Apolis (uh–paul–is) means “global citizen.”


By Shea Foley & Luke Warner
Photos by Raan Parton
When we began developing our Standard Issue assortment, we knew we had to take advantage of the denim resources here in Los Angeles. When we met former skate pro George Wilson we knew we'd found our manufacturer. It took a few years of learning the denim world and talking to George about construction and fits to finally, this season, work with George to create our ideal pair of jeans.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1959, George has been making jeans in Los Angeles for the past twenty years. In fact, he's never made a single piece of clothing outside of Los Angeles in his entire career. In 1978, at the age of 19, George headed out West with $200 in his pocket and joined the skateboarding crowd from the Zephyr store who became internationally known as the Z-Boys, based in Venice, California, where he still lives. He became a skater on the Z-Team and also began working for Kent Sherwood's Z-Flex skateboard manufacturer. He then began his own development and manufacturing outfit and has been doing it ever since.
George has said that his inspiration for starting his own business was his mother's family history of farming in North Carolina. Surrounded by the images of his mother's aunts and uncles in their work clothes sparked a love for the aesthetic of denim. In his Los Angeles factory, each pair of jeans is inspected and cut by hand and made with the wisdom and skill that a craftperson can only acquire after doing the same thing for many years.
This week, as our raw indigo Selvedge Denim Pant was being finished, George took us on a tour of his workshop. Check out George's story below and view photos of our denim manufacturing as well as a few shots from George's Dogtown days.
As we release our very first denim we are partnering with Madison Wisconsin's Context, who will be the first brick and mortar retailer to stock our Standard Issue Selvedge Denim.
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