Review: The ‘Bruiser’ shirt by Head’s Threads

Head’s Threads and Heavy Treads is a one-man operation from Florida, run by Samuel Leiro, that has been around for a few years. What began as a page largely trading vintage boots and the like eventually expanded to include its own designs – if I’m not mistaken, this shift happened shortly after we all emerged from the pandemic.

I followed the Facebook page for a while and grew sympathetic to Samuel’s personality, which he was never shy about bringing into his posts. In his teenage years he ran afoul of the law, and jail was one of the stops along the way. After turning his life around, he became an Orthodox Christian – while remaining a skinhead – got married, and started Head’s Threads.

Church is something I grew up with and ultimately rejected when I was about 13. But even though I no longer share Christianity’s beliefs in the supernatural, I still appreciate much of its ethical content – or at least certain readings of it (think Thomas Müntzer, or the rabble-rousing Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel of Mark). I’m also aware that some of my beliefs might be described as a secularised version, and in terms of their historical origins that’s what they probably are. In any case, I stand by what I wrote in a review of a Cruz Antigua EP a couple of years ago: I prefer a person who believes in something – an ideal, an ethos, a set of principles – over the postmodern model citizen who believes in nothing except him or herself (a stance symbolically associated with Satan by some).

All this background probably deserves a future interview. For now, it’s enough to say that someone like Samuel – a skinhead whose life hasn’t always followed a straight line – feels far more relatable to me than, say, Jonathan Freedman, a property magnate and gentrifier who revived Brutus with hired skinhead models, projected a fake ‘working class’ image, and pushed a sanitised version of the culture in cringeworthy ad videos, before deciding the pennies weren’t worth the hassle.

In addition to sta-prest strides and intriguing-looking bovver boots with a vintage feel, Head’s Threads does a range of classic short-sleeve button-down shirts. Now, I’m very conservative when it comes to colours: my wardrobe revolves around white, black, navy, burgundy, and dark green, with few exceptions. For this reason, much of the Head’s Threads palette is out of the question for me from the outset – I won’t wear brightly-coloured stuff any more than I ever donned a Brutus tartan shirt.

What I did like about Brutus was the cut of their trimfit shirts, though, so I was glad to hear that the Head’s Threads shirt that tickled my fancy the most – the ‘Bruiser’ – was cut like a Brutus, i.e. a little closer to the torso than vintage Ben Shermans yet without crossing over to skintight. Classic slim fit. This may not be the case with all Head’s Threads shirts, so make sure to enquire about the cut before you get one.

The Bruiser is made of 65:35 cotton-poly blend. I found that a quick ironing helped it look crisper, but it probably won’t be necessary. After pogoing at a Slaughter and the Dogs show like a sixteen-year-old recently, the shirt was still in great shape at the end of the night, so you might say it’s been tried and tested.

Worth mentioning is the collar. There’s a strange arms race among some 1969 traditionalist to go ever bigger, and companies such as DNA Groove happily fuel it, but I am sorry – a four-finger collar screams ‘Elvis in Las Vegas’ rather than ‘skinhead’ to me. The Head’s Threads shirt has a traditional three-finger collar. What’s more, it’s actually preferable to the Brutus collar, which has the same width but lies rather flat on the shirt. The Head’s Threads collar has a proper roll.

Some ‘originals’ have told me that, for them, the collar roll never actually mattered much. In this we differ. Look at this picture and tell me the collar roll isn’t a sight to behold.

The photo shows kids in Bethnal Green, East London in 1978. While all three collars are fine, I’d say the lad in the middle is the collar führer. This is what shirt companies should aspire to, and creating a collar like this is an art, for there’s a fine line between rolling and gaping. The Head’s Threads shirt comes fairly close to what you see in the picture.

I love the pattern of deep navy checks with white lines. Is it windowpane? Or madras? Not sure there’s even a name for it, but I’ve been looking for something like this, in these colours, for a while.

Needless to say, the Bruiser has all the correct details. All in all, it’s a great shirt that I’m really pleased with. My only suggestion for improvement would be the length. Not an issue if you use shirt stays (which you might want to consider anyway to look less of a slob), but otherwise you may struggle to keep it tucked in if you’re my height (6 foot 3) or even taller.

If you’re as classical-minded with your colours as I am, I suggest checking out the Concrete Blood and Cobalt shirts as well. Samuel doesn’t make many of them – my Bruiser, for one, was produced in a run of 15. And while Head’s Threads and Heavy Treads isn’t destined to shift to mass production anytime soon – Samuel wears his skinhead colours too proudly, warts and all – I value the Skins 4 Skins principle all the more and am happy to hand over my dosh to someone like him.

Website: https://htandht.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/headsthreads/

Matt Crombieboy

Last-minute edit: Samuel informs me that most of his shirts do have more of a four-finger collar. Just Bruiser and Summer Daze have the smaller ones.