The sun is rising, the air clear, the city unfolds below you as you reach the top of the bridge. Your legs are spinning fast, heart pumping, maybe you are sweating just a touch. It's a magical feeling of exhilaration and liberation that comes from riding a bike in a city. Inside trains, humans are imitating sardines, while drivers stall and stew in their own exhaust. The cyclist however is completely free, in motion, almost flying, a huge smile wiped across their face.

We firmly believe that the bicycle is the best form of urban transit for the 21st century, and our clothing is designed to make that fact even more true. Your clothing should work as well on a bicycle as it does on the subway or in a car, without shouting to the world "I'm a cyclist." We are a clothing company first, not a cycling company. But we're a clothing company that designs simple, good looking and hard wearing garments for a world where bikes are a part of your daily life.

At the core, Outlier clothing is about a certain freedom. A freedom to ride, regardless of the destination. You should always look like you belong inside the city, not just out on the road pedaling. A freedom to ride, at any speed you want to. Sometimes you ride slow sometimes you ride quick, but no matter how you ride, you should always look and feel fresh and clean. A freedom to ride, no matter the weather. A cyclist is exposed to the elements in a way that few other city dwellers are, and your clothing should be ready to handle whatever the sky and streets kick at it. Our garments are designed to make getting to that freedom just a little bit easier.

In many ways Outlier is a child of the Garment District. When we started this company neither of us really knew how to make clothing. We just knew that we couldn't find the garments that we wanted and if no one else was going make them then we would have to do it ourselves. We began hunting down the best technical fabrics in the world and brought them to small factories in New York City where craftsmanship still reigns supreme. Through a constant process of experimentation and refinement we started producing a line of goods we can believe in.

Our goal is always to produce future classics. Garments that work as well half a century down the road as they do today. We believe in making the highest quality garments possible and we sell them at the best possible prices. We refuse to compromise on quality and we refuse to compromise on ethics. We use the best materials for the job and we make sure they meet the highest environmental standards. We keep production values sky high while keeping the work local.

We believe in strong communities and we see both our production people and our customers as an integral part of our personal community. We are here to build a long lasting company dedicated to quality. Quality in our product of course, and also quality in how we relate to the world. We treat people fairly and we treat our environment like it's not just our home, but the home we want our grandchildren to ride their bikes in. We think we are making clothing for a better way of life, and hopefully you'll join with us to get there.

Abe & Company,
New York City
September 2009

Been a crazy few months as we launched this brand. Big thanks to everyone who visited this site, gave us feedback and especially those who bought and appreciated our products. There is a lot planned for 09 so stay tuned. In the meantime we are going to slow down for the next couple weeks. You can still buy online, but responses will be relaxed, and we might not be shipping until we wake up in 2009.

So happy holidays and and merry new year everyone, catch you in January.

An Outlier product is not your typical garment. We strive to make what we call future classics, garments that don't just last a season but instead work for decades. That means we are always in action, always tweaking cuts and experimenting with fabrics, always striving towards producing the perfect garments.

The experimental drop is a series of extremely limited production runs of the garments we expect to be producing full on a few months down the line. It's for the people who want to be ahead of the curve, who want to taste the future before the rest of the world knows it exists.

These are garments that are deep into our development process, we are pretty damn sure they are amazing, but we still want to test a bit more before we can give them that Outlier "future classic" seal of approval. With this series we are giving you a way in on the newness before the rest of the world is ready.

For the next four days we will be releasing one garment a day, each of which we have produced just 10 garments, give or take a few depending on the fabric.

TODAY we will be releasing a version of our OG Pant in a new Workwear fabric. The exterior is a tough canvas, the inside a soft fleece. This is the durable one, its got a high abrasion resistance, and Lotus treatment so that dirt and grease rolls off when exposed to water. It breathes great, is highly water resistant and dries fast. Available in a dark blueish gray.

WEDNESDAY we drop the Tech Hoodie in our Winterweight fabric. The cut is clean and minimal, with a big hood that can go over helmets. The fabric is designed to keep you warm and dry. Fleecey and heat retaining with an nice stretch on the inside, yet super breathable, and wicking as well. Highly water resistant and quick drying. The exterior weave includes Cordura for real durability and abrasion resistance. It's a great winter layer and works flawlessly as a spring jacket too.

THURSDAY is another killer experimental fabric, a Dry Cotton version of our OG Pant. Combines the crisp yet soft handfeel of cotton with the performance you expect from an Outlier garment. Cotton is a great fabric when it's dry and terrible when it's wet. By using an equal mix of cotton and nylon (and just a touch of stretch) and adding a directional Dry treatment, this fabric handles rain and sweat like it ain't no thing. Breathes, wicks, drys fast and is highly water resistant, so it keeps that cotton charm even when the environment turns raw.

FRIDAY brings it all together with a Workwear version of the Tech Hoodie. All we can say is, we love this garment. We made 11 and then both of us promptly stole one for ourselves. That leaves just 9 so don't sleep on this drop.

I woke up this morning with a sense of wonderment, a sense of true excitement. A feeling that I was just a little freer than I was yesterday, but also a realization that there was a lot of hard work on the road ahead.

Today was different no doubt, but I feel that way every morning as I cross the bridge across the East River on the way to work. A sense of wonderment, a sense of excitement, a realization that I'm just a little bit freer and of course a feeling that there is a whole lot of hard work on the road ahead.

Today is different though because today I woke up with a new president. It's a historical event, the first black man elected to the highest office of the United States of America, less than a generation removed from segregation. At least for a day we have been freed from the burderns of the past eight years and the streets are filled with hope.

Today is different too, because today is the day we formally launch Outlier. Like the Obama presidency it's been two long years in the making and like Obama we can finally say "we made it."

Of course what we made is a bit more modest than Obama's historical achievement. What we finally made, and what we hope to make for a long time coming is a simple pair of pants. Two years ago I gave up being frustrated about destroying a pair of pants every month or two and I gave up those annoying days were I couldn't ride my bike to a client meeting because I didn't have the right clothes for the journey. I gave up and decided if the solution to this basic problem didn't exist, I would create it.

It's been quite a trip, I started not knowing a thing about the clothing industry. Now two long years later we are a small company, making high quality garments in New York City, and the hard work has just begun.

In statistics an outlier is a result that lies outside the norm, and we certainly are trying to create garments far better than those you normally encounter. Historically however, an outlier was also the term for someone who lived in the outlying areas, someone who lived somewhere besides where they worked. An outlier was the original commuter.

Outlier was founded largely on the belief that the bicycle is the best way to navigate a 21st century city. We love our bikes not because we race them, ride trails or perform tricks with them, although sometimes we do all of that. But we love our bikes mainly because they are our transportation, our freedom, our way of moving through the spaces we call our home.

What we aim to do is make clothing for a world where bikes are the best mode of transit through our public spaces. Clothes that work as well in board rooms as they do on bicycles. Clothes you can buy based on their classic styling and construction, and appreciate their performance with a cool discretion. We are starting with pants, but if things go well, expect plenty more from us here at Outlier.

It's a historical day for America and with any luck we'll have a bit of a history ahead of us. So thanks for visiting, enjoy the site and go ahead and check out the product we're making. It may just be exactly what you need.

Our goal has always been to make future classics, clothes that work as well yesterday as they will in a few years. Only time will tell if we succeeded but we certainly think we are on the right track.

Made in New York City with Schoeller Dryskin Extreme fabrics, these pants are designed for the ultimate in versatility, both socially and technologically. This is the best technical fabric around, you'll stay cool and dry no matter how hard you ride. The Lotus or Nanosphere coating is "self cleaning" (that's the technical term no lie.) The surface is coated in nanoscopic spikes that prevent grease and stain molecules from bonding to the fabric. Water just rolls off, taking with it any dirt that might remain.

It's water resistant and quick drying, so no worries if the sky turns against you. As a softshell it will eventually saturate in the craziest storms, but get indoors and you'll find yourself dry in 10-20 minutes. Light rain? Forget it, that stuff just rolls right off, just like the coffee or red wine you might have spilled upon it.

You could call this cut a true medium. It stretches as you ride, but drapes beautifully off the bike. You could rock it with a sport coat and oxfords or a hoodie with sneakers. More importantly you can wear it without thinking, wear it like a second skin, wear it like a classic that works in any occasion.

Sizing wise, these should fit similar at the waist to a Levis 501 jean of the same size. Because they stretch some people like to size down one size to get a slightly slimmer profile. The inseams on our pants are a minimum of 34" and like most high end pants are designed to hemmed to length by you.

More details on shipping and service can be found here.

Continue reading "OG Pant 4Season Black Lotus" »

Outlier is going to Interbike for the first time people. No booth, I'll just be running around trying to make sense of it all... But if you are out there and want to meet just shoot us an email and we'll make it happen.

And of course don't miss the MASH alleycat (someone lend me a bike out there!) and Get Sum Goldsprints.

Crazy as it may be looks like Malcolm Gladwell has decided to make us the focus of his next book! Guess we are famous now:

Ok, that's a lie, and really I have no idea what to make of this. One day there was a company that we were slowly trying to build with an obscure word for a name. Then I wake up to find that one of the world's biggest authors is using that word as the title of his next book. Whoa.

Is it good, is it bad? Who knows? When you start a company you pretty much expect that all sorts of weird unexpected things will happen. But man, this one was a total blindside. If nothing else it'll be an interesting learning experience to see what happens. And yeah, maybe now people will stop asking what the word means!

This is where it begins. Two years in the making, tests, prototypes, logos, and a whole lot of learning proceeded this, but now it is real. Our first set of pants, fresh from the factory, crisp on the hangers. OUTLIER. Tailored performance clothing for cycling in the city. Clothing you can wear from your bike to the boardroom.

OUTLIER is about classically tailored garments made with the best technical fabrics around. Clothing that looks great no matter where you are in the day, riding to work, meeting with clients, or out on the town. The OUTLIER OG (Original Garment) Pants are all made with Schoeller 3xDry and Nanosphere fabrics. Water resistant, breathable, quick drying, grease, stain and abrasion resistant, the list goes on. This is simply the best performing fabric you can get your hands on. All that sort of makes it sound like these are clothes you'd wear to climb a mountain, and while you probably could, odds are you will be wearing them to the office a lot more.

We started this separately, both of us grappling with the challenge of how we could ride our bikes to work and show up looking crisp, fresh and clean. There is something so amazing about the feeling of riding over the bridges and through city in the morning light, free and invigorated. Something powerful that leaves you walking through the doors of your work thinking just how great you feel. Of course there is nothing ruder than the realization that you just can't do it today. Some client meeting, some chance of rain, some date that night, that leaves you realizing you can't bike, and your heart sinks. Man we hated that feeling and we started looking for the clothes that would liberate us from that constraint. We still hadn't met but we both were looking for the same thing. And when we couldn't find it, we both started figuring out how to make it and OUTLIER was born.

We could not have hoped for a better result, over the past year we've been testing these garments day in and day out, through rain and snow and even one frightening crash. The bike was destroyed, the knees battered and bleeding, yet the pants were just fine and that was exactly the quality of construction we knew we needed.

The feedback so far has been overwhelming. We have an extremely limited number of the early preseason pants available right now (email us for details), and are gearing up for our first full production run this fall. So stay tuned, there is a whole lot more in the works and we hope we'll be able to tell you all about it soon.