monk

. m o n k . was born from my love of traveling.

The more I traveled, the more I realized I could travel lighter. The less I had, the easier and more enjoyable my journeys became. I remember reading Gandhi, and then seeing a photograph (the one above) of his only worldly possessions, and saying to myself, how awesome - that a man can have so much, yet own so little.  

When it came to clothing, I found it difficult finding items that were made of quality, made to last, served multiple uses, and designed timelessly. When I married and then had children, I found that need grow to clothing and items we could all share, to not only reduce our footprint, but also to own less and to continue to travel light. My wife and I share clothes, and when we can, we share with our children too. And so our philosophy was one of simplicity and quality. If things are made well, made to last, and of timeless design, we need less of them. Our home, our minds, are cleaner, and we have more time and less waste. When we travel, rather than have large suitcases, we each have a carry-on and that's it. We do not need more. 

Our first design was the Poncho. We've always had a poncho in the house, and love wearing them. But we found that none served the all-purpose needs of our family. A poncho we could wear to change into/out of our wetsuits, to layer on over clothes at our shop, to wear out on a cooler evening to dinner with friends. Our children needed one too, which they could wear to the beach, after a swim, when the sun went down,  to school or at home when relaxing. And so, we began brainstorming on exactly what this type of poncho would look like - and so came the . m o n k . hooded poncho.