Hammer Pants
Your Next Jeans, Straight from Michigan

You wear clothes like you swing a hammer.

Perfectly.

So it’s only natural that you may be interested in this development: Carhartt, that rare outfitter that ably bridges the gulf between construction workers and the sartorial obsessed, has opened an outpost in Wicker Park.

This Dearborn, Michigan–based clothing maker has been turning out virtually indestructible, tripled-stitched dungarees, coveralls and those Bob Vila–style pants with the loop for your hammer since well before Detroit made its first cars.

In fact, when you walk in, it’s a bit like a well-appointed time machine: in the back you’ll find construction workers perched on girders overhead, lunch pails in hand, in front of a mural of the construction of Lake Shore Drive. But don’t feel guilty when you plop into a leather chair or indulge in a game of snooker. They’re only mannequins.

So while you’ll thumb through items like canvas belts and the wearable LED headlamp here, what you’ll be most interested in is the stuff you won’t need for that backyard diamond mine you’ve been digging.

For your camping excursions, there are pocketknives from Oregon, and Duluth backpacks direct from Minnesota. And then there’s Carhartt’s Work in Progress items—selvage denim and precisely tailored button-down plaids, all designed in Germany.

No one does American perfection like the Germans.