Deadwood was founded in 2012 by Carl Ollson and Felix von Bahder who met working in a jeans shop together in Stockholm. Soon they would begin dreaming of creating a store concept of their own, one that truly embodied their personalities and aesthetics. Said and done, the dream came true and one day the doors opened to their very own store. It was a treasure chest for curated vintage and up and coming brands. They began cultivating the idea of starting a clothing line of their own, one that could be an antidote to everything that was wrong with the fashion industry. Deadwood was born.

Felix: This idea evolved naturally from the fact that we mixed vintage clothing with new garments in the store. At one point we tried to find some nice leather jackets to sell but realized it was really difficult. We had a really clear idea of what the perfect biker jacket looked like, but it turned out new leather jackets were far too expensive, and nice-looking vintage jackets were almost impossible to find. We thought the perfect solution was to make them ourselves, but to use vintage garments as raw material! We knew some people working at the vintage markets down in Bangkok and asked if they could help us. The patchy looking biker perfecto jackets were far from perfect but our fans back in Stockholm liked what we were trying to do. So initially the whole idea was a vintage rework project. The years that followed have been a journey to refine the sourcing, design and quality to something that we are now incredibly proud of. Today, instead of used vintage garments we use production leftovers, deadstock materials and factory offcuts for our collection. So we are still turning trash to treasure, so to speak, but today in a more refined way.

Our way of sourcing has evolved and refined over the years. From simply chopping up old leather jackets and patching them together into new ones, like we did in the beginning, our effort has shifted into making the leather industry more waste efficient by using production waste. 30-40 percent of leather is discarded after tanning and cutting. Some skins are for example being rejected due to small blemishes that can easily be cut out. Much of the offcuts from garment and furniture production are thrown away only to end up in the landfill or incinerated. However, by using more cutlines and applying some brains and dedication in sourcing we have been able to use material that most brands would consider worthless. To us it is golden.