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contrastingly… still in the s. canes 47s (find them both a little too stiff and traditionalist even though top block is heaven) gorpametora hybriddin’ 80s iteration of m65 / decathalon petroleum n feathers (n actual warmth) / lvc type 1 (best thing they evrar made [that i bought…]) / sc / timbolando & trusty ortlieb

We are getting closer! Things get serious

New [old] boot day + 38 °F out in sunny California Tilley / Great Lakes / Ballpark / Duke / Cane’s / Russell

Did a whole lot of framebuilding in my jeans, LVC 1901 made another cargobike and converted rimbrake frames to disc

Vintage Barbour Butcher Products sport shirt Warehouse T Warehouse DD-1947 Alden

Almost kinda twins! FW Uplander. FW pocket tee. Boncoura. Lofgren.

Not to go too heavy handed into this, but you’re absolutely right — that idea is foundational to our whole economic system. The whole principle of an “employee” is somebody who produces something (shoes, coffees, tattoos) for their employer, and who in return receives something (a wage). But the workings of the system require that the employee’s wage be overall less valuable than the labor they provide for their employer — the difference between the value an employee produces and the money they actually earn is, to the employer, the basis of “profit”. Foundational economists working in early capitalism understood that the easiest way to maximize profit was to maximize the number of employees an individual employer has, because each new employee is a new source of profit. And as employers obviously prefer employees willing to do the same amount of work for the lowest wage, this formed the basis for the formation of multinational corporations, leading to the modern trend of “offshoring” jobs from Europe and the US to parts of the world where standard wages are far lower. Because this all began in a time when the world’s economic systems were not yet interconnected, it gave rise to the myth that businesses have the capacity for endless growth, and therefore that their profits could increase endlessly, year after year, as their markets expanded around the world. This is the basis for the principle that profit-driven businesses will always tend towards becoming monopolies. It’s also the driving myth behind the stock market, which forces companies to find ways to earn higher and higher profits every year in order to attract investors — an investor, themselves, being a mini-employer of a sort. The alternatives to this business model are more commonly found in small businesses, but not always. The tattoo industry, at least in my experience, has trended more towards “collectives”, where each artist pays a flat rate for rent and supplies each month, and keeps all the rest of the money they earn in the shop. (This is compared to a more traditional model, where 30-50% of each artist’s earnings go to the shop owner, who ends up making far more than any of their employees before doing a single tattoo of their own.) And on a larger scale, we can look at cooperative corporations like Mondragón of Spain, which employs almost 80,000 people, yet pays the highest-earning worker no more than 6 times the salary of the lowest-earning ones. There is a lot to learn from these examples, and though they’re difficult to implement when in direct competition with huge multinational corporations, like your post mentions, I think the ethical position that cooperatives advance and the standard of living they provide are really worth supporting and adopting in larger sectors of the global economy.

Neighbours lad forgot to put his bike in the shed ..I’ve rode to work ..on road tyres

BiGxFullcount Contest Jeans

220AXX have just arrived from Bears. The preshrink photos are looking promising. Currently in the wash so will post an update once dry which at this current temperature will be in a couple of weeks 🙃

Wore the new Boncouras for a week, decided to give them a wash just to see if there was any additional shrink left. They felt pretty starchy and there wasn't much puckering / roping, so expected to see a bit of shrink with our older washing machine. Pre-wash measurements (o/w) after a week of wear: Waist: 38 in. Front rise: 12.5 in. Back rise: 18 in. Thigh: 14 in. Knee: 10.5 in. Hem: 9.75 in. Inseam: 32 in. And post warm wash, only shrunk back up in the waist and some additional inseam shrink which I was looking for: Waist: 36.5 Front rise: 12.5 in. Back rise: 18 in. Thigh: 14 in. Knee: 10.5 in. Hem: 9.75 in. Inseam: 31 in.

Pausing for a quick cuppa at work

no white socks today… autumn broons n greens… barbour/filson/tcb/canes/timberland plus surplus bag…

Recently I listened to a political economic podcast. They where going on about “winner takes all” big companies take everything. They don’t leave any crumbs for the small businesses. Never thought about it, but it seems the case in a lot of fields. even in my relatively small businesses of tattooing. seems like a business model is to take on a lot of employees and get cash from all of them. While all of them struggle

From my 34+ years getting inked (started before I was l old enough to get one legally) tatts have always been on a revolving pattern. All black is in vouge, Japanese is out of favour, couple years on all black is out everyone is getting Japanese, same with Americana or flash and so on.... same flash sheets in every parlour.... The amount of times I've been in the chair when some young lad walks in and asks for a sleeve.. what do you want asks the artist, I dunno just a sleeve.... The guy who did a majority of my work (not the best /detailed work but a genuine old school biker (( patched)) bloke ) used to have a rule , if someone came in and asked for a tattoo on what he called public skin : face/hands/neck he'd tell em to f**k off and come back when they'd earned it as in getting enough ink in less visible parts. It was his way of stopping youngsters making bad life decisions, nowadays people seem to start on their hands and necks to appear more inked than they actually are! Bloody kids (old man shakes fist at sky.....)

well let's slap a patch, cinch and some belt loops on it and get these shipped out already! ok ok n/m i'll wait for everyone else.

Looking good Austin! I was a bit surprised that SE doesn't offer a longer inseam when they now had the chance to customize. Ok, for a wide cut like these it might not be necessary but for the 66 and XX a longer inseam is the main problem for many people interested in Boncoura.

There is a chinos thread here.

FC/Drake's/FC/Jean Shop/Board Room (sorry @Double 0 Soul)/Alden

@beautiful_FrEaK I watched the video, but missed the comment about them being my jeans! That’s very cool. Really good stuff to see. Thanks

^morning Neal, all but the machine. im sure there are already “artist” using ai to make designs. lets get a tattoo to be different, but not to different. Its allready like that. i understand you want to belong to a tribe. But the tribe is getting big

Thanks for this... a lot of love for these here and also seen a few pics of you all looking good wearing them. I'll try to check them out. And I was wondering about the separate US and JP brands.

Sooooo good 🙏 I have no regrets in life, other than not getting a pair of those (and Ooe Cinchbacks lol)

We have a neighbourhoods thread in need of a bump.. take a few photos, do a li'll write up.. I live in a bit of a S10/S11 bubble, the shops and bars around here are doing really well, folks have cash to spend, whereas our city center is some kind of boarded up dystopian nightmare.. littered with homeless peeps, beggers, crackheads, god-grifters and Deliveroo riders .. there was a fked up sex worker having a shit on the doorstep opposite my work this morning.. she wiped her arse on a towel and left it on the floor along with her knee length puffa jacket.. she'll regret that tonight, it's currently 1C and snowing heavily.

End of an Era: Greensboro’s Hudson’s Hill physical store is closing. 😪 I’ve spent some time in the store. From getting my first foray into denim there to getting my denim hemmed before I left for the Navy, I was treated great there. Thanks Evan for the memories if you’re reading this!

50 shades of indigo. A new RAW film. Hahahhaha

FW 1927 type 1. FW 504xx Denim Pullover. FW 1922 jeans

@UkeNo and @nopal Your jeans! VID_106900502_104336_375.mp4

Edit: I wasn’t feeling it. Been leaning more into the 70s vibes lately, and going to a show later in Richmond, so decided to reall lean into it today. Also did some fresh repairs to my Korean War M-52 with some Samurai scraps I had laying around. vintage/amanda shires/full count/red wing

Hat - mitch&ness Jumper - uniqlo Shoes - NB Levis 501xx vintage 90s Cringed as I put my foot through the knee this morning.

nice nice nice: does seem like eBay is giving some Russell love rite now: staring at the screen for us11-d art carter / travelling sportsman to appear... with the ownership transition and utube upping (snail, rose etc.), seems like more awareness arising, and barely worn old stock coming forward...

nice tan top n toe… look like nu russells or am i imagining? (lamarie looks to me?) knockabouts (look lace-less)?

I just took a pair in to be hemmed. I'll let you know if I have any issues, though I'll be avoiding washing in hot if I can help it

Thanks @aho I found them in my closet a couple of weeks ago but outgrew them by 3 sizes.

Grew up in the A2 area and living here again temporarily; 'Today' does well in online sales from what I hear and it's really the only place to go for most of the brands they carry in the Midwest outside of Chicago for example. That, and lots of New Yorkers and what's left of international students bringing in some money helps during the school season. They've built a strong/loyal customer base, nice guys 👍

My city used to be really vibrant with an eclectic mix of people, there were places in the city catering for the not so well off (Castle Market) and there were retailers catering for the very well healed (and everyone in between) ... all of which were very busy with folks spending what disposable income they had. Then we had a perfect storm.. an out of town shopping center opened in 1990 (Meadowhall) which offered free parking and a roof over one's head.. this coincided with massive unemployment as companies outsourced almost all industry to China.. 1000s of people were put out of work while the company owners / shareholders got rich by cutting labour costs, everything that used to say Made in Sheffield now says Made in China.. but hey! at least net zero is within reach The city had to re-invent itself as a university / service city, with the big bucks coming from International students, the dependents of those students are the only ones driving investment in the city, they're creating businesses but businesses which mainly service the population of wealthy Chinese students.. a tragic irony that the descendents of your typical unemployed working class Sheffielder are often the previously mentioned homeless peeps..

… in conjunction with Freewheelers

I live in a tri-city area where each of the 3 small cities within a 30 min radius peaked in a different era of 20th century America (and really in successive eras in a way), and it is interesting to see the differences in urban design among them along with a gradual shift towards cultural homogenization over time One peaked in the 1920s-1930s and significantly declined post-WW2. This city had (and still has to an extent) a quaint walkable downtown with many local shops even if it is now in decline overall. There are lots of cool homes and mansions from the 20's-30's and more deco architecture as well in various states of repair. It's actually a pleasant and enjoyable place to walk around. Another city peaked in the post-WW2 auto manufacturing boom and began a rapid decline in the 60's/70's. Houses tend to be more of the smaller postwar variety and many are in significant disrepair. Walkability is much lower here as well due to the auto-friendly nature necessitated by its primary employers. We've spent much less time here, partly because it's not very pedestrian friendly. The 3rd city (which is where we live) began to peak from the 60s-90s. Houses tend to be much more mid-century at the early end of things to homogeneous McMansions at the later end of things. There are minimal walkable areas of commerce and relatively few small businesses. Most everything is car reliant and big box stores. Everything is cleaner and "better kept", but much more boring.

Whenever we drive from Austin to Houston to visit my wife's family we pass through so many smaller towns that are borderline abandoned. I'll never understand how the people that are still there manage to hold out keep things going. Never lived in an town like that so it seems really foreign to me. Although there are some towns that do have nice little downtown areas with a seemingly growing populations (relatively of course, lots of people are actively leaving Austin / Houston to settle in lower COL areas where they can actually afford homes). Having made that drive for 10+ years now I can easily point out the ones that have made improvements. Definitely a larger topic of discussion but it'll continue to negatively impact smaller mom and pop shops for the most part.

@willi On glasses, sorry it’s a bit late but check out Julius Tart Optical (the Japanese one). I’ve got two pairs of the Japan made FDR, a brown pair for my daily wear and black for sunglasses. I bought the frames online and had my local optician do the lenses. I’ve worn one pair daily for just over two years now and they look as good as new. Not totally sure on the story behind why there’s a Japanese company which are made in Japan, and a US company that are made in Italy or indeed if they’re anything to do with each other but I can only comment on the quality of the Japanese one. Honestly they’re the best quality frames I’ve had. I’ve had Cutler and Moscot and the Tart are a notch above in terms of quality. That isn’t to say the others aren’t good, but the Tart frames feel weighty and superior. The only downside is they’re not always easy to get hold of. Alternatively I’d also second the Cubitts recommendation. My other half has some and for the price, their range and quality is hard to beat. Edit: I see Julius Tart are already mentioned, apologies! Would definitely recommend though.

Acronym E-P1A Medium Very good condition for there age, hardly worn Waist - 33 inches Inside leg - 30 inches £369

Ooe again / Anatomica Big Yank / FW Trailblazer / FW Ironalls / FW WW2 / @Duke Mantee / Brother Bridge

I only shitpost about RO from my freezing cold workshop with water leaking through the roof and mould growing up the walls.. keeps it in perspective.

Really puts it into perspective that none of this really matters.

Turkish-made LVC were various washed versions rather than raw and for some reason, were sized a bit differently as far as I’m aware. I think the sanforized 1967 zip model also may have been manufactured there.

More Tender

Union Special / Tender Co. x3 / Tezomeya / Hollows / Russell

FC Anniversary jacket / RMC / Shoe's Like Pottery (Will post details about the jacket on the FC page)

Japan Blue cap MFSC Ranch Blouse RMC tee SC belt Denime 66 John Lofgren

german surplus flecktarn gore tex ish, filson, post o’alls, tender, timbos (matching with @Geeman), with mini-phonics in baby levis tux; type 3 and late 90s stf 501: check my janky sashiko…