Where the F* Did He Go?**
Crank & Stroker: The Rebuild Series
1. The Fall
Like a lot of people, I got hit hard — by COVID, by inflation, by a supply chain that completely collapsed. But for me, the damage went deeper. I wasn’t just rebuilding a business — I was trying to hold together a life I had built from the ground up.
The leather dried up. The quality tanked. Tanneries started cutting corners, factories got sloppy, and I refused to put my name on gear that wasn’t up to the standard I fought years to build. So I stopped production. I walked away. I’d rather disappear than sell out.
That’s when the silence started.
2. The Silence
Most brands fake it till they make it. I vanished. Not because I didn’t care — but because I cared too much to fake it.
No announcements. No sob stories. Just boots on the ground doing whatever work I had to — flipping cars/tractors/ag equipment, painting houses, labor gigs, planting, agriculture. Whatever it took to survive while I figured out how to resurrect this thing the right way.
There was no playbook. No angel investor. Just me and my hands my loyal associates — rebuilding from zero.
3. The Backstab
And right in the middle of that mess — here come the vultures.
People I helped. People who came in to “collaborate.” They grabbed what they could — contacts, discounts, ideas — and then ghosted.
Some even had the balls to say, “It’s best you stay on your side of the street.”
Well, guess what, buddy:
I’m back.
Zero help.
And at least I can say I built my own.
Built. Not. Bought.
4. The Setup
I didn’t just reboot a brand. I built a factory with my 20-year business associate — loyalty. A place where I could finally control every detail again — from hand-picking the skins to fine-tuning every stitch. No outsourcing quality. No cutting corners.
That was the real turning point — owning the process again. Not just selling vests. Owning the tools that make ‘em.
And yeah — one more thing. Quietly, in the background of all this? I got sober.
Not because I wanted peace. But because I knew damn well I wouldn’t be able to execute the final 20% of this comeback if I didn’t.
Sobriety wasn’t the story — but it was the fuel.
That last 20%? It takes everything.
5. The Comeback
Now?
We’re live.
New site. New gear. Same fight.
But don’t call this a relaunch. This is a motherf***in’ finish.
The job’s not done till I say it is.
Crank & Stroker is back — tougher, cleaner, louder, and more dialed than ever.
And this time?
We’re not holding back.
Now A Word from Our Sponsor
Before the silence. Before the fall.
There was The Preacher.
The first denim vest we ever made 15yrs ago — and somehow, its still standing.
Call it irony. Or prophecy.
Either way, it was here the whole damn time.
“We called it the Preacher first — now everybody calls that collar by our name.”
Still with me?
You made it through the fire — now let’s talk rules.
The Ten Stitch Commandments is where we lay it down. No fluff, no mercy — just the code we live by when it comes to making gear that matters.