Meet Nick English AKA Stridewise
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’ve had a pretty zigzaggy path thus far. I grew up in Australia and my working life started as an English teacher in China, then a humanitarian in India and Kenya, then I studied journalism and wound up writing about health and fitness in New York City for nearly a decade. That career in digital media and startups taught me how to make a website that generates revenue, and that’s how I was able to turn my side project into a full time job.
I never would have predicted this career for myself but it’s a lot of fun, I meet cool things, and I learn about stuff I’m passionate about.
How did “Stridewise” become its own platform?
Moving to New York meant needing footwear that could survive snow, slush, salt, and lots and lots of walking — this city is 90 percent stairs, I swear — so I bought boot after boot trying to find one that really made me feel like a man who was ready for anything the day would bring.
I spent so long trying to find the boots that felt right that I wound up starting a blog about what to look for when buying boots. When I wondered if I could turn that passion into a job, I realized the blog needed a video component, one thing led to another, and now I’ve made videos at boot workshops, leather tanneries, and jeans factories in over a dozen countries.
What started as a boot hobby naturally became a project where I learned about other durable, casual, and handsome apparel and gear. The first area I got into after boots was raw denim, and then it was waxed canvas jackets, vegetable tanned leather bags, the works.
It was much later that I learned that what I like falls into what they call “heritage menswear,” the niche of guys who like “fashionproof” clothes and footwear that can outlast the seasonal fashion cycles, both because they have subtly classic good looks and because they’re made to last.
And of course, loving selvedge denim brought me straight to the world’s only four-way stretch selvedge at Hiroshi Kato!
I never would have predicted this career for myself but it’s a lot of fun, I meet cool things, and I learn about stuff I’m passionate about.
How did “Stridewise” become its own platform?
Moving to New York meant needing footwear that could survive snow, slush, salt, and lots and lots of walking — this city is 90 percent stairs, I swear — so I bought boot after boot trying to find one that really made me feel like a man who was ready for anything the day would bring.
I spent so long trying to find the boots that felt right that I wound up starting a blog about what to look for when buying boots. When I wondered if I could turn that passion into a job, I realized the blog needed a video component, one thing led to another, and now I’ve made videos at boot workshops, leather tanneries, and jeans factories in over a dozen countries.
What started as a boot hobby naturally became a project where I learned about other durable, casual, and handsome apparel and gear. The first area I got into after boots was raw denim, and then it was waxed canvas jackets, vegetable tanned leather bags, the works.
It was much later that I learned that what I like falls into what they call “heritage menswear,” the niche of guys who like “fashionproof” clothes and footwear that can outlast the seasonal fashion cycles, both because they have subtly classic good looks and because they’re made to last.
And of course, loving selvedge denim brought me straight to the world’s only four-way stretch selvedge at Hiroshi Kato!
What is your process of creating content and what do you think are the strengths of it are? Maybe some weaknesses?
Because has been my full time job for so long, and because I’m genuinely passionate about the space, I’m regularly thinking about products and brands and concepts and an idea for a video will often just come to me while I’m out and about. An example is a video I did this summer called “How to Not Wear Boots In Summer,” like what’s a guy who loves boots to do when it’s shorts weather? I came up with eight options.
When I started making content, I was carefully trying to review the biggest brand names and also to answer commonly searched questions about leather, denim, and so on. My background is in making content for Google and that’s a good way to build an audience. After some six years, though, I’ve already made content for most of those common searches and I’ve built enough of an audience that I have a bit more freedom to just make content I find interesting, plus brands are more willing to work with me now, which is why I was able to get flown to India to shoot a few videos at shoe factories earlier this year.
As far as weaknesses go, well, it’s mostly that my background is in content for Google, which means I don’t have a super strong brand or a super high number of subscribers relative to how long I’ve been making content. When people Google “red wing iron ranger review” they usually just want to see a review and then they watch it and leave rather than subscribing. So you could see that as a weakness, like I haven’t built a great platform for, say, releasing collaborations that I can reliably sell out for brand. My views increase slowly over time, they don’t spike on day one!
What is your day-to-day style? (What are your go to pieces?)
Usually it’s some combination of denim, canvas, and leather! I like classic, casual style and natural materials, I used to call it “grandpa fashion” until I learned that there’s a menswear culture that call it heritage. Basically, I don’t want to be embarrassed by seeing photos of my outfits in twenty years so I try to keep my looks timeless.
In summer I do a lot of linen and loafers but as soon as it’s cooler, my go-to outfit is whatever raw selvedge denim I’m trying to fade, a t-shirt or casual button up (I really like the athletic fit options from Teddy Stratford), a leather jacket from Schott or a canvas jacket from Flint and Tinder, and some Goodyear welted boots — every week I’m wear testing a different pair, but my favorites are Thursday, Red Wing, and Grant Stone.
I usually have a messenger bag as well, I’m a huge fan of the Indonesian brand Cravar. If I’m wearing a leather jacket then I’ll pick a cotton twill bag, otherwise it’s a leather bag. If I’m using a backpack it’s either Filson for cotton or Satchel & Page for leather.
Oh, and if the weather is particularly cold I’m pretty much always wearing one of my three deck jackets, I’m a huge fan of that style.
What made you passionate about shoes, especially boots and loafers?
I’m going to say something controversial: Australian men are not known for dressing well. I actually saw a tweet recently that called us the worst dressed men in the developed world.
My point is that we don’t think much about how to dress and what to put on our feet, especially when dressing casually, and boots and loafers aren’t part of the cultural landscape. We quite like Chelsea boots — only the ones from RM Williams and Blundstone — and boat shoes are fairly common, but otherwise we don’t do footwear that’s both high quality and casual.
So I never thought about quality footwear until I moved to New York City, and I guess I experienced what they call the zeal of a new convert. Having never thought about this stuff until I was in my late twenties, boots and loafers were an exciting, brand new world to explore. Basically, living a life without high quality casual footwear made the topic more exciting to me than the average dude!
My point is that we don’t think much about how to dress and what to put on our feet, especially when dressing casually, and boots and loafers aren’t part of the cultural landscape. We quite like Chelsea boots — only the ones from RM Williams and Blundstone — and boat shoes are fairly common, but otherwise we don’t do footwear that’s both high quality and casual.
So I never thought about quality footwear until I moved to New York City, and I guess I experienced what they call the zeal of a new convert. Having never thought about this stuff until I was in my late twenties, boots and loafers were an exciting, brand new world to explore. Basically, living a life without high quality casual footwear made the topic more exciting to me than the average dude!
Out of curiosity, what is the whole ordeal with you and Carl on boots vs loafers on Instagram?
Haha! OK so there’s a YouTuber called Carl Murawski and we cover a lot of the same stuff: Goodyear welted boots, leather and denim, that kind of stuff.
The main difference between us is that Carl’s an electrician and tradesman and a lot of his interest in heritage workwear like chunky Pacific Northwest boots and Carhartt jackets comes from the fact that he actually works in them. He likes fashion as well — plenty of his videos are about menswear for its own sake rather than as something to perform in at a jobsite — but when it comes to footwear, he’s largely about work boots. He therefore hates loafers because you can’t work in them, but they’re also not very formal, so what’s the point. If you’re dressing casually, wear boots.
Me, I don’t pretend to be a tradesman, I just like menswear that’s casual and well made, a category loafers fall under. I actually really like loafers because they let you wear high quality footwear when it’s summer and you’re stuck in shorts and you can’t wear cool jackets or anything. The heat of summer strips a man of all the coolest things he can wear, like boots and jeans and jackets, but! You can still have well made shoes thanks to loafers!
Anyway, we have a pretend rivalry over our different loafer philosophies that heats up every summer. We actually like each other a lot, though! I mean, I think we do…
Where did your knowledge of fashion come from? (How did you learn about the fashion/textile industry?)
To be honest, I only really knew about boots when I started the channel, and what I learned about menswear and textiles I learned along the way.
It’s sort of like my previous career in fitness: I didn’t have any formal qualifications, but I got so interested in it that I spent hours reading studies and learning kinesiology, and when I started applying for jobs writing about it, I blew the other candidates out of the water. Like, dietitians I worked with told me I had the same working knowledge as a graduate in their field.
In other words, I’m mostly self taught, but as for how do I know what I know today, it’s because Stridewise has let me travel all over the world to meet with brilliant figureheads in the space. Jeans factories in Quebec, a denim historian in London, a guy known as the Denim Prince of Vietnam, and a ton of people throughout the United States.
The other day I shared on Instagram that I have a running list of fabrics I’m obsessed with and want to work with one day: the latest entries are broken twill, wabash, and heavy linen. So many people don’t know you can make linen that’s thick and tough! I like what Motiv Mfg and Division Road do with it in their jacket collabs.
What do you like about KATO and what are some of the pieces you have?
I think it’s really impressive that Kato are the only guys making selvedge denim with four-way stretch. I used to write a lot about performance fabrics (workout clothes) so I have an understanding of the different kinds of stretch that a fabric can have, and I know that Kato has made something special.
Like a lot of guys in the heritage space, I was a bit skeptical about stretch denim, but Kato’s approach converted me and I own three pairs: 10.5oz black, 14oz indigo, and the stonewashed 17.5oz Mammoth.
But lately I’ve really been loving the Anvil Sashiko jacket. I love sashiko and I’ve tried jackets from a half dozen brands but the fit has never been quite right for me. While the Anvil is more of a shirt jacket, it’s my favorite sashiko piece and it’s also my go-to travel jacket because it’s soft, not too heavy, and the chest pockets fit my passport! I got the washed version but I kind of want the dark indigo one because I think I’ve found the sashiko jacket that I want put my own fades into!
Since your last visit here at our facility, was there any new knowledge you gained? Or anything you thought was interesting?
I learned a ton during my factory visit, I’ve always wondered exactly how brands make pre-distressed denim and I finally got an understanding of it! Nick’s physical demonstration of how core-spun yarn works was also very illustrative, I’m able to conceptualize “stretch denim” a lot better now.
Since then, I spent a lot of time exploring how to style denim jackets and denim shirts but the main things I’ve learned have been exploring Southeast Asia’s denim scene! I filmed a sitdown with VNRD — Vietnam’s Raw Denim group — and I’ve been learning about Indonesia’s place in the industry as well. A lot of folks think that all the shuttle looms that make selvedge denim are mostly in Japan and America, but there are actually a ton of them in Indonesia and a lot of brands that most Americans haven’t heard of that are making creative selvedge. I hope to visit them one day as well!
