Dan Ewing\u2019s been through dark times, but he considers himself blessed \u2014 with his family, his business, and his faith, all central to his life.<\/p>\n
Ewing, who grew up in Juneau and graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School in 1995, got into heroin when he was only 16. It’s something that in time, all but one of his best high school friends would die from.<\/p>\n
After high school, he left Juneau for the Lower 48 and punk rock. He was in and out of jail, and he overdosed \u2014 multiple times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty bottom of the rung,\u201d he said. \u201cI was addicted to crack and heroin on the streets \u2014 the type of person you would see at their worst (and think) \u2018There is no hope for that guy.\u2019 Now I see people so far in the grip of their addiction \u2026 I have to remind myself that was me.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a pastor for a father, he grew up immersed in Christianity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was almost like I was fist-fighting God,\u201d he said of his period of addiction. \u201cI knew what I should be doing. I think that\u2019s why I got so low\u2026 (my family\u2019s) prayers were \u2018Just take him home.\u2019 It was just tortuous on my whole family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he met his wife, Ashleigh. She supported him as, nine years ago, he got clean. They got married. He quit smoking. Now, they have two young girls, Imogen, 3, and Ruby, almost 5. And they have a successful business in Ewing Dry Goods, a leather-working business based out of a storage unit in Lemon Creek.<\/p>\n
Ewing was able to quit both heroin and cigarettes on his own, with the support of his wife and his faith. He said he preferred, when getting clean, to focus on his future rather than his past.<\/p>\n
Ashleigh Ewing is \u201cthe rock,\u201d Dan said.<\/p>\n
She handles the financial aspects of the business, he said, and \u201cthe hardest job of all \u2014 raising two daughters of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in Juneau, Alaska, working out of a storage unit\u2026 I never thought that (I\u2019d be so successful) at all,\u201d he said. \u201cI always say we\u2019re blessed. Sure, it has a little to do with me\u2026 but I\u2019m not by any means the world\u2019s best leather worker. I think the Lord just blessed us and allowed us to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He began the business a few years ago, unable to find the kinds of things he wanted to wear. He\u2019d stay up late after working his state job. A year into it, he quit that job to work leather full time.<\/p>\n
He began his business right before leather \u201cblew up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat probably was a big advantage for me,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody was doing what I was doing, especially with bear bones, bear claws, bear teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friends that hunt donate items like those above; he gets the items that need it cleaned by the flesh-eating beetles at friend Jesse Ross\u2019s business, Southeast Taxidermy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all stuff that gets thrown away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He uses leather from three American tanneries for his products, all byproducts from the meat industry. Sometimes he does special products for different shops, working with them on an idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love little details,\u201d he said. \u201cThe weird little details that no one will ever know, except for the owner.\u201d<\/p>\n
He collaborates quite a bit with the artists at High Tide Tattoo in Juneau. Milo Irish recently created scrimshaw designs on cut and polished walrus teeth. (Scrimshaw is a technique of etching a design and then filling it in with ink. These designs are incredibly minute and detailed.)<\/p>\n
He also collaborates with Alaska Native artists like Dave Lang, the owner of High Tide Tattoo, or buys pieces from them that he then incorporates into his designs. Appropriation is something he\u2019s careful about.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a white guy, you want to be careful of getting in someone else\u2019s zone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His business has grown primarily through word of mouth and Instagram (an image-based social-networking site) on which Ewing Dry Goods has more than 18,000 followers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to make a shirt that said \u2018Instagram saved my life,\u2019\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
In Juneau, he sells products at Annie Kaill\u2019s and Kindred Post \u2014 different products at each store. But local sales aren\u2019t the majority of his business. Men\u2019s fashion is picking up, especially outside Alaska, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fly to LA a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s our niche.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ewing sells his products in Japan, Singapore, Australia, Europe, California, Texas, and other states, collaborates both with local artists and big companies like Rogue Territory, and has been featured in denim lifestyle magazines internationally. The actor Adam Goldberg is also a big supporter and has become a friend, he said.<\/p>\n
Ewing\u2019s family is central to the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I went into this,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we could spend more time as a family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though he still works until two in the morning sometimes, the family is planning to move to Washington in a little more than a month. They recently bought a home that will allow him space to work inside it, he said. He also wants to hire an employee, something he said he\u2019s had difficulty with here in Juneau.<\/p>\n
The move is something that he feels God is pushing him and his family to do, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just started showing us He\u2019s moving us out,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s really why we\u2019re moving. I\u2019d like to say it\u2019s for the business, but we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen with the business, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just the same, he\u2019ll be back in Juneau quite a bit.<\/p>\n
His family is deeply involved with Calvary Fellowship, a church that meets at Dzantik\u2019i Heeni Middle School, of which his father was pastor, and of which his brother is now the youth pastor. Dan is an elder. Before they even bought a house, they traveled to Vancouver to find a church they fit with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a family of believers; those who were lost in our sins, but have found freedom in the grace of Jesus Christ,\u201d the church\u2019s webpage says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a rocky past,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is hope. It\u2019s hard for especially parents to see when their kid is in the midst of that. It\u2019s hard to see any hope. But there is. Never give up on people.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Capital City Weekly staff writer Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"