Chapter 01, The Studio
The studio behind the thread.
Forge & Thread is a Brooklyn-based apparel studio that designs and manufactures custom corporate goods - in-house, end-to-end, with the quality and conviction of a small print house.
Location
124 Anvil Lane, Suite 4B, Brooklyn NY 11237
Hours
By appointment, Tue through Sat, 10 to 6.
001 / Origin
A polo that started a press.
Founder & Creative Director
Hayes Calloway
The studio started in 2019 with a single polo for a roofing client out of Queens, an all-over print pattern that turned a small contractor crew into the most recognizable trucks on every job site in the borough.
What began as a favor became an obsession. Hayes Calloway, founder and creative director, apprenticed at a textile house in Porto, ran print ops for a downtown streetwear label, and built Forge & Thread around a single belief: that corporate apparel, done with intention - can be the most under-leveraged brand asset a company owns.
Today, the studio operates out of a 4,000 sq ft loft in East Williamsburg, with a five-person design team, in-house pattern-makers, and a partnership with a domestic mill that lets us hand-pick every yard.
A good polo is a piece of typography. A great one is a manifesto.
002 / Philosophy
We don't print on shirts.
We build uniforms.
Every garment leaving the studio is engineered as a single object - a meeting of pattern, palette, fabric weight, and placement. Nothing is decorative.
001 /
Substance over decal
We treat your brand pattern as a fabric specification, not a printable decoration. It runs continuously, edge-to-edge, woven into the cut.
002 /
Designed for wear
Every piece is built for repeat washing, real-world abuse, and the chance that someone will love it enough to put it on a Saturday.
003 /
Made in fewer hands
Cutting, printing, and finishing happen under one roof in Brooklyn. No outsource. No mystery. No drift.
003 / The List
Things we believe.
Nine quiet convictions that shape every choice we make.
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01 /
A uniform should feel like a privilege, never an obligation.
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02 /
Pattern is a language. Fluency takes practice.
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03 /
Cheap apparel costs more than expensive apparel, in shrinkage, in fading, in goodwill.
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04 /
Designers should sit next to the press operator.
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05 /
A great polo gets borrowed by a partner.
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06 /
Color drift is a moral failure.
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07 /
Domestic mills make the difference you can feel under the fingertips.
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08 /
A logo is a beginning, not an end.
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09 /
A weekend wear-test is the only test that matters.
004 / Studio
The five behind the press.
A small team is a feature, not a bug. Decisions are made in a room, in one afternoon.
Hayes Calloway
Founder / Creative Director
Noor Behzadi
Head of Design
Marco Ferrante
Print Ops Lead
Ines Tavares
Pattern & Sample
Wren Holloway
Account & Project Lead
If a polo is the first sentence your team speaks at a tradeshow, we want it to be the line everyone repeats on the drive home.
- Studio manifesto, page one
005 / Begin