Local Pride
Art: Bob Commander
If you’re not a Park City local, you might wish you were. If you are a local, you’re proud of it. Such is the philosophy that led Brian Kahn and Bob Commander to create Locals Have More Fun, a Park City-based eco-friendly apparel company.
It all started in 2006 when Kahn moved to Park City after working in Chicago. A graduate of the University of Colorado and volunteer for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Kahn says, “The day I moved to Chicago was the day that I wanted to come back to the mountains.”
While trail running one day, he had an epiphany and shouted, “Locals have more fun!” With that single phrase, a company was born. Kahn envisioned a character driven T-shirt line and began searching for an illustrator to bring his idea to life. One name kept resurfacing: “The Commander.” Bob Commander had left a successful design career in Los Angeles to return home to the mountains, just like Kahn.
The two locals got together and discovered that they were on the same page. Commander, who runs a full-service graphic design business, recalls, “I had a similar idea and had been playing around with a character that epitomized outdoor recreation. The next thing you know, we’re partners. We’re like family now.”
The partners decided to create an environmentally conscious company using Patagonia as their green business model. While Kahn researched eco-friendly suppliers, Commander went to work creating an illustration that both partners lovingly refer to as Our Guy. “Granted, he has spiked hair and shades, but we wanted to make him friendly enough and edgy enough to appeal to a wide base. The key to the success of our character is that he can be any one of us,” explains Commander.
From there, the design expanded to include Our Girl (described as “not too pretty, not too granola”) and specific sports such as “Locals Ski Harder” or “Locals Climb Higher.” Now multiple sports, from kayaking to climbing, skiing to snowboarding, have their own designs.
Kahn, who drives a hybrid SUV and has a tankless water heater in his home, has immersed himself in environmentally sound practices. “A green business has to be totally transparent from seed to end user,” he says. As a result, Locals uses only eco-certified organic cotton and suppliers who are fair labor certified.
The company’s tapered bamboo and organic cotton tees leave minimal environmental impact. Locals uses a faster regenerating bamboo and their organic cotton is free of fertilizer and pesticides. While the company currently purchases its materials overseas, it is investigating U.S. sources made from post-consumer waste.
Since screen printing is traditionally very toxic, Locals uses water-based ink instead of ink that is petroleum based, making it groundwater-safe. The Environmental Protection Agency-approved process takes place in a plant with no chemical fumes, and results in apparel that retains its original softness.
As if being green weren’t enough, the company also donates a percentage of its profits to local communities and requires its suppliers, retailers and independent sales representatives to follow suit. Locals is a member of “1% for the Planet” and Kahn says, “It’s still a dream, I guess, to have a company that is absolutely focused on being right socially and helping the environment.”
Previously sold at festivals like the Park Silly Sunday Market, the merchandise is now available at local retailers in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. The product line has grown to include soft shell jackets, tote bags, hoodies and beanies with Commander Bob also designing a children’s line.
To Commander, who “married into 14-year-old fraternal twin girls,” Locals Have More Fun is a way to show his kids the importance of outdoor sports. He says, “We are really keen on family value. What we epitomize on our shirts is clean, fun living.”
Locals Have More Fun 435.659.6217 localshavemorefun.com.
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