How a Father's Beloved Jacket Launched a Clothing Brand After an entrepreneur lost his dad's favorite jacket, he decided to do something about it: open up a coat company.

When my father was in his late teens, working as a ski-lift operator in Switzerland, he met a man named Andreas Geissberger. Andreas had skied for the Swiss team and led climbs in the Alps and the Himalayas. He'd lived an amazing life. And he had this canvas climbing jacket that he'd worn everywhere.

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One day, my dad said, "I really like your jacket." And Andreas, being the true mountain man that he was, just gave it to him. For the next 30 years, my father wore that jacket everywhere -- he skied in it, rode along the Colorado River on a Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, sailed the south coast of Britain, climbed mountains. Whether in the city or the wilderness, he wore it.