SUNFADE PROJECT
Launching 12.08.2026
The Sunfade Project
Two hundred t-shirts went out into a field in Cheshire and came back changed. Over the six weeks of English sunlight, the plain black pieces changed over and over. No synthetic attempt at a vintage finish.
Every piece carries a fade the from the sun with a contrasting polyester stitching with the original colour and unaffected by the sunlight, and a woven patch numbered by hand. One of two hundred, each with their own unique fading.
We met Will Manning, who owns Millennial Vintage in Manchester, and he'd been putting t-shirts out on a scarecrow figure to see what the light would do to them.
That was the whole method. Leave the garment out and wait.
The more we talked, the more it made sense to bring our own design onto it. Doing the fading close to where we grew up meant we could watch the change happen day by day.
"As that relationship developed we amended to the idea of localizing our garments by working with them to create this product, so we could really be involved with the process and show it to our consumer."
- George Heaton
Fifteen years in the back of a sketchbook
We didn't design a new body for this. The tee comes off our Owners Club block, which is boxy and oversized with a neckline and sleeve length you can identify across a room. Tried, tested, and not up for debate.
The fabric is a 70/30 cotton-hemp jersey. Reverse seams throughout, so it reads like a vintage t-shirt worn inside out, which is a habit of ours that turned into an identity somewhere along the way.
The chest and back graphic isn't our block print. It's a handwritten mark, pen-style, closer to a tag than a logo, and tags come out of skate and surf culture, which has always been part of our DNA.
Mike has been drawing this one for a decade and a half without ever meaning to use it.
"It's actually a mark I've found myself drawing in the back of sketchbooks for the last 15 years. It was never designed with a collection in mind; it just became a natural expression over time. So when this project came together, it felt right to finally bring it to life. It's unapologetically ours, and that personal connection gives it an authenticity like the Sunfade Project itself, that you can't manufacture."
- Mike Heaton
Homegrown Vintage
Vintage is the thing we keep coming back to. Thrift stores, rock bands, Los Angeles warehouse finds, all of it feeds how the design team works. We've spent years trying to replicate this look with factories. This time we stopped trying to replicate it.
"If I've learned anything throughout this process, it's that the best vintage isn't manufactured, it's earned over time."
- Mike Heaton
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