We have a philosophy at Nitty Gritty when it comes to picking brands and choosing products for our stores. We like the real deal. Brands that stay true to it's origin and that have good storytelling, not necessarily depending on a long history, but a good and genuine one. When we unpacked the new arrivals from Red Wing the other day we found the inscription “Pecos” on the 8869 model, which is a new style for us at Nitty Gritty this season.

According to the traditional American “fakelore” genre Pecos Bill was a cowboy. Born in Texas in the 1830's, fell out of a wagon at a very early age, raised by a pack of Coyotes and later on was found by his real brother who had a very hard time convincing Bill that he was not a Coyote… Read the newsletter

“…I like smoke and lightning

Heavy metal thunder

Racing in the wind

And the feeling that I'm under…”

The first time the phrase Heavy Metal was mentioned was in the 1968 megahit “Born to be wild” from the debut album Steppenwolf, released by the group with the same name. All of a sudden one of the more important music genres for the next 30 years was born. (Not that Born to be wild was especially “Heavy Metal” as we got to know the genre later on but anyway…)

In 1969 the song became immortal with the help of the blockbuster Easy Rider, written and directed by Dennis Hopper.

So! Why all this talk about Bikers and Heavy Metal? Read the newsletter

London Burning…

There are many reasons why our heads and eyes are turned pointing towards the British Isles this week. It feels a bit awkward to write about it without being at least a little political. There is no secret that we throughout the Nitty Gritty years have collected tons of inspiration from the UK in terms of fashion but when it comes to building an equitable society we are not sure that it is the United Kingdom we´d like to try and resemble.

Still, we can´t help wondering how the World’s music and fashion scene would have looked like if it wasn´t for the abyssal contradiction between the rich and the poor on the Islands. So in this week’s Nitty News we´ll give you the best of the latest arrivals from the same people that gave us The Beatles, The Kinks, The Clash, Oasis, Blur and Paul Weller as well as Quadrophenia, The Who, Sting, Sir Paul Smith, Tricker´s Shoes, Mackintosh, Clarks, Fred Perry, Nigel Cabourn, Penhaligons, Coleman´s mustard, builders tea etc., etc., etc., etc… Read the newsletter