New Bern, North Carolina
A family-owned clothing brand built on something I learned a long way from here — on a train in the dark, riding to the markets of Guadalajara.
The story
I moved to Guadalajara on a one-way ticket. No plan, no Spanish, no idea what came next.
The first friend I made was at a hotel there. His name was Marco — everybody called him the Grinch. He didn't have to help me. He did anyway. He showed me the ropes.
We'd get up before the sun and ride the train in the dark to the tianguis — the open-air markets that have run in Mexico since before the Spanish arrived. The big ones and the little ones. We'd buy shirts and shoes. Then we'd clean them, fold them, bag them, seal them, and go sell them — on the street, on the buses, wherever people were.
That's where I learned this business. Not in a classroom. On a bus, in a second language, with a friend who had less than I did and shared it anyway.
Marco's wife fed me. His boy ran around the apartment the three of us shared for a few months. Later I met friends out of Las Vegas and worked security at night. When I wasn't working I was home with two pit bulls named Babyboy and Smoke, taking care of the house and the dogs while everybody else worked.
Nobody in that story had much. Everybody in that story took care of somebody else.
That's what ubuntu means. I am because we are.
Years later I'm in New Bern, North Carolina, with a family and a few companies and a lot more than I had in Guadalajara. But it's the same work. Find something good. Take care of it. Present it right. Hand it to somebody yourself.
That's the whole company.
Ayden, North Carolina
01
My great-great-grandfather Thelbert Worthington ran Worthington's Variety Store on Lee Street in Ayden, North Carolina. Old toys in the back that I couldn't wait to get to as a kid, and a man behind the counter who knew everybody's name. The house he built in 1930 is still standing in the Ayden Historic District.
02
My mother, Anne — the yard sale queen. Up before daylight with a flashlight, her and Jody and Debbie, first ones to the tables. She ran booths at flea markets across the country selling her own books and tapes, sometimes working out of a van.
03
Then it was me on the other side of the world, buying at the tianguis before sunrise and selling on the street by noon. Nobody had to teach me to be up before the sun. I'd watched my mother do it with a flashlight.
04
Now it's New Bern, and it's clothing. The counter is a website and the store is wherever you're standing. But it's the same family doing the same thing it's always done.
Thelbert said it to every customer who walked through the door —
keep going, don't stop filling the basket:
“Keep picking.”
The first drop
Nothing here was invented for marketing. Each one is a real person, a real place, or a real morning.
The core collection
Tianguis (tee-AHN-gees) is the Mexican word for an open-air market. It comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and those markets have run for five hundred years.
First drop — join the list
Heavyweight hoodies
The 5 a.m. ride to the markets, before the sun came up and before anybody else was moving. Heavy fabric, built for cold mornings and long days.
First drop — join the list
The founding tee
How the whole thing started. No plan, no Spanish, no return flight — which turned out to be the only way it could have worked.
First drop — join the list
Named for a friend
For Marco, who didn't have to help a stranger and did anyway. If you only take one thing from this brand, take that.
First drop — join the list
For the dog people
Two pit bulls who guarded a house full of people trying to get their lives together. They did their job. This one's for them.
First drop — join the list
The house line — every season
The whole philosophy in five words. A person becomes who they are through other people. This one never leaves the catalog.
First drop — join the list
Timepieces
My dad taught me to ride. A little PW80 under the tree one Christmas, then a Yamaha TTR 225. He died when I was thirteen.
What came after that put a Harley 1200 in the driveway and my first good watch on my wrist — a Breitling Superocean, bought off my best friend Adam Santaw. I drove an hour each way to school wearing it, sometimes with my brother William in the car.
Then I sold that Superocean to buy a one-way ticket to Guadalajara.
That was the hard part. There was a stretch down there where I went three days without eating and then had a two-peso taco. It was also where I learned everything I know about selling — the markets before sunrise, the buses, the friend who had less than I did and shared it anyway.
Years later, Charlotte. A Breitling Avenger, bought new at the end of the hardest stretch of my life, standing next to Randy — a man who drove a long way to be there for somebody who couldn't do a thing for him.
I don't wear it because it's a Breitling. I wear it because of who was standing there.
That's what a watch is actually for. Not to show anybody what you can afford. To mark the day everything turned — so that every time you check the time, you remember who you were with when it did.
My watch box came in the mail today. It's mostly empty. I'm starting to fill it again.
The one I sold
My first good watch, bought off a friend. I sold it to buy the one-way ticket to Guadalajara — which means that watch paid for everything this company came from.
The one I kept
Bought new in Charlotte on the day everything turned, standing next to a friend who drove a long way to be there. This one isn't going anywhere.
The empty slots
The box came in the mail today, mostly empty. A collection fills the way a life does — one at a time, and usually because somebody else was involved.
Selling something?
Send photos and whatever paperwork you have — box, papers, service records. We'll give you an honest range, and we'll tell you straight if you'd do better selling it yourself.
Buying?
Every piece is listed with what we actually know about it: where it came from, what's been serviced, and what's missing. No "estate find" mystery stories.
Consignment
We'll list, photograph, and sell it for you and take a cut of the sale. You keep the piece until it sells.
How we keep it clean: pieces sell through marketplaces that run their own authentication on luxury items, so you are never taking only our word for it. We do not deal in replicas, "homage" pieces, or anything we cannot document — not at any price. Our own collection is insured through Jewelers Mutual, who have been good to us.
The craft
We did this by hand on a bus with no money. We still do it.
If we wouldn't wear it every week, it doesn't go in the catalog. We order and wear every sample before anything is listed.
Checked, pressed, inspected. Nothing ships that we haven't looked at with our own eyes.
Clean, folded, bagged, sealed. How it arrives is part of what you bought.
Text or call and you get a Hahn — not a ticket number, not a chatbot, not a call center.
Fit guide
The easiest way: take a shirt you already love, lay it flat, and measure it. Match those numbers to the chart. If you land between two sizes, size up — these are cut for comfort, not for squeezing into.
| Size | Chest (flat) | Body length | Roughly fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | 18" | 28" | 34–36" chest |
| M | 20" | 29" | 38–40" chest |
| L | 22" | 30" | 42–44" chest |
| XL | 24" | 31" | 46–48" chest |
| 2XL | 26" | 32" | 50–52" chest |
| 3XL | 28" | 33" | 54–56" chest |
These are standard unisex measurements. Exact numbers for each piece go on its product page when the first drop ships — and if the fit is wrong, text us and we'll sort it out.
Be first
Join the list and you'll hear before anyone else. No spam, no daily emails — just the drop, and the story behind it.
Prefer to text? (252) 626-6236 — a real person answers.
Questions
The first collection is being designed now. Join the list and you'll hear the moment it's ready — no spam, just the drop.
Designed in New Bern, North Carolina and produced with partners including Queensboro, a North Carolina apparel maker in business since 1982.
It's a southern African idea, usually translated as "I am because we are." It means a person becomes who they are through other people. It's the whole reason this brand exists.
Use the fit guide above. Measure a shirt you already like laying flat and match the chest and length. Between sizes? Size up.
Yes. Text or call (252) 626-6236 and a Hahn answers. That's the whole point.
Who's behind it
I learned that one selling Kirby vacuums door to door. It's the same thing ubuntu says, just in plainer English — nobody does anything good alone.
Founder
Learned the business in the markets of Guadalajara. Now builds companies from New Bern, North Carolina, with his family.
Creative Director
Leads brand, design, and creative for Ubuntu My Life. Founder of Shoreline Socials, a New Bern social media and marketing studio.
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