Spoke Chinos | A Passion For The Smaller Detail

How many of us can honestly say we take the time to study the small details of the clothes we buy? The pace of life moves so fast that the majority of people 'run through the motions' with their purchases, trusting the brand names they know well, and hoping that the badge continues to guarantee the level of quality they expect.

I'm as guilty of this as anyone else and, being a blogger, I'd say that's fairly criminal.

We always try to focus on brands that offer up good looking clothes of a high quality; not the disposable outcome of fast-fashion. We're about shirts, jeans, and footwear that you'll own for a number of years, if not a lifetime. When we put something on the site - like these chinos from Spoke - we hope you can rely on our judgement.

But, while Red Wing boots and Albam jeans may take many decades to wear out, outside of Buckets & Spades I've made many a purchase that failed to last longer than a single season - be it due to a poor fit, bad design, inferior materials, or just fad fashion.

Buy cheap, buy twice; as Mat always says. Buy without paying attention, and you'll also be buying twice. It's true, just not as pithy a saying. 

So how does this relate to Spoke and their chinos?

Last year we ran a series of posts coveringUK based clothing start-ups. Spoke were on the list to cover; but, we just couldn't find the right angle for a post. The chinos they produce look great, they fit really well, and they're a great price. The same can be said about a number of brands out there, so what was going to be different about this piece?

As ever, a coffee came to the rescue. Chatting to Spoke's founder it suddenly struck me: detail - that should be our angle. The guys at Spoke, in developing their product, have an intense attention to detail. Just hearing the story of the chinos' continued development was captivating; 15th months after launch, Spoke were on the 7th edition of their product. 

Some might see this as a failure of their design; but, that's just not true. Rather than a failure of design, it's an obsession with quality and detail, all in the name of creating a better product: from auditioning mills across England and Italy to find a fabric that delivers the best wear (they settled on Larusmiani, just outside Milan), to producing the back-buttons from Corozo palm nut and experimenting with the thread tension to minimise breakage.

This continuous fine tuning can only be a good thing for Spoke's customers. It would be far easier for a brand to continue to push out their original design - flaws and all - spending their money on the marketing required to win new customers, instead of retaining existing customers with an improved product.

Creating a refined product requires dedication, hard work, and commitment, as the designers search for the best components available and take the time to understand why certain design features work, while others don't. 

The return to the customer is clear to see: Spoke changed the lining of their front pockets from a weak, yet striking shirting fabric from Liberty of London; to a soft, but almost bombproof material from British based Bernstein & Banleys - retaining the Liberty print in the rear pockets. Spoke also experimented with a number of different pre-washes to attain a perfect broken-in feel. They settled on a 200 minute silicon wash (if you're interested to know) that produces a very soft finish to the trousers. 

Perhaps the detail I found most interesting was the zip - one of the features that has changed little since they launched their first pair. Spoke's zips come from Riri; a Swiss manufacturer, apparently referred to as the Rolls Royce of fasteners - now that's a claim and half! The zip has more teeth per inch than any other on the market, making it both a smooth and durable action. Win, win!

And we could go on. The details on these chinos are both many and far more varied than I'd ever given thought to. A thorough look at the time, care, and attention that goes into Spoke's products was a real eye-opener into the world of clothing design and how some brands out there aren't happy to just offer up their first design forever more; but, instead, committed to evolving and transforming that design into the best product they can offer.

Visit Spoke to find out more about the company + shop their chinos.

Thanks for reading,
Nik  

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