elements

knowing that the release of our autumn/winter '22 collection would coincide with the one year anniversary of our comeback, we really wanted to elaborate on our goal of crafting contemporary basics. and having more resources to work with this time around, thanks to the growth we experienced over the past year, that's exactly what we started to do during development. but to say that creating the elements collection was difficult would be an understatement - it was by far the most challenging collection to make so far.

we started the development phase by sourcing different fabrics to get inspiration for ideas, and our boucle knit sweater fabrics were some of the first we started experimenting with. the fact that it was partly made from recycled materials was what got us initially interested, but the feel and texture were so incredible that we knew we had to make sweaters with it. once the sweaters were in play, we then thought that we needed the perfect pair of pants to go with it. we decided to revisit our classic cropped pants and give it a complete update with new fabric, specs, and look. this is pretty much how the collection started to take form - one piece continued to inspire the next. the name for the collection, "elements", came in the middle of development as we started to recognize that every piece was representing a different element for the wardrobe, while all still being complementary to each other. the new color palette, the revisions we made to our tees, hoodies, sweatshirts, and sweatpants, the new accessories, etc. - they were all decided on with the idea of bringing these elements together and we're absolutely thrilled with out how it turned out. but even though the end result was ultimately great, getting there was a different story.

the first major obstacle that presented itself during development was the continued rising costs for production. from raw materials, garment dyeing, printing, cutting and sewing, everything was increasing. it got to the point that we genuinely considered scrapping some of the ideas for the collection because it was going to be too difficult to keep the prices in the range we wanted to. but we stayed diligent and focused on the goal to figure out ways to make it work, even if it meant slimmer margins on our end. while we were figuring this out, we had a major and unexpected setback with production issues for the gb x ss capsule collection. there was no way in hell we were going to let that pass, so we decided to redo the whole program, which not only meant a lot of wasted time, money, and energy, but a major disruption to our schedule and workflow.

basically, everything started to compound from there as one issue after another started to crop up. and with a limited team, we weren't able to get a handle on the situation as cleanly and quickly as we would've liked, but we just kept at it, putting out one fire after the next. with all that going on, we were still trying to create the elements collection and this is why the collection got delayed by over a month. internally, we had a target date of end of october to early november for release, but as that window was approaching, it was clear that it was going to be impossible to hit those dates.

that's just the condensed version of this ridiculous and difficult journey, but we're relieved to say that we endured the worst of it and got it done. the most important thing to take away from the situation is that we followed through and it was 100% worth it. as the saying goes, better late than never.

there's a ton of things to highlight with the elements collection, but for the sake of keeping it short and sweet, here's what we're especially proud of:

- custom knit fabric that we developed for our new tees
- new colors developed specifically for this collection
- first time introducing raglan hoodies and sweatshirts to the lineup
- incredibly soft and comfortable sweaters made partly from recycled materials
- complete update of our cropped pants
- revised sweatpants specs for a more tailored look and feel
- new accessories including tote bags and socks

with all that said, we really hope you guys love the new collection. other than the fact that it was just so damn hard to make, we firmly believe that we delivered on our promise of stepping it up with each new release. and it goes without saying, but we truly appreciate our community for hanging in there and being understanding while we were dealing with our issues. moving forward, we can't say for sure that problems won't happen again, but we'll definitely be better prepared to deal with it.

as always, thank you for your continued love and support!