Horny Toad x Nau Spring Showroom Party

I’m sure most of you technical streetwear connoisseurs are familiar with Nau, the Portland OR based company that emerged from a thinktank of ex Nike, Patagonia and Adidas people with a frenzy of hype about their progressive sustainability programs that spanned everything from development to retail, only to have that commitment to progression prove too costly and force them to go under in less than 3 years.

Gordon Seabury - CEO of Horny Toad and the man with the vision to resurrect Nau.

Enter Gordon Seabury, the visionary CEO of another clothing company pushing the boundaries of sustainable and responsible ways of doing business. His Horny Toad brand is a Santa Barbara based lifestyle line that has quietly built a reputation as one of the most forward thinking in terms of eco consciousness and community responsibility. Gordon had been a fan of Nau since it’s inception and stepped into action as soon as he heard the word about the company’s demise. This June, only six weeks after Nau went out of business, they were back up and running thanks to him and his team.

Gordon invited me to come through to the Shoreham hotel a few nights ago to check out Nau and HT’s new spring lines. While slightly left (or right) of alot of the streetwear most of us are into, both brand’s overall philosophies and commitment to both doing good and producing top quality items are very compelling to me. Among other things, all of HT’s orders are packed by developmentally disabled adults who have been given job training and security through their PAC program. These same individuals are also treated to a trip of global expedition proportion each year so they can get a taste for the lifestyle HT represents. On the Nau side, Nau maintains a 75% sustainability across all of their lines, uses the labor watch dog group Verite to monitor all of their overseas factories, purchases carbon offsets for all their shipping actions, gives 2% of all purchases to charity (and allows customers to allocate their 2% to a charity of their choice), and every single item they produce it fully recyclable. If this was the rule rather than the exception in the clothing industry, we’d all be in a much better place.

Over some fine wine and some of the best hors d’oeuvres I’ve had (and I’ve had a lot) Gordon told me a little bit about how he sees his two brands getting down, “I think they are fundamentally based on the same principles…in Nau’s case “doing well by doing good” and for Horny Toad “doing the right thing” has been the mantra. Both companies and cultures are about building a brand with transparency and longevity that speaks to an informed lifestyle consumer that is looking for more than just great product. They want to know what practices were used and the impact, who is behind the product…they want to be inspired by brands that are passionate about creating something meaningful and changing the rules of corporate behavior.”

That’s some good shit. Pics after the jump.