Herb Sundays 88: Abe Burmeister (
@abe1x )(Apple, Spotify, Tidal, Amz link via Substack link in bio). Art:
@michaelcina .
Abe Burmeister is the founder and creative director of
@outlier which began with a single pair of pants in 2008 and grew into an international brand focused on making high-quality, technically-minded clothing of all stripes. In 2001, realizing all this work was done on a laptop/cellphone, he reduced his life's possessions down to a single carry-on bag. Cycling to work, he would inevitably shred his clothes, which was the aha moment for the brand, seeking to make clothes that lived up to their intended use.
In the late-early days of Ghostly, say 2006-2010, heroes were hard to find. The idea of the major music industry as a visionary space continued to flicker out, and the indie music world had become increasingly difficult, with digital sales not rising fast enough to surmount falling CD patterns and the vinyl revival still yet to come. I usually inhaled the classic ‘70s / ‘80s British indie label stories to hype myself up, but soon realized this was a poison of sorts, as these eras had long passed and could not be replicated, special as they were. We learned to find influence outside of the music business in companies like nearby Ann Arbor company,
@zingermansdeli who developed a community of intertwined small businesses and a company philosophy that felt worth mimicking.
Clothing has always been a part of my inspiration set which can be a dynamic, creatively-led world when done best. Outlier has never been the hottest thing around, but it never has tried to be really. It just does what it does, week after week and functions how ideally any small company (labels, magazines, DAOs, etc) should these days, both with mystery and accessibility: In short, like a club. It’s fun to see Abe and Tyler pop up on IG live to share a new product and its subreddit boasts a very engaged 18,000 people actively co-creating the brand.
In his included essay, Abe exclaims: “I went to high school in NYC circa 1990, so being a herb was a serious offense. So like a herb, I took this part of the assignment way too seriously. What’s the herbiest mix possible?... "
