‘The best trousers on Earth’
Lucy Siegle
~ The One Show / Eco Columnist
‘I dropped my Wrangler’s and donned these jeans, which fitted perfectly’
Adrian Chiles
~ Working lunch / loads of stuff
‘Hipster twats!’
Col Jeff Smith
Our Story
(it was his idea)
Back in 2015 we had an idea in the pub – was it possible to support small UK manufacturers with production sized orders, and get people wearing and using stuff made here?
We told everyone we were going to do it. So we had to!
We started with trousers. We found out that Hebden Bridge, where we live, used to be known as Trousertown, because it made over 20,000 pairs of trousers a week. That’s a million pairs a year. At the time, we didn’t know much about trousers, but we had been wearing them all our lives, which had to count for something.
HebTroCo was launched on Kickstarter, a crowd funding website, at the end of January 2016, with the aim to sell an initial batch of 176 pairs of trousers. We sold that batch in five hours, so we quit our jobs, and committed to HebTroCo full time.
‘Everything we do is Made Right Here & exclusive to us.’
It seems to be working. We’ve now added a full range of clothing as well as other paraphernalia, working with makers, mills and factories right here in the UK.
Our garments have been tested and perfected by us. We wear them every day. We want you to be able to rely on and be completely satisfied with everything you order from us at HebTroCo. That’s why all our clothing is guaranteed for life for manufacturing defects. If at any point your HebTroCo products become damaged, get them back to us and we’ll arrange for the item to be repaired or replaced or – if the item is no longer available – we will send goods of the same value. The guarantee doesn’t include damage that may have been caused by misuse, unusual wear and tear, accident or alteration, but we’ll always try and help you out whatever you’ve done.
We give clear washing instructions in our garments. Please pay attention to them all!
Surely everyone loves our British made clothes?
100% of these comments have been posted on our social media accounts over the last few years.
All items in stock, and shipped to the Post Office daily by electric cargo bike
99% of orders placed before 1pm Monday – Friday will ship the same day. We can even arrange for you to collect them in Hebden Bridge.
As well as using our cargobikes, we like to do stuff to help the environment too…
Like the time we helped replant sphagnum moss to help Curlews and prevent flooding…
And the time we explored the problems and solutions of local flooding…
We’re from Hebden Bridge. You might have heard of it. It rains a lot.
“It’s not just two dickheads in a shed anymore…”
brant
Having had a life in bicycle design and brand development, everything changed after a stupid idea in the pub. My manufacturing experience started with me sewing trousers for my teddy bear, making tents and bivibags, panniers for my bike as a teenager. Somehow, textiles disappeared into the background and I became a cycling journalist, then a brand manager, designing bike frames for myself and thousands of other people – whether that’s super fast carbon fibre road bikes, or full on downhill race bikes. Now I’m applying everything I’ve learnt, with consumer-direct business models, manufacturing efficiency and 40+ years of wearing clothes, to bring production quantities back to our local area so I can pick my children up from school rather than having to fly half way around the world to check quality.
Ed
(Beard, tattoos, motorbike, that sort…)
For 7 years before HebTroCo I worked in the outdoor industry running my own mountain bike skills and guiding business. My working life started out in community arts leading drama, video and music projects, mostly with groups of young people. Practical work has always had appeal and I worked as a massage therapist for 10 years with practices in Hebden Bridge and Leeds. All my jobs have had the common thread of working with people and trying to make them happy. Menswear was the obvious next step. Oh and I ride old motorbikes and go running most days. I have a wind-up watch, enjoy playing records and taking photos with a 35mm film camera. I don’t have a TV.
Amelia
Amelia’s experience in pattern making, materials and manufacturing helps bring our products to market quicker, with higher quality that passes straight to customers.
Ace (the dog) brings his steady eye, good energy and hunger for sausage to the unit.
Andy
He’s easily the coolest person at HebTroCo…
Andy is now running our warehouse as well as piloting the cargo bike to the post office
Steve
We’ve known Steve for a long time. He’s a good guy. He’s also done some great stuff. Steve suffers from a degenerative eyesight condition. He is registered visually impaired and will eventually lose his vision completely. Not that he lets this stand in his way.
