Howies founders David and Clare Hieatt have launched a new venture, Hiut Denim Co, to revive Cardigan’s denim industry BY Georgia Dehn | 23 March 2012 In May last year the entrepreneur David Hieatt appeared on the front page of his local newspaper in Cardigan, west Wales, appealing for skilled machinists with specialist knowledge of making jeans to work in a new denim factory in the area. Hieatt, who founded the action sports clothing company Howies in 1995 with his wife, Clare (they sold it to Timberland in 2006), was in the process of launching a new venture, Hiut Denim Co. In response to the newspaper article, he was inundated with applications from locals, many of whom said the same thing: ‘I want to make jeans again.’ Almost a decade ago, 400 people in Cardigan, a tenth of the town’s population, with hundreds of years’ experience making jeans between them, were made redundant when the Dewhirst Group shut the doors to its clothing factory and moved production to Morocco Continue reading →