Acre and Rust Clothing Company is a farm lifestyle clothing company with designs that honor the close community and rich heritage of agriculture. As a fledgling clothing brand, we aim to create and design apparel that is not only attractive and high quality, but also nostalgic and thoughtful.
We want people who wear our clothes, from the dirt roads to the five lane city highways, to feel a sense of pride knowing they are honoring the farming culture in America. Acre and Rust is devoted to the family farm. We strive to give back through spreading awareness of issues farmers face and supporting organizations that focus on farmers’ physical and mental health.
Farming is a way of life. This is something we always heard people say, but I always felt that it was said in a way that left you questioning, why? It's hard. It's nothing but extremes of hot and cold half the time, and the other half you can't enjoy because there's too much work to do.
The reason it's a way of life is because it gets in your blood. It's not something that is easily explained. Most of the time when someone asks why you farm, in my head I just want to say, "you wouldn't understand". But I don't, because that sounds so rude. I say it's the freedom to work on your own time, or to make big business decisions, or because I get to be outside (truth is most of the time you're inside a tractor or pickup). None of those are the reason we farm. We farm because we are farmers, and what else would we do anyway?
The name Acre and Rust is a nod towards the land and heritage of farming. An acre is 43560 square feet, and is a unit of measurement that has been around for years. It stands for value, cost, time, and effort. Not only can it be used to describe a parcel of land, it can be used to tell time, to explain a workday, and much more. Rust is pretty self explanatory. Things rust, especially farm equipment. But if I had a dime for every time we dragged out an old rusted piece of equipment and got it running again just like new, I'd have a $2.20. Nothing like going back and time and moving forward at the same time.
Our mission is to not only bring more awareness to agriculture in general, but to bring awareness to the struggles that farmers face. Most do not realize how dangerous this job is, how skilled you have to be, and how mentally taxing the business is. Balancing the dangers of the job is a stressful situation. There are financial dangers in addition to physical dangers, and all that time alone on the tractor, in the pickup checking cows, or simply sitting inside during a cold snap can allow your mind to become a dark and depressed place as you become simply a shell of your former self.
One of the biggest changes we'd like to see in the farming community is to have a bigger focus on mental health. This could be something as simple acknowledging the ways in which farming failures occur to everyone, and to remind others that there are still things we should be proud of and celebrate.
We aim to shine a light on both the plight of the modern American farmer and the bright spots from the past and the current agricultural landscape.
We are a husband and wife team, a farmer and a teacher, working our butts off building a family and a business.
We live on the south plains of Texas, and as much as we may complain about the weather here, we couldn't be more proud of it. Although we are Texans through and through, we know there's plenty of farmers who aren't lucky enough to live here, and we hope to honor and serve all of the farming communities in America with Acre and Rust.
What crops do we grow? Cotton, corn, wheat, and sorghum are the mainstays of this area. Cows and dairies are big too, and altogether it is a symbiotic relationship.
If you see some designs you like, please don't hesitate to make a purchase, and if you feel like reaching out to us about farming, clothing, or anything else on your mind, don't hesitate to contact us at info@acreandrust.com.
Ty & Chelsea Criswell