About
TL;DR
The Overflow is a solo project started by Fletcher, a 24yo living outside of Melbourne. The idea is simple, to create a thoughtful Australiana clothing brand built to encourage and support Australians.
Giving Back
Fletcher sat on the couch beside his parents and watched a documentary called "EGO: The Michael Gudinski Story", and a switch was flipped. Michael Gudinski grew up in the 60s, and just like today, Australia was paying more attention to international creatives than our own.
The difference between Michael Gudinski and everyone else was that Gudinski stepped forward and did something about it. He started a record label and signed many Australian artists, many of whom you'd recognize. Later he became a Promoter and tour manager and made Australia a destination for major international acts which contributed to the entire Australian industry.
That documentary left Fletcher thinking, why is there no one like that today? why is no one gunning for Australian music, and creatives in general, as hard as Gudinski did in his day?
The answer is that so many of us are, we just don't know how to express it. This is where The Overflow steps in. As when The Overflow sells an Australian music themed design, a portion of its profits to to supporting local music artists. We sell an Australian Cinema design? A portion of those profits go supporting young filmmakers. and this carries out across our themed graphic clothing designs.
The Overflow is where you come for clothing that you can wear confidently, know you have contributed to something you love.
The Overflow
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago. He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him, just "on spec", addressed as follows, "Clancy, of The Overflow".
-Excerpt from "Clancy of the Overflow", A.B. Banjo Paterson-
Clancy of the Overflow is a poem which paints a picture of a lawyer sitting in a dingy city office, looking out the window and day dreaming of trading places with Clancy, a drover who herds cattle along the sunlit plains of Queensland. It’s an idealization of rural Australian life and the desire to escape the daily grind and go experience something more.
Whether your idea of escape is getting away with mates on the weekend camping, watching your favorite sport, road tripping, having a few drinks, going to see live music, comedy, seeing a movie or ditching your job altogether to pursue your dream career as a musician, painter, filmmaker, writer, or anything else, The Overflow is a reflection of that desire and the clothing will be right there with you as you pursue those dreams.
Meet the owner
Right here in Australia we’ve all grown up wearing New York City this and L.A that. Grand Canyon this and Route 66 that. And we've worn them for good reason, these places and things are are sick. Still, Fletcher never really thought much about it until one day he walked into a clothing store, a clothing store that shall remain nameless, the reader may cotton on to which one is being spoken of. He came face to face with a whole display of I "heart" NY tee shirts. Fletcher was confused, Fletcher was not in new York... Fletcher was in Fountain Gate.
It was at this moment he realized the absurd level of absent minded Americana the Australian consumer was being fed on a daily basis. So he decided he would try to find a graphic shirt with a slightly more local flavor.
A few options were found: He could have his pick from any of the surf brands, he could support his team with a sports guernsey, or he could go for a country stockman/farmer style. Anything outside of this was a vague collection of surface level Australian Iconography thrown together in a west coast L.A. style, or an American western style. But very little else. And nothing to suit what he wanted:
Graphic clothing which depicted Australian places and things he recognized and identified with in a stylish and Australian aesthetic.
So off he went, scouring the internet, finding reference books, discovering graphic designers, all in an effort to recognize a design style he could use for the basis of his own brand. Combining this with his desire to contribute to Australian creative industries, The Overflow was born.
This is The Overflow. A clothing brand for those looking for beautiful Australiana graphic clothing that they can identify with, and for those who want to wear something that they know gives back to Australians.
Looking to the future - Not Australian Made!
How do you define “Australian Made” and why does our clothing here at The Overflow not meet that definition.
For a watch to have "Swiss made" on its dial, only 60% of the production costs of the watch needs to have been generated in Switzerland.
You might picture something similar when it comes to products that bear the "Australian Made" logo. But it's not that straight forward. Australian made does not have a specific minimum percentage but rather at minimum the product has to have had its last major change in Australia. australianmade.com.au gives an example of a company purchasing plastic pallets and a spool of wire from overseas, but then because you injected moulded the plastic into a bucket and shaped the wire into a handle and put the two together in Australia, that would be considered "Australian made". And just like Swiss watches, there are examples of businesses exceeding this minimum requirement.
Ultimately, however, buying Australian made is about supporting local businesses and makers. So if The Overflow is so Australiana, why are we not Australian made?
Making clothing in Australia is not as easy as it may seem. Lack of skilled workers, pattern makers, machine operators and so on make it not necessarily financially viable for small start ups to pursue locally made products. Locally made products are becoming higher and higher in demand, but Australia does not have the production capabilities to keep up.
It is the long term intention of The Overflow to strive to offer products beyond the minimum Australian made criteria. This is because we want to support local jobs, local businesses and do what we can to encourage the manufacturing industry in Australia as a whole. But this can only happen with the support of our customers, and the willingness of all Australians to purchase, when they can, products which bear the “Australian made” logo.
For now, the cotton supplied in our clothing is sourced from China, Australia, India, Brazil, Turkey, USA, and African nations. The actual production of the garments is carried out in China, Vietnam and Bangladesh. All within strict ethical and environmental standards. The final printing is carried out in Australia.