Pacific Northwest bootmaker Danner recently gave its website a little sprucing up (punny, I know), and I have to say things turned out very well. The new site is clean and simple, easy to navigate and features some great imagery. One section in particular really stood out and was the inspiration for this post. The top navigation bar features a main section called Standards, which features four factory tour videos, plus a few great looking photosets. It goes without saying that I love a good factory tour and the Danner Standards page definitely scratches that itch.

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A series of color film clips fromClaude Friese-Greene’s The Open Road via the BFI National Archive. These clips are not actually real color, they are black and white films that have been colorized in a process called Bicolour. (More information about Bicolour from Wikipedia.) Real or fake, these little clips are interesting to watch, to see what life was like back in those days. I specifically like the third video of Oban, Scotland.

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The more I see from Tokihito Yoshida, the more I am amazed by the man’s work. Most will know the name from his highly sought after collaboration with Barbour on their Beacon range, but on top of that he designs a full collection of his own and various other side projects. File this under the category of various side project.

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• Finally saw The Hurt Locker. Two words: fucking intense [The Hurt Locker] [Pictured]
• If you haven’t seen it (and bookmarked it) check this site out [One Trip Pass]
• Here’s another one. This is what Draplin calls a ‘daywrecker’ [Cotton Duck]
• I’m heading to Amsterdam and London on a mission. Anything I can’t miss? [ACL LONDON]
• One of the best online shops out there gets physical. [C'H'C'M Pop Up Shop]

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In lieu of a mixtape (Muxtape?) allow me to present some of the sounds that have been heard around the ACL offices as of late. Since there is a strong Brooklyn Vegan like atmosphere floating around in the comments, I figured this would be fitting. Enjoy!

The Middle East — Blood

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Allow me to point your attention to the newest collaboration item that just landed in the ACL Shop. I’m the type of guy that wears oxford cloth as much as possible, so the more I spoke to Steven Alan about doing a project together the more obvious it became that we had to collaborate on an oxford shirt. Steven and I met near his TriBeCa office at Le Colombe on Church Street a few times to discuss what eventually became two co-labeled shirts done expressly for ACL & Co. The shirts combine two of my favorite things: the Steven Alan Single Needle style shirt with a little flap-pocket detail that has become known as my calling card (at least I like to think so). Basically, I had the opportunity to creative my perfect woven shirt, and I have been wearing one of these shirts (either in black or white) since the goods arrived at the office. The way I see it, if no one ever buys them I’ll be all set in the oxford department for the foreseeable future.

[Steven Alan x ACL & Co. Oxford Shirts] [Read the inspiration for the collab at The Moment]

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The early 1950s saw the invention and introduction of “talking storybooks” that were dreamed up by Bay area native Bruce Sedley. The San Francisco zoo was the first American zoo to use talking storybooks and at the same time introduced the ingenious elephant shaped key called Trunkey the Elephant. Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, San Francisco, New York (Bronx Zoo) all had their own talking storybooks and elephant keys. I remember bringing the key to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo as a kid — something really special that I look back upon fondly. When I was home for the holidays my dad unearthed one of the keys our family had from the late 70s. It had been in his desk for the last 30 or so years. I’m glad dad never throws anything out. Anyone out there remember these things?

My elephant key from the Cleveland Zoo

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If you haven’t been to the Barbour archives (don’t feel bad, I haven’t either) you might be unfamiliar with the Ursula Suit story. The Ursula suit is a coveted British WWII artifact made expressly for Lieutenant Commander George Phillips (pictured above c.1939) and the crew of the submarine HMS Ursula. Mr. Phillips was unhappy with water stopping ability of the issued Navy kit, so he took matters into his own hands and commissioned Barbour to make what would become the famous (and standard issue) Ursula Suit.

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