The Made Man Polo in Chalk

The Made Man Polo is a beautiful Cable Knit shirt made from a Viscose and Cotton blend. It’s incredibly soft to the touch and has great elasticity and stretch. It’s also machine washable, so no need to stress yourself out trying to keep it clean.

Much like most of my designs, the shirt is a mash up of a few references. The Cable Knit pattern is based on a shirt Tony wore in season 1 of the Sopranos. I taught myself a shit ton about knitting and knit production in order to get the pattern as close to the reference as possible. After a bit of push and pull with the factory, we nailed the scale and appearance nearly to a T.

The patches on the shoulders are a multi-purpose feature. The first is durability. Storing knit tops has always been annoying to me; you can't hang them normally and if you do the shoulders end up all stretched out. The patch adds reinforcement in a high wear area which lets you put the shirt on a hanger without damaging it. Second, it serves as a premium way to finish the shoulder seam. The patch fabric is sewn around the raw edge of the knit panels and then stitched together. Lastly, it's beautiful aesthetically. It provides additional visual interest and another place for some color contrast.

If we’re talking in generalizations, I’d say the shirt is oversized and slightly banded at the sleeve and bottom openings. But pictures speak louder than words, so I brought in a bunch of dudes with different builds, skin tones and styles and asked them to wear each size. I’m hoping this will help you envision how the polo will look on you and which size you should go with to get your desired look. This is a concept I plan on continuing for every product forever, because I’d rather give you this instead of “The model is 6’10, 120 pounds and wears a Large”.

Price and Manufacturing Breakdown:

The polo was manufactured in China. This same factory makes knits for Ralph Lauren, Super Dry and Kirkland brand. Additionally, they handle Kith’s knit polos which is what ultimately gave me the confidence to go with them for this project.

The bulk order was for 50 units at $42.50 each ($2125 total). Shipping was $800 on those nose, photography was $20, sample was $50. All said and done that’s just under $3,000 so $60 ish a unit.

Pretty decent improvement on cost from last round. Not having to sample multiple times coupled with better shipping and photography rates have helped tremendously. The overall investment is still quite steep, but it seems somewhat inevitable for this quality at this quantity. Frankly though the polo is really god damn good, so if I have to spend this much to get it perfect then so be it.

As always, if you have any questions about the designing or manufacturing processes, my line is always open.

Not doing hand delivery because it is a pain in the ass but if you know you’re going to see me soon and don’t want to pay for shipping just text me.

-Nolan