This cardboard filing box has accompanied us to all of our Las Vegas tradeshows over the past 5 years. We’ve used it to carry business cards, clipboards, staples and staplers, pens, order forms, linesheets, paper clips, and the random stuff that we bring back (magazines, buttons, stickers, mixtapes, etc). As you can see, it’s served us very well.

Temple Bags is an LA-based company run by two Steves: Opperman and Dubbeldam. This isn’t their first venture… they started Iron Army Jeans in 2005 out of Edmonton and moved to California to grow the company. Three years later, the company lost its funding but they quickly moved on to start another denim brand backed by Hudson Jeans called City of Others. When the recession hit, they were forced to shut down once again. Steve Opperman began making bags and accessories by hand a year and a half ago under the name Temple Bags – they’re all crafted from repurposed military fabrics and trims. I had first connected with Steve in 2008, and when I found out last year that he was making these types of bags, I asked if he could put together a custom laptop case for me. Here it is…

The bag consists of olive waxed canvas that is quilted with a flannel lining. The leather straps, buckles and clips are all vintage military hardware. The case also has a removable pouch on the front that can store a power cord and a small journal. I’m told that their current laptop case design was based off this piece.

This blog entry really isn’t about the bags themselves as much as it is about the people behind them and how they’ve influenced me. The reason I reached out to Steve & Steve in 2008 was because I wanted to find out more about them and and why they did what they did. On Superfuture years ago, I found a thread discussing Iron Army. One poster asked about the Bible passages that were printed inside each pair of jeans, and if they were a Christian company. Steve Dubbeldam replied:

haha yea that’s rad that you know where that’s coming from. Proverbs 27:17 is the inspiration for our company name. It started when steve and i were both travelling and we would hold each other accountable in our lifestyle and sign off our emails “as iron”. Thus the Iron Army crew was birthed.

we are definately a Christian brand, yet we don’t believe in the idea that “Christian” clothes exist. We want to stand as a point of difference in our industry in our integrity, the way we promote and steer culture, and the way that we love those around us……sounds mushy but it’s true, it’s what our world needs and we’re stoked to change our part of the world with our jeans.

Those words resonated with me, as Johan and I are both Christians and our company name is evidence of that. What Steve & Steve expressed in that post summed up in a beautifully succinct way what we were seeking to do with 3sixteen. They were excited to affect the people around them through the work they did, and weren’t ashamed to talk about their faith when asked. Nothing has changed – if you take a look at the Temple Bags bio, what they believe in is just as important to them now as it was then. After years of chatting with them via phone and email, I finally got a chance to meet and break bread with them last week. I made sure to let them know how much they encouraged me in their journey, as it’s rare to find people that are transparent with their motivations in this industry. It’s always refreshing to meet others that share our vision and are doing their best to set an example by pursuing excellence in their work.

Find out more about Temple Bags at templebags.com.

New York Magazine’s fashion blog, The Cut, wrote a little piece on 3sixteen recently. I didn’t come from a financial consulting background but it’s close enough… the story is well written and we’re thankful for the coverage. Click here to check it out.

Photographer: Dan Chen
Model: Chris Watchorn

The newest installment of “A Day with 3sixteen” – a video series highlighting our typical work day – just released yesterday. We worked with Sarah Krusen on this particular piece which was filmed in November of last year, and are so thankful for the help of talented friends like her who are able to bring what we do to life in a visually stunning way. The first iteration of “A Day with 3sixteen” by Hilton Carter dropped early last year (click here to watch it) and it’s amazing to see how much has changed for us over the course of 2009. When working on this second video, it was important for Johan and I to spend a little bit of time talking about the people we work with, and what informs our design ideals as we put a collection together. Hopefully it gives you a little bit more insight into what we do and what’s important to us.

As always, we’d appreciate your help in spreading the word by passing the link onto friends – the response thus far has been great but we’d love for even more people to see it.

Last month, I posted some pictures of our vintage Union Special 43200G chainstitch machine. It’s a machine that we use at Self Edge to hem jeans and is no longer in production, which makes it highly sought after. We had to employ the help of a specialist to get it fitted to a table and hooked up to a motor. There were a few parts missing that we needed to get custom fabricated as well – but at long last, the beast is up and running. I’ve spent many hours over the past week learning how to run the machine, and it’s been an exercise in patience and finesse. I was told that it’s easy to learn how to hem jeans on this particular model, since there’s a special mechanism that helps curl the jean hem for you. Still, it wasn’t easy being that I hadn’t touched a sewing machine since Home Ec in 7th grade (and I’m in fashion – figure that one out). Here were some of my first attempts on my own jeans – I wasn’t ready to ruin a customer’s pair of jeans just yet.

One of the tough parts of hemming on the machine is that the mechanism that folds the hem over sometimes gets caught on the selvedge line. Sometimes I see the fabric tugging and can straighten it out; other times I get this

Towards the end of the hem job, I sometimes get the fabric bunching up again and a wrinkle gets sewn into the hem.

I am hoping to get the hang of this soon.