Sportswear on Shakedown Street: Rowing Blazers Launches First Grateful Dead Collection
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It all goes back to the lot. For its new capsule celebrating the Grateful Dead, New York City-based apparel brand Rowing Blazers took inspiration directly from Shakedown Street. The result: the Rowing Blazers x Grateful Dead collection, now available online, featuring everything from Dancing Bear dad hats to embroidered rugby shirts that puts a new spin on the label’s iconic staples.
Rowing Blazers
Buy Rowing Blazers x Grateful Dead Capsule at $75+
“Both Rowing Blazers and the Dead have their own cult followings — a community of people who takes it and makes it their own,” says Rowing Blazers founder Jack Carlson of the new collection. “Not just fans or listeners or customers. It’s a real community. I’ve always loved the culture of the lot at Dead shows, and this tradition of Dead merch where everyone gets to put their own spin on it and weave in their own cultural references.”
Rowing Blazers
Buy Rowing Blazers x Grateful Dead Capsule at $75+
The new Rowing Blazers x Grateful Dead collection marks the first time that the brand has released a capsule inspired by the band. Of course, Rowing Blazers is no stranger when it comes to new collaborations, previously teaming up with brands including Seiko, Gucci, and Sperry in the past. But for its Dead launch, the collection happened “very organically,” according to Carlson.
Rowing Blazers
Buy Rowing Blazers x Grateful Dead Capsule at $75+
“There’s a well-known guy who’s kind of a fixture on the lot at Dead shows named Mike Gracie,” Carlson tells Rolling Stone, explaining that Gracie embroidered Rowing Blazers’ polos and rugby shirts.
“The first one he did was like a mash-up of one of the Grateful Dead dancing bears and the logo of a rowing club. It was a dancing bear holding an oar and it said ‘Grateful Dead Boat Club.’ He posted it on Instagram and you could see the Rowing Blazers tag on the rugby shirt.
Continues Carlson: “People started freaking out and asking if this was real. So Gracie and I started chatting and decided to make it real. It was important to me to work with someone like Gracie on this, and the way it came about is what really made me want to do it.”
Buy Rowing Blazers x Grateful Dead Capsule at $75+
The new Dead capsule from Rowing Blazers also includes several accessories and wardrobe staples alike, including woven neckties featuring a stealie motif and the sleek Dancing Bear Oxford shirts. The line drops online today, with prices starting at $75, and you can also shop the new pieces at Rowing Blazers’ flagship in New York.
