In the first of an occasional series, here's a playlist to get your through the Covid paranoia and general darkening of nights. 

 

It's great coming into work every day being able to work on a brand you've built from scratch, especially as it's not exactly been a vocational calling. I never sat down as an errant 14 year old and boldly stated "I'm gonna pair up with my mate to make a magazine, then end up making clothes with all mushrooms on and give it a portmanteau name".

But here we are. I quite like it. It's a unique learning curve and also a lesson that impostor syndrome is largely a load of nonsense. It's been on my shoulder since we set up a magazine about 19 years ago. Who are we to just start doing this? Surely we should go on a course of some sort? Get a certificate maybe? Someone is going to ask to see our papers and find us out. Except none of those things have happened because almost everyone is winging it in one way or another. It's just that some are much better at said winging because they've been doing it longer. 

With COVID seemingly lurking around every corner like a snide little bogeyman, working during a pandemic is a challenge. Kids in school, kids out of school, do I want to use public transport? Not really. Is my face mask doing any good? Lots of headspace ends up getting devoted to out of the ordinary concerns and your brain ends up screaming for a time out. 

Thing is though, I don't think I need one. I like being in the office. I can work from home, no doubt about it, and maybe if things get worse it might become an option we're forced to take. But for now we're alright, you know? It's going well. We're taking some perverse pleasure from ploughing on through things despite the most testing situation in decades. We get to the end of each week and metaphorically I stretch my arms out wide like the Angel of the North and go "Still here if you wannit, come at me".

Then I go home and cry silently into a mirror. I don't really.  

What have we been up to though? That's what you're really here for, not my existential insecurities laid bare. 

Well, part of the aforementioned learning curve has been pure snakes and ladders this year. One ladder has come in the form of Japanese and North American licensees jumping onboard and adding a new dimension to what we do. I like the idea of lavender corduroy but I'm not daring enough to include it in our UK range (yet). No such fear from our U.S counterparts. California is more fitting for that vibe than Crumpsall. And when Japan put your brand through that unique filter of theirs, you're bound to end up with some mad takes. It's just what we wanted. 

Back here in the UK, our first range has arrived in fits and starts. Brexit and Covid have paired up like some troublesome tag team to cause us maximum delays and discomfort with deliveries. But everything is here in the UK now, albeit in some cases trapped in a customs queue. If we're lucky, our rugby shirts will be on sale this week. If we're super lucky maybe we'll even see outerwear though thats much more likely next week. It's always been strange seeing puffer jackets going on sale in July at the height of summer, but that's fashion and its weird seasonality. Given the miniscule numbers we've made of our outerwear, we're a bit more relaxed about launching bang on time for the wind and rain. Just 50 pieces exist of our Calland Corduroy Puffer. 49 once I've got mine. 

Much of our time lately has also been spend formulating Autumn/Winter 2021. Let's just say things are moving on and we're not far off sampling stage. Likewise, Spring/Summer 2021 features a pared down collection which was partly dictated by having our hands tied by covid but also a feeling of comfort at going t-shirt heavy and complementing it all with new colours in our smart Conway Smock. Off white, olive, blue and maybe an olive all feature in a more Spring-weight fabric. 

I've waffled on far too much now. Had a bit of catching up to do didn't we? Will try not to leave it so long next time. 

Despite no new product this week, it's been another head exploder in terms of things going on. 

With the first drop of AW20 due in 2 weeks, and our sale section looking pretty depleted we thought we'd keep things moving with a new t-shirt release. This will feature our cartoon duo Eric and Derek. Both have had a minor makeover and will find themselves on the front of t-shirts, possibly as soon as next week. 

Aside from that, other irons in fires include:- 

- A second drop of Gosha Orekhov bags, this time actual backpacks. 
- Mugs to match the aforementioned cartoon tees
- Ongoing talks with Earthwell about another drinking vessel release

They're just ones for the immediate future. We'll be sharing more info when it's right to do so. For now, take a look at the mugs we've transplanted over from propermag.com. They were always meant for Hikerdelic and now they're in their rightful place. Also remember we had a nice restock on bucket hats recently that was perhaps lost in the midst of our sale and other releases.

We're back from full furlough this week. Just in time for the dreaded second wave. What can you do though? We've just got to be vigilant and embrace the new normal. 

Behind the scenes, plenty has been happening. This week sees the release of part one of our collaboration with a little-known Russian brand named Gosha Orekhov. We saw these guys on Instagram about 2 years ago and came within a whisker of getting something off the ground. For various reasons, it never came off, but recent conversations ended positively and here we are. 

Is cord the most practical outer fabric for a padded winter puffer jacket? Well, maybe there are better performing materials out there, but do they look as lovely? We think not.

The truth is, this is the most complete embodiment yet of what Hikerdelic means to us. Cord by its nature is velvet for the people. When royalty used velvet to show their status, the commoners took that look and made it their own via corduroy. It's an age old tale of the working classes wearing clothing beyond their status yet still having the innate individuality to twist it a little. That's why corduroy works for us. A good friend of ours coined the term "luxury scruff" and that covers it for us. Think mid-80s casuals dressing down to avoid being pigeon holed by the authorities. Think scientists with eye watering halitosis yet an unerring aim for the sartorial centre bull. Anti Cool. Uncle Cool.

On the subject of scientists, another local name lends further depth to the development of this piece. F.C Williams may sound like your mate's five a side team but it stands for Frederic Calland Williams, a man born in the Romiley district of our home town, who spent the 39-45 conflict through radar research.

Following this he relocated to the University of Manchester where he basically helped invent the modern computer. Could go into loads more detail, but it's pretty meta that you're now going to use your miniature computerised telephone to find out about one of its inventors. So there you have it, boffins and corduroy go together and the fact this bloke was such a pioneer is a happy coincidence.

It started out as an opportunity to take some photos in and around our Ancoats base. Next news we're google earthing Cheetham Hill and Strangeways. Loads of nice walls around there, good backdrop. Plus, you know, it's a big prison. 

Alas, we never made it that far. Instead we stuck to the neighbourhood. For the best, really. They won't have liked us taking photos near such a high risk security building, probably. Maybe we'll give it a go next time. 

Here's some pics anyway. All of this is available here on this website. Do your worst. 

Hikerdelic? It's a weird one, really.

It all began with a tweet.



Shortly after tweeting this I received a text from a friend in 'the industry' who suggested I get the word Hikerdelic trademarked quickly. I laughed. As if. It was just a throwaway tweet. 

We used the word more and more until eventually, it became a bit of a thing. This was no doubt aided by us working with people like Ben Lamb and Topo Designs on magazine and t-shirt projects such as this...

 



This was in May 2013. Things had crawled on rather than moved on. By early 2016, our day job as editors of Proper Magazine was ready to become a full-time thing. 

It was time to take some sort of ownership of Hikerdelic. It was time to get a bit more serious about the whole thing. 

It's taken a while but Hikerdelic is now a real, living, breathing brand which stands on its own two feet, with seasonal collections and collaborations with brands we've loved for ages. A team of five have a hand in the design process, with myself and Neil Summers taking a lead just as we do with the magazine.