Sad news out of Los Angeles today. The small, high-qulaity outdoor apparel company swrve is announcing that it is closing operations. swrve is known for its durable, wearable outdoor/workwear apparel. I’ve been a fan and occasional customer for some time, and I’m sad to see them go.
Some Words From the swrve
General Manager and Co-Founder, Muriel Bartol says, “We love swrve and we’re incredibly grateful to our customers for having supported this venture for the last 20 years.” She continues, “It afforded us a life focused on making thoughtful garments of the highest quality, in a way that made us proud of the work we did.”
“We started swrve with a single product,” added lead designer and the other co-founder Matt Rolletta, “a pair of knickers intended for urban cycling that was designed and made in a tiny rented studio in downtown Los Angeles and sold via word-of-mouth through the local bike community. We grew into an innovative outdoor company found in shops worldwide with quite a few notable achievements.”
“We were one of the first companies to offer cycling-specific jeans, we were the first company in the world to use stretch CORDURA® denim, and, looking back, we were at the dawn of the men’s performance stretch jeans phenomenon you see today. From there, we expanded our offerings with our Durable Cotton and – TRANSVERSE – product ranges that really let us expand on the concept of technical performance apparel for everyday use,” said Rolletta.
swrve to Make a Difference
Over the past two decades, swerve has supplied some pretty heavy hitters with quality clothing. According to Muriel, they’ve sent packages to CERN, the Smithsonian, NASA, and “other esteemed institutions of knowledge”.
She also said that some of their customers are teachers, park rangers, artists, and researchers. As well as writers, chefs, bike collective members, conservationists, and architects. “In other words, people who are creative, thoughtful, and dedicated to making the world a better place.
“People who value nature and spending time in the great outdoors as much as we do. We have been in the absolute best company”.
The Landscape Has Changed
After 20 years, however, the landscape of our industry has changed,” explains Bartol. “We’ve seen the cost of business increase across the board. From the cost of our fabrics, to cut + sew, transportation, shipping, e-commerce platforms, payroll, marketing, etc. etc. It’s never been easy to run a small business. But every year we face growing costs to the point where we can’t raise our prices and remain competitive.”
swerve is a very small company that’s held its own against some much bigger apparel companies in the last 20 years. That’s something that they are very proud of, and well… should be.
It Won’t be Immediate
We’ve been told that they still have a fair amount of inventory for most items, but will no longer be making new runs of their products. They actually may still do a few small in-house runs.
No Closeout Sale
They say they are going to be operating the business normally for as long as they have inventory. And, as their warehouse empties and they start to run out of inventory, they will “likely have some sort of sale, but not until the very end”.
There is no word on what that timeline will look like. Some of their close friends have been stockpiling their favorite items. According to swrve, “we may be running out of inventory more quickly, or not! We shall see”!
Hit the link below to get your swerve on while the gettin’ is good!
