By John Polson, Founder of Black Sheep

There’s a lot that goes into making great sportswear that most people never see.
Not because it’s secret, but because the process is rarely shown.

Every season, we obsess over our samples. We test. We break. We tweak again. We never think we have nailed it, and even when we're close to being happy, we go back and request another sample. It drives us mentle. It’s messy and repetitive. But we also love it.

That’s where Field Notes comes in.

Field Notes isn’t marketing. It’s not another polished product story. Excuse my language, but fuck that. It’s a look inside the process, written by the people who actually build, design, and test what we make. It’s the why and how behind every garment that carries the Black Sheep name.

We’ve always said that design is personal. It’s not about chasing perfection. It’s about feel; how a product moves for you, how it lasts, how it lets you forget you’re even wearing it. Field Notes gives us space to explore that. To document the small details that make a big difference, and to share the reasoning that sits behind every stitch.

It’s also a reminder to ourselves. Sometimes development means big leaps. More often, it’s the quiet, incremental changes; the half-millimetre adjustments and fabric swaps that no one notices, but everyone feels.

Our first Field Notes start with the TEAM SS Jersey and TEAM Bib, two products that have been with us for years, refined over thousands of hours on the road and in the studio. They represent everything this series is about: consistency, evolution, and the constant pursuit of better.

I hope you enjoy reading these. But more than that, I hope they help you understand what we stand for; that design isn’t just aesthetic, it’s passion, it's accountability.

We’ll keep documenting what we learn, testing what we believe, and sharing what we find. 

— John