STORE LOCATOR: VATER&SOHN, HAMBURG

The three founders Stefan Kudla (left), Sascha Kampmeyer (middle) and Tobias Pflug (right) aren’t father and sons.

The Founding Fathers of Vater&Sohn opened their store on March 1st in Hamburg, Germany with a great selection of brands like Tricker's, Rising Sun & Co., Levi's Vintage, Red Wing Shoes, and Filson. Vater&Sohn consider their customers not just as someone who loves boots or denims; he’s also into everything from knives to soaps, coffee to schnaps, and he likes to take care of himself while looking sharp. He’s a family man who brings flowers for his beautiful wife, and why not get the flowers from Vater&Sohn while you’re picking up a new pair of jeans – maybe then she won’t complain so much about all the money you spent. Visit Denimhunter for the full story about Vater&Sohn

PITTI UOMO SNEAK PREVIEW

SCARTI LAB

TRICKER'S

FILSON

HANCOCK

MONITALY

BUTTERO

BOGLIOLI

ALTEA

CHURCH

ESEMPLARE

Just like every season has Men's Reverie the best Sneak Previews of great brands like Filson, Church, Boglioli, Tricker's etc etc. Enjoy more pics at Men's Reverie.

STORE LOCATOR - FRANS BOONE, SLUIS

Tucked away at the border between Belgium and The Netherlands you can find Frans Boone, Sluis

Frans wasn't in today, he was in Italy on a business trip selecting some products and brands which can fine tune the collection for Fall 2013. I was welcomed by Menno with a hot coffee and a nice chat. The store is separated by a big red cabinet into two different rooms. At the entrance you feel the rough outdoors with collections like RRL, Pendleton blankets, Red Wing, Gitman Vintage,  & Howlin'. The other room has a yellow sofa as a great eye-catcher, here you find a Salvatore Picolo shirts, Boglioli, Alden, Tricker's just to name a few brands. Frans Boone is cherry picking in every collection, and create special editions as well. You may call it "Very Frans Boone"

HIDDEN GEMS

Tricker's

Boglioli

Drake's

Druhmor

An appointment with Nicolas Thys brings me to a suburb of Antwerp, there in a remodeled garage he has his showroom with hidden gems. As a real host he welcomes me when I walk up the driveway, and during a cup of coffee he explains how he got into the business.

He explains how a footwear collection of Tricker's starts, it's really building a shoe. You start with choosing a model then the sole, whether it's leather or a light weight. If you choose light weight you have to choose from different color options, then the upper do you want suede or leather and what color? How you want it sewn to the sole? Which color of eyelets? Type and color of the shoestring and finally you have to choose the color of the inner lining. Okay next model, let's start from scratch again.....But not only it is hard to choose the right shoes, it's also difficult to make a decision about what kind of jackets you want from the Boglioli collection or how many color options in a Druhmor pique shirt and, oh no... how many styles from the Drakes collection.........

With a smile on my face I said to him that it must be great to work everyday with these beautiful brands, and he respond with a sentence I never will forget:

  "It's better to sell shit and eat caviar, then sell caviar and eat shit"