goods founded 1995 founder david and clare hieatt headquarters cardigan wales products clothing website howies.co.uk howies is a clothing company based in west wales . the company was founded in 1995 and produces eco friendly t shirts jeans and sportswear with the aim of having ethically correct practices . 1 2 howies use natural fabrics as alternatives to petrochemical derived modern fabrics including organic cotton merino wool and recycled cotton . 3 4 howies t shirts often have images or slogans with political or environmental themes and are screen printed by hand in a workshop located at the brand headquarters . 4 contents 1 brand 2 history 3 references 4 external links brand edit the howies brand has a strong identity within many uk active sports notably mountain biking surfing and skateboarding and has sponsored of a number of athletes in these disciplines . it has made a number of special edition products associated with the howies brand notably with curtis bikes who continue to offer howies blue as a standard colour option on many of their bikes . the company is particularly well known for its t shirt designs notably the classic logo design as well as 9 bikes cctv life blood donor and home work . the howies name is often written in lowercase the company s preferred style . history edit howies was founded by clare and david hieatt in 1995 . the name howies is derived from clare s maiden name of howells . 3 5 branding expert mark simmons author was managing director from 1999 2001 . the company relocated from london to wales in 2001 6 7 and the company s first proper mail order catalogue is produced . 7 in 2003 levi strauss & co. threatened to sue howies over the placement of a logo bearing tab on the rear right buttock pocket of their jeans . the howies tab is grey the levis tab is red . 8 in december 2006 the hieatts sold the company to the timberland company . 6 9 in november 2008 howies was cited as the 6th most recession proof company in the uk . 10 in september 2009 david hieatt one of howies founders mentioned on twitter that he was due to leave the company at the end of october 2009 . 11 in december 2011 howies closed its london shop which was situated on carnaby street . 12 in january 2012 howies management team announced that they had purchased the company back and that howies would continue to operate from cardigan as an independent company . 13 references edit daring to be different in a brand new way the guardian 2004 05 29 accessed on august 24 2007 . howies mixes fun with ecology financial times 2006 03 10 accessed on august 29 2007 . a b feature .003 howies steal life january 2005 . accessed on august 23 2007 . a b howies interview issue 18 singletrack magazine 2004 12 15 . accessed on august 23 2007 . howies now more than just an escape route llwybro routes welsh assembly government s department of enterprise innovation and networks a b timberland buys green company bbc news online 2007 02 13 accessed on august 24 2007 . a b howies our history accessed on august 23 2007 . david v goliath battle as welsh jeans company tells levi s to butt out 2003 05 03 timberland buys howies inteletex 2006 12 05 accessed on august 24 2007 . stores must up their game to beat recession 2008 11 03 . tweet from david hieatt 2009 09 17 . howies a small independent ethically minded store forced to close london store 2011 12 17 . on our own two feet a howies blog post 2012 01 06 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title howies & oldid 740158176 categories companies based in ceredigionclothing companies of the united kingdomcompanies established in 1995welsh brands navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 19 september 2016 at 12 04 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view