The Gambler 500 | 500 Miles A $500 Car And Raw Denim Coveralls

Nate Hoe was one of our first employees at Naked & Famous Denim NYC. His larger-than-life personality paired with his knowledge and love for raw denim made him quite memorable among our patrons of the shop.  These days Nate is back on the west coast working on his own creative endeavor “Yummy Yacht Club”.  And when he reached out to us to explaining  his next project, we knew we had to be a part of it.  A 500 mile car race in a self-built $500 car Mad Max style, the “Gambler 500”

Nate explains it…

Where do we even begin with all of this? Yummy Yacht Club is an amorphous merch factory and Seattle party collective poorly disguised as a boating establishment. Despite our name we continue to dive headfirst into events involving cars. We participated in a demolition derby a few years ago, and decided to do something even sillier by attempting the Gambler 500 this June.

For those who are unfamiliar, the Gambler 500 is a collective attempt to travel through 500 rugged miles of the Oregon outback in a car that costs $500 or less. There are now Gambler events all over the USA, but the Oregon event is the original. It's not so much a race (though racing does occur) as it is a roving party and testament to the endurance of the automobile. Additionally, drivers to instructed to pick up as much trash along the route as they can—we might all be scumbags, but we won't tolerate littering.

We knew this event was going to be hot and psychical. Naturally, we wanted to sweat it out in raw denim jumpsuits. Our friends at Naked & Famous were happy to oblige and designed us what might be the coolest adult onesie we've ever seen. 12oz indigo raw denim, two-way zippers and pockets galore. We even got a terry cloth back patch too—an homage to our Toyota Previa, affectionately known as the "egg van."

Unfortunately, we didn't make it the full 500 miles. Thanks to a series of insane mechanical issues (that we overcame, mind you), we didn't even get particularly close. But we sweated, partied and replaced our front struts and wheels in some rad threads. Our loved ones were delighted to discover that the scent of new indigo masked our own stench pretty effectively, too. If all goes according to plan we'll attempt this whole thing next year too and slide right back into our rigid cotton homes. Maybe give them a wash before then?

The raw denim coveralls will be available this fall. Stay tuned for release information.