A Brief History of American-made Outerwear: Ode to Buffalo Plaid

A brand is a promise. 

Buffalo plaid isn't a brand per se but, like a brand, is a promise. The deceptively simple red and black checkered pattern suggests rugged American wilderness and conjures images of everything from cowboys and lumberjacks to punks and hipsters. Like all classics, it has been derided as cliche, which is a measure of its success because its staying power is tremendous. Without question, the buffalo plaid is the definition of classic Americana, even though it's not.  

Buffalo plaid is really the Rob Roy tartan from the Scottish clan MacGregor but altered to fit the needs of subsequent places.  

Woolrich Woolen Mills, out of Pennsylvania made the pattern known to Americans sometime around 1850 and the buffalo plaid shirt since then has been a part of its catalog. According to Woolrich's history, the pattern designer owned a herd of buffalo, which is possibly the reason it has become known as buffalo plaid. 

Rob McCluskey brought the tartan to the West by outfitting Army outposts during the time of the Native American holocaust following Custer's last stand. Both soldiers and Sioux and the Cheyenne warriors were in awe of the the deep red of the plaid. That red was like the blood of their defeated foes and they traded for buffalo plaid blankets.

McCluskey was a friend of both white and Indian, a middle man in between two worlds torn apart. Neither the Indians nor the soldiers could pronounce the Gaelic word for blanket pladger, so the people at the trading posts called it plaid. And the buffalo plaid took off.

Though Woolrich made famous the buffalo plaid or the red and black checkered squares that have become synonymous with the West, when I think of buffalo plaid, I think of Pendleton, the wool company out of the Eastern Oregon town of the same name. A wild, woolly town, where the cowboys do whiskey shots for breakfast and one can see the greatest rodeo this side of the Rockies, I also love the wide variety of Pendleton blankets.

Regardless, what you get when you look at a buffalo plaid, despite its Scottish roots, is a promise of America. A rugged individualism. Powerful and warm, it's not surprise that other ruggedly American companies have embraced the red and black checker squares in other forms. 

My wife has become obsessed with Tradlands, a relatively new small San Francisco company that makes quality menswear-inspired button-up shirts that, in her words, fit women. Currently, all of their shirts are made in America with quality materials, careful craftmanship, and design that allows the wearer to feel like herself. 

Below is her Arapahoe shirt, with the red and black checkers, but depending on the day, you could find her in a Tradlands shirt for any occasion. 

While my wife leans Tradlands, I've been picking up quality goods from Filson, a Seattle company that since 1897 has been outfitting people who "refuse to stay indoors." Filson's flagship product is the cruiser, designed for timber cruisers, miners and explorers, with roots in the Yukon gold rush. This is my new work cape jacket designed by Nigel Cabourn for Filson. Inspired by a vintage 1930s Filson Cruiser that Nigel found while digging around in Japan, the work cape jacket features a corduroy collar for added comfort, snap clip buttons which are easier to maneuver with gloved hands, and the classic plaid-patterned wool from the mills of Pendelton. 

Here Marcos is wearing a Filson dog coat with the classic shelter cloth on the outside and mackinaw wool underneath. This was the first Filson product I purchased."Might as well have the best," which is especially true for a dog like Marcos, a retired therapy dog and hero of my book Pick-Up Dogs: How Two Rescue Dogs Save the West from Being Won.