Gabe Anderson’s business card says he’s the Managing Director of Jiberish Clothing. As far as we could tell, he’s just the man. Gabe, Dave Boger and Pete Drago are the owners of the cut-and-sew Jiberish clothing label. I asked someone what “cut and sew” actually means and I was told that they get a fabric and a fit that they want, and have it made from scratch rather than ordering a stock piece from a wholesaler. I figured I’d pass that little nugget of knowledge on to you.

BroBomb got the chance to bother Gabe with a few questions at the Jiberish store party in the LoHi section of Denver. I’m not bullshitting you when I say we were really impressed by the styling and design that goes way beyond the iconic tall hoodies we’ve all seen. Be sure to check out their new spring line dropping in the next month and enjoy:

BroBomb: Did you originally make Jiberish clothing specifically for snowsports kids, or was it just embraced by them?

Gabe: Well myself, Dave, and Pete Drago all ski and snowboard. Me and Pete ski and Dave snowboards. We just saw a void for street wear in the ski market. We saw that skiers were repping skate and snowboard brands, but there’s this absolute sense of identity with skiing, or with any sport, where when you’re off the mountain you want to wear something that says “I’m a skier.” There wasn’t a loungewear or street wear company that was doing it. Siver Cartel had been doing it, but unfortunately they went away.

R.I.P.

Yeah, I have to say they were a big inspiration for what we did.

Where there seems to be a difference between you guys and Sublux, Siver, etc. is design. You guys go beyond printing a logo on a t-shirt and actually sew this stuff right?

Back when we started, when there were about twelve hoodies associated with Jiberish, it was that wholesale sweatshirt with a logo printed on. But when you put it on, and it’s a crop top and it doesn’t fit like you want it to, it’s no good. Especially in the skiing market where a taller fit is a little nicer, and it’s generally just a baggier fit. The stock sweatshirt didn’t work for what we wanted to do and what we envisioned we could do. So then we started working with pattern makers and working with fabrics to make something that fit exactly how we wanted and just made it from scratch.

So I’m pretty familiar with a lot of your stuff, but some of these new pieces I haven’t seen before. I’m seeing some new materials that are starting to look like outerwear. Is the end game that Jiberish will jump into the outerwear market?

No comment.

No comment? What? You can’t do that.

Haha, no I’ll answer that question. So we’re a street wear brand, that’s what we are, but 90% of the people that buy our stuff wear it on the mountain. That’s awesome because it drives us to make super-durable stuff, to create new stuff, and it moves us towards the outerwear type of stuff. So someday we’d love to do outerwear, but right now our focus is 100% on street wear. For now we want to make stuff that’s fun and cool and functional even if they wear it on the mountain.

The vest we make is a direct inspiration from the one Tom Wallisch had made for the “Day and a Half at Breck” edit. He wanted it and it’s turned into an amazing piece.

When I look at your image, ads, and clothing it looks like stuff that could expand beyond the ski niche. It looks like it could be in an Urban Outfitters or something like that. Are there any plans to expand beyond this market?

If we open up a shop, or select a retailer in a town, we want it to be the dopest retailer in that town. We want to be very exclusive to that retailer; we want them to sell-out and do well. That way we build this relationship where they say, “Holy shit, we sold through their stuff and we don’t sell through anybody.” That’s what 99% of our retailer relationships are and we love it.

You are selling Jiberish in retail stores? I thought you were just doing direct sales and Abstract Mall type stuff.

Yeah, 60 shops in 15 countries. We really spaced it out because we don’t want kids to see another person wearing the same hoodie. I mean, that’s something that’s going to happen as we grow, but we make our line really wide and pretty thin. So we didn’t make 200 pieces of any hoodie, and that’s spread across the world.

Do you think the limited quantities add to the prestige and perception of the brand?

I hope so, because that’s what we’re going to continue to do. I don’t want it to get to the point where you say “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that hoodie a hundred times this year.” The ski community is small, so you’re going to see that a little bit, but we try to avoid it.

Yeah, it brings to mind Line hoodies. No hate on Line, because it’s a nice hoodie, but the day I buy it I’m going to see every other kid with the same sweatshirt.

Yeah, and it’s hard because we have to keep expanding the amount of pieces and we don’t want to go too much deeper. As we put more dots (retailers) on the map, then we can afford to go a little bit deeper because it’s more spread out. That also allows us to make more pieces, so it’s good.

It’s a fun business, it definitely has its stresses, but we can’t say enough about the kids who support us and those who supported us from the beginning.

That seems like a good closer line. Thanks for being willing to go into business mode at your own party. Thanks man.

Thanks.