About Grivec Bros. Our Story.

Welcome at Grivec Bros.

It’s in our jeans

Looking at the design table in our atelier in Chevremont, we don’t just see large pieces of raw denim. We see personalities. Characters. Lives to be lived. And so, we give them names. Cool Pete, Hower, Bricker, Locker. And we dress them up in style, with antique red and yellow brass 13 star-US naval buttons, handmade, natural vegetable tanned leather patches, and our signature back pocket triangle-stitch. We treat them as we would want to be treated. We love them. We hug them. We take care of them. They are, after all, our family — our reason of existence. We need them as much as they need us. No, we couldn’t be without our jeans. We wouldn’t want to be without our jeans. Not even a day.

Once upon a time in Chevremont

To understand the past is to understand us
It’s where our story started
A courageous decision, generations ago,
to find a better life elsewhere in the world
A better life that was found, right here in Chevremont
A better life that will continue to be found,
all around the world

1932 – Migration

Grivec Bros. grandfather, Jozef, leaves the Mirna Pec Valley in Slovenia. On the promise of a better future, he takes his family to the South of the Netherlands. Together with his sons he finds employment in the coalmines as a coalminer. Every one, except for his youngest son René, Grivec Brothers’ father. He continues to travel as a coal hopper car driver.

1970s – Import Jeans

During one of his coal hopper drives, René is inspired to start selling jeans. He acts on his inspiration, and starts selling them door-to-door in Chevremont. In 1971 his wife Willy gives birth to twins: Marcel and Roger, a.k.a. the Grivec Bros.

1976 - First jeans store

René’s jeans business is exactly what people need. In 1976, he and his wife Willy open their first multi-brand jeans store ‘Blue Indigo’ in Chevremont. Marcel and Roger are fascinated by denim and practically grow up in their parents’ store. 

1979 - Multiple jeans stores

René opens his 11th multi-brand jeans store, now called ‘Jeanspaleis’. Whenever they’ve got a spare minute, Marcel and Roger help their parents out and quickly learn more about their passion for denim. However, from the age of 13 to the age of 16, the Grivec brothers’ lives take a different turn. As they are in the official Dutch national ski-selection, they live, train and study at boarding school in Austria.

1989 - Grivec Bros. take-over

At 18-years of age, life forces Marcel and Roger to take over the 5 remaining jeans stores from their parents. With little experience in running a business, but with a passion for denim that bursts at its seams (and because they were practically raised in their parents’ jeans stores), the Grivec brothers roll up their sleeves and take the bull by the horns. They focus all of their energy on developing 1 core-store: their ‘home’ in Chevremont.

1990 – Reinvention

Marcel and Roger learn the craft of owning a jeans store rather quickly. They have to. They discover their passion and talent is in discovering, buying and selling unknown (rising) jeans brands. This leads to them being among the first ones to sell brands as G-Star, Diesel, Replay, Chipie and Liberto.

2003/2004 - “Jeans Institute”

Grivec Bros.’ passion for denim and hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. At this time of their life and career, the Jeanspaleis is widely acknowledged and referred to as “Jeans Institute”.

2009 - Introduction Care & Repair Service, ‘Dry till you die’

Marcel and Roger start repairing the jeans their customers previously bought at the store. A service which they name after their life motto ‘Dry till you die’; dedicated to anyone that wishes to never be separated from their favourite jeans. Marcel: “In selling a product that gets better with age and wear, it was a logical step for us to offer our customers expert repair service.”

2010 - The dream to create a jeans-label

Marcel and Roger, now widely referred to as “the Grivec Brothers”, feel all their years of jeans repair and jeans trade have taught them every little detail they need to know to set up their own brand, and to be able to make the jeans they want but were never able to find. With the help of Boy Bastiaens their dream turns into reality. Boy creates the logo and helps establish the Grivec Bros. label.

2016 - Launch of the Grivec Bros. label & store

Hard work and determination pay off. Grivec Bros. open their new store with a small atelier dedicated to the repair their customer’s jeans. In March of that year, Grivec Bros. first pair of jeans is born: Cool Pete.

2018 – More than blue

Cool Pete, Hower, Bricker and Locker: in 2018, Marcel and Roger decide to expand their jeans collection. Sweaters, T-shirts, shirts, polos and chinos: from now on, the Grivec Bros. label is more than blue.

2019 – Denim has come home

Grivec Bros. open their expanded atelier in the house that has taught them everything about, and sparkled their passion for, (raw) denim. As craftsmen living in the former coal-mining community of Chevremont, they’re bringing denim back home with their jeans that are proudly and passionately ‘Crafted in Chevremont’.