Name: Loren Cronk

Current job title/ position: Owner and Designer of The BLKSMTH DENIM Co.

Specialty and Expertise: All elements of the denim production world; cut, wash, stitching, and materials.

Your favorite denim store in the world:  “Kapital, Tokyo Japan: when you think you’re a good denim designer or think your denim brand is great you need to discover a brand like Kapital, it keeps me in my place….keeps me striving to be better at what I do.”

Links: lorencronk.com / theblksmth.com / @loren_denim / @the_blksmth_1892

Resume Highlights:

Loren started out making snowboard pants from scratch in 1992 and launched an outwear brand. Eventually he landed a design job at Levi Strauss as their Mens Bottoms designer for the Red Tab line. After that he launched a streetwear branded called Beta project, starting to teach himself how to cut and sew jeans in 2002. He spent a little time as a design director for Rocawear and Marc Ecko in the urban market, designed for Ralph Lauren and did some freelance tech design at Marc by Marc Jacobs before opening his store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in July of 2010 where he makes jeans in-house and carries out denim repair and chain stitch. He also launched his men’s U.S. sourced and made denim brand called The BLKSMTH DENIM Co at the same time.

Amy Leverton
Website | + posts

Trend forecaster, denim designer, industry journalist and author of Denim Dudes.