Born in New Mexico, Overland Is Fit for Prince Harry

For better or worse, just about everything Prince Harry does these days is sure to make the news. So it was no surprise that the blogs and gossip pages began buzzing in March of last year when the Duke of Sussex turned up at the Stockyards Championship Rodeo in Texas. It wasn’t just that he had been taking in a lot of American culture (including the Super Bowl a month earlier), nor that wife Meghan Markle—a highly visible animal rights supporter—wasn’t with him for the tie-down roping. No—it was the dashing profile Harry cut in his green safari hat. Specifically, the Sierra Crushable Wool Safari Hat from Overland. “He went to our store in downtown Fort Worth,” Overland president Gabriel Openshaw told Adweek. “Then came out with a few hats and assorted goodies and wore [the safari hat] to the rodeo, which was really cool.” https://twitter.com/scobie/status/1500992285848350724 It was cool, and it led to a small bump in sales of the $89 fedora. But while an unpaid royal endorsement is nothing to sneeze at, Overland is doing fine without it. The maker of high-end sheepskin, leather and wool outerwear turns 50 this month. And while Overland has had to contend with the tumultuous market forces that have shaken all apparel brands of late, this family-owned outfit has persevered by sticking to its knitting (well, sewing): It relies on reputational marketing and believes in brick-and-mortar. Overland existed before mass discounting and intends to outlast it, too. “For years, fast fashion was king,” Openshaw said. “But more and more, and especially with young people, there's an appreciation for slow fashion—for something that's sustainable that you're not going to throw in the landfill in just a few years, that you can keep for generations.” That’s been the business plan since 1973, when Jim Leahy and his wife, Leslie, left Iowa for New Mexico, fell in love with the Southwest and decided to go into the sheepskin trade, a regional specialty since the Spanish colonial period. Patrons of Overland’s first store in Taos took to its variations on classic jacket styles, and the company grew organically. Today, Overland has 17 stores across the country and, though half of its sales are online, Overland firmly believes in the selling and marketing power of its rustic outposts. Overland also trades in bags, belts and wallets, but its core offerings—sheepskin jackets and coats—are ideally the ones that shoppers try out in person. “It’s an experiential product,” Openshaw said. “We can talk until we’re blue in the face about how something feels, but there's a very big difference when you're able to try it on, feel it, see yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I didn’t know I could look this good in a winter coat instead of being the Michelin Man.’” The wearers of Overland’s long, fur-collared coats don’t look like the Michelin Man. And if they’d like to try to look like Prince Harry, well, there’s a certain green hat in stock. Assembling an anniversary collection An apparel brand looking to commemorate a big anniversary faces a delicate decision: Bringing back styles that are decades old carries obvious risks, but ignoring a design legacy is a missed opportunity. For its 50th anniversary capsule collection, Overland steered a middle course: a 12-piece collection (six pieces each for men and women) inspired by the looks of 1973, yet contemporary enough that wearers won’t feel like Nixon is still in office. “The idea is to take some of our most beloved pieces from the ’70s and ’80s and create modern interpretations of them,” Openshaw said. “It's kind of like when Ford reintroduced the Mustang—it wasn’t going to look like the ’60s Mustang, but it's going to have elements and components of it.” Pictured above, the Highlander Shearling ($1,295.) The price behind the premium In an era when a shopper can score a shearling overcoat at JCPenney for $112, it’s easy to see how Overland’s $1,495 Harrison Shearling Sheepskin Coat might face a tough sell. But Overland’s sales proposition is straightforward and unapologetic: High-quality goods cost more—but they’ll also last for decades. Sheepskin doesn’t lend itself to discount pricing, anyway. The stuff is just plain expensive because only a small percentage of sheepskin is even suited to a coat. “You’re getting the best of the best,” Openshaw said. “You have a lot of expertise that goes into the product.” Artisans must color match small pieces to create a coat, and the stitching itself is nearly a lost art. Little surprise, then, that the JCPenney shearling is faux. Skins in the game Overland produced its first catalog (1) in 1975, signifying the steady growth of a brand founded two years earlier and operated—then and now—by the Leahy family (2). While Overland sells outerwear ranging from sheepskin long coats to goatskin suede leather blazers, its workhorse item is its B-3 bomber jacket (3), inspired by the originals worn by dashing wartime aviators.

Perspective

Born in New Mexico, Overland Is Fit for British Royalty

This family-owned brand has set the standard for luxury outwear for 5 decades

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara