One man's vintage Carhartt collection helps guide what's coming next
Workwear company with Detroit roots thriving after more than a century
Carhartt proves you can be all things to all people and not lose your identity.
The workwear company, founded in 1889 in Detroit by a traveling salesman who heard railroad workers frequently complain about the durability of their overalls, went on to build an iconic global brand that began with — heavy-duty bib overalls.
Carhartt overalls still have the original small cut above the front pocket that’s designed for a pocket watch chain — a nod to the past, and the company’s first customers. This privately held business is still owned and managed by descendants of its founder.
“Carhartt’s history is about building. We build the products so people can build bridges, skyscrapers and fix the plumbing. That’s the goal of who we are. You put on your Carhartts to do work,” said Dave Moore, the archivist at Carhartt. He has spent a decade building a collection of its most significant designs.
Matthew McConaughey wore the Detroit Jacket in the sci-fi film “Interstellar.” Heath Ledger wore the Chore Coat in the Oscar-winning drama “Brokeback Mountain.” Carhartt clothing is seen on the hit western series “Yellowstone” and its prequel, “1923.” “NCIS” actor Mark Harmon has worn Carhartt throughout the CBS crime series.
“If you have a blue-collar worker in your movie, wearing Carhartt is authentic,” Moore said during an interview at the corporate office in Dearborn.
Hamilton Carhartt manufactured durable workwear for people who built America, starting with men’s “furnishings” such as belts, wallets and watches, Moore said.
Few people may know that Carhartt built cars briefly, with several models between 1910-12. The company supplied coats for Ford factory workers building cars at the Rouge Plant in 1938 and for electricians wiring the Gordie Howe International Bridge as recently as this year.
Hip-hop artists and skater crowds fell in love with the urban brand with a gritty reputation. Beanies and T-shirts joined the mix of popular items. Rapper Eminem is a fan of the brand. He collaborated with Carhartt on sneakers and clothing to benefit Verses Project, a charity that teaches students literacy through songwriting.
‘… Know where you’ve been’
While many businesses seem to be shrinking these days, Carhartt is expanding. This year, it added stores in New York City; Tempe, Arizona; San Antonio and Prosper, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, bringing its number of company-owned stores to 61, including two in Detroit.
For more than a century, Carhartt sold only wholesale — in small businesses and more recently at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shops and Tractor Supply, Moore said.
“People ask me my favorite thing in the archives. I have a check from a store in Jonesville, Michigan — today called Powers Clothing — from 1898 for their order of product. They’re still in business and they still sell Carhartt.”
In 2024, the company had estimated revenue of $1.7 billion, according to a Crain’s Detroit Business story. Private companies are not required to make financials public.
Workers who love Carhartt can’t seem to throw it away, and pieces are often too worn to donate. So they send things back to Carhartt with letters of appreciation.
Back in 2014, Carhartt hired Moore as a contractor to put together historical information for the company’s 125th anniversary. His job evolved into a permanent position collecting physical and digital artifacts and assisting with product development, marketing and communications.
“You can’t look forward until you know where you’ve been,” said Ted Ryan, heritage and brand manager at Ford Motor Co., who moved to Dearborn after working for the Coca-Cola Co. He has earned a global reputation as past chairman of the business archives section of the Society of American Archivists.
“Archives are a great rearview mirror,” Ryan told me. “You have to anticipate the future. Dave is not going to keep every piece of merchandise. What pieces he selects will inform the future. We, as a profession, are preserving the items that will tell the story of humanity moving forward.”
Skilled trades workers such as my husband, an IBEW master electrician who works on huge commercial projects, have a closet full of Carhartt jackets for different times of year: insulated and non-insulated bib overalls, high-vis hoodies and tool aprons.
Ken Meyer, a farmer, hunter and beekeeper who runs The Pollinator Project in Columbus, Michigan, told me, “I own 20 pairs of overalls, and Carhartt is the best. They’re the warmest, and they don’t wear out.”
Tradition has power
Archivists are viewed as mission critical to global companies ranging from Levi Strauss to Walt Disney because documenting the truth is more valued than ever. It’s crucial to telling the story.
“An archivist can go back and recreate that moment in time. If you’re saying you haven’t changed, an archivist can prove it,” said Robert Kolt, professor emeritus of advertising at Michigan State University. “Nostalgia speaks to people’s emotion. You look at Carhartt … It’s tradition. And that has more power than price.”
When Moore began his Carhartt job, he was assigned an overstuffed closet.
“If you’ve ever seen Indiana Jones, how he’s sitting there at his desk but there are racks of stuff and artifacts,” he said. “I had cardboard boxes and big rolled-up tubes and stuff everywhere. My task was to make sense of it. Organize it. Catalogue it. Everything from ads to business records to big ledgers and corporate minute books.”
Moore said, “You have to understand your past to chart the future.”
That includes compiling history about making uniforms for soldiers during World War I and World War II, or making clothes for people fixing tanks, he said. During the COVID pandemic, the company manufactured masks and medical gowns.
Moore, who earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Michigan and a master of arts degree from Wayne State University with a certificate in archival administration, worked at The Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village before Carhartt. His ties to Detroit run deep; Moore’s grandfather worked as an electrician at the Rouge plant for Ford Motor Co., later transferring to Greenfield Village. Moore’s father was a boiler operator at Greenfield Village, before becoming a physician. Moore’s brother is an engineer at General Motors.
Carhartt in Amsterdam and Seoul now, too
These days, Carhartt has more than 3,000 employees worldwide, led by CEO Linda Hubbard. After joining the company in 2002, she took the helm in 2024, the first non-family member to serve in the role. Mark Valade, great-grandson of the company founder, is executive chair of the board.
Since September 2023, Carhartt has opened 28 new retail locations across the U.S., totaling 61 company-owned stores now. The company has three U.S. manufacturing facilities, in Kentucky and Tennessee, including the repair facility that’s the original 1930s factory building in Irvine, Kentucky.
Overseas, Carhartt has headquarters in Amsterdam and Seoul — Carhartt EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Asia). Clothing styles may be slightly different overseas, depending on worker needs, Moore said.
“We’re constantly researching the worker and new types of work. Back in the day, if workers needed range of motion, that meant the cut was a lot bigger and roomier. Nowadays, we have new technologies and fabrics that can build in stretch,” Moore said.
He keeps a pair of overalls made between 1889-1900 in a box filled with tissue to protect the fabric. “Our design didn’t change. I acquired these from a vintage seller. He found them in a cabin somewhere in the Dakotas, actually stuffed in the gaps of a window box.”
Hunting, fishing
Carhartt has brought back its Super Dux outdoorwear for hunting and fishing with roots dating back to the 1930s. Carhartt designers study new industries such as solar farming and wind farming, to determine what workers need to wear to be safe and productive.
Moore is now a subject-matter expert who brainstorms with designers when reviewing vintage images, old advertising, themes and customers. He also reviews potential donations and negotiates purchases of vintage items while helping shape future designs.
“This is the greatest job I never knew I wanted. You don’t meet a kid in elementary school who’s, like, I want to be an archivist when I grow up. But everybody has seen a documentary film or watching something where the credits list the archives,” Moore said. “You want to understand the story, the history and fit all the puzzle pieces together.”
A powerful letter from Nebraska
Below is the content of a letter that hangs on the wall of Carhartt, sent by a longtime customer who mailed his coat back to the company for safekeeping:
“This was the coat of a man for a big part of his life. Each abrasion, each tear, the fading from the sunshine weathered wear are each a memory in some way of a time when the world was different for this man. The people he hugged and held while wearing this coat, some no longer here with us, the relationships that came and went, the different jobs and worst of days and best of days. The time spent just sitting and thinking about what the next move in life should be, the times this man was scared, times the world had all but taken him to his knees, and then did. The times when he drove his newborns home from the hospital so concerned and learning about being a dad on a January Nebraska day. Times this man toted around his little dog in this coat with just his head sticking out over the zipper, and after years having to say goodbye to his buddy with one last ride. All the times he prayed in it. Like an old glove forms to fit a hand, this mans coat fit him like a glove somewhat in the physical sense but on the inside, putting this coat on just felt like part of his whole being and the pieces of life experiences and memories it concerns in its own appearance. Carhartt is more than just an old coat. Please take care of this old thing …”
Note: Carhartt asked that the name of the letter writer, which is displayed with the letter, not be published out of respect for the customer’s privacy.
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This paragraph struck me: Workers who love Carhartt can’t seem to throw it away, and pieces are often too worn to donate. So they send things back to Carhartt with letters of appreciation.
I came across a farmer doing chores in NE Iowa and had to take a picture of his Carhartt coat. You can see it has many years of service. I made a print on 16 x 20 canvas and hung it in my office as a reminder of the U.S. farmers I work for. You can see the photo here: https://www.jmurphpix.com/Home/Home/i-WJGHBdF
Archivists rock. I am one and we do society’s most important work: memory keeping.