How many times have you wanted to throw on some forgiving sweatpants instead of a restrictive pair of jeans?
A local brand has devised a solution to that dilemma with a line of performance denim that makes everything from laying on the couch to actually doing something physically challenging, both comfortable and stylish.
Dish & Du/er Performance Denim is targeted for people with an active lifestyle, who want to hop on their bike, take a spin to yoga, then go for dinner, all in the same pair of jeans.
The company launched in 2013, but officially opened its new flagship store last month with a high-profile West Hastings location across the street from the Woodward’s building. The new store/head office includes a jungle-gym apparatus with monkey bars and a swing set that shoppers can climb on to help ensure the pair they pick has the right movement for their active-living needs.
Founder Gary Lenett, who has over 25 years in the denim industry with his former denim brand Dish Jeans, was inspired to launch the line by his own love of cycling. The long-time fashion industry insider ditched his car for a two-wheeler for his daily commute a few years ago and has never looked back – but what he needed was the right pair of pants to wear on his bike and in the boardroom.
“It started with cycling,” Lenett explains at the packed opening of the store’s new location, where the team from Origins Parkour performed for the crowd.
Lenett tried out commuter styles from other brands, but wasn’t pleased with the results – instead opting to make his own. After 25 years in the clothing business, making jeans for many of the best-known names in the business – including Levi Strauss – Lenett says he was almost ready to hang up his hat, but the performance denim concept reinvigorated his love for the denim industry.
“I was done if this hadn’t come up, I was done,” he says.
Lenett credits his lengthy background with Dish Jeans with helping him launch a new line at a time when it’s extremely tough to do so.
To bring Dish & Du/er denim to the market, he partnered with Abid Hafeez, his long time New York City-based friend and performance fabric expert, who has worked with brands such as Under Armour and Puma. Their goal was to create a line with a huge assortment of functional styles for men and women that merged function and fashion.
The line includes only two types of technical fabric: L2X (leisure to extreme) and N2X (nature to extreme) – both types combine coolmax and Tencel fabric technology to offer moisture management, temperature control and anti-bacterial properties. The stretch fabric denim allows for maximum range of motion, so you can wheel through the city effortlessly, but still comfortably go for dinner.
