Time Did Half The Climb

An Interview With Satisfy’s Chief Brand Officer, Daniel Groh

A pair of jeans took Satisfy almost two years to get right. Every panel sourced, then hand-sewn back onto the garment, one at a time – the same way a couture house builds something meant to outlast trends.

The Stonemasters – a group of climbers in the 1970s who used to scale the Yosemite walls in denim because it was the only fabric tough enough to survive the rock. During a time when rock climbing was heavily reliant on artificial aids, they revolutionized the sport, dressing more towards what worked than what looked right, and wore it until it fell apart. 

Fifty years later, in a world that moves faster every season, Satisfy is doing the opposite. Slower, on purpose. Satisfy makes the case that people are built the same way. Nobody arrives at who they are overnight. Time shapes character – in jeans and runners.

Their latest collection, “STONER”, just dropped. It’s headlined by the 501. With eleven different washes, it’s built on Satisfy’s Repossessed take on the classic 501 cut, sourced from US-made Levi’s 501s spanning the 1970s to late 1990s. Satisfy’s MothTech also makes an appearance across the limited run.

Finding made-in-USA denim right now is hard on its own; Daniel Groh, Chief Brand Officer of Satisfy, says as much: “I think what people don't realize... this process is really tedious, right? Finding made-in-USA denim is very hard now, especially since so many people are into it. And so we're actually sourcing denim from the 70s and 80s to be time-accurate.”

Once they find it, the work has only just begun.

“Each pair of jeans has to be hand done. This is really the most handmade luxury that you can get, because all of the panels are hand sewn onto the garment.” It's modern craft meets vintage. It can’t be rushed; it can’t be scaled. 

Brice Partouche, Satisfy’s founder, has a background in denim from years before Satisfy existed – and this collection calls back to his history. “It was really kind of like a full circle moment, almost... he was able to integrate that into kind of where Satisfy is today.”

It’s not a detour from running; it’s about focusing on people as a whole, Daniel says.

“Our vision is about speaking to people that run, not just runners... people that are a little bit more, I would say, multifaceted.”

It’s also why a running brand collaborating on denim isn’t a big diversion.

“Some runners, especially modern runners, will trail run and then go bouldering and climbing, right, hence Levi's... the red thread doesn't go too far from the core running sphere. And that's what keeps us honest.”

It’s not really for the climbers, and it’s not really for the runners, either. It’s for whoever happens to be both on a given day, moving through the in-between moments of a life rather than a single sport or identity.

For the campaign, they cast a real, respected New York climber and built the story around everything that happens before the ascent — taking no shortcuts themselves, shooting in Utah and beginning on the floor of a granite basin accessible only by horseback.

“We're always looking for really interesting stories... this was a guy that we found in the New York City area, super legit climber. And we wanted to tell something that climbers in that space could be like, yo, I recognize that guy, that guy's legit.”

It’s a small but consistent one – cast people who are real within their world first, then let the story follow, Daniel explains. “I think it's either our own athletes or friends of the brand that we know genuinely run... because that's really what we're about – we want our content space to be kind of a megaphone to what we're building.”

That same idea is what Satisfy’s Repossessed program is for. It’s not styled around a season, it’s styled around a moment in someone’s life. A shirt isn’t a product, it’s whatever you attach to it – a first marathon, a birthday, the year you moved to a new city. Time, again, stops being about labor and starts being about meaning again.

Carrying over into how Satisfy runs, too, they introduced LSD, the “Long Slow Distance”, as an easy, conversational pace run to help runners build a base. Starting in Paris a few years ago, it has since grown into a recurring format across cities worldwide. 

"We started in Paris with 50 people, and now we're in 17 cities where we have thousands of people running with us every first weekend of the month."

None of this happens in one drop, either. Daniel is fairly blunt about it: community isn’t something you sponsor into existence – it’s built the same way the denim is. Slowly, by hand. Over, and over.

“The core hasn't changed... people, finally, have given themselves permission to be themselves in running.”

You can see it now in a way you couldn’t a few years ago.

“You really get to see who people are, right? And I think before you watch people run, you'd be like, oh, look at all these runners, but now when you watch people running, you're like, oh, these are all really interesting individuals... You can learn a little bit more about who's running today by just looking at what they're wearing.”

Nobody arrived there overnight. Time shapes character. It’s the same reasoning behind Satisfy’s first-ever physical store, opening later this year.

“You treat [someone] as someone that you want to welcome into your home. [...] It takes a discerning guest for someone to be like, no, I'll choose Satisfy... beyond the product, they're choosing to belong to community. They're choosing to belong to something bigger.”

“It is a manifestation of kind of the touch, feel, sound and smell of who we are as people... it demonstrates that yes, there are like-minded people also that exist in your city.”

Satisfy’s answer to “what’s next” is viewing the future from a different perspective. “Instead of looking inside, we like to look sideways, right?... What are people doing in automotive? What are people doing in luxury? And that's how we like to keep it fresh.”

It’s part of why a Levi’s collab feels less like a stretch and more like an inevitability that it exists: “Of course Satisfy can do this... It's not predictable, but once you're like, of course, right? [...] Our role is to build something that we believe is strong.”

That’s the thread running through all of it. It’s not necessarily about the sport anymore. It’s about slowing down in a world optimized for fastness. The refusal to skip ahead.

“Everything's so accessible nowadays that we almost wanted to bring back that idea of having to chase the experience... what is the journey before the climb?”

Words by: Christina Lai

Images & videos courtesy of: Satisfy Running