August 23, 2019
Father, New Zealander, office DJ: Get to know Matt, Outland Denim Brand Manager
The brand had only just launched when I first heard about Outland denim. I met James at one of the pop-up stores that Outland Denim was running in the early stages of the brand. It was a bit of a chance meeting that turned out to be one of those rare moments in life that you can think back on and just know that it was somehow meant to happen. It was only a matter of months from that first meeting that my family and I packed up our lives in NZ and moved over to join the Outland Denim family.
Outland resonated with me straight away, it perfectly pairs two things that I am passionate about. The first being the purpose behind the brand, fighting to protect vulnerable people across the globe from exploitation has always been a passion of mine. The second is the fashion side of what Outland is doing, it's an industry I've worked in my whole career and one that I really enjoy. For me, Outland Denim perfectly embodies my beliefs for how to achieve the sort of social change that I want to see. The purpose and the brand need to perfectly co-exist, if you take the purpose and story of Outland and remove the brand aspect, then the story is incapable of the change it is striving for, and if you present the brand without the story it would be just another one of the millions of denim brands out there. But by bringing them together as we have, then you have something truly powerful and capable of making genuine change. And where better to do it than in the fashion industry; one that is in need of a massive shake-up.
My family and I decided to move from New Zealand to join the Outland Denim family because this was a project that we wanted to jump head-first into, it was worth sacrificing all other opportunities make the move. As a father the work Outland is doing reflects the things I want my children, family, and existence as a human to embody. You want for your children to be able to grow and flourish in a safe environment, you want to be able to teach them the foundations to being human, to give freely, to not be lead by greed or self-centred-ness, but to serve others and use their position of privilege to uplift others. That is why to me and my family the work that Outland is doing is so important, there's a better way of doing things, and we want to be living examples and not just pay lip service to those ideals.
I love working with denim and have always enjoyed it, even as a kid. Denim is trustworthy and hardy, it's got history and heritage yet at the same time it leads modern-day design and trends and will do for generations to come.
For me, black jeans and white t-shirt is my go-to. I’ve been wearing our Ranger jean since day one here at Outland Denim, and nearly always oversized and cuffed up to end on the ankle. It's a jean that just works, it works with my boots as well as my sneakers and isn't too slim, but still has a tidy little taper keeps a bit of shape.
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