Made in the South Awards 2017

Tom Beckbe

Outdoors runner-up Tom Beckbe’s waxed canvas hunting vest has a liner dyed from the clay found along Alabama’s Tombigbee River

Photo: ALISON GOOTEE

The Kinsman vest from clothier Tom Beckbe.

The Kinsman waxed-cotton hunting vest from the outdoor clothier Tom Beckbe wears its Southern heritage close to the chest. Literally. When the owner, Radcliff Menge, wanted to add a hint of color, he remembered the orange-red clay fields along Alabama’s Tombigbee River. So the vest’s cotton twill liner gets dyed with clay in Bessemer. That’s a long way from Wall Street, where Menge worked as an attorney—a time that inspired the launch of his line. “Living in New York, you walk everywhere,” he says, “which means you really think about outerwear.” When he couldn’t find anything to suit, Menge located a pattern maker in Florida to work on a coat he designed—what would become the Tensaw jacket. The Kinsman carries the same DNA. Tailored a bit trimmer than other brands, the vest is cut from 8¼-ounce cotton cloth—a tad heavier than a Barbour coat but decidedly lighter than Filson’s famously sturdy duds. 

>Kingsman vest, $395 from tombeckbe.com 


MORE MADE IN THE SOUTH:

>Outdoors winner: Modus Studio
>Outdoors runner-up: Ian Balding
>Outdoors runner-up: Tom Beckbe
>Outdoors runner-up: Colter Atelier

See all winners and runners-up


T. Edward Nickens is a contributing editor for Garden & Gun and cohost of The Wild South podcast. He’s also an editor at large for Field & Stream and a contributing editor for Ducks Unlimited. He splits time between Raleigh and Morehead City, North Carolina, with one wife, two dogs, a part-time cat, eleven fly rods, three canoes, two powerboats, and an indeterminate number of duck and goose decoys. Follow @enickens on Instagram.


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