Tucked away on the coast of Wales, Howies are one of those brands that just gets it exactly right.

As a brand, they're emminently huggable, which is a pretty good place to be. It comes partly from the stuff they make, then from the stuff they do around that, and then how they communicate it all to their customers.

They've got a great product (a range of functional but stylish clothing that could loosely be called skatewear) with a fairly fantastic environmental policy, and top notch customer service.

But rather than just sell clothes, Howies exudes a loose philosphy; a way of doing things. They have a library you can borrow books from, they run an annual Art Think competition, and have loads of useful and interesting information on their site.

All their writing is done in a human, friendly tone of voice, so that the company feels like the physical embodiment of the character and attitude of David and Clare, the folks who run it.

Well heck, probably best if we just let them speak for themselves:

Back in July 1995, we started making clothing for the sports we loved doing. We also wanted to find another way to do our business so we could ride home at night happy with what we do. We wanted howies to say something, to stand for something, to try to change the things we cared about. Was it so bad to make people think a little? We didn't think so. From a remote part of West Wales, where the air is pure and the rivers run clean, a bunch of us come in each day and try to do just that. It's almost as much fun as the ride home.

It always feels like a good day when their catalogue (shown above) drops through the door (so much so that we can't bring ourselves to chuck the old ones away).

They've just gone into partnership with Timberland, which means big things could be looming on the horizon.

So it felt like a good time to say: Howies, We Made This loves you. xx