Hartford Denim Company

BY GENA GOLAS

NICOLE BEDARD PHOTOS

IT STARTED WITH AHAMMOCK.

A mosquito net for a camping hammock, to be exact; designed by Marshall Deming in high school, and sewn by his mom out of materials from JoAnn Fabrics. A mosquito net that was soon coveted by Marshall’s hiking buddies because, well, who wants to sleep with mosquitoes in the middle of the woods on a warm summer night?

Dave Marcoux and Luke Davis were two of those hiking buddies. Friends since their youth in West Hartford, the three were passionate about their hiking equipment; amassing the latest and greatest, obsessing over the functionality and features, and exploring their own ideas for gear.

A decade or so later, Luke, Marshall and Dave have a few new obsessions. The three men are coowners of Hartford Denim Company, located in the Parkville neighborhood of the city. What started as custom jeans for themselves, friends, and family has evolved into a line of durable denim, duck canvas, and leather goods for the trades. If custom and quality are what you’re looking for, you need to go to HARDENCO.

Stuff breaks down,” says Luke Davis, seated at a sewing machine and stitching a hand-embossed leather logo patch onto a duck canvas apron. “People realized enough is enough. Let’s do it right the first time.”

The guys at HARDENCO are experts at doing it right, evidenced in the quality of their work. In their

WHAT STARTED AS CUSTOM JEANS FOR THEMINTO A LINE OF DURABLE DENIM, DUCK CANV SELVES, FRIENDS, AND FAMILY HAS EVOLVEDAS, AND LEATHER GOODS FOR THE TRADES.”

10,000 square foot workshop, almost none of the equipment is mechanized, save for the antique sewing machines and 60-year-old hemstitch machine. They do own an automated click press, a machine that could stamp the company logo onto leather patches that get sewn onto their products. Instead, the machine sits disassembled

LET’S DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.”

on the floor next to the non-automated machine that does the same job, serving as a landing pad for scrap from the 1,600 leather coasters that have been pressed by way of the machine’s huge hand wheel. These coasters, soon to head out to Treehouse Brewing Company in Charlton, MA, have been first hand cut and then hand stamped, the batch being touched no less than 3,200 times.

The leather used for these coasters is thick; a good, catch-the-drip-off-a-frosty-pint thick. It’s an all-natural, vegetable-tanned leather, and the thickness of the material makes it perfect for embossing. The leather is also compostable, because it hasn’t been treated with harsh chemicals. The leather’s tannins, when mixed with water or other liquid from the glass that sits on top of the coaster, will leave ring marks, but this is just part of the charm of HARDENCO’s coasters. They tell a story that only starts at HARDENCO, one that can be followed, drink-by-drink, across the coaster’s surface.

The heavy denim used at HARDENCO is a 16-ounce selvedge denim (a selvedge end gives a clean and finished look and prevents the cut edge from unraveling), woven in Greensboro, North Carolina by Cone Mills. The 110-year-old mill was the last selvedge denim mill in the United States when it closed in December 2017. Cone

“ PROVIDING GOODS FOR THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY IS A NATURAL FIT FOR THE GUYS AT HARDENCO. ”

Mills used antique shuttle looms, a necessity to produce the selvedge denim. Since there are no other selvedge denim mills left in the United States, the remaining denim at HARDENCO has become a rare product, and the men are working on a limited release run of products using this denim, to be available for retail sale. While the closing of the mill was a huge blow to HARDENCO, the event is forcing innovation from the trio, as they look for the best possible use of the cloth.

The duck canvas used at HARDENCO is the same durable cloth used in standard heavy-duty work wear. It is produced by Mount Vernon Mills in Trion, Georgia, whose most notable client is Carhartt. Dave says of the denim and canvas, “When choosing which cloth to work with, we value strength most of all. Character, hand feel and color also factor in.”

The rigidity of HARDENCO’s materials gives their products a refined, almost formal quality. Denim jeans or aprons as a uniform for fine dining? You bet—HARDENCO’s products will make you rethink your opinions on denim.

HARDENCO got their official start with custom jeans manufactured in their parents’ garages. It was the summer after college graduation, 2010— Marshall had studied business and art, Luke went for landscape contracting, and Dave earned a degree in social work—but the three graduates were scratching their heads at home, none of them doing the work they went to school for. Wanting a superior-quality product, Luke had been making his own selvedge jeans in college, dissatisfied with what was available off the rack here in the States. Japan was just about the only place to readily find selvedge denim, but the materials were not what he wanted and he did not always find the cuts and styles suited to an American body type. When more and more friends and family began requesting handmade denim for themselves that summer, the men knew they were onto something. With Luke’s knowledge of selvedge denim, Marshall’s prior experience in leatherwork, and Dave’s carpentry experience, the skills were there to make a business work, although they didn’t realize it at the time. They soon incorporated their business to gain access to materials, but the business itself evolved slowly over time to what it is today.

That summer, they worked with one sewing machine and a plywood-top cutting table, hopping from garage to garage as their respective parents were away on vacation. Their first run was twelve pairs of jeans; their second run was another twelve pairs. As the weather got colder

IF IT’S SEWN OR LEATHER,IT’S SOMETHING WE CAN DO.”

...ALMOST NONE OF THE EQUIPMENT IS MECHANIZED, SAVE FOR THE ANTIQUE SEWING MACHINES AND 60-YEAR-OLD HEMSTITCH MACHINE...”

and demand increased by way of word of mouth, the men moved their business to Hartford. Eight years and 5 locations later, HARDENCO is now home at 236 Hamilton Street, right around the corner from their first Hartford location on Bartholomew.

In the early years of the business, the niche for HARDENCO was the possibility of customization. There was a growing following for HARDENCO denim. The more pairs of jeans they made, the better they got. They developed a base pattern and then improved upon it as they honed their skills, giving a better look to their jeans but also making the production more efficient. They started acquiring machines and other tools to work with leather, and set out to expand their product line.

Aprons were next. The pattern was easy because they were flat and much less complicated than the jeans.

IF CUSTOM AND QUALITY ARE WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR, YOU NEED TO GO TO HARDENCO.”

HARDENCO had become known for their customization, and the aprons were no exception.

Imagine a veteran bartender on a busy Saturday night. She’s pouring drinks, popping off bottle caps, uncorking bottles of wine - but all of her tools are loose in a stock apron pocket, and she has to fumble in the pocket, around at least one check presenter and her tips every time she needs something. HARDENCO has a solution for that. Do you always tend to reach for your wine key in the same spot every time? HARDENCO can add a pocket there. Would a loop be better? They can add a leather loop instead. HARDENCO aprons can be specified to a customer’s exact needs. The aprons can feature leather straps, affixed to the aprons with snaps, so that the straps can be removed for washing and preserve the integrity of the leather.

Providing goods for the restaurant industry is a natural fit for the guys at HARDENCO. Each of them industry veterans, they have connections to area restaurants and bars, and can get realtime feedback from their chef, server, bartender, and expeditor friends. “It’s a part of where we’re from, our circle of friends,” says Dave Marcoux. “This is the obvious path. Who knows where we’re going to go next with it?”

Next, in part, are more products for the restaurant industry. The trio has manufactured check presenters for restaurants like The Beamhouse in Glastonbury, and wine menus for Firebox in Hartford. A restaurant looking to outfit themselves with an entire suite of custom HARDENCO products can request packages of their products, including but not limited to aprons, coasters, check presenters, tote bags, menus and, of course, jeans. HARDENCO eagerly welcomes customers to come to them with ideas; the customization is a part of their identity. “If it’s sewn or leather, it’s something we can do.” HARDENCO offers free repairs for any product they make and, for really old, well-loved jeans that can no longer be repaired, they have a trade-in program.

Dave, Luke and Marshall are ready for anything. They are in a facility that has room to grow. They are full of ideas, and enthusiastically await the ideas their next customer might bring them. Sitting with the guys in their retail store, they are confident, yet eager. “We don’t even know if we’ve found our true product. We are all open to possibilities. We’re open-minded individuals and that could bring us anywhere. We’re not good at saying no.”

How to reach HARDENCO:

Manufacturing facility and retail store: 236 Hamilton Street, Hartford

Retail store hours: Monday through Friday 9am-5pm or by appointment

Products can also be found three times a year at Brimfield Antique Shows, in the Brimfield Barn.

860-880-0495 connect@hardenco.com