Climbing is a bit like jazz. The spirit of jazz is freedom. It’s about just playing, freestyling, believing in intuition. The jazz artist stays true to himself and plays without structure. It was shocking at first. The classical world, so rigid and stringent with rules, was horrified. Imagine Mile Davis, wired out his head on high-quality cocaine, sweating profusely into a trumpet. Alice Coltrane, the cosmic jazz harpist playing in a trance. These guys didn’t think: they just did.
The spirit of climbing runs analogous. The early climbers, the Stone Masters, crazy cats who climbed without ropes or rules, guided by the soft touch of danger and a mouthful of acid, were just as loose as the sounds of jazz. Despite being decades later, they climbed like jazz played: voraciously, fervently, free.
The Gramicci x Book Works line celebrates this overlap. Gramicci was founded by Stone Master, Mike Graham, who made it his mission to supply high-quality climbing pants to the community. Book Works investigates music and visual elements, knotting them together like productive tangled bungee cords.
The range includes the classic ‘Running Man’ t-shirt with Book Works matching typeface, ‘Rhythm Pants’ with the AABA chord progression, and the ‘Sacoche Bag’ in New York City taxi cab yellow.
You can shop the collaboration here.
