I didn't realise how necessary a good hoodie was in a man's wardrobe until I went home to New Zealand.
Which sounds ridiculous.
But after living in Bali for around eight years and spending a lot of my time chasing summer between Bali and Europe, I'd basically built my entire wardrobe around warm weather.
And if I'm honest, that has been reflected in LINW as a brand too.
Linen. Tees. Shorts. Lightweight shirting. Pleated pants. A lot of pieces designed around movement, travel and warmer climates.
Winter had never really been a major focus.
Then I went home to New Zealand for Christmas.
Bali Had Completely Ruined Me
I thought I was going home for summer.
Technically I was.
But when you've been living in 30 degree heat almost every day of the year, a New Zealand summer feels completely different.
I had no warm clothes. Nothing.
I was borrowing hoodies almost immediately.
Then Boxing Day rolled around and I found myself shopping other brands I follow, buying their hoodies and thinking: Why the hell don't I have my own?
That was probably the moment the LINW hoodie actually started.
Building a More Complete LINW Wardrobe
It also made me realise something bigger about the brand.
If we're serious about building what I keep calling the perfect wardrobe, we can't only design for Bali.
Our customer isn't only in Bali.
They're in Auckland. Sydney. Melbourne. London. New York.
They're travelling. They're moving through seasons. They're layering.
And LINW needs to be able to move with them.
That's something I've become much more conscious of as the brand has grown.
I want the collection to start feeling like a full 360 degree rotation. Not just individual pieces that work in one climate.
Back to the Drawing Board
I went home again in February and started properly redeveloping the hoodie.
The challenge was getting the balance right.
I wanted weight. I wanted warmth. But I didn't want something stiff and overly heavy.
I wanted enough room to layer underneath it without making the hoodie look massively oversized on its own.
Then there was the silhouette. Fabric density. Length. Finish.
It took us a few months to get everything where I wanted it.
Eventually we landed on a 360 GSM 100% fleece.
Why 360 GSM?
The 360 GSM fleece gives the hoodie proper weight.
You feel it when you put it on.
It's warm enough to wear by itself, but the finish still feels smooth and clean rather than bulky.
Then we worked on the cut.
Slightly cropped. Slightly boxy. Room through the body. Enough space to layer underneath.
But not so oversized that it takes over the whole outfit.
For me, that's where the silhouette landed.
Comfortable without looking sloppy.
The Flagship Hoodie
For the first release, we didn't feel like the hoodie needed some completely new graphic story.
Instead, we pulled from something the customer already knows.
Our Flagship Tee has become one of our strongest graphic pieces, so we translated that same small front and back graphic language onto the hoodie.
Simple. Recognisable. Still very LINW.
The hoodie is releasing in three colours:
Grey
Black
Forest Green
Again, deliberately easy colours.
Pieces that should immediately work with denim, Sese Pants, shorts and whatever you've already got in rotation.
The Response
We opened the hoodies through pre order first and the response was really strong.
That gave us confidence that our community was looking for exactly the same thing I had been missing in my own wardrobe.
A simple, properly weighted hoodie that still feels like LINW.
The first LINW Flagship Hoodies are online now in grey, black and forest green.
And next time I head back to New Zealand, at least I'll be slightly better prepared.
Shay
Founder, LINW