San Francisco

Style

4.9.09

Project TransAction

When a man spies an old, broken-in baseball glove, he's likely to get nostalgic about his first time at a big-league ballpark, a diving catch in Little League, or...that time he turned one into a belt? For sweet leather gear born of one man's odd relationship with mitts, check Project TransAction.

PT's a collection of one-off rockerish belts and cuffs created by SF's own Jacob Vaughn Gushue, who, while supplementing his income by flipping baseball gloves on eBay (he was young and needed the money), began deconstructing and repurposing them, and in the process, developed mad leather-working skillz. After cutting his teeth on dog collars for a bit JVG moved onto belts, which today start as scrap saddle leather he cuts into thick strips before hand-dyeing and silkscreening 'em with patterned imagery, ranging from cogs and gears, to tiger stripes, to vertebrae; to finish, he fashions them with rad vintage buckles that sport stuff like twisting vines and steaming locomotives (you provide the caboose). Belts for your wrist're made with the same raw materials/intricate process, some appointed with crazy closures (window clasps, mini buckles, etc), and others emblazoned w/ designs that disjointedly range from little typewriters, to an abandoned amusement park in Jersey, to the periodic table, for only the most badass dudes who got fives on their Chem APs.

PT also hawks a nice stash of nature-inspired tees, including one with a pair of olive/black octopi squaring off, and another featuring a menacingly cute panda, complete with antlers, surrounded by black splatters of ink -- which'll get you nostalgic about that first time you shroomed your face off in FAO Schwartz.

JVG also does more pricey but sweet custom work; check it all out at Project-TransAction.com
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