The tales of these two companies are different, sure, but the histories rhyme. Barbour started in South Shields, England, making oilskin garments for mariners and fishermen on the North Sea, which is home to some of the most dogshit weather I've ever experienced. (Actually, soon after that Barbour developed a healthy business shipping to British territories like the Falkland Islands, which have even worse weather and sea conditions.) Levi's started a few years earlier in San Francisco, selling work pants to miners during the California gold rush, a dogshit job if there ever was one.

Then both brands became associated with subcultures—Barbour had competition motorcyclists ( Steve McQueen the most popular) and Levi's had pretty much every subculture from 1950s America—that carried them un

See Full Page