We’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to live a life between land and water; journeying from urban to coastal settings. So there was an immediate symmetry to our recent collaboration with Jam Industries, “a brand which moves seamlessly from cities to coastlines and back again”.
Catching him en route back to the thrum of London from the serenity of Polzeath, we stole some time with Jam Industries co-founder and creative director, Andrew Jordan, uncovering a clothing brand story deeply interwoven with family, nostalgia and surf culture…
“Growing up, we were a family that constantly moved backwards and forwards between London and the West Country. It felt like there were a tonne of people doing this same hybrid thing, travelling from the sea to the city – but it seemed to me that there wasn’t a brand that transitioned between the two. There was nothing out there that worked when you got on the train in Cornwall and off the train at Paddington to head to your London office. Back then, everything seemed to be either too formal or too obviously ‘surfy’.
With Jam Industries, we wanted to take that laidback coastal culture and translate it into the kind of relaxed styling that could be worn anywhere.
Jam started life as a pop-up shop in Croyde, North Devon, where I was doubling up as a surf instructor. To be totally honest, it didn't make any money! So we scratched our heads and thought, let's do pop-ups all over the coast. When we got to Salcombe, people bought into our brand concept immediately, so we moved to Salcombe and opened our first bricks-and-mortar store there in 2016, ten years ago. We now have ten stores in total.
Jam Industries is a family-run business, and we’re a big family – I grew up as one of five siblings. Whenever we went to the beach, we’d load up the surfboards and cricket bats, and then there was always this big bag of jumpers that my mum would pack. It was first-come, first-served, and size was pretty irrelevant. I wanted to bring that emotion and nostalgia into the styling of Jam Industries' clothes. So we looked back to the styles that we wore on the beach – oversized jumpers, old-school knitwear that you share with your family; that sense of timelessness. These are the things you wear when you’re most yourself, with no facade, just your most relaxed, stripped-back self.
“We looked back to the styles that we wore on the beach – oversized, old-school knitwear that you share with your family; that sense of timelessness, and the things you wear when you’re most yourself.”
The key shape that kicked things off for us was the cotton fishing guernsey. A factory we were working with in Leicester owned the patent to make lambswool guernseys, which have a really cool shape, but no one made a cotton version. So we made it in cotton with a unisex, square-cut hem – a piece designed to be shared. It’s the ultimate style for pivoting between city and coast – not too heavy, not too hot. That was a trigger point for us. Then we thought how can we bring this same feeling into the cashmeres, and so it continued to evolve from there.
A lot of our clothes are genderless. I think unisex styles feel effortless.
We want to create the perfect après surf wardrobe, made for floating from the beach to the city and back again. I’ve always loved how surfing is a borderless sport. It doesn't care where you’re from or what you do for a living. It's about sharing an experience in nature. When you paddle out and share some good waves with someone, it's the most magical feeling in the world. If we can bring that same open-mindedness into the brand, then that’s a win for us.
My favourite days are when I work a bank holiday weekend. I get up super early, buzzing for the day ahead, and I go for a surf on Polzeath beach – just run down the cliff and jump in. If there are no waves, I’ll go for a swim or a paddle, but I’ll get in the sea regardless. Then I’ll go to work in one of the Jam shops. My favourite is our Padstow shop, as I can walk across the beach and get the ferry from Rock. I’ll get a coffee, then chat to whoever’s in the shop. We all share a similar outlook. Then I’ll go back home and have a barbeque on the beach with my wife in a favourite local secret spot .
If I’m in London, I get up and try to get in the water somewhere – probably in a pool, or do some sort of sport. Sport is something we’re passionate about at Jam. We have a work culture where no one starts before 10. It enables you to have a really nice morning, whether you want to go surfing, do a yoga class, go for a sail or a run – we don’t expect anyone to pick up the phone before 10.
I don’t consider Jam to be a fashion brand as such – I’m actually trying to reduce the number of products we make. We’re very conscious that we don't want to overwhelm people. The colours we use vary each season, but the shapes themselves stay pretty constant. Inspiration for our colour palettes comes from travel, and there’s some nice terracottas coming through this year, taken from buildings we saw in the Balearics.
“When you get back to the coast, you realise you don't actually need anything else.”
We only have three stores that are not coastal: Marlow, Marlborough and the King’s Road in London. Everywhere we’ve opened a store is a destination, from St Ives to Dartmouth and Lymington. Marlborough is the one on the way that links up all the others. We’re not looking to open any more stores in the UK, but we might experiment with a few pop-ups. I like being in our shops and maintaining that presence and connection – we wouldn’t want to overstretch or dilute that.
We created five product criteria that we try to satisfy with every product we make. Before releasing them to our stores, we need to agree that each design is Trans-seasonal, Timeless, Transportable, Comfortable and Sustainable.
Without doubt, the coast is calming and good for the soul and spirit – the sea in itself is incredibly humbling. But in London, you’ve got to keep moving and stay hungry. With our retail store on the King’s Road, you've got to work really hard to make sure everything you do is great because you're up against the best brands on the planet. So the city is good for that, picking up new stuff and running with it. But you can’t let yourself get sucked into the vortex, because too much city time can cause you to lose your conscious ability to stay calm and relaxed. So I go back to the coast again, and every time I do, I think, ‘This is what it's all about, this is how I breathe’. When you get back to the coast, you realise you don't actually need anything else.
The most exciting thing we’ve got coming up is two babies joining the team– my brother and I have our first babies due five days apart. So watch this space for Jam kids. They’ve got to earn their place in the family business, after all!”
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