Meet Eugene Chan of Crew Apparel in Arts District

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eugene Chan.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Eugene. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Crew Apparel is a business inspired by chefs. I used to be in the restaurant business, creating and running cool coffee shops, dining concepts and whiskey bars in HK and Asia. There is never a shortage of fine ingredients to create amazing dishes, nor craftsman to build a nice shop, however, we have a hard time finding a uniform that fits our image. Our chefs and restaurant staffs constantly sweating because it’s really hot in the kitchen and the traditional cotton/ poly chef apparel just won’t cut it for them. They work their ass off for the restaurant and I wanted to create something good for them. The idea came when I was wearing my Lululemon workout shirt and was helping out in the kitchen one day. I was not bothered by the sweat and heat at all. So I was like if pro-athletes can have this tech-fabric to help them out, why can’t my chefs. We ran a few prototypes and start to play around with coming up with our own fabric. After thousands of trails and fail, we are able to create CrewTech fabric, which is a sweat-wicking, 4-way stretch, anti-microbial and water-resistant fabric.

In addition to the function, our company philosophy is form and purpose. We believed beautiful design is a must for such functional product. We put a modern twist on the traditional chef coat, giving it a more tailored cut, details that will help chefs at work such as storage pocket and apron lock strap on the back of the collar. We hope our chef uniform will help to improve the environment the chef is working at. We might not be able to put an air conditioner in every kitchen, but we will be able to make improvements, one small step at a time.

Our goal is to create more functional uniforms for chefs and slowly for other industries, as well as supporting local economy. We believe in giving back to the community and appreciation for the hardest working people. When your employees are working their butt off every day, they deserve to wear something better than a $5.99/month rental uniform. We want more people to join our Uniform Revolution – Better Uniform made in LA for the toughest jobs out there.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It was definitely a rocky road for us. From the getting the fabric right, to design a rather same-for-the-past-decade product and at a certain point, finding out your business partner is not the right one, definitely adding more rocks to the path. However, we believe we are doing the right thing and we hold on to our value. So after getting out of an ugly breakup of the partnership, we see our path and are able to get to where we want to be.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Crew Apparel story. Tell us more about the business.
At Crew Apparel, our goal is to create and design a better uniform for the professionals doing the toughest job out there. Whether that is cooking meals, fixing cars or healing people, your uniform is a big part of your day. It’s the outfit you wear the most and you deserve to dress like a boss regardless how rugged the job is.

Crew Apparel began with one simple idea – what you wear to work should work for you. We saw our chefs trying to work around a uniform that was hot, didn’t breathe well and was unattractive. We knew we could do better, so we decided to take on a work uniform revolution.

We reimagine how the uniform should wear and perform, they should complement you, not get in your way. Just like athletes have performance apparels to help them train and compete, we believe your uniform should do the same. Crew Apparel is proud to craft uniforms that are both functional and comfortable, so you can get to work on the incredible things you do every day.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think the luck was to have a team of people who support you and share the same vision with you. We had a bad start with one of the business partners and we were quite depressed for a while. However, we stood together as a team and was able to fight through and create more amazing products.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1019 S. Santa Fe Ave
  Los Angeles, CA 90021
• Website: www.crewapparel.net
• Phone: 213-221-7139
• Email: info@crewapparel.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crewapparelusa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crewapparelusa/

Image Credit:
Porkbellystudio

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