JACKETS THAT AGE GRACEFULLY
Some of our most coveted items of clothing are associated with a story or a particular moment in time. For San Francisco resident Daniel Smith, it wasn’t an item that he couldn’t part with but a story that spurred the creation of a covetable item.
“My great-grandfather made rubber-coated cotton raincoats in Paris from 1925 until 1940, when the Nazis invaded the city and he and his family fled,” Smith, 29, says of his ancestors’ business manufacturing a utilitarian garment that employed many during an historical time of great creativity, financial recession and political awakening.
More than 75 years later, in 2015, Smith launched his first heritage outerwear jacket on his company’s website. His brand, Ketums, is the family name, Smutek, spelled backward. The Bondy jacket ($368), available for men and women, is the brand’s first product and is made from waxed cotton sourced from a small family mill in Scotland. Smith did extensive research on fabrics before selecting the Scottish mill, saying that there are only two places in the world where it can be sourced. Of the jacket’s Japanese flannel and corduroy lining, he says: “Anywhere the fabric touches your skin, I’ve placed corduroy, which is soft and patinas like the jacket’s outer shell.” It’s a coat to be worn over time, all the time; a coat that feels and wears better with age.
Smith always knew he’d end up as an entrepreneur running his own business.
After graduating from college in 2010, he and a group of friends headed west, and many, like him, landed jobs in tech. In 2014, he took a soul-searching trek to South America and returned home determined to learn everything about pattern making, design and manufacturing by taking night classes while working during the day. He also began connecting with brands he admired, like Taylor Stitch and its co-founder, Michael Maher.
English brands like Barbour have been making waxed outerwear for more than 100 years, and there’s no denying the fabric’s function of staying warm and dry, be it worn on the highlands of Scotland or on the dunes of Ocean Beach. The wax keeps moisture and stains at bay, and it appears to even be impenetrable to the general grime of San Francisco’s streets. “I’ve had red wine, coffee, all types of things spilled on it,” Smith says of his 2014 prototype that he still wears today. “I’ve rolled around in the sand in it and worn it skiing. It’s a classic year-round Bay Area jacket that can take you from the beach to work to dinner with friends.”
Today, he tackles the growth of his brand full time and manages all aspects of the business. He also collaborates with a local pattern maker and works with an Oakland facility that handsews each jacket. His friends tease him because he always said he wanted to build something that you can feel and touch. “I like objects that have meaning, because even after the object is gone, the story that surrounds it lives on,” he says.