For the first time in many years, I am back home in the Basque Country to spend more than just a family and friends weekend. I decided to stay for a few weeks, working out of Aux Magazine's office, before heading back to Madrid's dejecting summer heat. It feels surprisingly home...warm, cozy and friendly. Another amazing discovery has been the number of cool Basque brands I've encountered (in some cases re-encountered) these days. We are already working with SKUNK FUNK, a pretty well known and largely distributed brand using a number of environmentally preferred materials and sustainability at its heart. They are based out Gernika, in the middle of a beautiful natural reserve, Urdaibai. TERNUA came up in one of our regular OE team meetings just a couple of weeks ago, while one of my colleagues pointed out their organic and recycled outdoor garments. We have a long history of committed mountaineers in the region, so we're also home of a few old good climbing & hiking companies; it's part of our local culture. Really looking forward to meeting these guys in the next few days and learn more about what they do. And finally, just yesterday I was offered a LAGA catalogue, which didn't look anything like a catalogue but more like a book, picturing the amazing collection amidst a number of short fiction stories and poems. Simple, mindful, beautiful and true ...I must thank my AUX friends for such an inspiring discovery. They might not be using the most sustainable materials, but there is something special about them that I'm eager to explore...
Picture from LAGA.
