Along with our pal Peter O'Toole, we've gone all old school to create another little collectible - some super smashing great beer mats, based around 1970's style ones with great old colours and halftones; not to mention double entendres and postcard humour. It's a nod back to an old age and a celebration of the great British pub (Pub Guide still coming soon) A special edition 5 pack will be released before Christmas, look out for them down your local boozer, we doubt you'll want to spill any beer on 'em though. CD
We've been using Red Bubble as a partner site for quite a few years now, starting out as a good source for our own point of sale, artwork and the odd personalised cool Christmas card. We make about tuppence off each of these, but we cannot fault the quality on them at all and it's a nice little extra to have. We've recently added a few new designs to our collection, including some lovely girlies, nice photography and some great commissioned illustrations from regular collaborators Peter O'Toole, Section 76 and Matt Craven, in card form. There's loads of original artwork on there too, including the Trainers one (above) which has been a constant bestseller for the last three years. Check it out, Red Bubble.CD
Announcing the new training shoe from our mate Trickett, a collaboration with the long established Walsh of Bolton, this is a very English (Lancastrian) piece of footwear. This shoe is 2 years of hard work and testing at the local factory, all made in the North West; between the two they have created a very mart sports casual shoe, different to the norm and a bit of a refreshing change to the mainstream re-issues which today, are ten a penny. They are also pretty good for a 5-a-side kickabout too. Available from TrickettSaturday 13, 9am. YHN
It's not every day you see your stuff showcased in a music video, well, Merseyside band The Tea Street Band yesterday premiered their new video for the single Disco Lights. After they met up with Daniel from local online stockist Distant Echo the chaps chose a few bits of Connoisseur, the Chase polo,Mean Streets and the Bexy v Yeti t-shirts making an appearance. Great stuff lads! Check them out : Facebook, Twitter. If you want to get kitted out like your fave up and coming band...then get on Distant Echo. CD
As the weather drops it's fast becoming our favourite time of year, a time of year as a brand we feel we flourish. Things get a little more serious now, with our 'Peaks' parka on the horizon (out soon) now, we turn our attention to some real nice winter warmers. It's a pleasure to be able say that once again we are releasing some luxury handmade Harris Tweed scarves, handwoven in the Outer Hebrides by a lone workforce, these will be available on Wednesday evening. This year sees more muted, earthy tones as the production and looming process is dictated by Milan/Paris fashion week each and every season. Handmade in Scotland, we have 'Sherlock' a dark check with loads of lovely coloured marl throughout. 'Rupert' a golden subtle check, not unlike the one our third favourite bear used to sport, finally we have the 'Camo' houndstooth available again, which many went mad for last time. If last year is anything to go by these will not hang around. Remember, Wednesday at 7pm, fastest finger's first! Next up it's head wear, the McMurphy hats return again. The subtle older brother to our signature Weir hat, the McMurpy is made for us by esteemed UK manufacturers Highland 2000, handmade in England. This year we have four colours of the premium woollen hats, Navy, Charcoal, Moss and Rust.OUT SOON.CD
As that time of the year fast approaches, the leaves are falling, the nights are drawing in, and there's a nip in the air! It's all about the 'winter warmers' and it's our favourite time of the year - not to mention a busy time too, especially when it comes to headwear! Be it the commute, the match, a weekend walk or literally pushing yourself halfway up a mountain, the Connoisseur signature titfer is back! There's lots going on behind the scenes here at CC towers but we'll turn our attention to the Weir hats for now. We recently pulled the trigger on this years collection - a cult in itself! We've been asked about these hats ever since the last batch flew out, in fact all year long...even during what little summer we had. Having done quite a few of these already, picking new colours is a harder task than you'd imagine. We'd pick a great combo and then realise we'd already done it or very similar. There's a few loose themes going on this year; it's not all about nice colour co-ordination, some colours which do clash but also actually work well combined were chosen and inspiration came from all kinds of places from classic confectionery to continental football teams. As always these will be limited to just 50 per colour once again and of course made right here, in blighty. We are also working on a stockists exclusive after last year's proved extremely popular, with that we have two special edition designs again, which (if the manufacturers can do) will be pretty special, but you'll have to wait and see on that one. As the yarn wrappings (above) came through the letterbox for our approval, we gave the thumbs up and the order's now in. To save answering the same question again and again, it's likely the first batch of three will be delivered for a November release, so watch this space!YHN
