Jared Coles

Jared Coles is an American pipe maker working in Visalia, California. He began his production first within a partnership, in a working arrangement built around consistency, and established an independent signature under his own name from the mid-2010s onward. His annual output is limited; each pipe is hand-shaped individually.

Learning Years and J&J Pipes

Coles's introduction to pipes reaches back to his youth. During his student years at UC Irvine, discovering online pipe communities shifted his curiosity from the consumer side to the maker's side; it was also through this route that he learned of artisan pipes.

He continued learning together with John Klose, whom he met in these same years. Records show the pair came together in 2009 and, in 2011, opened a joint workshop under the name J&J Pipes. The partnership's stated aim was for two hands working under the same name to turn out pipes consistent enough to be indistinguishable from one another. During this period the two occasionally took lessons from Jeff Gracik, founder of the J. Alan Pipes brand. Material sourcing, tool-making, and building a long-lasting pipe design were also among the subjects picked up during these years. The last pipes made under the J&J name were completed in December 2015; the partnership ended amicably, as the two makers sought their own artistic directions and weighed family priorities.