Meet The Founders: 86 West

 

You don't need fancy European cities to get your hands on great scents. Sometimes, two stylish Midwesterners will meet playing basketball and then eventually make an entire fashion-forward fragrance line trying to push perfume's boundaries. Michael Garrett and Christopher Chambers were just these two that did just that. 86 West only appeared on the scene over a year ago, but in a short time, their scents were creating such buzz, we had to bring them to Olfactif. Hear about how 86 West made this magic happen...

Meet the founders of 86 West, Michael and Christopher!

Q: How and where did you two meet?

We met in Omaha, Nebraska, circa 2002 on a basketball court in the neighborhood. 

Q: Where did the idea come from to start a fragrance house? Were you both always into scent? 

The idea, at least in its fragrance form, was born out of the pandemic. Suddenly we had something neither of us were used to having: time. And with that time came space to think bigger, to ask what we actually wanted to build.

We've both always been deeply rooted in fashion, and fragrance has always been a natural extension of that world. It's one of the most personal pieces of any wardrobe, the one people can't see, but will always remember. So exploring fragrance felt like a genuine next step rather than a departure. 

We also wanted to do something that wasn't already saturated with familiar faces and familiar stories. Fashion felt like a well-worn road. Fragrance gave us room to be different, to enter an industry on our own terms and build something that actually reflected who we are.

The pandemic gave us the opening. Our shared obsession with scent, style, and doing things unconventionally gave us the direction.

Q: You’re proudly an American, Midwest brand. How does that heritage affect what 86 West does?

It’s rooted in telling a story. Being from a smaller state in the Midwest there’s this back of mind thought that we’re going to have to prove ourselves. And we’re always ready for the challenge.

Q: Your website says you two set out to “redefine fragrance norms.” What does the brand set out to challenge and change? 

 

When we started, the goal was straightforward: make high-end fragrance feel accessible to people who were new to the space. But as we grew, so did our sense of where we could really make an impact.

The fragrance industry has long packaged scent in very rigid, gendered ways, and we think that limits everyone. Fragrance is personal. It's emotional. It has nothing to do with gender. 86 West exists to challenge that inherited belief, not just by creating unisex products, but by actively educating people and reframing how they think about what they reach for and why. That's the work we're committed to, and we're just getting started.

Q: How do you decide on a concept for a new scent, and what’s the creation process like? 

We haven’t mapped out a formula entirely in our process. We’ve built two collections out of necessity. The Epyseen Collection (Epicene - being gender neutral) and the Unnamed Connection Collection (Connections don’t need names, they need a moment of feeling).

From there, we build based on experience and preference on notes, inspiration, and ideas. As we continue to create, this process will mature into more opportunities to tell broader stories.  

Q: All of your scents cover diverse styles and categories, so what ultimately makes an 86 West scent... an 86 West scent?

Exploration. That's it. We never set out to replicate something that already exists, that's just not interesting to us. Every fragrance we create starts with an experience of what we want to wear, a feeling we haven't smelled yet, a space in the olfactive world that hasn't been claimed, or at least, we believe. 

The notes, the bottle, the campaign, all of it follows that feeling. If it doesn't take you somewhere new, it doesn't belong in the house. That commitment to originality and experience, above everything else, has become the 86 West signature.

Q: We’re featuring both Finity AF and Ebb & Coast this month. What makes these two scents special to you?

Finity AF is the quintessential everyday luxury. A fragrance with a modern attitude. It's fresh, clean, refined, the kind of scent that does the work without demanding attention for it. You don't have to think about it. You just wear it, and it elevates whatever moment you're walking into. That effortless lux feeling, accessible, not aspirational, that's what Finity AF represents.

Ebb & Coast is a slightly different energy. It's our newest fragrance and it's built around transportation, closing your eyes and landing on a coastal summer. It's warm, yet light and airy, it's alive, it's the feeling of sand somewhere close, and the right drink in your hand. We wanted to create something that wasn't just worn but felt. Summer doesn't need a reason. Neither does Ebb & Coast.

Q: When someone is wearing one of your scents for the first time, what do you hope they get out of wearing it?

We want them to feel alive. The olfactive experience doesn't stop at the first spray, it begins there. We want that person to ask themselves: Why did I choose this fragrance today? What was I feeling? What did I want to carry into the room with me? Because that answer becomes the intention, and the intention becomes the memory. A great fragrance doesn't just smell good, it marks moments. We want 86 West to be present in the ones that matter.

Q: What’s your biggest challenge as a new fragrance brand? 

 

We're also both building 86 West alongside full-time careers and other personal and business ventures, so the hours in a day become a real currency. We've made a deliberate choice not to flood the market with influencer campaigns just to check a visibility box. That's not who we are. We'd rather build something slower and more intentional, because the relationships we're forming now are the foundation this brand will stand for the test of time.

Q: What inspires you two to keep creating through it?

Honestly? It's the expression of who we are and the refusal to stop. We both have an innate ability to push through difficulty, and there's something about competition that sharpens us. Not competition with other brands, but competition with our own ceiling. We haven't reached it yet. There's more to explore, more ground to cover, more people who haven't discovered what 86 West is yet, and that unfinished business is fuel. Every challenge we clear just confirms that we're supposed to be here.

 

 

Favorite smell?

Mike: A clean home

Chris: Cooked steak

Most hated smell?

Mike: Cigarette smoke

Chris: Rotten eggs

The ultimate comfort food?

Mike: Pot Roast + Mashed Potatoes

Chris: Chili

Quote you live by?

Mike: “Everything I build is rooted in freedom, family, and love. That is the work. That is the legacy.”

Chris: “Your destiny will be defined by the decisions you do or don’t make today.” 

You’re exiled to a remote desert island. What 3 things must you have with you?

Mike: Solar-powered speaker, machete, mirrored stainless-steel canteen

Chris: Desalinator, chicken, fire starter

Song that sounds how 86 West feels?

Mike: Berlioz, Jazz Is For Ordinary People

Chris: Sade, No Ordinary Love

Want to smell like timeless, laid-back jazz? Lucky you that both Finity AF and Ebb & Coast are featured in our June 2026 Box: The Next Wave.

But hurry, because you only have until the 15th to get them! Subscribe today!

 

Follow 86 West on Instagram

Photo Credits: 86 West

(Kate Burns - Makeup / Maxine Embry - Photographer / Lani Rossman - Stylist / Model - Valencia Nicole / Geraldine Gigi - Hair + Co-Art Director)