The Deep Purpose of Hiut Denim
In How To Be A Craftivist, Sarah Corbett defines craftivism as gentle protest. It is the opposite of loud, aggressive, extroverted protest. It forgoes abuse and violence for something quieter, more introverted yet still powerful. Craftivists use craft skills to make their point. Whether they are embroidering messages on banners or making thought-provoking objects, craft is used to draw attention to injustice, unfairness and also to suggest better ways of doing things.
Hiut Denim is surely a brand with a craftivist heart. The company was founded by David and Clare Hieatt in Cardigan, Wales in 2012. They had previously built up and sold the outdoor clothing brand Howies. Along the way they learned a lot about the painful compromises demanded by global business. For their new business, they wanted to do things differently. Their company slogan is Do One Thing Well and the “one thing” is make jeans from raw denim.
In 2012 the raw denim trend had yet to kick in and selvedge was not as well known as now. There are lots of good thing about raw denim. It is durable, long lasting and, if treated properly, which means rarely washed, it is light on the environment too. Hiut jeans are cut by hand and machine stitched in their small factory. The workers are called Grand Masters and every pair of jeans is signed by those who stitched them. This was the craft, but the activism is even deeper rooted.
When I met David in 2013, he told me he couldn’t launch the business until he understood the purpose behind it. Eventually, a friend helped him unlock it. Cardigan had once been a centre of jeans manufacturing. There was a local factory that produced 35,000 pairs a week for brands like Marks and Spencer. In 2002 that factory closed as the production, like much of UK manufacturing, moved to the Far East. The purpose, David realised, was to defy the logic of globalisation and get the town making jeans again.
This is deep purpose. It is not the superficial use of purpose whereby a company staples a cause to its shiny surface as it chases a modern customer who believes that business needs to play a more constructive role in society and are willing to pay more for those who do. Such shallow purpose leads to lifestyle advertising dross like the infamous Pepsi ad with Kendall Jenner mediating between police and protesters at the time of Black Lives Matter.
Hiut Denim has a purpose rooted deep in the business. It recognises the importance of the industry to local town. As a business it both harnesses skills that were in danger of being lost forever and enables those skills to be passed on to others. It cannot take the option of outsourcing without breaking its purpose and undermining its brand. It’s business model results in a slow build. There is no built in obsolescence in this product, I still wear a pair I bought in 2012. It is built for local and for the long term but it has established a global reputation. By 2018 the brand was being worn by celebrities and even royals and hailed in the media as a cult brand that had become a global ambassador for British manufacturing.
