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our vision

Just 4 years ago our vision was to get our town making jeans again. A small welsh town over looking Cardigan Bay. 400 of our people had made jeans for 30 years and then one day the factory closed. It left town. But all that skill and knowhow remained. Without anyway of showing the world what they could do. This could of lead to creative combustion. That’s why we started the Hiut Denim Company. To bring manufacturing back home. And to breathe new life into our town.

We make jeans. That’s it. Nothing else. No distractions. Nothing to steal our focus.

No kidding ourselves that we can be good at everything. No trying to conquer the whole world. We just do our best to conquer our bit of it.

I love quality. I love longevity. I love good design. I love ideas. I love this town. But most of all, I love that I can wrap all these things up into a pair of jeans. I love how each cut, rip or splash of paint tells its own little story. And I love how they have become the uniform for the creative man and woman of the world.

The important thing with a vision is to recognise which are the good ideas and which are the great ones. You have to be a good filter. Say no often. The things you don’t do will define you just as much as the things that you say yes to.

Be in control of your own destiny. William Blake said it best “you need to create your own system or be enslaved by another man’s”.

At Hiut we live for creativity. We love visions. Use the space on the back of this newspaper to start creating your vision.

Write it. Draw it. Make the first steps.

Pin it on your wall. Share it with us once accomplished. share the story of your vision with us at www.hiutdenim/myvision.co.uk

It Makes me feel alive It takes me on a journey And leads me to unexpected places Like an adventure It Pulls me It motivates me It wakes me at 3am It’s the sun behind the clouds I wonder and I wonder To explore the possibilities My vision is close I feel it, One day I shall see it My vision will become reality My reality, my vision.

By Kerrie Reeves

share the story of your vision with us at www.hiutdenim/myvision.co.uk

a man with a vision David Hieatt Interview By Kerrie Reeves

d

avid Hieatt is one of those people that I can’t decide if I would like to be in his mind or not. David is the Co founder of Hiut Denim Company along with his wife, Claire.You can almost see the cogs continuously turning through his forehead.

It looks exhausting, yet this man is so awake. So alive. David is not only the mind behind Hiut but also The Do Lectures, an inexplicable cross section between a festival and a conference. There are no name badges, no bad coffee and impersonal, draughty lecture halls. Instead, an intimate number of speakers and attendees gather under canvas on the west coast of Wales and share a three day experience as a community. “To share ideas we can accelerate change.” The Do Lectures have had some of the worlds leading geniuses as guest speakers including Tim Berners-Lee, the guy who invented the World Wide Web. It is now run over three separate continents, California USA, Glen Valley Australia and Cardigan Wales. So where do Hiut Denim Company and The Do Lectures come together?

Hello David, Firstly can you tell me about when you first had your vision for Hiut?

Well I suppose a lot f things came together, 1, myself and Claire leaving Howies, the other thing that came together was the factory that used to employ 400 people making jeans closed in 2001 and the 3rd thing that came together was smart phones and the internet. If you imagine those three things in circles where they converge was a thing called Hiut Denim Company, because our town could make jeans, Claire and myself had a pretty good idea how to sell them and the 3rd circle, the Internet letting you sell to your customer. Without those three things coming together there would be no Hiut denim company. Hiut Denim, the mission and the aim, the reason it gets out of bed in the morning is how do we go and get 400

I’m a great believer that your dreams should really scare you.

people their jobs back?

Sometimes I think wow is that possible? I do genuinely believe that it is possible because of the world we live in right now, because every one has got a smart phone. If you have a great product and you have a great story and you can use these tools that are given to us free and master them, then you can speak to your customer. What used to be really difficult things to start, really expensive things to start, suddenly you can be the small guy and look like the big guy on the Internet. A lot of life is about timing and if we tried this in 2005 we probably would have failed because not many people had a smart phone but now our frustration with the internet is that its not fast enough although its a lot faster than it was two years ago. So it was that moment where, we realised you could actually go and make, and in affect we all get a second chance and our town got a second chance to make jeans, they had a second chance to run a business. In life if you get a second chance you know how important it is to get it right.

In those early days what where some of your first steps to turn your vision into reality?

The first thing I did was find the people to enable us to make, so I told the newspaper that we were going to start making jeans again and that was front page news the next day. Then I had email after email saying, “ I want to make jeans, I want to make jeans again” So we collected all those emails wrote back to them and interviewed them. It was that really because unless they had the desire to make again it was a beautiful notion that wouldn’t of worked.

How important do you think it is to have a vision?

Well its probably incredibly important, because if you imagine going to a train station and you don’t know where you want to go you’re definitely not going to get there.

A vision is just like a map, even if it’s really hard to get there you’re vision guides you.

I would find it hard if people wanted to achieve things without one, id be really surprised.

Often I have an idea that I’m really passionate about, I can envision working at it for the rest of my life, and so often once the ideas process has fizzled out and I have accomplished my vision the passion wears off.The passion seems short lived. How do you think you know when you have a real passion, one that will last, one that that won’t fade?

Creative people have lots of ideas and actually what we really love is setting up a business, doing the logo doing all that stuff and then there’s the other things perhaps the less glamorous thing of actually building the business. There’s the initial excitement but then there’s the relentless slog of building something and that’s less glamorous and I think that’s the problem with creative people they get a bit board after the initial phase is done but the real genius is making that idea alive. And that’s called hard work and hard graft, I’ve not found a substitute for it I would love to find one but there doesn’t seem to be one so you get up at 6am and you work hard.

To answer your question probably the ones that stick with you, the idea that won’t leave you something inside you says this is important to you. I think you need to find what matters to you and your instinct probably tells you in about 10 seconds.

That instinct is rarely wrong and yes we get seduced by other ideas now and again but the one that you stick with is the one that matters to you most.

Is there a way of finding that great vision, idea, passion?

I think you have to ask your self some interesting questions, when I do my course I get people to draw three circles, what is my skill? The next circle is, what is my passion? And the third circle is what is it you’ve seen that others haven’t? This is where your vision comes in, where those three circles collide is where you’re most alive. So the question you should ask your self is what matters to me most? And how do I spend my time doing the thing that matters to me most? Invariably a lot of people spend a huge amount of time doing things they have to do rather than they want to do and they have good excuses like ‘I have to pay the mortgage I’ve got this and that’ but those barriers are ultimately put there by us and they have to be taken down by us.

If you have a big mortgage sell your house, rent, live somewhere cheap, don’t have a posh car.

If you’ve spent your 40 years in work doing something you did for money but didn’t love that’s a really bad example for your kids.

The biggest value apart from your health is time, so if you can say to your self ‘I spend my time really well’ then you’ve lived a really successful life.

You have been running Hiut for 4 years now, is your passion still as strong as when you first started out?

Yes I’m pretty good at endurance. I’m pretty good at sticking with things. I’m pretty stubborn. I seldom quit on something. When we set out on Hiut it was a very clear goal, to get 400 people their jobs back and as we sit out here in the sunshine feeling ever so proud of ourselves that we’ve got 15 people their jobs back, that does mean there’s 385 to go and find. Even getting to 15 is hard, a lot of people don’t get to that point but we can’t sit here and relax and say, yeah were

we’re making jeans for some of the most creative rock bands in the world supper cool, the companies profitable we’re making a good name

because we’ve still got 385 people to get their jobs back so were not even a tenth of where we’re supposed to be, so yes the passions still there.

You have written a book, Do - Purpose – Why Brands with a Purpose, Do Better and Matter More. Can you explain how this concept is used within Hiut?

The book is about purpose driven companies and our purpose is very clear. The clarity is there and the clarity is also to do that by having ideas so there’s double clarity. We use it in terms of some certain techniques, when you don’t have a marketing budget you’ve got to use the thing called the multiplier which is essentially spending a penny and getting a pound back and that stems from doing

So have really brave ideas rather than average ones because in the digital world average sinks to the bottom faster than its ever done before. Digital is quite binary; it’s either brilliant or shit! There is nothing in between. really interesting work.

So does the purpose come first or the business idea?

I think its difficult to separate the both, ultimately you want to do the business idea because its something you want to do and what you want to do is driven by your purpose. It’s quite hard to separate them both. I know a lot of people say I’m just doing this to make money and that’s good enough for them. I think there’s a bunch of us that need greater motivation than just money alone, don’t get me wrong we need to run businesses that make money just like the human being needs to breath but its not the reason we get out of bed in the morning, its just a by product of what we do. They are like a left leg and a right leg. Purpose is long lasting it’s the feel for the journey when the journey is sometimes difficult.

You run The Do Lectures,You have written a book and Own a Jeans Company, You must be very busy! Do you have a preference of which you enjoy?

I suppose the thing that puts the food on my table is Hiut and it’s really important to me looking after the team, the quest is really important getting the town making jeans again but in a way The Do Lectures provides beauty where it’s a very innocent thing. I love learning and I love meeting amazing people so it’s a very beautiful thing whether it’s a business or not I’m not sure? Perhaps needs to be, actually both give me immense satisfaction I love them both it’s a bit like choosing which daughters the favourite, tricky!

1 Find something you love doing 2 Spend as much time learning to do it well 3 Go and do it for yourself

You clearly have a very creative mind, what is it about running the businesses that drives you, I mean why not sit and paint a picture?

I think business can solve most of our problems.

I love business.

I suppose what I love about business is having those ideas and the other bit of genius is not just having the idea but the execution of the idea, you’re kind of critical. I always have loved being an entrepreneur really it comes from a very early baptism of fire in it. I haven’t lost that love of it. I like selling and I like taking an idea and seeing if I can make a difference with it.

You Co-founded Howies clothing company with your wife Claire, and now Hiut.What is it about fashion that pulls you to work in the industry?

I’m not that interested in fashion in terms of like every one else is. I’ve got my

I love the world where you build something that is classic and over time it just gets more beautiful.

eyes wide open to it and understand it. I don’t love that world.

Doing the jeans thing now is as fashionable as I want to get. Howies was just a vehicle of ideas it was perhaps more of an ideas company than a clothing company if I was being honest. Any idea needs a vehicle to go take it somewhere and clothing was a good vehicle for Howies. The jeans is another great vehicle for us because we love them, were very geeky on them, for me its one of the rare pieces of clothing I’m interested in just because there’s so many nuances to it whether you’re a non washer whether its plantation denim whether its red cast or green cast whether or grey cast or organic or prewashed or sanforized. There’s a ton of things that make it very geeky. It’s also the uniform for that ideas person and I quite like being the jeans maker for the change

Those people that change the world are wearing jeans; all I want is for them to be ours. maker.

Do you have 3 pieces of advice that you would give to someone starting out?

Interview By Kerrie Reeves

Photographed by Lauren Quinn Styled by Kerrie Reeves Modelled by Paul Reeves

Selvedge Denim Hack@ Slim fit ÂŁ230.00

A slim fitting five pocket jean made from raw selvedge 14.5 oz denim. It’s woven on a 1959 shuttle loom from Kuroki the iconic Japanese mill. 100% indigo dyed, slub selvedge that gives those little imperfections that go to make a great looking jean.

The coin pocket is designed to fit an iPhone 5. We have made the back pocket a little smaller and a little higher, which looks better.

Button fly. Key stress points are bar-tacked for extra strength. The hems are chain stitched. 100% cotton.

Made in Wales.

Photographed by Lauren Quinn Styled by Kerrie Reeves Modelled by Paul Reeves

Why great coffee helps make a great jean.

Before we could make a great jean, we had to create a culture where excellence would be expected.

We did that by surrounding ourselves with it.

The award winning CD system had to be the best fidelity. Each sewing machine was enclosed with a pitch pine workstation. We created a wall of heroes and put the pictures of inspiring inventors, musicians, designers, and entrepreneurs to watch over us while we made our jeans.

And yes, we had a coffee machine put in to make a great cup of the dark stuff made with the finest coffee beans we could buy.

Even the factory itself doesn’t look like a normal factory. It is precise, clean, and orderly.

If you want to be excellent, surround yourself with excellence.

Like a good indigo, that stuff rubs off on you.

Selvedge Denim

Photographed by Lauren Quinn Styled by Kerrie Reeves

p

rofile

Cerys John Age 23 Apprentice How are you enjoying being the first apprentice at The Hiut Denim Company?

It’s really good actually, they are so warm and welcoming here, they invite a lot of people here all the time for different reasons so it feels very friendly. It’s quite an exciting company it’s been really cool so far and feels good to be part of it. Its got a close family feeling.

What are some of your passions in life?

Growing up it was always art and music and then from a teenager I became interested in sewing. I watched Project Catwalk and Project Runway, I really liked them but I never really saw myself being able to do that as a

but then my Mum got me a second hand sewing machine off Ebay,

job

so I just messed about with bits of fabric. I was working in crappy jobs. I was waitressing for years, It didn’t really click that I could go to college and do sewing. I had it in my head that I was going to start a business so I went to college and completed an extended Diploma in Fashion and Textiles. I then went on to do and apprenticeship in Fashion Apparel.

Do you feel that this apprentice has given you a good opportunity?

Definitely! Especially for this area, although I had done stuff in college to work in this industry, I thought I would have to move away. I didn’t know about this place then. Without this I would still be waitressing. David’s plans are for the business to grow so it would be cool for me to grow with the business, I don’t feel that I’m always going to be at apprentice level, I can work my way up.

If you could do anything in the world what would it be?

I would like to be more fearless and join my friends that are travelling, living life to the full. They don’t really care about getting a career at the moment.

Be less scared.

What are your visions for the future?

In the future when I’m older and wiser I’d like to start my own business making clothes, it scares me a bit at the moment. The clothes I want to design and make are not very mainstream, it would be something different. I don’t see the point in me hand crafting something that you can buy in a high-street shop for a fraction of the price. I think you need something different.

What have been the most enjoyable parts of your job?

Learning definitely learning, although I can sew and come from a sewing back

a pair of jeans seams like such a simple item, in your wardrobe but if you look at the detail that are in a pair of jeans, there’s so much to learn. ground,

I’m asking them questions all the time they have got a lot of knowledge to offer.

What’s the most difficult or least enjoyable part of your job?

The pressing, although doing that before you even sew you see all the different aspects of the garment, all the different pieces and you gain an

understanding of it before you even go to sew. However your hands absolutely

Denim is quite a hard fabric and your trying to manipulate it with quite a heavy steam iron, my hands are very painful at the end of the day.

kill.

my hands will adjust to it.

I’ve only been here a couple of weeks and I’m sure

What are the 3 most important things to you in your life?

Family My own happiness

Gaining knowledge, learn as much as you can, try not to take a step back from things that go on in the world, I think knowledge is power.

Interview and Photography by Kerrie Reeves

The Stelsby - Skinny Cut - ÂŁ124.99 Photographed by Lauren Quinn Modelled & Styled by Kerrie Reeves

Photographed by Lauren Quinn Styled by Kerrie Reeves Modelled by Paul Reeves

Life beyond vanilla Without ideas, we would have only one flavour of ice cream. One way to build a bridge. One way to play rock music. One way to make coffee.

One way to make a computer. One way to write. One way to take a photograph. One way to make art. One way to look at a problem.

The status quo would prevail.

Life would be easy and predictable.

Ideas, and the people who have them, can’t live in that world. They are the antidote to comfort zones.

They try new things. They break rules. They swim against the tide. They don’t follow another man’s path. They find their own.

David Hieatt

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