Sam Slater opened a small leather-goods factory on San Francisco's Howard Street in 1922, trading as S. Slater and Son and making work coats for the longshoremen hauling cargo off the city's waterfront. The line expanded with the times (bomber jackets in the 1940s echoing WWII pilot style, then varsity, motorcycle and school award jackets through the 1950s), and by the 1960s the company's Mission District shop was making custom pieces for local bands including Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and the Doobie Brothers. It's traded as Golden Bear Sportswear since, still making outerwear in the US.