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To test your limits and push towards once-distant possibilities can be a humbling experience. But it can be an empowering one too. Lost on a windy shore and trying to build a sturdy shelter between the squalls—or learning to live closer to the land by tending your first food garden—you’re likely to find both constraints and capabilities that surprise you. Sitka’s Spring 2014 collection examines these scenarios at a time when we’re exploring our own boundaries and discovering new ways of doing business. A good life is an examined life, and through the last year we’ve been unraveling some of Sitka’s own presuppositions to take a deeper look at where we’ve been and where we’re going. Spending time wrapped in the solitude of the wilds—or simply digging into the necessities of life in the soil—will inevitably change one’s perspectives. And being honest with ourselves about what we want and what we can do has shown us that we can leave behind some of what we’ve learned and stick true to our own path. But what does that mean? For a start, we’re breaking out of the seasonal cycle, losing our paper trail and working to bring our production home to Canada. There are a lot of exciting options out there, and we’re embracing the freedom we have to choose. The company mantra we’ve been working with is ‘do less better.’ And you can do the same. We’re inviting you do join us on our journey to an alternative future that nourishes the community and cultivates individual needs. We’re aiming to ‘do less better’ by putting more effort into fewer products—we have less skus this season, but we’re focusing on the details to make sure each piece is flawless. We’re also bringing production closer to Sitka HQ so we can support local manufacturing, work more closely with our suppliers, and make Sitka products that our customers know will last a lifetime. Further, we’re providing the flexibility to have product arrive when you need it throughout the year, not just during the seasonal push. And we’re helping to keep the trees around by moving the majority of our ordering system online. All these adjustments are part of us learning to embrace both boundaries and possibilities while we live out the freedom of choosing our own direction. We’re getting closer to what we always dreamed Sitka would be. And we like it. Happy trails,
Sitka
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Living off the Land photographer
Alana Paterson fashion editor
Mel Greene models
Britany Simpson John Burgess spring delivery
jacket Chicory | vest Borage | t-shirt Quadrant
Alana Paterson pendulums enviably between city and country and has the portfolio to prove it. Though not based anywhere in particular, Paterson spends most of her time farming a substantial acreage on the ever-so idyllic Gabriola Island. When her hands aren’t in the dirt they’re busy taking fair and graceful photos of whatever seems to be out there. Paterson is light on her feet and not faint of heart and her eyes search for a natural light that can make even decaying top soil and dilapidated toolsheds look beckoning and sublime. – Julia Kidder dress Marigold
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jacket Chicory | vest Borage | t-shirt Quadrant | jeans Crown Denim
sweater Nataliya | skirt Nightshade
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henley Loadstone | jeans Crown Denim
shirt Acorn | tank Lilac
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shirt Acorn | trousers Barn
shirt Acorn | trousers Barn
dress Euphoric
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cardigan Meadow | dress Chamomile
dress Chamomile
sweater Urchin | shirt Acorn | trousers Barn
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Danica Lundy Floral Print www.danicalundy.com
I
grew up in the forest. My sister and I used to make homes under the trees: beds of cedar leaves, walls of twigs and old brick. There is a stream that runs through our childhood property, edged by fern cliffs, wildflowers, and a tree line that seemed to watch over us. There was a scattering of moss-covered stones that interrupted the stream’s trickle; they became thrones sometimes, or the head-tops of giants. We were queens there. We were forest warriors, creatures of the dirt and the flowers. Our little limbs were slivered and scraped by the end of the day, but each wound was a badge we wore proudly, reminding us of the wild and our time there. I sat and painted this tangle of blossoms and thought about how lucky I was to grow up in such an untamed space, surrounded by the wonders of the forest.
tank Honeysuckle | shorts DIY
dress Marigold
leggings Milkweed | sweater Urchin
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Hey Chris. Hi Ben. You got a bunch of questions? I’m glad you asked that because, yes. First off, I have been wondering where you’re from because I thought you said Singapore? Niagara Falls, Ontario. I’d like to say born and raised but that would be a lie. I was just born there then moved to Singapore with my parents. You started skating there, ya? Ya there was a bit of a scene there. I wanted to come back to Canada because I was in a Canadian school and we had always planned on moving back. Eventually I decided I needed to be where the skating was good and there was more opportunity. I ended up in Vancouver. Is that when you shaved your head and rocked baggy-ass pants? You bet. You’ve got to understand I was listening to a lot of punk music and I just dressed weird for a punk rock kid. It was like skate punk? Skate rock? Skate something? I don’t know, one of those bands. I never was into hiphop or anything. I just would get free clothes from my parents and my dad was bigger than me. Once I started getting sponsors and free clothing it was just like t-shirts and cargos and shit.
Interview – Chris Haslam interviewer
Ben Gulliver photographer
Dylan Doubt
Who was your first sponsor? y first actual American sponsor was Deca, but my first Canadian sponsor M was a shop in Vancouver called the Boarding House. I also got like Axion flow from Ultimate and World Industries from Centre. The Deca days were sick. Watched your part in ‘2nd To None’ yesterday hence the question about your shaved head days. Yea Deca must have been around for 4 years maybe? Coop (Cooper Wilt) and I got in at the tail end right when Deca was winding down so we didn’t get to do any of the tours with those dudes. Some of that warehouse footage in the film was from when I first met Daewon. Can’t remember the tricks but it was over a flat gap. Think I did tailslide heelflip on some ledge. Then the next day I met Rodney cause I think Daewon told him to come meet this weird Canadian dude with a shaved head haha. How do you feel about the skateboarding right now? Man, I have no idea. Honestly, I’ve been finding it hard to become motivated and inspired at the moment. It seems so watered down right now. Everyone is doing the most insane tricks but they all look identical. It’s like everyone can do everything so I guess it’s not what you can do, it’s how you do it. But I feel like I’d rather watch one who’s got a unique style opposed to a million guys who do a trick and they all look the same. I don’t know where it’s going to go.
like Tony Hawk, Rodney (Mullen) and Paul Schmitt will be there. There’s going to be a big display of stuff and they’re auctioning off some of Tony and Rodney’s stuff. We’re going to have a big demo on Go Skate Day. Should be really rad, I’m excited. That’s incredible. You lucky dog. What other plans do you have for the summer? Well we’ve got a trip to Whitehorse planned in July with the Sitka team and that should offer up some great times I’m sure. Going to be Brett Stobbart, Colin Nogue, Zach Barton, Fabian Merino, Shelden (Meleshinski) and Dane Pryds. So, pretty talented group of skaters. Excited to see what happens. Yeah I guess you’re the veteran in that group. Do you ever feel pressure from the younger guys? ot really, it just inspires me - skating with other upcoming dudes and N seeing what they create.
Where do you think your skating fits into that?
Being such a well-known skater, do you feel pressure from the international audience?
I don’t know, I just want to do stuff that makes an impact and that lasts. No matter who, they’re gonna film a part and it’s forgotten in like a week, you know? So that’s already going to happen, but I just want to make something that shows my best and hopefully people will remember it longer than a week. I guess that’s the least I can ask for.
Not really, it’s more just like my own work ethic that makes me feel pressure. I mean, I really just want to perform the best I can like everyone else but it’s just exhausting because I gotta have no life at home in order to do that. I’ve gotten myself into this routine of just travelling everywhere. The mental pressures of really just knowing I’m working hard at my job.
I think you’re doing a great job.
I appreciate that it’s more about your own personal work ethic more so than being popular.
Thanks buddy. Your doing such a great job that you’ve been invited to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History? Haha that’s right. I was invited through Rodney Mullen because he’s involved in an exhibit called ‘ Innoskate’. It’s a look at the invention and creativity behind skateboarding and the skateboard culture. There will be discussions on how board shapes have changed over the years as well as skateboard footwear and how skateboarding affects communities. People
You know it’s awesome having people like your stuff and being popular with people because of your skating, but after skating that means nothing. It’s your life and you gotta have fun with it and do the best you can and if people like you, they like you and if they don’t, they don’t. That’s going to come and go, but as long as you know that you did your damndest to make the best quality thing you can, they can’t take that away from you. Skating changes a lot too though, people might hate you one day and think you’re the best thing the next. You never know.
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Bryan Nash Gill (1961 – 2013)
S
itka is honoured to feature the work of the recently passed, Bryan Nash Gill. His relief print titled, ‘Leader’, is our Artist Edition t-shirt graphic for the S/S 2014 Collection. Bryan’s legacy lives on through his work and those that have been touched by his presence. Sitka deeply appreciates the opportunity to showcase Bryan’s art. www.bryannashgill.com
Bryan Nash Gill’s prints remind us that every biological form possesses a unique footprint. It’s our instinct now to attribute it to the details of the genetic code. But the distinctiveness of these woody footprints – face-prints, fingerprints, spinal-prints, whatever you choose to call them---is shaped by history, by event. In each Gill print of a natural tree-face---the surface sanded and the grain raised---you can see a tendency toward abstraction, the emerging of pure pattern. In their almost natural, blank-and-white state, you can read these prints as Rorschach blots or as topographic reliefs of very steep terrain. Gill’s art---his ability to capture the individuality of these trees---is a reminder that there is something generic or platonic in the mere working out of the life force in each organism. What separates each organism and gives it its distinctive living shape is experience.
Gill is the medium that wood has chosen to express itself. Words by Verlyn Klinkenborg from Bryan Nash Gill’s book ‘Woodcut.’
Leader, 2009 Ash, 30 ½ x 21 ½ Inches In this oblong section, the leader, or trunk, is dividing into two. The cores, surrounded by rings, create a topographical feel. A rotted branch, which was healed over in the final years of growth, is encapsulated in the lower right of the print, and at the center, remnants of bark can be found in the space between the leaders.
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LOST IN THE WOODS photographer
RenĂŠ Gauthier fashion editor
Mel Greene models
Brittany Simpson, John Burgess assistants Joel Hibbard Malou Strikwerda summer delivery
jacket Out Trip | shorts Marmot | socks Woolies | pack Duluth Collaboration
shirt Hunting | jeans Elm Denim | t-shirt Capillaris
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shirt Burdock | trousers Marmot | tank Eagle
swimsuit Ivy
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swimsuit Raquel
tunic Lavender | hat Dirty Mountain
match case Flame
t-shirt Lost in the Woods | shorts Marmot | hat Hare | sling shot Menace
Jacket Bedouin | trousers Marmot | shirt Burdock
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shirt Woodruff | trousers Marmot | camp chair Kick Back axe Granfors Collaboration
fishing vest Mustang Floater | shirt Burdock | bikini Brigitte | hat Dirty Mountain
rain slicker Allium | shirt Hunting | hat Hare
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jacket Out Trip | shorts Marmot | hat Hare
rain slicker Allium | tank Live Slow | jeans Elm Denim | socks Woolies PAGE 31
DIY
Do It Yourself
Sitka DIY is a collection that acts as a stepping-stone to encourage a more hands-on approach to choosing and adapting what you wear. Crafting is a shared culture that has been evolving for centuries. It’s been handed down from generation to generation. Creating with your own hands produces a unique article that reflects your individuality. In a time when much of the available clothing seems to come out of cookie cutter molds, break the barrier by taking to the needle and thread to create custom designs that reflect who you are and what you’re into. Sew it, staple it, stud it. You’ve got the canvas to create your own image.
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DRIFTER Be always drunken. Nothing else matters: that is the only question. If you would not feel the horrible burden of time weighing on your shoulders and crushing you to the earth, be drunken continually. Drunken with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will. But be drunken. And if sometimes, on the stairs of a palace, or on the green side of a ditch, or in the dreary solitude of your own room, you should awaken and the drunkenness be half or wholly slipped away from you, ask of the wind, or of the wave, or of the star, or of the bird, or of the clock, of whatever flies, or sighs, or rocks, or sings, or speaks, ask what hour it is; and the wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: It is the hour to be drunken! baudelaire
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Peetz Peetz has connected generations of anglers across North America since 1925. Boris C. Peetz, a Russian-born silversmith, arrived in Victoria, BC, in 1911 and built his first reels a decade later. By 1935, the BC Peetz Manufacturing Company had fishing reels and swivels as it’s main line of business. The company diversified into tackle and whole-cane rods, but it was it’s handmade wood and brass fishing reels that became North American classics. With an attention to detail, quality materials and a simple, proven design, a Peetz reel is made to stand the test of time.
FISHING Sitka is proud and honoured to collaborate with Peetz and other local Vancouver Island tackle companies who share Sitka’s philosophy: that when it comes to producing goods, quality trumps quantity. The Sitka Fishing Collection is full of gear designed to last and get people out of the supermarket and back to nature.
“Fish, I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.” – Ernest Hemingway
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PACIFIC SALMON Pacific Salmon are the life-blood of the West Coast of North America. Transporting nutrients from the open ocean and carrying them deep inland, they reproduce and provide food for the people, animals and forests; connecting ocean to land. A parallel connection exists with the annual ritual of people gathering on the coast to harvest food for their family as the salmon return. Salmon fishing is a past time shared by generations that instills a lifelong respect for salmon and all the life that it supports. Anglers and others engage in salmon enhancement and protection programs to insure that future generations will be blessed by the offerings of the sea, and in turn gain the same appreciation for what it provides.
fishing vest Mustang Floater | shirt Current | filet knife Chinook | fishing rod Golden Spruce | moocher reel Westcoast Waterman | glow plug Nite Bite
ANDREW PAINE co-founder of Sitka
“My first Peetz reel was given to me by my father, who received it from my grandfather. This one reel has put plenty of food on our family’s table and I hope it does the same for my son when it is time to pass on the family heirloom.” fishing rod Golden Spruce | moocher reel Westcoast Waterman | filet knife Chinook
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Sitka
USA
AUSTRIA
570 Yates Street Victoria, BC Canada V8W 1K8 T. +1 250 385 7873 F. +1 250 920 7873 info@sitka.ca
Pacific Northwest MGA Sales Mike Greene T. +1 425 775 8332 mkgreen@earthlink.net
Distribution of Awesomeness Chris Mangold T. +42 (0) 676 682 0700
Canada Western Canada Brendan Bennett T. +1 250 385 7873 C. +1 250 882 1654 brendan@sitka.ca ONTARIO Spearmint Pelican Sales T. +1 416 545 6724 C. +1 416 571 3133 rickb@spearmintpelican.com QUEBEC & ATLANTIC Agence JG Jon H. Genier T. +1 450 656 5454 C. +1 450 542 0396 john@agencejg.com
USA East Sandbox Charlie Kiesa C. +1 973 764 0292 charlie@sandboxmetro.com
NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA Sitka Andrew Howson T. +64 21 358 366 howson@sitka.co.nz
BENELUX Vista Mar Fashion Steven Sandberg T. +31 (0) 624 095 823 steven@vistamar-fashion.com
Nihon (JAPAN) Hemisphere Cargo Makoto Mizutani T. +81 (0) 46 877 4708
SWITZERLAND Roots Distribution Lukas Berger T. +41 (0) 34 424 06 17 Info@roots-distribution.ch
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