HARDENCO is a brand that is built by people who focus on durability as the foundation and core of their design. The guys and their team up in New Hartford, CT are a force to be reckoned with, obsessing over the small details that just about every modern brand overlooks.
When I first was introduced to Luke and Marshall, they were operating their brand and production in Hartford out of a building that was originally the Columbia Bicycle factory. In their basement, a friend of theirs took up residence and turned hobby into career, making shoes and boots from scratch, using antique industrial equipment. Upstairs, the HARDENCO team honed their craft.
It really was the little things that mattered most to me when I first got my hands on their products. Triple needle felled, bartacked at every stress point, hidden sombrero-riveted back pockets, 100% cotton thread from New Bedford Thread Co., solid metal donut buttons, and colored looper thread for machine use identification and quality control tracing.
Through the years, they have changed ownership, with Dave dropping out to take on a new career, and the move to New Hartford, where they have found their sweet spot. They have also both had kids, so its become quite the juggling act to watch from several states away, but their product quality has never been sacrificed.
Unfortunately, with the closure of Cone Denim's USA selvage denim plant and also the cessation of New Bedfords glazed 100% cotton thread production, materials have become harder to come by from a domestic source, but that's really the only two things that've changed since they got their start, aside from shifting to a rectangular patch instead of the CT state outline (even though they get requests for the old one often, and are happy to oblige).
However, over the past 3 years we have exclusively developed and had product produced by them in their facilities for Hudson's Hill using deadstock fabrics that we have acquired through the years, creating one-of-a-kind apparel that you simply can't find anywhere else.
Recently, we have engaged their brand to develop and produce a new fit of 5-pocket jeans in several fabrics woven by our other business endeavor, Proximity Manufacturing Company, that will allow us to begin selling a jean where three people control the weaving and three people control the sewing, so every pair sold puts food on the tables of at least six families.
We believe in transparency, so we have a greatly vested interest in this new project's success, as we want to create a competitive advantage that creates mutual benefit betwixt the our two, well actually three, businesses.
If you're looking for the best made, best details, and best fitting jeans in the USA, look no further than HARDENCO. Built for hard wear, built to last a lifetime.
Thanks for your friendship Marshall and Luke, we look forward to many more years of working together!
You can follow HARDENCO on Instagram here.
You can check out our exclusive pairs of 006, 010, and 012 here.
Sincerely,
Hudson's Hill