Our Story
M.J. Bale is an Australian-owned menswear brand founded in 2009 by Matt Jensen (the ‘M.J.’ in ‘M.J. Bale’). We create rugged elegance for the guy who loves life, and knows how to live it, working with the deft hands and deep hearts of Tasmanian wool growers, Italian weavers and Japanese artisans on what we call ‘garments of integrity.’
In 2021 we created the world’s first methane-reduced wool at our Kingston partner farm in Tasmania, feeding Merino sheep a seaweed supplement daily for 300 consecutive days to reduce their methane emissions to undetectable levels. In 2022 we inaugurated ‘The Lightest Footprint’, our project to create arguably the world’s first carbon-neutral garments here in Australia, and with the lightest possible carbon footprint. In April 2024 we became a B Corp certified company.
We currently have an 80-plus store network nationwide and are the Official Tailor to the Australian Test Cricket team, the Wallabies, Subway Socceroos, Australian Kangaroos, the Sydney Kings basketball team, as well as a host of other sporting and cultural greats.
Provenance
Provenance, and working with the world’s most ethical natural fibre producers at their place of origin, means everything to M.J. Bale. Since 2015 we have been working with the conservationist, carbon positive-accredited Kingston farm in the northern Midlands of Tasmania on ‘single-source’ tailoring: impeccably crafted suits, tuxedos, blazers and ties created entirely from Kingston wool. We return a percentage of every Kingston sale to the farm to be reinvested into projects that enhance local biodiversity and the land’s natural values. We also work with the fifth-generation Bennett family of Ashby farm in Ross, Tasmania, who produce 100% of the extrafine Merino wool in our Ashby ‘single-source’ knits collection, as well as superfine woolgrowers in New England, New South Wales.
In Italy we weave our precious Australian wool into premium-quality cloth via centuries-old weavers that are the gold standard in textile industry. To ensure our Custom and Collection suits – M.J. Bale’s most premium suiting – are hand-made with precision and dexterity, we partner with our long-time tailoring ateliers in Hokkaido and Iwate Prefectures of Japan.
M.J. Bale’s ‘garments of integrity’ – ranging from formal and business tailoring & accessories to lightweight casuals – are the result of a co-creator chain dedicated to sustainability, ethics and artisanal quality. From the carbon positive Kingston farm in Tasmania, the sole producer of wool for our ‘single-source’ suits, tuxedos and blazers, to our Italian weaving and Japanese tailoring partners, we seek to do right by our customers so they can do right by the world.
We currently have a 80- plus store network nationwide and are the Official Tailor to the Australian Test Cricket team, the Wallabies, Subway Socceroos, as well as a host of other sporting and cultural greats.