AUTUMN HEADWEAR

INTRO BY PETER HARVIEUX | PHOTOS BY EVERYONE

Sand leads to the sky in the dust of AZ. In Flagstaff a young shop head dreams of the bigger picture and a move to California to chase new opportunities and opportunities he would find. Having landed and worked countless posts in sales, sales management, brand management, and team direction, Brad Alband has again cultivated a new collective of humans to bring forth Autumn Headwear. Spoke with Brad on all things Autumn with the first season in hand and spring around the corner he illuminates some feelings from now and shares the brands path forward.

Who's the Autumn family and how did it come to be?

It started with the feeling of wanting to create a community that highlighted the personality, creativity and style of those involved. All of those are subjective i know, but everyone involved with Autumn has a common thread that they have some form of that without even really knowing it. It goes back to a different time when teams weren’t built, but just happened because who you were and who you were hanging out with. There was no explanation, it was like a magnetic force drew everyone together. Autumn started with a good group of 10-12 riders saying they wanted to be part of it and it’s just picked up momentum from there in snow, and now we’re feeling it the same way in skate, . We know it’s just headwear, but i think the name and the group as a whole puts out a positive vibration people want to be associated with.

How has the first season of Autumn feeling?

The response has been overwhelming. I mean that in a good way. it’s coming from all over the US and Canada too. not just regional pockets. I think we’re getting a lot of people that like the art, the photography, the creative side of the brand. i think people can see we are putting out what we like and seeing what happens. It’s a brand 100% from the gut right now.

What’s been learned and now shared through the new lines?

That people are using their headwear as self-expression again. its been a pretty good run of solid color, basic beanies on everyone’s heads and brands just kept hitting the repeat button. We saw the opportunity to bring in more color, more stripes, more patterns, different fits…overall more choices. Make the category interesting. That’s the goal from a product standpoint, we want people to see our line and have a hard time choosing which one to wear because they have too many they like.

You've reached out and are creating "Share the Warmth" share your thoughts and hows the execution going?

Share the Warmth is our part of trying to do more. We’re partnering with homeless organizations in 3 cities and distributing free beanies in the fall. We’re starting with 1,000 and hoping to grow that number signifigantly every year, both the beanies we giveaway and the cities we work with We knew we wanted to do more than just make stuff. sell stuff. market stuff. it became an internal question of what is a brand’s responsibility these days? there’s environmental. Social. We looked inward and said, what can we do that helps people in the communities directly where we live and work? then let’s take it from there and build on it.

Caught wind a spring collection is dropping, how do you see Autumn in Summer?

I think collection by collection, season by season, the lines are blurring about what a brand is supposed to do and be. We’re going to release some hats and new artist series tees this April. Response so far from the right retailers has been good. we proved ourselves with the launch and they’re giving us the opportunity to see if the same customers come back for something other than a beanie. Our fate now lies in the customers hands haha.

Must take a village to run a start up, any love you want to share?

If you like what we’re doing and you see Jeff Richards, Benny Pellegrino, Jack Stevens or Pinner at Brighton or Snowbird, on a chair, in the lot…get ‘em a beer and say thanks.