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Anything can work on YouTube - it’s just as much about the person and the approach as the subject matter itself. The world is full of people doing the same thing but a more charismatic denim dude, or whatever, can still get traction. The question is, to what end? If you want to monetize it, it will make you a slave of online strategy. A lot of the lives of the people who do this stuff honestly make anonymous middle management jobs look like a nice way to go.

As an aside from your other points, this is the answer. I deleted my account about 3k followers a good while ago (photo, not denim). As a photographer I work slowly on more long form and often conceptual projects - I work a way that is anathema to the sort of constant posting IG would want. I never was one for showing anything but my actual work and IG wants you to put your whole (best, curated, bullshit) life on blast. Back in 2012/2013 I actually was decent enough at social media, had a pretty good Tumblr presence, had a fairly active early IG account and derived a good bit of work, visibility and even publications and opportunities to show work in gallery from them. But I posted a lot, a lot I wouldn’t want to now, and my inner critic was far less developed. It was also a different time before everything had been so pushed towards monetization (of course all the founders knew that was coming, they just needed the participants first). A lot of my colleagues in industry thought I was nuts for deleting IG but man, my life is so much better without it, and my personal connections that I have derived work from haven’t cared a bit. Long term, it’s not a great marketing strategy but a lot of years of very specific living and planning have allowed me to do that. I know this isn’t about denim here, but this forum is good because you get dialogue, information, opinions, ancillary discussions (like this). All I ever saw on denim IG (and I never looked hard, so I’m sure I missed stuff) was purely based around consumption and posing. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not above that. But it’s not what really holds my interest the most. Anyways, yes, if you’re not spending active time on their platforms and engaging, they are punishing you. And also, excuse me, but fuck meta. My primarily “online” engagement these days consists of forums - this one and a photography one, group text threads with friends, voice calls, and I write an occasional letter from my website that I have a few hundred people with me on - which occasionally leads to some really nice and personal email exchanges. Way less volume than social media but feels more right, for whatever it’s worth.

A lot of the lower engagement is due to how Instagram structures their algorithm; I don’t remember the figures but I read a piece last year about how, for the average poster, an infinitesimally small fraction of your followers are actually shown any of your new posts on their news feed. That number goes up a bit if you’re posting a ‘reel’ (basically at that point you’re on TikTok though) but either way you still have astonishingly low—like, single digit low—natural reach for any new post. So I guess I’d argue that, unless you’re shilling sponsored content or just re-posting your made-for-tiktok viral videos, instagram kind of made itself obsolete. If the goal was to share photos and writing about your life or hobby with a group of say 100 friends you’d be better off writing them all postcards, at least they’d probably get read!

Those are all great points. Makes me wonder if part of the issue is that, in general, most active users have migrated to other platforms like TikTok and Instagram is itself somewhat passe. For that matter, I'm surprised by how much YouTube content there is related to the denim hobby, at this point - ten years ago I contemplated the idea of starting a denim-based YouTube channel, but I figured it would never go anywhere. Turns out I might've been wrong on that account.

WWII one pocket cpo/sharon jones/west ride/chippewa

Price drop! P38-DS RAF size M - 1500 USD J16-GT 1.2 size M - 900 USD

I think one of the biggest challenges facing niche communities like ours is the dwindling attention span of the overall populace. Especially when something like a pair of jeans can take months on end of commitment to get any sort of real "accomplishment" from. Instant gratification and dopamine hits from short form media are things that are already having a big impact on society and I'm personally concerned it'll only get worse. I just saw another headline recently that said reading for enjoyment is down 40% compared to ~20 years ago. I'm not sure if this is necessarily directly applicable to your point, but it's been on my mind lately. I recently saw a clip from NPR from a few years back talking about screen time for children and the difference between good and bad screen time. Essentially breaking down why we've never seen this sort of societal disconnect that some of the younger generations are exhibiting. And the psychologist talking said a big part of it has to do with the instant dopamine hits that kids get out of short form content, they're trained at a young age to continuously consume and seek those short term fixes. He went on to say that "good" screen time is watching something together (either with family or friends) that has a clearly defined time limit and story or meaning where you learn details about the characters and plot (even if they're menial). I've been trying to find the clip to share but no luck so far.

Following on from the above, has anyone else got one of the latest extra heavy flannels? One of mine has been mislabelled I think, the red one has the measurements of a size 5 (XXL) whereas the other two are correct and close to the size 4 in my other UES flannels. Waiting for the retailer to get back to me but curious if it’s a one off or if anyone else has the same. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of it and exchange it before they sell out.

I just never sweat the cuffs too much, so I probably will never get them hemmed. Not motivated enough to do the whole mail order and pay thing, which is what I'd need to do here. I did have Bears hem them but not much, somehow made a mistake with my request, because the length did shrink up as expected. Denim I guess feels something like FullCount's 15.5 denim but just not quite as dense. The arcs, I don't really find them loud, the red feels relatively subdued and I feel they'll wear down pretty easily, but YMMV. Barely more noticeable than traditional arcs in real wearing, at least to me.

I've been thinking some about the subject of Instagram's place in driving the denim hobby, for lack of a better term. Back in The Day of the mid-2000s-mid-2010s, SuFu and similar forums were the center of denim nerd community outside Japan, plus Reddit and some blogs like Indigo Shrimp, Raw Denim/Heddels, and Denimhunters. But by the mid-2010s things had shifted dramatically toward Instagram. There was a big rise in the "relaxed tapered" fits, lots of guys wearing those jeans with really long flannels and Red Wing Iron Rangers or moc toe boots, Snake Oil Provisions being a big tastemaker, those stupid "cuff check" posts, and all that. But this was reflected much more on IG than SuFu. I initially started doing Instagram in about 2015 or so and posted on it through about 2017, deleted my account for a bit, and started another one that's been around since about August 2018. When I go back to old posts from early on, I'd get easily 100+ likes, and tons of comments on everything I posted. But in the last two years or so, when I've had periods where I'm much more active with regularly posting fit pics and stuff, the level of engagement is far lower. I have a pretty good follower count of over 800, but little interaction on my posts. I don't follow a ton of people and like/interact with a pretty small number of posts on there, so it's possible the algorithm is just punishing me for being insufficiently enslaved to their platform. Now I don't really care much about IG as a popularity contest, it doesn't really matter to me whether I get a million likes or ten, to me it's just another platform for sharing something about a hobby of mine and I don't derive much satisfaction in particular from it. But I am starting to wonder: does this suggest that Instagram, as a center of raw denim/Amekaji/vintage Americana style/etc., is in decline or dying? Has it moved somewhere else? It sure doesn't seem like raw denim is dying, there's plenty of interest and arguably more awareness than ever when you've got guys like primarily-automotive YouTube guy James Pumphrey making pretty good videos about the history of jeans and at least one decent store in most major American cities now. My gut feeling is that raw denim has been "de-nerdified," more people than ever are aware of it and have some level of interest in it, but a smaller percentage of those guys are hardcore fans of the sort who would post on a forum like SuFu. I could certainly be wrong about that, though. I also suspect there's some Big Tech fatigue involved in all this, as a lot of people are tired of social media and dropping out. Or maybe they've all just migrated to TikTok or something. I've never used TikTok and never will, so this is a total blind spot to me.

@ATWM you gonna get them hemmed or keep that cuff? They sure look big but not too big. Also a quite crunchy looking denim based on the picture. How loud are the red painted arcs IRL?

Tender / Two Moon / WMJ Son’s first day at a new school, just did drop off. I see even more grey in my beard. I feel old. Ha.

Yeah, I keep popping onto Yahoo auctions Japan and looking at the lightly worn pairs. I basically need a 35 in the old 2001 No.1. I haven't pulled the trigger yet though because I own a pair of the 2001s in No.2 denim. I think I should fill out the original Osaka 5 rotation with some SD101s and Denime before a second pair of 2001s.

Ok, finally got it sorted on the url upload. Sufu just doesn't like the "share" link that Google creates. But if I copy that link, paste in the browser, copy the new url that populates and then use that url, Sufu accepts the image upload. I've gotten a couple entry level vintage watches recently and this 1961 Hamilton A-600 Automatic is my absolute favorite. I was watching "Queer" and yes, noticed the suits and slacks, but more so noticed the watches. That era had a little bubble to the crystal that I love. So I started hunting through 50s and 60s watches until I came across this one. It was originally gaining four minutes a day. I got it serviced and now it's losing one minute per day. Not bad for an 64 year old watch picked up on the cheap from eBay. WoM jeans visible beneath.

1961 Hamilton A-600 Automatic

Oh I just meant back pocket rivets that are a little more raised or three dimensional in the z-direction while the surface is still flat. Flat is probably not the right word. Admittedly, it does not come across well in a photo. I’ve just noticed that the back pocket rivets used on Rockets pairs seem a little thicker and more 3D than on a TCB pair which I like. The thicker Rockets river seems to push a little more on the pocket corner which I like. Edit: It might all be an illusion though. Any difference in thickness between those two is less than 1 mm

Stevenson mechanic shirt, canes m41058 (I think?), flat head engineers

@scooby those are awesome!!! Excited to see how you break them in!

One of my oldest, dearest friends whipped me up some custom jeans His brand is Blake Edward, and these are his Style one jeans. I sourced the denim from another friend, which I believe is Kuroki? High rise, wide leg 4 pocket jean with deep front and back pockets The front pocket shape is so good - easily fits my hands while simultaneously, comfortably, and securely takes a knife or tape measure due to their J shape I can’t wear blue jeans to work these days, so these’ll get wear tested 5 days a week

Just home from a 5 hour ride out to Seneca Rocks and back. Jason Isbell/ Iron Heart/ Chippewa Wavy mountain pic courtesy of my motorcycle killing my phone camera

@beautiful_FrEaK, 2.86 mb

@Jared_Lee what's the file size of your pictures? (Although this shouldn't be a problem when you link them from another host)

The Yamane Industries jeans do look nice and are somehow closer to old Evisu but god, those ugly rivets he is using...😅

@yung_flynn they are waiting patiently in the queue. I've worn them a few times - imo they are excellent jeans and, agreed, relatively simple. The denim is coarse and full of character. Fit-wise very spacious, in a good way. I'm glad I bought them.

? Maybe I dont understand you but the majority has flat back pocket rivets. Otherwise they would eat through the denim in no time