When Mike Elias wanted to learn the guitar, his dad told him he had to teach himself. Mike took that rule and ran with it for the rest of his life, teaching himself everything from sewing to metal fabrication to fashion design, which he deployed when he founded Ship John Leather and Canvas in Portland, Oregon, and created one of the most sought after garments in the world, the Wills Jacket. Mike tells Marc about growing up oyster fishing and hunting in New Jersey, why he wound up making clothing, and the violent attack that changed his life. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What inspired Mike Elias to teach himself various skills?
Chapter 2: How did Mike transition from oyster fishing to fashion design?
Sie haben uns nicht gefallen, wenn ich ehrlich bin. Aber einer der Leute, der FDR baut, sagte, dass ich der Einzige bin. FDR ist ein Skatepark in Philadelphia, der von Skateboardern gemacht wird. Ich wusste, wie man Konkret skaten kann, also hat er das bemerkt. Er sagte, du bist der Einzige, der Rollerblätter erlaubt. Oh, wirklich? Ja, also habe ich ein kleines Bad von ihm bekommen.
Wer war der Skater, der dich kennengelernt hat, der dich bei Canters kennengelernt hat?
Oh, that was Matt. Yeah. Isn't he a skate guy? Rollerblade, yeah. Oh, he's a Rollerblade guy. Yeah. You didn't know you were hanging out with a Rollerblader, did you?
Well, I knew he did something.
He's a sweet dude, man. He's the kind of guy who, like... Er kümmert sich um die Kinder. Er macht sicher, dass sich alle gut fühlen. Auch wenn sie nicht gut sind. Er schützt sie. Er hat mein Abendessen gekauft. Das ist süß. Ja, er ist süß.
Er ist ein guter Kerl. Er war ein kompetitiver Rollerblader, der Kerl?
Ja, zu einem gewissen Zeitpunkt. Er hat einen Skateshop gegründet. Er hilft der Gemeinschaft. Und Blades? Nur Blades. Ich denke, vielleicht Skateboards.
Aber du hast nie Skateboards gemacht. Ich habe auch Skateboards gemacht. Yeah? Competitively? No, no, no, no. Can you go up the side of a pool and then turn around and come down? Yeah, I could still do that. I probably shouldn't do that.
Were you a punk rock guy? A little bit. I delved into East Coast hardcore for a little bit. You had to, right? With the skates?
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of the Wills Jacket?
Chapter 4: What challenges did Mike face while starting Ship John?
Isn't that crazy? It used to be owned by Radio Shack. No shit. Yeah. Tandycore-owned Radio Shack. I know they were affiliated. I didn't know that. Anytime I went to a Tandy store for whatever, rarely in my life. But I just remember there always being a Tandy store. I grew up in New Mexico and I'm like, who the fuck is shopping in here? Who's making these belts?
But somebody was. Yeah. I mean, the cool thing about... Ja. Ja. Manufacturing. Manufacturing, that stuff is not going to hold up. Yeah, yeah. It just isn't.
So, all right, so you figure out where to get leather tools.
Yeah, started learning about, in fact, CS Osborne is New Jersey. Einer der Leather-Tool-Manufacturers? Ja, einer der Leather-Tool-Manufacturers. Also habe ich darüber nachgefragt und dann habe ich angefangen. Hast du jetzt eine Beziehung zu ihnen? Nein, ich habe keine, aber sie geben mir nichts zu. Aber sie machen immer noch die Tools?
Ja, sie machen immer noch die Tools. Und was ist mit den Leathers? Gehst du zu Horween oder was machst du da? Ich benutze Horween.
Ich benutze meistens Hermann Oak. Wo ist das? Im Mittleren Westen. Ich vergesse nicht, wo sie sind.
Aber jetzt, neben der Fähigkeit und den Werkzeugen, die diese Sachen herausfinden, recherchierst du auch Materialien?
Ich recherchiere Materialien und mache Fehler. Ich schneide Sachen auf und versuche... Ich mache nur die Kante einer Tasche, um zu sehen, wie diese drei Teile zusammenfallen würden. Ja, um es herauszufinden.
Ja, um es zu verstehen. Der erste Schritt, den du nach den Hatten gemacht hast, waren die Taschen?
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Chapter 8: What is the connection between Mike's past and his current brand?
I wanted to play when I was a kid. My dad always played guitar. And I'm going to call him out for this, but I was like, Dad, can you teach me how to play guitar? And he was like, I taught myself you can teach your damn self.
So that's your guiding principle.
I got to teach myself. Honestly, kind of. It stuck with me. I taught myself how to play guitar in late teens, early twenties. Just kind of like folk stuff. What did he play? Your classic... Rock'n'Roll, Pusha Man und Zeppelin. Auf Akustik? Auf Akustik. Das war immer in meinem Haus.
Das ist gut. Du spielst Gitarre auf der Straße. Du lebst einen pseudo-Hippie-Leistung.
Ein bisschen. Bisschen groovy? Ja, ich war nicht ein Hippie per se. Einfach ein freier Geist. Wie kommst du nach Portland? We had to meet somebody there. We had a job at a skate camp actually for a summer. Because we ran out of money. This is in Datchpee, California. Met some friends there. They invited us to work on their farm up in Humboldt. Pop farm?
Yeah, trimming. You did that? You're picking buds? Picking buds, trimming buds. This would be for hydroponic, right? It was out in the wild. This is in the woods, yeah. So an illegal pop farm in the woods. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That must have been pretty. Because I remember that was where all the good pot came from for a while. Oh, yeah.
Back in the day when I still used drugs, you know, I remember when, like, you know, like when buds came. Yeah. Like they were rare. I mean, like all of a sudden you're getting these fucking Humboldt buds.
Yeah, before that it's just like whatever kind of shake in a little bag.
But it was in my lifetimes.
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