Born in Louisiana and raised in Arkansas, Andrew Gibbs-Dabney, has always lived a life marked by a passion for the outdoors. An avid fan of fishing, climbing, and mountain biking, he attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville to study recreation management before immersing himself in the retail world as an executive at Arkansas-based apparel brand, Fayettechill.
Through hard-learned lessons, Gibbs-Dabney experienced a season of transformation when life was stripped down to its bare necessities. Channeling this humbling experience into renewed purpose, he set out to create something useful, meaningful, and enduring. From this mindset, LIVSN was born—an outdoor apparel brand dedicated to creating versatile, thoughtfully designed garments for people who value experiences over excess.
“When I had nothing, I realized it wasn’t the stuff that was important; it was what I didn’t have: the people and the freedom to make new memories,” he said. “When I started to accumulate stuff again, I noticed that managing all these things was taking up more of my time, which meant doing the things I loved less. So, I started simplifying everything I owned to get down to the core things that mean a lot to me.”
Gibbs-Dabney launched LIVSN in 2018 in Fayetteville with nothing more than a set of design principles, company values, and a manifesto on sustainability. With these foundational elements in place, phase two for the brand included a series of Kickstarter campaigns to create “the best pants in the world.”
“We started with two products, the Flex Canvas Pants and The Hi-Wool Fleece, but we discontinued the fleece almost immediately,” he shared. For years, LIVSN refined its one product, which remains its best-selling item: The Flex Canvas Pants in brown.
It wasn’t until 2021 that the founder moved the brand to its original flagship space on 8th Street in Bentonville. He and his wife, Sarah, considered moving LIVSN to other areas of the country where traditional outdoor clothing companies operate, but decided Northwest Arkansas—with its four seasons and state investments in outdoor tourism—was where the brand needed to be.
“Along with being home, Arkansas has so much to offer for the outdoors. Here, you have all four seasons, which gives us the right to have something to say in all categories.”
In the years following their move to Bentonville, LIVSN continued to release intentional products that its founder says “deserve to exist.” With the goal to release one to three new garments each year, Dabney says the design process begins one of two ways: function first or fabric first. Either way, the item must function in excess of its impact.
“The goal is for the garment to last longer, work better, and have a more intuitive design,” he explained. “We support that with a lifetime warranty and repair service.”
A fresh example of their design process is LIVSN’s Creek Shirt. According to Dabney, while there are plenty of river shirts out there, none were optimized to support environments like Arkansas’.
“It felt like there was a product that was missing for hot and humid climates. We need something lightweight and breathable that feels better when it’s wet, and we wanted something that looked less technical so you could wear it to the creek or dinner.”
The LIVSN Creek Shirt is made with one of the brand’s go-to ingredient fabrics, Seawool ® Ripstop, which is crafted from recycled oyster shells and plastic bottles. “In addition to designing with versatility and durability in mind, our premium price point has a lot to do with the fact that we get obsessed with very nice fabrics,” Gibbs-Dabney said.
Considering the original concept for the brand was to design clothing for an “own-less, do-more” lifestyle, it would be appropriate to liken LIVSN’s capsule apparel - with its ageless silhouettes, adaptable colorways, and sturdy construction - to investment pieces like cowboy boots or a tailored suit.
This multi-faceted approach to design culminates in what Gibbs-Dabney calls, “Emotional Durability.”
“Emotional durability is how long you care about something. It’s the little features that make a product special to you that make you more likely to keep it and take care of it. Those are our people. That’s the win we're going for.”
Every move at LIVSN has a method, and none could be more methodical than applying for B Corp certification. This extensive application process validates the brand’s authenticity in its commitment to public benefit and sustainable practices.
“Earning our B Corp certification has validated a lot of the work we do,” Dabney said. “It says we walk the walk when it comes to what we say we do, and how we care about the world. It shows that we are taking into account priorities outside of making money.”
Earlier this year, LIVSN relocated its flagship store to a creekfront property along the Razorback Greenway at 3803 NW Wishing Spring Drive in Bentonville. Neighboring companions in the outdoor industry like Gnargo Bikes, Pedal It Forward, 37 North, and BuddyPegs, LIVSN’s new space gives its ambassadors direct access to the lifestyle they design for aligning with the epithet it’s named after: LIVSN comes from a Swedish word, ‘livsnjutare’, which means, "One who lives life fully.”