Howies

Howies was started in 1995 by Clare and David Hieatt, who began making t-shirts from the floor of their London flat. The name is a shortened form of Clare's maiden name, Howells. In 2001 the couple relocated the business to Cardigan, on the west Wales coast, where it produced its first proper mail-order catalogue and later settled at the Parc Teifi business park. Howies built its identity around environmentally conscious outdoor and activewear, introducing organic cotton into its ranges in 2001 and, by 2016, becoming the first clothing company to go entirely fluorocarbon-free, alongside continued use of merino wool and recycled fabrics. In 2006 the Hieatts sold Howies to the American outdoor group Timberland for £3.2 million. David Hieatt stayed on but, after failing on three occasions to buy the brand back, left Timberland; he and Clare went on to found the small-batch denim maker Hiut Denim Co. in Cardigan in 2012, built around reviving jeans manufacturing in the town. Howies itself remained under Timberland, and then under VF Corporation after VF acquired Timberland in 2011. Following VF's later restructuring, the Howies management team bought the business back into independent ownership; the company today describes itself as owned and run by its own employees, with no external shareholders, continuing to sell organic-cotton and merino outdoor, running, and cycling wear from Wales.