Most people don’t know who Brit Eaton is. He was thrown in jail in Greece; drove a cab in Madison, Wisconsin; created and sold T-shirts at Grateful Dead concerts; sold ice cream on nudist beaches in Holland; got caught up in a multilevel marketing scheme in Florida; and worked for a company that organized trekking expeditions for Americans traveling in Europe. In early 1997, he took a job working on a swordfish long-liner out of Puerto Rico. He was confined to his quarters for insubordination, but the trip had a positive outcome. A fishing captain from another boat mentioned to Brit that his mother worked for an import-export agent who had a 1,000-pound, compression-packed bale of used Levi’s in a Florida warehouse. But to truly find out who Brit Eaton is, click for the continuation.

Brit Eaton is the best of the best of a curious breed of fortune hunters that comb through old mine shafts and barns across the country for vintage denim. He has single-handedly discovered $50,000 worth of clothes in a single day. His clients include Ralph Lauren, Wrangler, Dickies and of course, Levi’s. He’s not the type to even rely on thrift stores for his finds, he’s far past that point in his life. Instead, Brit relies on the nooks and crannies of abandoned mine shafts and old railroad caves for his finds. He’s not looking for the pair of jeans that your great-grandfather had donated to the thrift store, he’s looking for the pair of jeans that your great-grandfather had quit wearing and tossed into a dusty corner or left on the job, never to be seen again.

If you really want to know Brit a little bit better, visit his site, Carpe Denim, or read THIS great article from Outside Magazine on the self proclaimed, “best person in the country at finding old clothes, maybe the best in the world.” It’s definitely worth the read.