#trinidad3

[dippedanddripped]

TRINIDAD3 JEANS RELEASES LATEST COLLECTION JUST IN TIME FOR VETERAN’S DAY - MR Magazine

The brand has been keeping this project under wraps as it has sought to expand, correct, and strengthen its business across the board prior to launching.

Following its ‘New American Selvedge’ jeans collection this past July 4th, and alongside the launch of the denim brand’s expanded retail initiative, Trinidad3 Jeans is releasing its largest collection to date, just in time for Veteran’s Day and peak holiday shopping.

The brand has been keeping this project under wraps as it has sought to expand, correct, and strengthen its business across the board prior to launching more deeply into the holiday retail depths. Having successfully sold through the entirety of the summer collection of its signature New American Selvedge, managing partner Joe Lafko claims, “the market was ready for us, and we were ready for it. We debuted our fall 2020 collection to an enthusiastic crowd at the Dallas Men’s Show and it literally hasn’t stopped since. We’ve since sold out of goods once, fully, and we’re producing at a record rate just to keep up; we’ve been cranking 6-7 days a week since the sell-out and not seeing anything to give us concern for a slow down as yet.”

“It’s been pretty humbling and exciting to see retailers grasp on to our mission of supporting our vets, and run with it,” added Lafko. “I am stoked we’re able to get them a huge resupply for the holiday season so we can keep the collective momentum flowing! To date, they’ve had a bit of an exclusive with the collection as we haven’t really hadn’t created much opportunity to sell through our own channel. Now more than ever, though, I am glad they’ve had the chance to have something special and exclusive to be able to offer their customers. This process of retailer-first initiative is going to remain for the foreseeable future as we feel it’s a huge benefit.”

The brand is currently carried in premium men’s retailers such as Moorman Clothiers, Granger Owings, Untucked OBX, L.E. & Chalk, Harley’s for Men, GRAE Clothing, Kinkade’s Fine Clothing, Franklin Road Apparel, and many more.

The brand’s founder, Trinidad Garcia III has been openly positive about the forward direction of the business saying, “It was a long road to get here, but it gives me such huge excitement to see everyone joining the team. We’re so grateful to be able to show why we’re doing this, and even more so now with the addition of more comfortable, and athletic stretch styles going out the door faster than we can craft them! It’s pretty crazy, to be honest. Add on our holiday-only jackets, and the upcoming collaborations with Mayans on FX star Vincent Vargas’ beteran.com, and the chance to debut on Nordstrom.com this season I cannot wait to see what the rest of this season holds.”

“I can’t wait to be able to show the world what we’ve been working on,” Garcia added. “We took the demands of the market, and also those of e-commerce and retail, and we’re going somewhere I think we’re all pumped about.”

[dippedanddripped]

As the United States prepares for its Fourth of July celebration of independence, a new selvedge denim is launching stateside in the City of Angels on July 4.

As the United States prepares for its Fourth of July celebration, Los Angeles–based, military veteran–founded Trinidad3 Jeans recently announced its selvedge partnership with Louisiana textile maker Vidalia Mills. Originally planned for a launch earlier this year, the project was delayed due to challenges stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and respect for the discussions taking place regarding social issues within the United States.

“Nothing easy is worth doing, and nothing worth doing is easy!” said brand partner and United States Marine Corps. veteran Joe Lafko. “We had the typical ups and downs of any development process but also continued down the road to the finish line despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then we chose to delay our launch to give time for our country to reflect on issues in society. It’s been a roller coaster if there ever was one, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”

This New American Selvedge jean relies on the work of Vidalia’s antique Draper X3 looms and includes details that speak to the Trinidad3 brand, including its signature red-bar tack on the left seam. The link to American heritage through working with Vidalia Mills by creating a textile on the same machines that once yielded White Oak denim is a facet of the project that Trinidad Garcia III, the brand’s founder and former U.S.M.C. sergeant, finds extraordinary and in which he takes great pride.

“We knew we wanted to be able to have a classic feel and character to the jean, but we didn’t want to just make something that was run of the mill, so to speak,” Garcia III said. “We had to have our touches, our thoughts and our personal heritage engrained in it. It preaches our story to the world, and we’re stoked to be able to bring this to life after months and months of development. I can’t wait to see people discover all of the hidden little details throughout.”

From farm to finished piece, the collection relies on domestic resources. Farmed in Texas and Louisiana, the cotton used to create the selvedge-denim fibers is grown from BASF sustainable E3 cottonseed. For Eric Goldstein, business development leader at Vidalia Mills, undertaking this project was an experience he valued as more than simply making denim.

“It’s such an honor to work with Trinidad and Joe on this amazing project; they truly understand quality and appreciate the finest details,” he said. “They are passionately making great product and changing veterans’ lives at the same time.”

As a denim brand that promotes a made-in-America mission, Trinidad3’s values were founded in creating quality pieces that also afford a connection between the consumer and veterans of the United States Armed Forces. The brand’s longtime model, actor and veteran Rudy Reyes, appears in the campaign for Trinidad3’s New American Selvedge. Trinidad3 is also known for providing financial support from the brands profits to veterans’ groups such as Merging Vets and Players.

“The cherry on top here really is the chance to debut a new American jean on Independence Day from a brand founded by and supporting our veterans. That’s something really special, and I’m really happy to be able to be a part of it,” Lafko said. “We can’t wait to release these online at 8 a.m. on Independence Day!”

Available online at trinidad3.com, the New American Selvedge collection will be sold in sizes 28 through 40 at a retail price point of $185. As it plans a wholesale expansion, Trinidad3 will also show the New American Selvedge line at the Dallas Men’s Show, which will take place Aug. 14–17 at the Dallas Market Center.

[dippedanddripped]

Trinidad3 LA at Malibu Fashion Weekend March 2019

[dippedanddripped]

Fashion designer Trinidad Garcia III, a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, believes military-inspired fashion gets it all wrong.

Those insignias in fashion, even camouflage patterns and fabrics, don’t have an authentic look.

That is why Garcia set out to correct that with his independent denim line Trinidad3—a collection he launched in 2017 with a crisp military style.

For Spring 2019, Trinidad is offering 48 styles, which include jeans with a waistband made with red denim. It’s reminiscent of the blood stripe on a Marine’s dress pants. Buttons are made with gun-metal plating.

Going against the current trend, Trinidad3 doesn’t offer relaxed styles, but his raw denim will have a crisp look reminiscent of military dress-uniform pants. “I call it refined ruggedness,” he said. “The base of the pants is a sharp, rigid denim.”

The fabric is made from Japanese selvage denim, inspired by the time Garcia was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. The brand also uses Cone denim, manufactured in Mexico from U.S. cotton, and denim from Mount Vernon Mills in Georgia.

Trinidad Garcia holds a camouflage bottom from his line. | Photo by Andrew Asch

Other unique details include eliminating the coin pocket, a staple of typical five-pocket jeans. In its place, the jeans have a wider and deeper cell-phone pocket.

Trinidad3 also offers canvas and twill pants made with camouflage patterns inspired by Marine Corps designs as well as T-shirts, hoodies, woven shirts and jackets. His collection retails from $120 to $375.

Garcia is making his trade-show debut this January at the Liberty Fashion & Lifestyle Fairs in New York City.

The line already has gotten approval from vintage-denim star Eric Schrader of Junkyard Denim, based in Boise, Idaho. “It looks good, but it is not loud like other brands. What is behind Trinidad3 makes all the difference to me,” he said. “[Most denim lines] are trying to tell a story that will separate them from others. But it’s all about them. Trinidad is the opposite. It’s all about doing for other people,” he said.

Trinidad Garcia speaks at a 2015 Memorial Day event at FIDM. | Photo by Mark Jaress

Along with offering a unique military style, Trinidad3 has a social purpose. Garcia eventually hopes to employ veterans to make his jeans. Vets have worked on some of the brand’s special projects, and the line has raised funds for veterans’ nonprofits, including those that help wounded veterans deal with post-traumatic-stress disorder.

Trinidad3 is made at M.E.K. Pattern Making Inc. in Huntington Park, a short drive south of downtown Los Angeles. M.E.K’s president, José Argueta, is the chief operating officer of Trinidad3.

One reason Garcia manufactures in Los Angeles is rooted in his belief in service. He wants to help build the local economy and pay higher wages to domestic apparel workers. “Yes, it is more expensive,” he said about manufacturing domestically. “But we should do the right thing. I’d rather get paid less and pay people more.”

Details from Trinidad3 jeans

Garcia is scheduled to work with Schrader next year on a special Prisoner of War line. The denim line also will focus on wovens and raise money for veterans with PTSD.

Before joining the Marine Corps, Garcia signed up for high-school sewing classes in Oxnard, Calif., but his dad demanded he drop the classes, he said.

After high school, the budding designer tried to launch a T-shirt and outerwear collection called TG3. To support the brand, he started a trucking company. But his used trucks were always breaking down. In three months, he racked up $57,000 in repair bills as the price of diesel fuel was also steadily increasing.

Trinidad Garcia at his office in Huntington Park, Calif. | Photo by Andrew Asch

In 2008, he shuttered the trucking company, dissolved the TG3 brand and joined the U.S. Marine Corps at the age of 31 after being granted an age waiver for being over the maximum enlistment age of 27.

Trained as a machine gunner, his first deployments included training Marines for the Thai and Philippine armed forces while he was based in Okinawa. From 2012 to 2013, he was assigned to inspector-instructor duty, which included informing families when their loved one were killed in combat.

In 2016, he was honorably discharged even though Garcia loved the service and the camaraderie of the Marines, but he never forgot his dream to start a fashion line. While stationed at a Marine-reserve training base in Pico Rivera, Calif., he took classes at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles and earned an associate degree in apparel-industry management and then earned two advanced-study degrees in menswear and the business of denim. At FIDM, he was president of the design school’s chapter of the Student Veterans of America, which had grown to 60 people when he left earlier this year.

He started his brand while studying at FIDM last year and started doing pop-up shops for it around California, in Santa Barbara and Ventura and at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena.

Currently there’s a display of Trinidad3 at the Handcrafted LA emporium for independent brands at The Bloc retail center in downtown Los Angeles. It’s also sold at his e-boutique, Trinidad3.com.