On the Road – West America and Woolrich

We love ‘Made in America’ here at The Manual. What’s better than a brand creating American-made clothing and roadtripping to break it in. Jordan Hufnagel and James Crowe of adventure outfitter West America came together to build. Hufnagel a bicycle builder and motorcycle maker Crowe built their Portland-based shop that eventually grew into West America. They became so successful that they had back orders at least three years long. Now in collaboration with Woolrich the outdoor outfitter they are literally following the road to a new dream.

They decided to morph this success into a road trip any man would hop on. Hufnagel tells The Manual that they made the decision a few years back to stop taking orders and to complete what they had. They longed to rediscover what’s important to them. What better way than to take a badass motorcycle trip across two continents.

“That’s the really interesting part. We had been planning this trip for a couple years and we have completely funded this trip on our own,” Huffnagel said. “That’s an important part of the story. We wanted people to realize anybody can do it.”

Hufnagel and Crowe will journey from British Columbia down to Patagonia for more than a year on two custom built motorcycles (Crowe’s work of course). They will let the trip take them. There is no plan just a general direction—South. Clothing became a key element because they needed gear to brave the road  and the wilderness, while still looking presentable on city stops.

“It’s important that when we pull into a town we don’t look like storm troopers,” Hufnagel said.

Luckily these guys joined forces with all-American Woolrich, a company that built its name on outfitting early explores, still operating one of the oldest wool mills in the nation. Woolrich has begun to reach out to younger consumers with its ‘Made in USA’ clothing line coming out Fall 2013.

The company has helped West America put together a small clothing line specifically catering to their journey and will promote their travels through social media. West American and Woolrich’s outdoors fashion collaboration includes a motorcycle jacket, a poncho, a vest, a wool shirt and a hat. Both men have had considerable input on the design process of each item for the trip. To follow their Journey visit  (www.wearewestamerica.com) or Woolrich’s Instagram feed (@woolrichinc).