YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER heard of Camber, an apparel company founded in Philadelphia in 1982, though you likely know its garments, or ones that are inspired by them. Its knitwear-sweatshirts and tees, mostly-is distributed globally and often outsells the apparel of brands in New York, London, Toronto, Paris, and Tokyo with 10 times the hype. Camber's sweatshirts, in particular, have gotten very buzzy lately, but what makes the company remarkable transcends any trend. The company makes sweatshirts like Rolex makes watches, which is to say with a degree of care that borders on the mythic. And it defies all kinds of modern expectations about where and how clothes get made. Camber's story, which is largely untold, is the story of the greatest sweatshirt ever made. And the only way to fully understand it is to put one on, to feel its heft and quality, though that has become a hard thing to do.
Those sweatshirts-Camber's coveted Cross-Knit hoodies and crewnecks-are manufactured in an early-20th-century factory in Norristown, Pennsylvania, 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The three buildings form a U-shaped white-brick-and-stone colossus that sits on the bank of the Schuylkill River. The 5,000-square-foot Camber factory sits within an 80,000-square-foot industrial complex, but when I visit one Friday morning, I find most of the ground floor empty. A long, dim hallway leads me to a labyrinth of rooms that make up the main office, and there, through several panes of glass, I see Barry Schwartz, Camber's founder and CEO. Working at a large, municipal-style desk in a tidy office, he appears to be the only person in the entire place. It's about 9 a.m., and he tells me he's already been here for hours.
Denne historien er fra November 2022-utgaven av GQ US.
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Denne historien er fra November 2022-utgaven av GQ US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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SHABOOZEY THE BIG SHA BANG
Shaboozey spent months at the tippy-top of the charts with a hit song about dealing with hard times the easy way: by hitting the bar. He sang on a couple songs with Beyoncé too. So we asked the one and only SHANIA TWAIN to help country's biggest new star make sense of his explosive year.
HANNAH EINBINDER BORN STANDING UP
With her star turn on Hacks, the comic turned actor has established herself as one of Hollywood's most exciting young talents-much to her own surprise.
Katt Williams The Man Who Opened The Portal
In January, the comic delivered an instantly iconic podcast interview that threw pop culture into crisis-and seemed to predict all manner of messy celebrity gossip to come. At home on his farm, Williams explains why he said what he said— and why he'd do it again, and again, and again....
JOHN DAVID & MALCOLM WASHINGTON A NEW HOLLYWOOD DYNASTY
The Washington brothers built their careers apart—until an irresistible project drew them together. In The Piano Lesson, they tackle a father's thorny legacy.
FUTURE & METRO BOOMIN'S HISTORIC Hit STREAK
What happens when the best rapper alive reunites with the hottest producer of the moment? You get a back-to-back-to-back run unlike any since the Beatles.
PHARRELL WILLIAMS Designer of the Year
Riding along from Paris to Hollywood to New York with the Louis Vuitton *men's creative director, whose prolific and often prophetic contributions to fashion, film, and music have once again thrust him to the center of the pop culture Venn diagram.
JOHN MULANEY. KID GORGEOUS GROWS UP
After immortalizing the whirlwind of the past four yearsrelapse, intervention, recovery-in his awardwinning standup special, John Mulaney has emerged as one of the most popular comedians on earth. For his next trick, he's embracing his surprising new role as a suburban dad.
DWAYNE JOHNSON THE WORLD'S BIGGEST Actor
It's hard for Dwayne Johnson to hide. Wherever he goes, there he is― as conspicuous out in the world as he is on the silver screen. But after two decades of playing a version of himself in huge movies, suddenly Dwayne Johnson is ready to do something entirely new: vanish.
How the WNBA Became the Most Fun, Complicated, and Exciting League in Sports
Caitlin Clark! A'ja Wilson! Angel Reese! This year, women's hoops emerged as a dominant popcultural force. But the road to sports-league supremacy has been long and winding. This is the inside story of how the W finally broke through.
A Companion for Your Wrist
Audemars Piguet's new release with artist Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, brings high-art hype to the world of pop-watch collabs.
