I’m always on the look out for cool and up-and-coming brands. I can’t remember how I first stumbled across Glower, but I’m really glad I did. They create unique hand printed T shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies for people who have an active and outdoor lifestyle, like me – and you!
They only started in 2014 and are basically two people, An and David, who did it themselves. They design the garments and then print them by hand in their workshop in Farnham, Surrey. As you might have noticed by my raving about Colville Leather and their creative, handmade approach – I love this sort of high quality, hand crafted item. In an age of mass produced clothing, dubiously created overseas in the third world, it’s great to see people in England making quality clothes.
The ethical side to Glower doesn’t end there; they have researched the various environmental impacts of their production process and have made choices to limit this wherever possible. Thus, the core garments are often made from environmentally friendly cotton or recycled materials. A cool T-Shirt is even cooler when you know the planet and the people on it have been treated fairly during the making of it.
That brings me rather nicely onto the designs which were the first things that drew me to the Glower brand. With the outdoors and active pursuits in mind, in a short period Glower have come up with a core collection of brilliant designs. They tend to focus on subjects such as mountains, cycling, snowboarding and music. They also have several geometric designs which you can interpret however you wish.
Vicky got this awesome ladies tee which has one of these designs on it. Personally, I think it looks a lot like a mountain or perhaps a trail route map up the side of a mountain. Really, it can be whatever you want it to be, but whatever you think – it definitely looks cool. The choice of colours of both the print and the tee are really good and I love the overall style of this tee shirt.
A couple of my favourite designs of theirs are clever re-imaginings of recognisable objects. There is this sweatshirt which shows an ice cream cone mountain being peddled up by a trio of cyclists (click here to see), I really love how it’s instantly recognisable from a distance but upon closer inspection the three mini bicyclists are revealed. This would make an amazing present for any keen bike rider.
Similarly the sweatshirt that I bought called ‘Endless Winter’ is a bold, white hourglass. Again though, when you get up close to this cleverly thought up top, you can see in the lower portion a snowboarder cruising down the slope. I love not only the image but also the symbolism of your time running out. Poetically I think the image is saying to make the most of your time and spend it doing the activities you love – however, I could be over-analysing it!
We’ve been really impressed by not only the fit but the quality of these garments. We’ve been wearing them for a couple months now and even after several washes they still look brand new. They are soft and comfortable to wear and I love wearing them. The designs are really cool, the sort of things that grabs people’s interest. We’ve been asked many times where we bought them from. Really do check out Glower for homegrown outdoor designs and ethically produced tees, sweats and hoodies. As a lot of their designs are available in both men’s and ladies, they are a great brand to have up your sleeve with Christmas not long around the corner.
