Visiting the Majestic Athletic Factory in Easton, Pennsylvania

 This blog post is in partnership with Majestic Athletic + MLB.

When something curious drops into your inbox an eyebrow can often be raised. Too good to be true? A spammy scattergun email approach? But these emails can often be worth a second glance. A few months back I had one of those emails staring back at me. It started with sometime along the lines of, "...we think you'd be perfect for an exciting project we're working on with Majestic Athletic and Major League Baseball". Whoa. They got me hooked.

After several phone calls, brainstorm sessions and small bits of pre-project photography I found myself boarding a plane heading to New York, in preparation of meeting up at the small city of Easton, Pennsylvania, with the Majestic Athletic team, a production crew from London + my stalwart travel buddy – and photographer for the project – Jordan Bunker.

The idea behind the project was to document the journey which Majestic Athletic's iconic US-made baseball jerseys go through to finish up on the backs of professional players of MLB and the millions of fans worldwide. From the cutting room floor to the finishing room of Easton, PA, to the final product on the MVP players at Yankees stadium in New York. We'd follow the process, from start to finish.

An integral part of this brief was to also look further than the product; to dig deeper and find out more about the people that make this all happen. Who were the personalities behind each step of the production, what makes this small blue-collar town really tick and how this historical factory effects wider community.

As a last minute surprise I was told that I'd have a hand in creating my very own Majestic Cool Base Jersey. I'd shadow the whole process, from the tailoring and fitting to sewing down the name + numbers on the back. This was going to be a fun day!

 Resident tailor Micheal Pannuccio was on-hand to take my measurements for my custom Cool Base Jersey

 Myself + the adorable "Button Babe" Lori J. Smith after my attempts of sewing buttons onto a one of the jerseys

A 4:30am start on the day of filming was quite a shock to the system. But, we were there to shadow the working day of some of the Majestic factory's most invaluable workforce – we were on their time. From the 6am clock-in and mid-morning precision at the cutting table, to the magically rhythmic sewing team and the all-important quality control stations – seeing this US production line in action was an experience not to be forgotten.

Easton's community spirit runs deep throughout the Majestic fleet. These guys have been responsible for creating the official MLB jerseys in the factory since 1976. We spoke with Plant Manager Mark Todd about the buzz he gets when seeing the MLB players hitting home runs on TV while wearing jerseys made on his floor, and watching the charismatic "Button Babe" Lori J. Smith sew the mother of pearls on faster than you'd ever imagine. The day was filled with these short but memorable interactions; each worker connected by a passion for their job and the drive to hone their craft.

Travel Diary | What I Learned From Travelling Around Japan

This post is a little later than I planned, but what with us flying over to Las Vegas to plan our wedding and it being so flipping hot in England, everything has been running a little slower. For this travel diary I wanted to take a different angle to what I'd normally do. With Japan being so far away and somewhere that you definitely need to plan for, I want to put together a list of things that we learned in the 10 days we spent traveling around Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, as well as a few of our top tips.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has been to Japan, or if you're thinking about going soon?

Take Recommendations, But Find Your Own Way

Tokyo is massive. With every district comes different interpretations of city guides and things to do, but with an economy which moves so fast it's hard to for guides to keep up. Before we left for Japan Yasumi gave us some sound advice, "Don't worry about following specific guides. Recommendations are great but businesses come and go every single month, so the chances are that you'll be disappointed. Just go explore on your own!". 

Wander Down the Backstreets

We were in Japan on business, but as it was a research project for Dan's furniture brand we constantly on the lookout for inspiration. Having Yasumi's advice in the back of our minds worked out perfectly, and as we weaved in and out of the cities backstreets – especially in Harajuku – we came across all sorts of coffee shops, design studios, independent stores, local makers, intriguing characters.

Take Artless Craft for instance; a beautifully designed coffee + tea shop in central Harajuku. We spent a good hour chatting to the owners about their design business (just behind the coffee shop), football, and how the city is constantly changing...

Travel | The People of Japan

Fellas hanging outside Green Angle in Harajuku

Since flying home from Japan around three weeks ago things got a little manic. You take 10 days away from work and some crazy backlog situation starts going down! Anyway, I'm still playing catch-up but I've just been going through the first set of images from mine and Dan Marc's travels across Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.

Japan was like no other place I'd been, and the People of Japan quickly became fascinating to us. The street kids in Harajuku, business-types of downtown Toyko,  endless stream of faces on the crossings, street buskers, service workers, business owners, toddlers holding tightly on to their mums, the calm natured attitude of Kyoto, colour festival goers in Asakusa and everything in between.

Here's some of our favourite characters and groups that we came across, in what was one of the most memorable trips I've ever taken. We'll be sure to share some more from our travels very soon.

As cool as you like, just near Shibuya Crossing

 We were visited some cool spots in Shibuya with Tetsuya of Buddy

The evening light in Toyko was perfect

Wearing - Brooks Brothers T-Shirt | Barbour Chinos | Backpack c/o Eastpak | Universal Works Tote | Nike Tennis Flyknit c/o size?

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American Craftsmen in Britain | Jocks&Nerds x Shinola

 
The importance of inspiration for bloggers and designers can’t be underestimated. We’re always on the look out for things that capture our imagination, provide us with motivation, and give direction to the work we do - be it writing, photography or design.

This is so clear when you look at the work on Buckets & Spades and the passions of our contributors, like Yasumi. As Mat mentioned in our previous article on Shinola, he’s curious by nature; searching the web and sifting through information to find that spark of inspiration. It’s not just online though. Inspiration comes from the places we visit and the people we meet. And if we can’t meet these people, hearing about them comes a close second.

Men’s style magazine Jocks&Nerds, teaming up with the Community of Craft and Shinola, have brought us pure inspiration with their website, American Craftsmen in Britain. It’s a fascinating concept: understanding the reasons why craftsmen from one country are applying their craft in another, how this change of geography influences their work and their product, and importantly, what makes them ‘tick’. 

Hearing stories from people with a passion for their work, their product, and their industry, is the inspiration we look for and thrive on.

“I’d rather spend my time raising plants to understand the life cycle of my ingredients than sit in marketing meetings. As long as my hands are connected to the soil, I know I’m still making a craft product. I’m overjoyed that people are appreciating it today.”

- Jared Brown, drinks historian and master distiller, Sipsmith Independent Distillers, London.

It’s an uplifting read and one that I think will have a lot of people questioning the work they do now, how it can be tweaked, improved, adopted, or perhaps changed altogether. Whatever people take away from the site American Craftsmen in Britain, I can guarantee it will be positive. It definitely has me thinking about 2015 and what I need to do to keep life moving in new and interesting directions - I’m sure it’s had the same impact on Mat.

New interviews will be added to AmericanCraftsmen in Britain, so keep an eye out. We're expecting to hear more about the people who continue to inspire us to push ourselves a little further, especially with those projects we've only managed to note down on paper. I for one can’t wait to see how the project progresses.

About Jocks&Nerds:

Jocks&Nerds is a quarterly print men's style magazine. Read online here, for your nearest stockist visit here.

This post is in partnership with Jocks&Nerds. Thank you for taking the time to support the businesses that make this blog happen.

You can find Nik at - Twitter | Instagram | Conrad's Beer