In August 2002, Jeff Shafer hosted a Vegas launch party celebrating the birth of a new take on jeanswear, Agave Denim. Now, as Shafer’s company approaches its 10th anniversary, the designer and founder looks back at the decade-old idea that came together on his workroom glass table.
Agave, of course, is the Mexican plant essential in the production of tequila. All those years ago, Shafer researched agave and found that, in addition to its contributions to nightlife and Cinco de Mayo celebrations, the plant is also very beautiful, even growing wild in California. The more Shafer knew, the more he fell in love with the word “agave,” its sound, what it represented. And he knew he’d name his fledging denim company after the symbolic plant.
“I’ve always been in love with jeans. I’ve always been a blue blood, denim head, if you will. Denim geek is what I like to call myself,” says Shafer, a self-described outsider, sitting in his Portland office. Seeing his brand as “more west coast than Los Angeles, less flash and more substance,” there is no direct competition with the LA denim giants. Instead, the idea for Agave jeans was to provide “super amazing, high quality, meticulously made, beautifully crafted, fantastic jeans,” says the designer and founder. From Shafer’s standpoint, that has always meant starting and ending with the fabric. “I’m a fiber and textile driven designer,” he adds.
And that hasn’t changed since Shafer was a young man, obsessed by extreme sports.
“When I was a kid, I was a surfer, skier, motocross racer, scuba diver and always in an outdoor, active environment. I used to race motorcycles every weekend, even meeting Steve McQueen one time,” Shafer says. But, still, it was always about jeans. There may have been one suit hiding in the back of his closet for a graduation, but with ties feeling like nooses to him, suits just never quite fit the bill. Denim was the ticket.
“Jeans were always my favorite thing. But the other part of it has always been the color,” says Shafer. His experiences growing up had a major effect and influence on the brand that Agave became. “I’m a blue geek as well. Blue and indigo are my favorite colors. Starting when I was a kid, surfing and being in the ocean all the time, looking up at the color of the sky.” That later transitioned into the cobalt glaze color in the pottery and ceramics he’d create in high school and college. The love of denim and indigo shaped Shafer’s obsession that formed his greatest creation yet, Agave denim.
For the first ten years, the goal was to make a nice, little jean company. There was no agenda, no rules to how big, how fast or how famous the name would become. The goal, from day one, was to make great products, have a family-run, tight-knit, successful organization and have a good time doing it.
Forever taken with the classic Levi’s style, 501 button-fly, shuttle loom selvedge — namely a model called the Maverick in a slim, straight button-fly – Shafer carefully created his own set of recognizable trademarks for Agave. He crafted the agave plant logo on each button, gentle to the touch feel and fit, and the subtle but clever larger-than-usual coin pocket. Agave authentic detail has fans across the globe, using details that Shafer guards closely, “all secrets,” he jokes. From the women’s collection slim fit, straight leg Aurora to trouser fit with a flare and the men’s offerings running from classic and straight Gringo to relaxed Waterman, every style is handcrafted in California under Shafer’s watchful eye.
The first ten years have created numerous highlights for Shafer. The launch party at the Vegas Hilton was just the slightly nervous, exciting start. But Shafer has also spearheaded, designed and built the company’s distribution center in Richfield, Washington. In addition, Shafer’s wife and co-designer Laura took a break to stay home with their two children and is now back by her husband’s side at work. With dozens of good memories and some damn good fitting jeans, what do the next ten years hold for Agave?
To Shafer, it’s simple. “Do something fantastic,” he states emphatically. “What that means to me is turning Agave into an international, aspirational luxury brand,” centered around his love for indigo.
But the next ten years come with a volatile retail environment with ever changing sustainability issues and advances, issues Shafer is quick to point out. “Eighty percent of the jeans sold in the United States are twenty-five dollars or less. Very few jeans these days can be made in the United States and be at a price point that makes sense to the American consumer. The cost of making jeans for the average American has got to be a problem in sourcing, making the jeans in countries that don’t have good environmental and working conditions.”
From the ineffective use of water to the processing, dying and bleaching of denim to employee safety, pay and treatment, “the denim industry is a pretty dirty business, so the environment is a major issue,” Shafer says, all too aware that Agave can be part of the solution. “The supply chain has been whipped around and is all across the planet. I think alternative fabrics of cotton will need to be addressed and ways of bringing the product to market that’s more efficient.”
“A problem in today’s market is that it’s very expensive to source denim and sell jeans. And the retailers are struggling, wondering who has the margins,” Shafer says. “The market has been favoring the large retailers but it’s really the small retailers that create jobs. There’s a lot of challenges in the industry and the only thing I can tell you is the internet is a big part of the solution, making the whole process of sourcing to delivering, marketing and selling cheaper, so people can afford to spend more money on making the product correctly and less on trying to get the product to market.”
With fabric hand-selected by Shafer to suit the distinct criteria of each season and an insistence on green practices and American workmanship, Agave is currently concentrating more on their retail partners and fit innovations. There are, as yet, no plans for a namesake brick and mortar retail store but the company does offer e-commerce through their website and Jeff Shafer’s personal blog.
– Morgan O’Rourke
www.agavedenim.com