Southbound: Adventure or bust for outdoor brand

Jordan Hufnagel and James Crowe co-founded West America when they realised they were unsatisfied with their daily routine. Hufnagel and Crowe build bikes for a living – Hufnagel makes bicycles while Crowe’s focus is on motorcycles. Under a pile of orders, they found that life wasn’t what they wanted it to be so they planned an epic motorcycle trip from Portland to Patagonia and back.

West America grew from planning that journey, as Hufnagel and Crowe began to make camping paraphernalia that they would use on the road, including camp grills and utensils. Their online store also stocks motorcycle jackets, hats and a poncho in collaboration with Woolrich.

Now Hufnagel and Crowe have embarked on their trip, and are photo-documenting and blogging about it along the way.

‘West America is about that full life. It’s about spontaneity, saying yes, making it work and changing your plan,’ reads the website. ‘It’s about leaving all you’ve worked for behind because you figured out that you want something different and need to figure out what that different is. It’s about being rad, and having that full-chested feeling of a swollen heart every day.’

West America is a brand that has a small but defined focus – to encapsulate what it means to be free. It promotes a lifestyle that many Man-venturists would hope to emulate.