Bertony Faustin wears Carhartt work gear to harvest grapes in his Oregon vineyard, but will also wear it out to a more formal event just to get people to ask about it.
Born in Brooklyn and raised in a family of Haitian immigrants, Faustin wrapped up school in Florida and North Carolina in 1999 and made plans to go west to California. He made it to Oregon, working as an anesthesia technician at Oregon Health & Science University and starting his own family.
When his father died in 2007, Faustin felt he hadn’t lived up to the legacy of hardship his parents faced as first-generation immigrants. He quit his job and, in 2008, planted seven acres of grapes on property he’d bought for his father in Portland’s West Hills. With the opening of Abbey Creek Winery, he became the first recorded Black vineyard owner and winemaker in Oregon’s history.
His reward was being told by people in his own industry “directly and indirectly that I didn’t look the part.” That’s when he began wearing his Carhartt overalls everywhere he went.
“At black tie events, I’ve got the cleaner black pair of overalls, buttoned-down shirt, tie. And then you’ll get the guy who’s in the tuxedo who wants to know why,” Faustin said. “Now I get to talk about representation.”
Carhartt eventually saw photos of Faustin in his overalls and asked him to film a commercial for the brand with his son and daughter in 2018. The ad led to Faustin becoming one of the Friends of Carhartt—workers who regularly appear in the company’s marketing and support the brand on social media.
Even after Susan Hennike took over as Carhartt’s chief brand officer in August 2022, Faustin remained close with the brand. He featured in ads showcasing its “next frontier” of work and meeting the newest class of brand representatives at the Friends of Carhartt Summit at the brand’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, earlier this month.
As Carhartt launches into new campaigns like “History in the Making”—which blends antiqued audio with modern images of turbine workers, shopkeepers and fishing crews—Hennike and the brand want to continue incorporating Faustin’s voice and others from “workforce 2.0” into 135-year-old Carhartt’s broad vision for its future.