PARIS — On his nineteenth birthday in 1999, Wilfried Atzert wished one factor: a Carhartt jacket.
In Paris on the time, the model was primarily identified through a licensed offshoot referred to as Carhartt Work In Progress, or WIP, which was based in 1994 and gave a trend edge to the useful workwear of the century-old, US-based Carhartt Inc. In center America, the Carhartt title could have been synonymous with double-knee pants and Detroit jackets worn by farmers, ranchers and manufacturing unit staff, however in Europe and Asia, it was predominately present in small streetwear outlets the place skaters, graffiti artists and DJs congregated.
Atzert obtained his jacket at Le Shop, the place manufacturers rented “shop in shops” and, on the time, the one retailer in Paris promoting Carhartt WIP. Eventually he would get a job with WIP as a runner within the store, transfer as much as retailer supervisor after which be appointed to run WIP’s gross sales and advertising at its Paris workplace. In 2024, after a quarter century with the corporate, he grew to become Carhartt WIP’s international chief government.
Atzert’s rise mirrors the unlikely trajectory of the model itself. From its roots in utilitarian clothes, Carhartt WIP has grown into a fixture of the streetwear panorama that’s helped to make the Carhartt emblem modern, wherever it seems. Celebrities from Ok-Pop star Taeyeon to actors equivalent to Daniel Day Lewis, Paul Mescal and Austin Butler are routinely seen sporting it. Vintage Carhartt Inc. workwear goes for hundreds on resale websites. “The brand’s yellow logo is considered a menswear stamp of approval,” GQ declared final 12 months.
Carhartt Inc.’s rugged attraction is an element of that success, however so is Carhartt WIP’s subcultural cachet. From the beginning, its technique was cultural immersion, not broad promoting. Marketing spend went to vinyl compilations, zines and basement occasions somewhat than billboards. It sponsored skate groups, supported graffiti festivals and collaborated with underground music collectives.
“We work with people we genuinely like and who already wear the product,” Atzert stated. “If you try to manufacture cool, you usually end up with the opposite. It used to take years to build a music collection, months to truly get into a scene. We try to keep things authentic today and avoid celebrities and influencers. We never paid anyone to wear our clothes.”
Today, Carhartt WIP is greater than ever. It generates €600 million ($703 million) in annual gross sales and operates in additional than 80 markets. Globally, the model has 63 standalone shops and a whole of 122 bodily factors of sale, with 10 extra, starting from Jakarta to Lisbon, that can be open by the top of the 12 months.
Atzert’s plan is to maintain the expansion going — however not too quick. The model faces a difficult balancing act because the Carhartt title dangers rising too hyped for its personal good, ensuing within the type of overexposure that may ship standing seekers dashing to the following factor.
“We want to last and grow slowly, so we placed caps on orders very early on,” Atzert stated. “Selling out is key; we don’t like to see products on sale.”
How Carhartt Inc. Gave Rise to Carhartt WIP
Founded in Detroit in 1889, Carhartt Inc. constructed its repute on hardwearing canvas and duck fabric. The buyer base was — and largely stays — blue-collar staff who want sturdy garments for robust jobs. As far as Carhartt Inc. is worried, that’s nonetheless the viewers it serves, even whether it is “flattered” by the eye from the style crowd, stated Susan Hennike, Carhartt Inc.’s chief model officer.
“We don’t stray from who we are and we don’t chase after any trends,” stated Hennike. “That’s going to come and go, but the people who are doing the hard work need the gear that’s made just for them. That’s where we put our focus.”
By the early Nineteen Nineties, Carhartt Inc.’s workwear had attracted the discover of American subcultures equivalent to hip-hop and skateboarding. That’s additionally when Swiss entrepreneur Edwin Faeh took notice.
Observing Carhartt merchandise circulating in flea markets and underground circles, Faeh noticed the potential for a trendy, European twist on its workwear icons and proposed a licensing deal to the Carhartt household: preserve the supplies and utility, however adapt the matches, colors and advertising for a extra modern viewers. The household agreed, and WIP was born.
Luca Benini, the streetwear tastemaker who based the Italian multi-brand distribution firm and Slam Jam retail shops in 1989, recollects Carhartt WIP being a foundational model to promote in the course of the firm’s early days. He remembers it as a model that was in sync with Black American tradition in cities like New York and stronger “in terms of turnover” than different streetwear labels inside its portfolio equivalent to Stüssy or Fresh Jive.
“I didn’t care what Carhartt represented in Italy or Europe at that time. I cared about what it represented in New York and LA, and that’s also the direction Mr. Faeh wanted to follow,” stated Benini. “It wasn’t workwear, but streetwear for a young generation.”
In an electronic mail, Faeh stated he by no means anticipated the model to turn out to be as profitable as it’s. “I’m not a fortune teller and also I never had a plan, I just loved the brand and its iconic styles,” he wrote.
WIP’s first retailer opened in London in 1997, adopted by Paris in 2001, the place its headquarters stay (the finance and product improvement headquarters are in Basel, Switzerland). The development mannequin was deliberate: keep away from oversaturating, prioritise the proper wholesale companions and open flagships in cities with robust cultural relevance. Their advertising centered on genuine connections to subcultures, favoring zines, skate groups, graffiti festivals, and underground music over advertisements or influencers — an method it nonetheless follows in the present day.
Production, initially centred in Faeh’s manufacturing unit in Tunisia, has since expanded to a community of specialist producers throughout Europe and Asia, chosen for his or her capacity to work with the model’s signature heavy-duty materials and finishes.
At this stage, Carhartt Inc. and Carhartt WIP function like siblings who selected completely completely different existence, although they’re, of course, nonetheless associated. Atzert identified that Carhartt Inc.’s workwear origins give Carhartt WIP a stage of credibility. Some customers hunt down classic Carhartt items that bear the patina of precise work. On the resale web site Grailed, a classic mid-century Carhartt Inc. jacket offered for $2,500 final 12 months.
“The social clout that you get from having a weathered-looking piece that you’ve done no work to make look weathered still counts, right?” stated digital creator Clayton Chambers. “There’s definitely a class of people who care a lot about how it looks, how weathered it looks in particular, and want to use that as a flex.”
Going Global Without Losing the Underground
Except in the course of the shock of the pandemic, Carhartt’s gross sales have been on a regular development streak for roughly a decade, climbing 6.3 % in 2024 in comparison with the prior 12 months.
The street hasn’t been all easy. When skinny silhouettes dominated the late 2000s and early 2010s, WIP’s baggier matches — a core half of its DNA — have been out of step with mainstream trend. Wholesale orders shrank, and a few retail companions doubted whether or not workwear might survive in a local weather obsessive about stretch denim and slim joggers.
“At that point, we could have chased the trend,” Atzert recalled. “But we believed the pendulum would swing back. If we abandoned our shapes and fabrics, what would be left?”
The gamble paid off as dishevelled matches have returned. Sales rebounded, and youthful customers rediscovered the aesthetic.
Still, Atzert resists overproducing. “If you flood the market, you kill the magic,” he stated.
Slam Jam’s Benini believes that Carhartt WIP has additionally resonated with customers over the previous 5 years as a result of of its dedication to producing good-quality merchandise which might be moderately priced.
The similar method applies to WIP’s womenswear, a class the model has quietly expanded prior to now decade. Rather than designing overtly “feminine” variations of its menswear staples, the model stored the identical materials, cuts and building, adjusting solely the place perform demanded it.
“We didn’t want to create a separate identity,” Atzert says. “Our women’s customers often prefer the same authenticity, the same fits, just made to work for her.”
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Carhartt WIP has additionally launched different objects over time, equivalent to baggage, rubber boats and ceramic noodle bowls. (The Carhartt pet line is a separate licensing settlement.)
“Carhartt is basic, maybe people get tired of the same items for 35 years, so we bring a fun twist,” Atzert stated.
And whereas 2025 will see headline collaborations with Sacai and Nicholas Daley — plus a still-secret “special moment” on the finish of October — Atzert insists the playbook gained’t change: continue to grow, however not too quick, and preserve Carhartt WIP rooted within the underground scenes that made it cool within the first place.