THE STORY BEHIND THE BRAND

The idea was born during a surf trip to South America. Due to a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake in the Province Steph and Kyle Taylor were located in, they decided to take a long motorcycle trip up into the Andean mountain range and away from the damaged coastline. Here, they discovered all the beautiful alpaca fiber from this region and quickly fell in love with the idea of building a sustainable business around it.

They dreamt of creating something that wasn’t size or gender specific, it would have no expiry date. It would be passed on for generations. It would become a MEANINGFUL POSSESSION. A few days later they embarked on a fourteen hour bus ride to the South where they put their dream in motion. They spent the entire duration of the ride sketching out their business plan on children’s notepads that they picked up from the local market. While the rest of the passengers slept and watched the featured foreign movies on the small, granular screen at the front of the bus, they started shaping their new brand.

They came up with a name, “Blacksaw”. Shortly after a slogan, “Meaningful Possessions”. It may have been the altitude or the cowboy coffee, but whatever it was, they had a very clear and concise brand vision, so they started developing a mission statement around it.

The notes on the paper that day read; “We will not sacrifice who we are and what we believe in. This is a story about staying true to our vision and sticking to our belief systems. Working with eco-friendly materials, or better yet, not working with man made synthetic fibers. Making sure we are contributing to the solution and not to the problem. Utilizing, in our opinion, one of the most underused and underrated fabrications in the world, and turning it into something beautiful, that we are proud of. We will only work with people who inspire us and people we trust, believe in and truly care about”

They then had to take a step back to assess if this business concept actually made sense from a lifestyle perspective. After travelling for a year, they developed a new appreciation for experiences and they started looking at them as a secondary “currency”. Travelling taught them lessons. They learned that these experiences unlocked their best selves and triggered far more creativity. Being creative kept them inspired and being inspired kept them happy. They needed to move away from the old “working” model to develop a lifestyle that lead to predictable happiness. At the end of that fourteen hour bus ride, Blacksaw was born. Not only was Blacksaw going to be a brand that encompassed everything they stood for, but it would become a freedom machine for a new age lifestyle.