Graytrain

This is correct. During this era they made many garments for different brands that followed similar naming as you see with the Harley Davidson jacket or Indian Motorcycle, sometimes adding prefix letters (Indian motorcycle has "IMX-XXX" or "IMXXXXX")

Found this odd pair of Evis 2501. Bull patch, red line, but no crotch rivet or coin pocket rivets. A bit WWII-esque. Never seen it before.

And the final result: will also get some detail shots when i get a chance. The scars really darkened nicely.

I had been wanting to get a randall for some time. Waited to the last couple weeks of summer to pressure me into it. Just enough sun to get it to a nice warm color. One hell of a jacket. Day 1: The branding scar: You can see there was a bit of a drizzle so I gave it a water treatment to prevent spots after about 1 week Then we had one scorcher of a day which made a noticeable change: Then another hot day: by this point it got to be a mindless daily meditation of putting it outside and turning it every couple hours. After another week or so I oiled it with Pecards antique: Drying in the sun: at this point I had maybe 12 days of sun on it and had about 1-2 days of questionable weather before it looked like fall was switching on. So this is just about where we are for this year. Gonna wear the shit out of it and see what we can do next summer.

This is a great catch @julian-wolf! It has been a long time since i got those anomalies and I haven't had the opportunity to get my hands on any MP era jeans. Based on the photos from the past few pages I would agree with you.

I am and I am here!

This would be my dream. I would love to be able to write down a detailed history of what happened and when, with the fingerprints of that history that can be seen in the details.

There is very little info out there as to what pre-Evis examples actually were. The best I could find was the above example from Ed, with a lot of interpolation on what I know of early Evis details and construction, paired with looking at as many examples of Rodeo Uncle jeans as I could. The early designs are incredibly fluid. Same model number 5501, but everything from denim, hardware, construction details change. Early Evis (that I have several examples of from the first runs where they did partial runs of stitched arcs prior to full adoption of painted gulls) all have red line denim with a wide selvedge, scovil hardware, diagonal mounted rear belt loop, left side installed care tag, with very odd stitching details like overlapped stitching (almost like they ran out of thread and restarted) with a very dark orange/almost brown thread. The details of fabric, thread and minor construction changed very rapidly even while still "Evis". Selvedge got narrower, thread became a more standard yellow and orange, odd sewing behaviors disappeared, but scovil hardware continued until a later era (present in post-Bull patch Evis). My above pair of Rodeo Uncle have the exact same details of construction, thread and hardware, look like a pair of early Evis, save for the denim. It is a pink line denim with a narrow selvedge. From all of the other Rodeo Uncle examples I have seen, denim changed first (somewhere there was my pink line and a red line) along with a transition to using YKK rivets alongside Scovil hardware (mine are all scovil), construction details diverged away from Evis-like details (offset beltloop, different thread and sewing techniques, pocket shape and placement), then a change of hardware to "Standard Style" shop branded hardware, along with patch changes (that I am less clear on). Based on this information, I think it is logical to suggest that those examples which have scovil hardware and Evis-like construction where made from the "shop" that became Evis, and the transition away from Evis "fingerprints" likely signals the pre/post boundary. Now, I do not know if between mine and Ed's, which is earlier. Its clear to me that the thread used on Ed's pair is the identical brownish thread in mine and early Evis. You can interpret the all scovil hardware vs the some YKK as being an indicator of Ed's being a transition pair (because Evis is all scovil and YKK as the company name didnt come about until '94? I think, so after this era which was ~'88-'90). The ONLY detail that seems to be a clear indicator that I have been able to pick up on, which I even hesitate to say, is the stamp font used on the patch. Every example I have seen BUT my pair, including modern examples, use a "curly-er" font. See Ed's below and another example below: Eds: Whereas my pair has a very plain font: I have not seen this font used on any other pair, (nor a deer skin patch). This might be the best determining detail. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to nerd out @julian-wolf. I hope that answered your question.

The aho crinkle texture is unbeatable

Thanks Aho! I am pretty chuffed. They fit like a glove.

And the fit.

If you look closely, you can see the fingerprints of early Evis in these: Similar stitching: and hardware:

So this is a bump from the depths. I came across a similar reference in my research to this almost ethereal brand from Yamane and Tsujita pre-Evis. As you can see, there is very little info out there on the history or details and virtually no pictures. It doesn't help that the brand continued in obscurity under Lapine as an in-house budget brand. But what I do know is the pre-Evis era Rodeo Uncles were made using the same hardware as early Evis, Scoville buttons and rivets. Other details like denim and leather patch seem to change. This pair has what looks like deer skin, thin and pliable. Others have the thicker leather patch. This denim is also pink line, unlike Ed's example with red line. It is very deep blue, reminds of Denime XX. This model, 5501, is a seemingly 66-ish detailed, 50s-ish silhouette jean. An unbelievable find.

These are gorgeous. What has been your sizing discoveries with vintage Noconas? I see info all over the board.

Your perception is the only truth. It is what informs your experience, and shapes tomorrow's truth in the light of new perception. Magic and meaning is everywhere, in everything, but it is entirely unique to the observer. We (as a collective humanity) often put to much external value on that truth, particularly when a collection of individuals experience the same truth, and thus try to enforce it upon others as a universal truth to shape their perception. Please forgive the philosophy, feel free to ignore it as well. Its my perception anyways, which doesn't mean its true.

And the fit, paired with the early Evis 2501xx with arcs

It is. Being that I wear S506s exclusively, the chest pocket has become a habitual stashing location and "below-tit" is so much better esthetically and functionally.

The community of people that care about repros will continue to dwindle to the point where there won't be a big enough market to justify making the clothing. And with it will die the entire story of how it all came to be. It's a bit heart breaking really. I hope someone is or will document the history of the Osaka 5 and the rise of Japanese denim. As for the stuff we get nowadays and why I'm less interested. I feel as though with social media came a feedback mechanism that took a bit of personality out of the garments. They feel "made for someone" instead of made for their own appreciation. In many ways this is amazing. We get items that couldn't exist before and justified a market for very niche products. But before that, the world was smaller. The older repros might not have CSF-level attention to detail, but they have a spirit to them that speaks of individuals making something for themselves without caring to make others happy. It's feels pure and true. They come imbued with something that makes them different than a blank canvas. And to me, wearing *that* feels worlds different than wearing a new release.

Also @julian-wolf, if you ever feel like helping those hair-on-hides, that you have squirreled away, find a loving home, please let me know.

I've never been a leepro guy, but as I age, I get more down with my inner cowboy. I don't know when these will get washed, as I have so many in rotation now, but it will happen.

Thanks @chicote! I have never seen myself as a collector. Wholly a wearer. And for most of my denim career (nearing 20 years...) I've been dedicated to a pair at a time. Channelling my inner Ryu "Using chain stitch, your train of jeans is fading wind." But the chase of the grail that captures a specific fit, detail and character has made me really fall in love with the history of repros and particularly the Osaka 5. I realized through that, that there is very little info out there save whats in this forum, that its all going to become lost information at some point, and the only way to experience the older historical repros is to source it and see it first hand. And by total happenstance, I have become a collector...

Been searching a long time for this one: Evis era bull patch S506xx (1506). From comparison with other era pairs of jeans, it looks like No.2 denim. Lovely boxy, short silhouette. And slightly different than the norm, zinc-y laurel buttons. Don't think I can save this interesting construction tidbits: Single stitch cuff:

I let one too many of these pass through my fingers. Finally copped. BNWT M41027

If there's a next time, I expect to see a CSL ridealong:

This is awesome. What a day. Funnily enough, this happened to me as well. Started with my eldest child coming into our bedroom at 6AM on a Saturday asking why cows where in our yard. You can assume my response... not nearly as great of an adventure as yours. No denim involved.