Our Story
Hi, I'm Andrew Gibbs-Dabney, the founder of LIVSN. In 1988 I was born with severe club feet. I was two weeks old for my first surgery and 12 years old for my last. I wasn’t expected to run or play sports. Throughout my childhood, what was considered a barrier to doing certain things became my motivation to do all things. I fell in love with riding my bike, basketball, and anything outdoors. My story was one of hope and determination, though I didn’t think about it like that at the time. I was just busy being a kid.
The experience
In 2011 I messed all that up. Over the course of five years, I became addicted to drugs and ended up robbing a liquor store. For a year I moved from rehab to jail to prison to boot camp. Through this, I had a lot of time to reflect on my life and on what really mattered to me. Sitting in a cell, stripped of all my belongings and alone, I realized that it wasn’t stuff that I really missed. It was the people and the freedom of experience that I missed most.
When I got out, I had a new appreciation for my relationships and opportunities to enjoy the world. I promised myself that I wouldn’t take that for granted like I had before. I began prioritizing what was important, and in doing so, once again realized that the magnitude of belongings I had didn’t matter. I did, however, realize that a few of my belongings allowed me to experience the world with my loved ones in the ways that I wanted to. I loved those things and took time to take care of them. I realized that owning fewer, better things allowed me to avoid distraction and to reinvest in what mattered most to me.
To the concept
I began simplifying my wardrobe and gear closet and found myself spending more time outside doing things with friends and family. I adopted this “own less, live more” mentality and instead of outright rejecting stuff, I fell in love with the good stuff that remained. When I couldn’t find my perfect pair of pants, I decided to make them, and that’s when LIVSN was born.
The name came from a Swedish word I found meaningful along the way: Livsnjutare. It means "one who lives life fully." This ideal I was chasing led me to wonder , "What does this person who wants to experience life fully buy?" and "What clothing best helps them achieve their ambitious goal?"
And the execution
From our very first Kickstarter in 2018, we’ve strived to make clothing that inspires people to invest more in it (financially and emotionally), own less of it, and live their lives more deeply. In its current iteration that means we make apparel that is purpose-built for the outdoors and is functional, versatile, and durable.
As we continue to make things, we believe it is our responsibility to do so responsibly, ensuring that our planet and people around the world are also able to live life deeply, like I try to do. As of Fall 2024, we are refiling our corporate charter as a Public Benefit Corporation, legally binding us to our mission to create products and systems that maximize function and minimize harm to people and the planet they live on.
Occasionally we'll take a break from making more products to focus on making even better products. Instead of making new products, we'll update some of our classics based on customer feedback and dive deep dive into our supply chain. To us, better means more intentionally designed, more thoughtfully constructed, and more responsibly produced.
We make our sole focus to do what we do, better, and we’re grateful you’re joining us on this path.
-Andrew Gibbs-Dabney & the whole LIVSN team
p.s. You may have noticed we updated our story after six years. We haven't always started with Andrew's experience. We used to skip the beginning and just tell the concept and how we executed it. However, as we grow around the world, we find it increasingly important to tell it in hopes people can see a little bit of themselves in his story and that they, like us, learn to own things with greater intention and live life more deeply.