Weil am Rhein

Somewhere on the map, in that no-man’s land between Germany, France, and Switzerland, sits Weil am Rhein. If you squint, it looks like an unremarkable border town: roads, industry, shopping outlets, and people driving fast cars (on the German side).

But if you look a little closer, it’s odd. It’s a zone where workwear becomes lifestyle and cultural edges blur. Weil am Rhein feels like a meeting point — not quite city, not quite rural, not quite suburban — where Graffiti and Carhartt WIP don’t just co-exist, they converse.

One of the highlights, of course, is Colab Gallery at Schusterinsel 9. The same building as a Carhartt WIP gallery/outlet - in that shared structure, downstairs you can touch, try on, buy the most durable canvas fits. Upstairs, massive murals, international graffiti artists, and walls that push paint in ways that defy neat categories expected in a traditional art gallery. But Colab is anything but an ordinary gallery (not to mention the best gallery-doggo we have had the pleasure to come across).

Weil am Rhein refuses to be just an outlet mall town. It refuses to be just a canvas for illegal graffiti. It refuses to pretend the border isn’t real. It refuses to act like streetwear belongs only in “cool city neighborhoods.” It lets these worlds cohabit. And in that cohabitation, in that tension, something interesting happens.

We drove around quite a bit and came across many murals. See below a few pics:

If you ever find yourself driving through Weil am Rhein, stop. Visit the Carhartt WIP gallery and Colab Gallery. Check out the walls, see where the spray has been layered over time. Listen to the quiet pulse of border culture: workwear, art, commerce, rebellion. Weil am Rhein might be in the middle of nowhere — or right in the middle of everywhere.