventure in itsbroadest sense far beyond
outdoor adventure, only livingfor variety and spontaneity. So
they started making gear to takeus from the work to the wild,
allowing us to have fewer,better, longer lasting, more
(00:52):
sustainable items. And yeah, Ihad a great time chatting to
Alex, really inspiring youngman. He's entrepreneurial, and
he's got his head screwed onthat's for sure. And I really
think you'll enjoy this. And ifyou fancy checking out the show
notes, menswear style.co.ukThat's where we'll put all the
links. And you can also checkout Jayco jackets.com. Also, to
(01:15):
buy these wonderful items. Andyeah, here we go. In his own
words, Alex, or from Jaycojackets.
Unknown (01:22):
Thank you. Yeah, so I'm Alex or, as you said, I'm
founder of functional menswearbrand J go, who sort of main
focus is providing versatileclothing for the City and
beyond. I originally started thebrand back in 2016, I think I
was at university studyingsomething totally unrelated. I
(01:44):
studied biotechnology. Before Ithen put the brand kind of on
ice, because I tried launching anew sort of outdoor clothing
brand with one of Jagerscustomers. Mr. Bear Grylls,
which is quite an adventure.
Various kind of amical amicablethat unfortunate reasons that
(02:06):
sort of never took off. But Ifelt I had, you know, some
really good momentum with Jayco.
Before that, and basically justcouldn't fight the itch to pick
it back up and give it anothercrack and build on the momentum.
And we've had a very supportiveand encouraging customer base
from from round one, if youwill, to often still reaching
(02:29):
out to me, so I've basicallycaved in. Here we are, again, be
visiting away and jig isrelaunching this week, which is
very exciting.
PB (02:37):
Interesting. And so talk to me about the initial steps when
you first got the brand off andrunning, and where are the
garments made? And how did youraise the capital to get it off
the ground.
Unknown (02:50):
So it was that that first stage, I guess it was it
was almost a different thingaltogether. But it was, whilst I
was at uni, I managed to puttogether somehow managed to
persuade some people to loan mea little bit of a bit of money.
But sort of talking 10 grand wasall very small fry. And I was
(03:12):
just bootstrapping everything,which is ultimately kind of what
I'm doing again now. And thenthat the products were made in
the UK, handmade in England. Andit's all very kind of super
premium 500 quid jackets made ofthis amazing fabric called
Femto, which some of yourlisteners I'm sure know about.
But that's sort of how it wasdone originally. And then now
(03:37):
many years on, I guess I'm sortof funding it with what was the
sort of proceeds of the leftoverfrom from Jager one, as well as
just any savings savings I'vemade in the meantime.
PB (03:51):
So jagah was a success, though. I mean, it's sold and
then got an audience andobviously, Bear Grylls took
notice. It was
Unknown (03:59):
a great success, I think, in that, you know, it
wasn't, I wasn't sellingmillions, but I was selling
enough to have it feel like,considering it was all organic,
and early days, I was gettinggood traction. But at the time
was just literally justgraduated when when bear and I
got talking and, you know, heis, without doubt the world's
(04:19):
most famous adventurer. So itwas it was just sort of a no
brainer at the time to do that.
And, you know, we even discussedmaking it kind of bringing him
boredom to Jayco for a bit andreally try and be as creative as
possible to work out the bestway to do it. That didn't
happen. So. So yeah, and that'sthat sort of now Jagers back to
just trying to be this versatileclothing for, you know, everyday
(04:41):
and beyond. We call it forlife's adventure is what we're
trying to create clothing for.
It's all encompassing, and Iguess it comes from a philosophy
on life really that You know,gaago, we want to embrace
(05:02):
adventurer in its broadest sensefar beyond kind of outdoor
adventure only. And living forvariety and spontaneity. So we
want gear that's can take usfrom what we call the, I guess,
work to wild, allowing us tohave fewer, better, longer
lasting and more sustainablepieces.
PB (05:24):
Just before we get on to the relaunch, I am interested about
the Bear Grylls section, becauseit does feel like there was a
chance you wanted to seize theopportunity and maybe catapult
the brand further or establish anew brand and work along with
bear and that would have goneoff in a huge different
direction for you. But then, wasit frustrating was it was a lot
(05:47):
of time that passed? Andeventually, was there things
that just couldn't work out? Imean, you don't want to go into
the minutiae, I understand. Butthere was, it must have been a
long spell where you were kindof really pulling your hair out
and trying to get this off theground.
Unknown (06:01):
Yeah, so it was, first of all, it was it was an amazing
experience. And I sort of relishthe opportunity to have it but
like you say, going from Jagerwhere there was some good
momentum, and I felt things werestarting to get some decent
traction, and kind of start,potentially, you know,
snowballing a bit to then putthat down to essentially start
(06:24):
from scratch and idea new waysinto how we could essentially,
you know, best Build A BearGrylls chronic clothing brand.
It was that was I guess a littlefrustrating. But but but also an
awesome thing to do. What thereason why it ultimately didn't
didn't work was it COVID Onceagain, it really things, just
(06:47):
timings became difficult.
Communication of people, youknow, we're looking for a bit of
investment in people, suddenly,we're just, you know, battening
down the hatches from a kind oflending perspective as well. So
there's just all sorts of thingsthat went against us and various
new contracts coming in andbears kind of TV side, which is,
(07:08):
obviously his bread and butter,his media, and just press sort
of meant that timings didn'tnecessarily work out quite how
we both wanted or, or kind ofenvisioned when we were starting
off. So we just decided thatactually, the timing was
probably right, this timearound.
PB (07:28):
That's a shame. Well, I mean, not many brands survived,
let alone started up duringthose times. And I guess, even
if you didn't start somethingthat would bear or intend to at
that time, keeping Jayco goingthroughout the pandemic years
would have also been a realchallenge, right?
Unknown (07:48):
Yeah, I think so. But, you know, there's always the
word F. And I always think backto had I just focused 100 grand
on that. And given it my allwork could have been. And I
think, I do think there's some,and I'm still excited by now.
And I don't think it's too late.
It's such, I think, the kind ofgaago brand, which is that very
versatile piece. For a much moreflexible workplace, a world that
(08:12):
so many of us now kind of livein the lifestyles we lead, is
actually really kind of thatthat whole world has been
accelerated by COVID with peopleworking from home a bit more and
being more flexible. So I think,from that perspective, it kind
of COVID suits or just jagahsuits that kind of shift in
perspective how people live abit, especially with mean when
(08:38):
you think about we can when wecan travel people started to do
a bit more micro ventures athome and, and I think jagah in
the kind of functionality of theproduct, whilst being a nice,
more, you know, everyday styleof things. You you feel good and
look good in having that kind ofperformance and functionality
(08:59):
for your, you know, WeekendAdventures or weekend warrior
stuff is actually kind ofperfect. So COVID, in some
sense, I think has probably beenquite good for the brand. Yeah,
PB (09:15):
it's true, I guess. People started their own mini home
adventures, wherever it'srenovating their basement or
turning their garage into a mancave. You could have launched
like, Man Cave clothing, orsomething. And I don't know if
bear could have got on boardwith that. But there would have
been what? Certainly were raiseda few eyebrows. Yeah. It
Unknown (09:37):
sounds like the right.
PB (09:42):
I mean, I mean, I'm surprised he hasn't already got
his own line, or maybe he hasnow and take this within the
spirit that's intended Alex thathe perhaps hadn't collaborated
before with maybe a householdname in order to get a line
going or household names wouldhave approached him and said
Have you come on board and putyour name to this? And? And
(10:04):
we'll make a packet together?
Unknown (10:07):
Yeah, I think Well, I think things like that had
happened with various outdoorbrands in the past. But we were
just looking at ways of doing abit more baby properly immersed
in it rather than sort oflicencing out the brand. But I
feel that yeah, that'sultimately kind of where we the
angle we were coming at it from,to kind of be, yeah, owning the
(10:29):
business rather than licencing.
PB (10:33):
Interesting to talk about the relaunch now. So what is new
about J go to, as opposed to Jgo one.
Unknown (10:42):
Yeah, so I think with all this time that's passed,
since since J go. One, I mean,obviously, I mentioned with
COVID. That was a long time ago.
So actually, it's been a whilesince since the Bear Grylls sort
of adventure. And actually, inthat meantime, I've I've ended
up doing other things to becomea toilet qualified accountant.
(11:06):
But with all that time, it's hadthat I've had a lot of time to
think about the brand. Andultimately, I've just had to
answer your question and be ableto get much more focused on
reassessing the brand and itspurpose and kind of getting more
clarity on that. And I thinkthat has been more around the
performance side. And theversatility side, I think we
(11:28):
were a bit Jager one was a bitmore maybe kind of have a
slightly more Alpine andmountainous heritage to it. And
now I think we have kind ofbrought versus trying to bring
the kind of versatility, peacemuch more to a more urban look,
and much more urban flexibility.
Because beforehand, we weresaying we were versatile, but I
(11:52):
think to be truly versatile. Youneed it, you want to be able to
wear it every day. And it'sintegrate into your kind of
daily life. And so our focus hasbeen on kind of enhancing and
sort of embracing that stylewhilst maintaining performance.
So that's been the key
PB (12:10):
and kind of how many products are we started to run
over you Alex? How many productsand and ranges are we releasing
now.
Unknown (12:20):
So we're actually just re launching with one piece this
week, which is a men's cottoninsulated Julie is using British
British fabric from Britishmillerain, which is I think one
of the oldest mills in thecountry were established in 1880
(12:45):
or something. So they've got areal heritage to them. But it's
as I say, it's an insulatedjulienne moat, like most yellows
and puffers, you know, that kindof synthetic fabric, whereas
this is cotton. So it'sincredibly, incredibly soft. But
ripstop. So kind of come to thegreat durability, and then
installation and lining sort offully recycled. Yeah, and then
(13:11):
as part of as part of therelaunch, so we had a kind of
self made timeline and deadline,which was to launch time, sort
of now should Christmas, then wefound out that actually, this
year's aren't going to be readytill just after Christmas. So
(13:31):
not wanting to deviate from thetimeline, we've kind of come up
with a creative Plan B. And thatwas it's been inspired by I
don't know if you know, thebrand away travel, they make
suitcases. Sort of a bit of asort of Rockstar startup brand
in the States with huge fundingmassive valuations. But what
they did is they created acoffee table, that was exactly
(13:54):
what we've done, too. So, aspart of the relaunch, going live
this week, we've come up with abook called A life of adventure,
where we've interviewed 30 odd25 to 30 amazing men and women
from all walks of life all doingincredibly cool and adventurous
(14:16):
things. And the idea is to kindof give people something
tangible then go on to thewebsite in the next few days and
preorder the GLA just for thenormal price of this year and
we're going to send out thesenice Limited Edition a hardback
coffee table books that you willreceive now. Yeah, so you get
PB (14:40):
how do you do the books? And are they are they made to order
these books? So like for youpersonally, if I ordered the
jeely or are you kind of sittingon a stock of about 200 They're
like, we're sitting
Unknown (14:52):
on a stock a stock books. Yeah, a lot of books.
Okay.
PB (14:58):
So nice, but that gives me It was a nice little sweetener.
Unknown (15:02):
Yeah, exactly. And like nice. It's been such a fun
adventure to interview thesepeople like I mean the one
you've got on screen now the guyat the front Jeff Mackley sort
of calls himself a storm chaserand you he'll repel down into
actively erupting volcanoes. Andit's just absolutely crazy. And
then there's but then there'sother people like David Yarrow,
(15:24):
world famous sort of fine artwildlife photographer. Lots of
entrepreneurs fans of Bremenwatches and Rafa also, so the
thing is, as I said, earlyJagers kind of view on Adventure
is seeing it and embracing it inits broadest of senses. And we
want life's adventure to beabout variety. And so we wanted
(15:46):
to look beyond just that kind ofoutdoor adventure, spirit
faster, higher, kind ofstronger, that kind of stuff.
That's not just what we'reabout. We're about kind of
inspiring it in any nature,basically.
PB (16:02):
Nice.
Unknown (16:03):
Oh, these guys,
PB (16:05):
is there going to be like a launch party where all of these
30 people could be in the sameroom? Because the amount of
women you'd get to this pie? Forexample, they've got good old
fashioned working titles likewhat do you do for a living?
Well, I'm a graphic designerWell, that could mean 100
Different things right? I mean,design what kind of graphics
typography website anyway andnone of it's very interesting.
(16:28):
Whereas if you're a bombdisposal experts and you just
give that line to go over acouple of the groans that's it
you're done. No problem. Noproblem. I mean, this book for
the alpha males I love it yeah,I need to get my hands
Unknown (16:44):
on fortunately no no no no dinner this time around but
maybe if it's a wild success Ican check if it's good to get
together
PB (16:55):
Yeah, it was pretty cool. We should at least you know
Whatsapp group. Oh, yeah, pleaseplease Sorry, I know it's not
completely meltdown
Unknown (17:04):
now you got some some say we got this girl Celia
Fernandez he's a Red Bull Cliffdiver and stunt woman she's epic
freediver Jana Tana just say allsorts of cool people that just
basically living lives that weall want to live. So yeah, share
(17:24):
share their stories in the hopethat inspires you to get out and
kind of live more adventurous toview the world for more
adventurous and
PB (17:33):
I love that. And it's so in keeping with the brand as well,
of basically getting off yourbutt and doing something outside
and enjoying the world outdoors.
I don't think you've got asingle interview of a podcaster
in there, I bet.
Unknown (17:49):
Well, you'd be surprised there is one Oh,
really? Oh, okay. But
PB (17:57):
it's gonna be like a rock climbing podcast or something.
Unknown (18:00):
Yeah, he interviews adventures
PB (18:09):
look, it's, I guess it's a decent sidebar to the product
not coming out in time. But Imean, it's still gonna be in
time for people on New Year'sand January is a cold as balls
mountain. So it's FebruaryMarch, just having this
conversation with my girlfriendthe other day about how people
slide into November December andfigure that it will creep up to
Christmas. And that's as cold asit gets. In England, especially,
(18:33):
I mean, the the real bit ofmumps, like February and March
when you think you're all donewith winter, you should be in
spring already. That's when youget the blizzards and, and the
weird storm names that come fromEurope. So I mean, you're not
late to the party at all, justby having this out a few weeks
later.
Unknown (18:52):
I think with the G day, it's, you know, is an all year
round piece that sort of likelayering that you can layer or
just have as the outer so
PB (19:01):
and I say this time. I see a lot of the time at Smart events,
like a friend of mine was at awedding the other day. It was
cold as balls, but he didn'twant to have like an overcoat.
It was an outdoor wedding. Youdon't want to have like a huge
bridge coat, you know, sittingdown watching a wedding. So he
still had his suit on. And it'sjieli underneath the suit and
(19:22):
that complimented it well,
Unknown (19:25):
yeah, they go. Yeah, that's true. versatility. Works.
Wow.
PB (19:30):
That's right. That's right.
So, Alex, so we've got any plansfor any kind of pop ups or
concessions as any bricks andmortar in the pipeline.
Unknown (19:42):
Nothing as such in this foreseeable future over the sort
of next next few months. verymuch focused online, on our
website, checker jackets.com.
But with time, it's definitelysomething to look into. And I
think with that With this sortof, from a brand perspective,
you know, Jayegi literally wantsto just bring a bit of fun and
(20:04):
adventurous spirit andmischievous spirit back into
daily life and to bring ourfollowers on that journey. I
think, you know, brightening upspirits is something that we all
could do a bit more of, or havea bit more in our lives. So to
best achieve that, I mean, youwant to create these physical
spaces that people can come toand kind of get immersed in so
(20:27):
with time it's definitely sowe're looking into but with a
with one today, I think we mightstruggle to fill out a store at
the moment so sure, we'll we'lldo our best to kind of create
create that world digitally, atthe moment.
PB (20:44):
Talking about digitally where can people find you on the
socials? Do you like to hang outanywhere in particular?
Unknown (20:51):
Mainly Instagram, and also handle the at jagah
jackets. Jg Oh, and then also,obviously, our website Jager.
jackets.com.
Did you have to put all thistogether yourself? The website?
Yeah, it's been a, it's been akind of crazy, crazy journey. I
mean, I had an amazing help froma kind of design agency with
(21:16):
regards to kind of patternmaking cards with the design
itself as it will be me. Butactually kind of turning it into
something that can be followedby a factory has been robbed,
definitely the help there. Buteverything else, it's just one
man band, which is quite theadventure in itself. So
PB (21:35):
yeah, that's really why I like having people like you on
the show. Alex is, you know,people that are making a go of
it, they've got an idea andthrowing things behind it. And
it's, you know, I applaud theentrepreneurial spirit in
general, and especially when theproduct is good and, and made in
Britain. So, the website onceagain, Jayco jackets.com, but
(21:57):
we'll leave all the links overon the show notes at Menswear.
style.co.uk In the meantime,Alex, thanks for coming on.
Unknown (22:04):
Pete Thank you very much for having me. It's been
great to be on great chatting
PB (22:16):
you've been listening to the menswear style podcast be sure
to head over to menswearstyle.co.uk For more menswear
content and email info atmenswear startup code at UK if
you'd like to be a future gueston the show. Finally, please
help support the show by leavinga review on iTunes or wherever
you're listening to thispodcast. Until next time
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