Ginew and Pendleton

As we come to the end of a year of stellar projects, co-brandings and collaborations, we want to call out the GINEW Thunderbird coats as one of our favorite projects. These coats are made by GINEW, the only Native American owned premium denim collection. Focusing on American-made materials, GINEW incorporate elements of their Native American heritage (Ojibwe, Oneida, & Mohican) to express a contemporary, Native voice through premium apparel and accessories.

Here is GINEW’s press release about the coat:

Native American-owned apparel co. Ginew of Portland, Oregon announces the release of the THUNDERBIRD COAT. An elevation of a classic piece with intricate details throughout. The THUNDERBIRD COAT tastefully incorporates the tribal (Ojibwe & Oneida) designs and textiles of the brand owners, with hunted deerskin collar (YES! Hunted by Ginew + family), premium denim, custom PENDLETON® lining, and Ft Lonesome chain-stitched Thunderbird…

The pinnacle of our inspiration for the collection this year – the THUNDERBIRD COAT – encompasses a range of emotions and experiences from an eleven-day road trip in our 1971 F250…from our ancestral homelands of the Great Lakes to the Pacific Northwest. Through the boreal forests along Lake Superior, across the plains and badlands of Dakota & Cheyenne lands, to the high desert and ultimately the temperate rainforest of the Pacific…each morning, day, and night an act of intention and, in many ways a prayer. Crisp sunrises, afternoon thunderstorms, still sunsets, and brilliantly starry nights were our muse as we bore witness to the change of seasons. Woven into each fabric of this coat is the intention, observation, and emotion of this experience.

When you put on the THUNDERBIRD COAT, you are wearing a coat built to express our Ojibwe & Oneida heritages and the experience of our journey from the Great Lakes to Portland, OR. Designed with the classic American silhouette of a lined ranch coat, yet taken steps beyond as we incorporate our tribal symbols, traditional textiles, way of life, and emotions into the coat.

Notes on the lining

The coat includes the Ginew® “WE WALK TOGETHER" wool blanket lining – exclusively woven for Ginew® by PENDLETON®. It is customary in our communities to wrap a newly joined couple in a blanket to symbolize their union. The WE WALK TOGETHER blanket colors represent the sacred day (sunrise to sunset) and wampum belt (purples), teachings which impart values to guide us in our life together. The lodges are in the shape of traditional Ojibwe and Oneida dwellings. The crest fuses timeless symbols from each of our tribes, the dwelling (Ojibwe) and Skydome (Oneida). Together, the colors and symbols represent how we value our traditional beliefs in our home as we walk this journey of life together.

See it here: GINEW

Photos by Ginew & Rowdy Dugan