Jocks&Nerds x Shinola

Recently quarterly men’s style magazine Jocks&Nerds started an inspirational online project together with Detroit-based brand Shinola whom have recently opened their first store in London. The brand offers a broad field of products, from watches, leatherwear, bicycles to accessories for you pets and apparel, with everything being produced by skillful craftsman from the United States. The collaboration between Jocks&Nerds fits seamlessly within the philosophy of Shinola as it presents a select group of American craftsmen, but with the twist that they are all based in Britain. A modelmaker, a chef, a tailor, a brewer and today the final chapter is opened, presenting master distiller Jared Brown. Raised in upstate New York and now London-based, Brown works for the independent spirits distillery Sipsmith, where he is a master gin distiller and mixologist. He also used to run the pop up bar at the beautiful Langham hotel. The perfect closing of a beautiful collection of inspirational stories.

Next to his work for Sipsmith and the mentioned pop up bar, Jared is also an author and publisher of Mixellany Books, specializing in drink-related subjects and co-author, with his wife Anistatia Miller, of a few dozen books, such as ‘Spirituous Journey: A History of Drink‘ and ‘Shaken Not Stirred: A Celebration of the Martini‘, and he is a regular food and drinks contributor to The Guardian and the Financial Times. With nowadays many years of experience under his belt, perfecting his craft, Brown started his journey into the world of distilling at an exceptionally young age. With only 10 years he already distilled his first batch of cider, inspired by the fact that cider was simply not available in upstate New York at that time. Although he states that his debut as a distiller tasted awful, it undeniably formed a very early start of what later became a fruitful caree. Another important milestone in that career was the granted great honor of creating the drinks menus and supervised service for both the 2005 and 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinners, after which Jared and his wife soon moved to London to start their endeavors there.

Globalization has lead to uniformity; global brands are the new vanilla. The ultimate indulgence – the ultimate luxury – is artisanal local products. There is a sense of discovery when it comes to artisanal products. Personally, I’d rather spend my time raising plants to understand the life cycle of my ingredients than sit in marketing meetings.

Next to the images of Jared Brown we included photographs of all five craftsmen: modelmaker Brad McDonald, chef Raashid Hooks, tailor Ryan Witter-Merithew and brewer Rick Arminger, which were all taken by Kevin Davies.

For more information on Shinola see here.

Follow Jocks&Nerds’ online endeavors here.

Read all the inspirational stories out of the Jocks&Nerds x Shinola series here.