Agave
BC Ethic co-founder Jeff Shafer has launched a new men’s venture—Agave Jeans—with an eye on the upscale men’s denim market.
Shafer left Los Angeles-based BC Ethic last year to partner with Solitude, the Carpinteria, Calif.- based men’s and women’s label founded by former pro surfer Shaun Tomson and his wife, Carla. The company had just severed its ties with San Diego-based American Fashion and was looking to relaunch in the fall, but plans were thrown off course by the events of Sept. 11. Solitude has since been repositioned and is back on track and Shafer is now on his own with Agave, targeted to active adults in their mid-20s to early 50s, a demographic Shafer fits right into.
“This is what I wanted to do,” said Shafer. “Even when I was at BC Ethic, I always wanted to make beautiful jeans. The part of the industry I loved the most was denim. I never had the chance to do it at BC Ethic at the level I wanted to do it, because that brand wasn’t a better brand in terms of price point.”
Shafer observed that even in the current tough economic climate, the better jeans business remained strong. Instead of joining a women’s denim company and extending the line to include men’s, he decided to create a men’s denim line from the ground up.
“I saw an opportunity to make really nice denim for the men’s market after seeing what happened in the women’s market in the better price points [$120 to $180 retail],” he said. “There have been a few companies who have jumped in there, like Paper Denim & Cloth, Levi’s Premium and Seven, but ours was designed as a men’s line right from the very beginning, as opposed to a women’s line that crossed over [to men’s].”
Shafer said that he may do the reverse, adding women’s denim later—if he finds the demand from the market.
Agave was also designed around the lifestyle Shafer embraces, the spirit of the “Surf Cowboy,” combining inspirations from Old California, the American West and the California surf.
The company has even created a personality—Jake—to represent the label as designer and the embodiment of the lifestyle.
“Jake is a denim smith who has such a strong passion for denim that he started making jeans for himself first, then his friends and then for stores around town,” said Shafer. “He’s not a real guy, but he’s who I would like to be. All of his friends got stuck behind desk jobs, but he goes fishing every day and when the surf is good, he goes surfing.”
According to Shafer, Agave was created with no expense spared and with particular attention paid to details, including busted side-seam construction, solid brass hardware, a tooled leather patch and distinctive back-pocket stitch design.
“We tried to look at every detail in a jean and design it,” he said. “All of our jeans are button fly, the backs are solid raw brass, so they will never corrode and wash out, and we tried to focus on beautiful finishes, which are all done by hand. We’re shipping all of our jeans inside out to show the consumer all of the detail work and to protect the finish.”
Agave has two fits, the New Standard, which is a classic fit with a shorter rise, and the Full Cut, a relaxed fit with a straight leg. The two fits have four finishes, named after resort, adventure and surfing destinations—the Frisco, the El Rincon, the Pasa Robles and the Sierra Nevada.
Shafer said he named the line Agave for the plant from which tequila is derived because “the name Agave has instant affinity for guys who know and drink fine tequila,” adding, “Tequila and jeans, to me, go together very well.”
In addition to the jeans, Agave has some caps and T-shirts to accent the bottoms and emphasize the lifestyle of the line with logos and other art.
Agave, which retails at $115 to $150, began showing early this month, and according to Shafer, the label was picked up by the first seven stores that saw the line, including AB Fits in San Francisco.
Shafer also said that the focus is on better men’s denim stores and some of the “nicer resort shops.” The line will begin shipping at the end of this month and has already gone into production to accommodate immediate orders.
Agave was not far enough along in its production to prepare for a booth at MAGIC International, so Shafer will preview the line in a suite at the Las Vegas Hilton Aug. 27–28. For more information, call (213) 489-9838. —Darryl James
