If you check the weather forecast it looks like after a couple of weeks of Very British Summer we’re finally returning to blue skies, sun shine and temperatures in the late 20s. A great time, then, for me to write a blog about how we have just released a new jacket.
In all seriousness, we’re not trying to sell you a puffer coat (yet), but our latest piece of merch is here, The Idris Coach Jacket, a smart, collared jacket, light enough to wear open in a smoking area on a late summer’s evening, warm enough to throw over a hoodie as we get into Autumn. Call it an investment for the rest of the year (also it’s 40 quid which last time I checked is cheaper than a primark jacket, so as investments go its a pretty safe one).
Barber shops selling jackets, all feels a bit mad doesn’t it, maybe this is what GB News would call ‘woke’, but its not the first time we’ve done merch, and over the years we’ve learned that you lot actually quite like bopping around with our logo on you.
Let’s face it, nowadays people wear hoodies with a slice of pizza with legs on the back, there was that weird period in the noughties where everyone would have one of those t shirts that had a big number and the word ‘Osaka’ on it, nearly every single one of us would have had a Ramones t shirt, none of us had ever listened to The Ramones, and when we did, we realised they were shit. Did it stop us wearing the t shirts? No. If you’re happy to wear a t shirt repping a Japanese city you’ve never been to, or a band you don’t even like, or the modern thing which seems to be a pizzeria that doesn’t even exist, you might as well stroll around repping your barber shop. 
We started years ago with t shirts with our bulldog logo on them, printed locally in Tottenham, and those tees flew out the door like hot cakes. Going into lockdown, we knew people wanted comfy stuff to be bumming around the house in so we made the first tracksuits, prison style in a grey marle with embroidered logos, and again they disappeared quickly. At the time, with nothing better to do, Matt was cycling around London delivering them personally, and may we just say, some of you have some very nice houses.
We felt like we landed on a formula that worked by incorporating sportswear styles with our own branding so as the stadiums started reopening and football really came back in 2021, we released the white Idris football shirts with the gold collars, hand made and designed by our friend Luke Porter. We’ve actually found a few of these knocking around when we moved our Tottenham store recently, so if you’re keen, mention it next time you’re in store and we might be able to sort one of these out for you.
More tracksuits followed, this time in black in a baggier fit, and indeed you’ll still see many of the barbers donning these in store.
After shifting so many t shirts, football shirts and tracksuits, I’ll be honest, it went to our heads a bit, and we decided that rather than just printing logos onto things or asking our mates to design stuff, we’d actually design our first proper piece ourselves, and theres when we made these coach jackets. Multi-talented don Simon, barber in Tottenham and indeed the manager of our bar Unit 3, has a history of designing clothing with his brand Fear Of Thinking, so he helped design the cut of the jacket before we went back and forth on a few samples from the factory, one of our best friends wives embroidered all of the locals back in Hertfordshire where many of us are from, and now they’re here.
Why a coach jacket, you might ask? Honestly, because we wear them, if you’re gonna make something, you should make something you would want to purchase, and the style fits within the ethos of our brand - its a classic style that can be styled up to look smart or down to look casual, its inclusive, its ‘for everyone’, as we strive to be, and now we have this product that we love, designed by us and our mates, made by us and our mates, we’ll be wearing it, and if you get in quick enough before they go, you’ll be wearing it too.
Bag yourself one in store from now, they'll be landing online for sale as of 13/08.
