FREE ADVENTURE MAGAZINE / Presents...
HOUSE of
Nolan Calisch
welcome
“Nau” means “welcome” in some language you probably don’t speak, but that’s ok because you know what it means. Welcome is the gesture you make when you invite people into your home. It’s also the gesture you make when you welcome adventure into your life. Some days we welcome it by grabbing the handlebars, standing up on our boards, or getting geared up to set out for wilderness. While other days we welcome adventure at a desk, in an email, or by leaving our easy jobs to take a pay cut and work for the greater good. This is the story of Nau. A clothing company who welcomed adventure and let us into their home. We came across some stuff that we found interesting and turned it into what you’re holding. We’ve never told a story like this before—it’s kind of scary doing new things. [Deep breath.] Here we go. -Stay Wild Magazine
UNFUCK THE WORLD, INC. This was Nau’s original name for the company. No, really it was. We checked!
Let’s be honest. We are fucking up our beautiful garden planet. What’s wrong with us? We know better. We know the story of Easter Island cutting down its last tree. We’ve seen the disaster porn movies on what happens when the ice caps melt.
Let’s be better. We designed ourselves into this mess, so let’s design our way out of it. Let’s be smart about how we make the stuff that helps us live our lives to the fullest on our garden planet. Nau considers the environmental and social impact of their products long before their needles ever meet the fabric. It’s just better that way.
“ WE USE DESIGN AS A POWERFUL TOOL FOR CHANGE.”
Nolan Calisch
-Mark Galbraith, Nau’s General Manager
Nau makes nice clothes. Their standards are higher than the rest of the outdoor and fashion industries. It’s nicer on the environment and it’s nicer than wearing dorky gear covered in logos.
nice
Greg Comollo
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nice smart
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smart
Tyson Wipper
Nau makes smart clothes, but that’s kind of stupid. It’s hard to be smart. It’s inventing things that don’t even exist. And it’s expensive as shit! Nau strives to make better even when they can fail harder, because it will still elevate the conversation.
Nolan Calisch
“SUSTAINABILITY COMES STANDARD” This is Nau’s mission statement. It’s probably yours too.
“Sustainability” is a word we don’t see much of these days. It’s gone the way of “out-of-the-box,” “synergy,” “green,” and all other buzzwords brand marketing has used and abused. Nau was founded at the peak of sustainability marketing in 2007, but it’s way more than a buzzword for them. It’s the foundation of their design principles, it’s in their fabric, and it’s in the 2% of every sale they make that goes back to the environment and community. For Nau, sustainability comes built in with doing good business.
The truth is in their fabric. Are you resourceful? Do you roll up to camp and make a fire by using gasoline and a blowtorch? That’s not very resourceful*. Nau uses renewable, certified organic and recycled matterials. This limits the environmental impact of making new stuff. Nau is resourceful. That’s how they’ve come up with some awesome innovations in materials like recycled down. *Pro tip: Be resourceful and use this book to start your campfire.
RECYCLED DOWN You know why we all recycle right? Well, apply those virtues to this reused goose and duck down.
ORGANIC COTTON This stuff is as soft and breathable as conventional cotton. Plus, it doesn’t poison the ground it’s grown in. Heck yeah!
WOOL Wool comes from hairy mammals just like you; it’s natural, renewable, and versatile in a wide range of conditions.
MICROMODAL® Strange word to describe silky fabric made from beechwood trees. Trees are cool because they keep growing.
2% 2% isn’t that much,
but it’s 2% more than your standard jacket gives to unfuck the world.
2% OF EVERY SALE NAU MAKES GOES TO ONE THESE PARTNERS FOR CHANGE MERCY CORPS Working with local communities to promote citizen participation, champion peaceful change, and deliver emergency relief. PEOPLE FOR BIKES Making bicycling an easy choice that’s good for communities, health, and a solution to societal and environmental challenges.
ECOTRUST Building economies through three
powerful pathways for change: knowledge, technology, and capital.
ASHOKA Cultivating the world’s most innovative ideas and passionate leaders in order to rapidly bring social change.
BREAKTHROUGH INSTITUTE A paradigm-shifting think tank committed to accelerating the role of modern environmentalism.
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Who lives in the UPPER LEFT TO RIGHT // MARK GALBRAITH, GENERAL MANAGER // SUSAN SROFE, TECHNICAL DESIGNER // KYLE DUFORD, DIRECTOR OF ECOMMERCE // GREG KEELING, DIRECTOR OF SALES // LISA KOBLEGARDE, PRODUCTION MANAGER // BRETT DAMKROGER, OPERATIONS MANAGER LOWER LEFT TO RIGHT // NICK LAWRENCE, MARKETING MANAGER // TYSON WIPPER, ART DIRECTOR // KRISTEN OLSON, ECOMMERCE PRODUCER // JAMIE BAINBRIDGE, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT AND SUSTAINABILITY // ALLISON ROSS, CREATIVE DIRECTOR // BRYANNA WOLL, WHOLESALE SALES AND MARKETING
UPPER LEFT TO RIGHT // CARMA FERRIER, DESIGNER // DH LEE, VICE PRESIDENT // JUN KANG, PRESIDENT // ALISON WU, COPYWRITER LOWER LEFT TO RIGHT // EPIPHANY COUCH, CUSTOMER & DEALER SERVICE // AURORA BLANCHARD, ACCOUNTANT // PETER KALLEN, DESIGNER // JENNY CHERNEY, TECHNICAL DESIGNER
Tyson Wipper
house of Nau?
Nolan Calisch
JUN SUK KANG NAU’S NEW PRESIDENT
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e met at a coffee shop in Northwest Portland, home to the first coffee Jun Kang sipped after coming to Nau. He told us the founder’s story of an independent mountain climber who went rogue and started manufacturing his own gear. This is the story of Jun’s father, Tae Sun Kang, the president of Black Yak—the Korean-based outdoor brand that bought Nau in 2013. Jun grew up in a household where toys were carabineers and other climbing gear his dad developed to scale the Himalayas and Alps. Rather than repeating history, Jun used his personal expertise to lead the family business into the global market. He pushed to open flagship offices throughout Europe. This success as a global brand enabled Black Yak to buy Nau. The purchase wasn’t just a smart business move, it was a love story. Jun first came across Nau in 2007 at Nau’s Chicago store while attending college in Madison, Wisconsin. He fell in love with the whole concept of merging the outdoor and fashion markets. But Jun lost touch with Nau once he moved back to Korea. Years later, when Jun saw the opportunity to purchase Nau, he leapt for it. Sure, it took him over a year to convince his dad, but in the end, his passion for Nau made it all happen. Jun has a desk in Europe, Asia, and Portland, Oregon. He is Nau’s warm handshake to the rest of the world. He’s 33 years old, ready to take Nau to the global market, and well-caffeinated.
Nolan Calisch
ALLISON ROSS NAU’S CREATIVE DIRECTOR
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e met at a fancy new building near Portland’s Pearl District where Allison Ross lives. It’s a screen printing studio with a tiny living space upstairs. The sign above the door has a simple design of one hand pointing its finger straight up and another hand making an “OK” shape. Allison told her neighbors it means, “If I’m not down stairs, it’s OK, I’m upstairs.” Truth is though, the sign is a dirty joke. Go ahead make those shapes with your hands, now stick the pointing finger into the “OK” hole. Get it? Allison is Nau’s new creative director and she’s taking the brand into a whole new direction. She’s a creative genius that defines herself as “(f)un-professional.” But don’t be fooled by her fun-making shenanigans, she means business. Nike, Burton, Lululemon, Planned Parenthood, and some of your favorite brands & bands have all trusted their stories to be told by Allison. Her work connects with people on a primal undecorated level. We watched her screen print a design she made with scissors and black paper of heads connecting in a pattern that would go on as long as she kept printing. Nau’s never had graphics or crazy bold patterns in their work before, but with Allison creative directing it seems like that’s about to change. She said that might be the case “when it’s right for the story.” Allison’s refrigerator is full of screen printing emulsion. Her hands are grimy from mixing paint. Her house is a work space with a dirty joke hanging above the front door. You can’t stop her from making Nau more fun. It’s already happening.
Nolan Calisch
MARK GALBRAITH NAU’S GENERAL MANAGER CO-FOUNDER / WELDER
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e met in a garage full of tools, welding equipment, and everything else you’d need to build a biodiesel adventuremobile by hand. When Mark Galbraith needs something, he makes it. He’s a super practical guy who doesn’t come from the art side of design. He might be so practical that it makes him look like a dreamer. As he climbed onto the roof of his adventuremobile to show us how strong the roll bar he made was, we heard the guy across the street say; “our neighbor is crazy.” Mark is crazy in the best possible way. It’s crazy to put high level philanthropy before profit, but that’s what Mark did when he left his job as Product Line Director for Technical Product at Patagonia to start Unfuck The World, Inc. (later renamed Nau). His intention was to build a new business model, one that challenges and changes the inherent problems built into traditional business models. What looks like crazy is actually rising to the challenge to survive. When Mark drives his adventuremobile Southwest to camp, surf, mountain bike, canyoneer and explore he’s also looking for old ruins, rock art, and artifacts from people who have come before us and managed to survive with limited natural resources. Mark has the same outlook on survival as these people in the way that he designs simply sensible functional items that won’t exhaust natural resources. Mark is holding the torch for Nau, but he’s no poser. He’s got his sleeves rolled up working with the group to unfuck the world.
Nolan Calisch
JAMIE BAINBRIDGE NAU’S DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT AND SUSTAINABILITY
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e met the day after a violent wind storm. Trees had fallen all over the neighborhood cutting off the electricity to Jamie Bainbridge’s house. But that didn’t faze Jamie as she knitted some socks and talked to us about overseeing Nau’s products from start to finish. Jamie comes from a science background with a forestry degree. She knows natural resource management, so she knows that most of the environmental impacts of Nau’s product comes from the fabric. She wants labels styled like nutritional fact lists on every article of clothing so we can all see how much water it takes to make a white t-shirt. The idea is to put environmental stewardship into the very fabric our clothes are made of—and make sure the consumer gets that. Her point was roughly illustrated in a Kurdish dowery blanket hanging on her wall. Each section of the blanket looked different because the wool came from different sheep with varying lengths of hair donated by different woman in the village. Despite the differences, all the wool had been died the same shade of green because the sheep ate the same grass. No matter how far this blanket traveled, or how it was used, we could see what went into making it just by looking at it. The power might have come back on while we were at her house, but sitting by the fireplace in the light of her south-facing windows, watching Jamie knit, we didn’t need electricity.
Nolan Calisch
PETER KALLEN NAU’S DESIGN DIRECTOR
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e met at the top of a volcano in the middle of Portland. Peter Kallen wanted to meet us on top of Mt. Tabor because he thinks best outside. Plus, Peter used to skate the volcano’s slopes as a kid. He has such deep roots in Portland’s skate scene that he even helped contribute to building the Burnside Skatepark—the city’s first skatepark, created by the skate community guerilla-style without waiting for city approval—by digging ditches and smoothing out cement. Like us, he loves working with his hands. Peter started sewing his own gear when he got into downhill ski racing and going to punk shows downtown. Making clothes for those two different activities might seem unrelated, but it’s that kind of cultural collision that Peter thrives on. “I’m on this eternal quest to have fewer things that do more,” is one of the core motivations behind the apparel he designs at Nau. As a designer, Peter pulls inspiration from nature way more often than trend forecasts. Although he knows what colors are being slated as popular by the industry, he’s more likely to work with a shade of lichen he saw growing in New Mexico. He pulls a lot of color from what he calls “fucked up neutrals” —all shades of grey drawn from driftwood, Oregon Coast sand, and the thousands of grays captured in Portland’s sky. Peter wants you to feel natural in his clothes. He doesn’t make stuff that totally insulates you from experiencing the intensity of the natural environment, but rather helps you push deeper into feeling that intensity. He wants you to feel the wind in your hair as you stand on top of a volcano ready to skate down it without any hesitation.
Nolan Calisch
PORTLAND, OREGON NAU’S HEADQUARTERS
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e met in Portland. It’s a small city made of neighborhoods that bleed into each other, so it didn’t take long for Stay Wild and Nau to cross paths. Portland is a blend of everything Nau aims to incorporate into its product: unbridled creativity, unabashed honesty, and wild uncensored natural areas. From the smell of bitter roasting coffee mixed with morning fog rolling down from the nearby snow-capped giant, Mt.Hood, to the sounds of inventive new bands practicing in old industrial buildings by the Willamette River waterfront—Portland’s heartbeat is in time with Nau’s. Sure, Lewis and Clark may have missed it not once, but twice, while exploring new ports on the way to the Pacific Ocean—but that didn’t stop this city from growing from a muddy rest stop on a Native American fishing trail, to the green breeding ground of weird and brilliant ideas it is today. Historically speaking, Portland attracts people looking for opportunity. This is the end of the Oregon Trail. Pioneers come here looking for the frontier, only to find it inside themselves. As long as pioneers keep coming to this city with pockets full of dreams, hopes, and new ideas—the Oregon Trail will remain endless. That’s what makes this city so fucking awesome. We are the frontier we’ve all been searching for. When you look around at the awesome things we do in this city, it’s so obvious why Nau buried its roots here. Nau’s headquarters are in Portland because Nau is a pioneer.
Nolan Calisch
This is Nau’s logo. You won’t find it printed across the chest or forehead of anything they make. What they make and how they make it is more important than having their trademark on your body.
Nolan Calisch
“Nau” means “welcome” in a language you speak fluently. It’s the language of deeds, not words. Nau is unfucking the world with the work they do. They’ll do it as long as people believe in it. We believe in Nau. We believe in the people behind it. Thank you for letting us show you around their house.
-Stay Wild Magazine
“OUR GREATEST HUMAN ADVENTURE IS THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS”
− TOM ROBBINS