The Paddle Dog was established. The year is not discussed, and the two members who would know have never been asked.
There are four chapters. Amsterdam is chapter one, which nobody disputes and which Amsterdam has never once mentioned. St Moritz was founded in a bad winter and has been in session ever since. Milano was founded over one espresso, standing up, and the founding is considered concluded. Marbella has held the same lounger since 1994 and does not intend to discuss it.
The club has never held a meeting. It keeps minutes.
Membership is free and there is no application. You are a member if a dog will walk with you, which is a lower bar than it sounds and a higher one than people expect.
The only activity is walking a dog somewhere good. There is no calendar, no clubhouse and no committee. There is a small amount of clothing, which is the only thing the club has ever charged for. It is also the only membership card. There is no card.
Every chapter has a dog, and no two are the same: a Kooikerhondje, a Saint Bernard, an Italian greyhound, a spaniel. The dog you will see in the photographs is a Labrador. He is in none of the heraldry. This was raised once and the matter was closed.
What it is made of
100% organic cotton in every tee and hoodie. Hoodies at 350 gsm brushed inside, which is the weight that separates something you keep from something you wear twice. Tees at 200 gsm, cut oversized, with dropped shoulders. The cap is cotton twill. The long sleeve is cotton, not organic.
Every design is one colour. That is a choice, not a saving. A single ink reads as drawn rather than generated, it survives a wash better than a photographic print, and it forces the drawing to be good enough to carry the garment on its own.
The drawings
Each chapter has one drawing, made once and never redrawn. Every word on a crest is set by hand, ribbon by ribbon. Nothing is stock.
Where it is made
Printed and posted inside the EU, in Riga or Barcelona. The tees and hoodies are Stanley/Stella, sewn in Bangladesh. Their fabric holds GOTS and OCS certification for its organic cotton content, and the hoodie's is also certified to OEKO-TEX Standard 100. The fibre composition stays on the garment, because that is the law and also because you should be able to read what you are wearing.
How a chapter works
Each chapter is a place the club has apparently always had a branch in. Same shield, same ribbon, a different dog every time. When a branch opens somewhere new, there is a new crest, a new drawing, and one more line on the roll-call.
That is the whole system. We are not going to explain the rest of it.