simply gray design

About me:

Back in the day, we frequented ‘mountain shops’ as opposed to sporting goods stores.  We liked the freedom vibe and all the cool new backpacking equipment and clothing.  We would wander about, touching the sleeping bags, flipping through Rebuffat books and day dreaming of high alpine adventures.  I was lucky enough to get hired as a clerk for one of the hybrid shops of the era; businesses that were both climbing shoe and boot cobblers and mountain gear merchants at the same time.  One job led to another, as it so often does, and I ended up working in a couple of the classic mountain shops while a student at The University of Colorado. (Don’t laugh, I’m a botanist.) What followed academia was a long tour of duty in the emerging specialty outdoor retail trade. I happily clerked, bought products and managed for several shops in both Colorado and Washington while leading the basic mountain athlete lifestyle in the Rockies and Cascades.

I moved over to product when I was fortunate enough to meet Rick Lipke in Bellingham, Washington.  It was in his skunk works that I started to learn the ropes regarding small scale manufacturing and discovered my true work love, messing around with product design.

Teaming with Charly Oliver, we launched into local small scale manufacturing in Boulder Colorado with “Oliver Gray”, a critical success and financial disaster.  I’d like to think that we put up a good fight.

The die was cast when Frank Shorter Sports picked me up for a position that I was barely qualified for, product manager.  Being an Odyssey company with a Gore license meant our production was all China based, and I essentially went to Hard-Knock-University in modern outerwear design and manufacturing.

Joining Lowe alpine in the mid 90s meant coming back to the core of the outdoor industry and allowed me to serve an apprenticeship in technical outerwear design as only the Brits can teach it.  The technical capability of that company, at that time, was amazing.

Eventually, I moved on to freelance design positions, at first doing what I knew best, worldwide mountaineering apparel collections.  Clothing as equipment, so to speak.  A knack for practicality started to translate into workwear design, military work, general outerwear, etc.  I had found a niche designing both technical and rugged lifestyle apparel.

Somewhere along the way I began to write trend and trade show articles, and eventually started writing a regular column for Textile Insight magazine. It is a humbling process, communication, and I am often reminded that content is what one hears, not what one says.  My kids remind me of this almost every day.

One of the advantages of having done design work with so many brands through the years is that I’ve seen many, many different processes and results.  They say good judgment is the product of experience, while experience is usually the result of poor judgment.  With that in mind my job is to bring my customers apparel options based on experience.  I bring creative options, production options, merchandising options; whatever the situation requires. 

So the summary is, I would rather be in the mountains than at the beach, I would rather design race cars than station wagons, I usually get along great with the folks in the lab, and I very much enjoy bringing functional, quality apparel to market.