dudewuttheheck

I visited the Flat Head headquarters recently which was pretty fun.

We were met at the train station by J. Attila Antal (he’s the newest guy doing what Cold Summer on SuFu used to do) and his boss, Masaki Horiuchi. Considering that they and I were dressed completely in FH/RJB gear, it was easy to spot each other. They took our bags, despite us trying to refuse (I noticed that the Japanese are very insistent on carrying bags for you and they are much better at it than Americans) and drove us in a van to Chikuma, where the Flat Head headquarters are located. We met with Kobayashi-San, founder and owner of The Flat Head very briefly before going over to the Stockburg leather factory to see how their leather goods are made.

This was quite impressive. ‘Factory’ is a bit of a misnomer here as the only machines in the whole building were the sewing machines they used for hemming and jean repairs. The closest thing to a machine they had that was used on the leather was a hand operated press to cut out the leather and press the logos into certain items. We met the man who runs the Stockburg facility and they gladly allowed us to film and take pictures the entire time, probably because they were happy to show off just how hand made everything is in the facility. I am a massive Flat Head/RJB fan, so the fact that I was beyond impressed should not surprise anyone. They do everything from the sewing, to the edge finishing, to even cutting the holes by hand with only the simplest tools. Downstairs was where the outer parts of the wallets and bags were done and the inner linings were done upstairs.

They also gave us a demonstration of how they do their denim repairs which was pretty cool. It was a lot of fun seeing how my wallet that I bought over a year ago was made and I must say I feel even more sure that I made the right choice buying a Flat Head wallet. They even had one of their sewers teach me how to sew for a bit! I was terrible, but it was quite fun and it gave me an appreciation for what they and other leather craftsmen do.

Kobayashi-San actually showed up while I was sewing and we then went to his house from there. Well, when I say house, I mean houses. He owns an entire block basically- 3 houses and 5 garages. His daily driver is a twin turbo Mercedes wagon (if I’m not mistaken, I saw the same car parked outside of Konaka-San’s workshop, but I can’t be sure) and he also owns a limited edition Fiat 500, a Datsun 50 Bluebird SSS, a Chevelle SS (’66 or ’67 I believe), a ’57 Bel Air convertible, a Harley, a Kharmann Gia, a VW bus, and a Porsche Gt4 with a manual transmission for extra cool points. He even had a large amount of vintage Snap-On tools including Bel Air edition and Harley Davidson edition sets. The coolest thing was the custom Flat Head logo on one of his driveways and the fact that every car’s license plate said 3005.

He had even more crazy stuff inside one of the houses which he uses as his design studio. He showed us a pair of $15k WWII levis which made my Conners WWIIs seem like a bargain and an actual brick from the Indianapolis motor speedway. I won’t bore you all with the rest of this and I’ll skip ahead to lunch. We went to the second floor of one of his Googie’s Café restaurants and were served the best meal we had during the entire trip. This included all locally sourced fruits and vegetables in the salad (the salad dressing was yogurt-based and made fresh daily), French fries dipped in maple syrup (it made no sense, but it actually tasted good), 2 different pizzas (one normal, one with apples, honey, and maple syrup), some fresh beef, their take on hamburger, and mushroom risotto. It was kind of American food, kind of not. The ingredients were so good that everything actually worked really well together. Apparently Nagano is famous for their apples so they even feed the cows with them and I will say it was some of the best beef I have ever eaten. For desert, we had their frozen yogurt which apparently won ‘best frozen yogurt in Japan’ one year. It was definitely the best I have ever had.

Finally, we went to another Googie’s restaurant that also housed a sizeable Flat Head store. I purchased an RJB rayon shirt and two rings that I picked up at a store in Osaka. I also bought a necklace with dice pendants because I really don’t care for feather pendants that seem to be all you can find. MY brother walked out with an RJB loopwheel t shirt with felt letters and a stunning RJB seafoam green dress shirt (easily the coolest shirt he bought the whole trip). Finally, I bought him a wallet from stockburg as a thanks for bringing me on the trip. As it turns out, that wallet is only sold in Chiikuma which makes it even more special. We did the gift exchange here as well and we received signed Flat Head bandanas from Kobayashi-San and he received the bourbon. Apparently he does not drink much anymore, but he was thrilled nonetheless. We also offered to show them around and buy them dinner when they are in LA next. They were particularly interested in my brother’s offer to take them on a tour of his workplace (he works in aerospace.)

A couple of shots of what I bought:

RJB rayon shirt:

RJB and Flat Head rings (usually worn on separate hands)

RJB/Flat Head necklace with Flat Head dice (I adore dice)

Time to post my CSF visit:

Well, I finally made it to Conner’s Sewing Factory to pick up my tux and what a visit it was! This was very rewarding because it almost did not happen. We tried to go on a Wednesday and Konaka-San told us he was out that day, but fortunately I shuffled our schedule a bit and he said that he would be there on Thursday so we went that day instead. His shop is about an hour outside of Kyoto and only a short walk from the train station. When we arrived, we were greeted by a nice lady at the workshop (who I believe is his wife) and we saw Konaka-San great us while doing what he does most- sewing. As he finished up, we had a chance to look around and take pictures of his extensive collection of sewing machines. It was quite the experience to finally see this place in person. 

Once he was finished, we talked and he took us over to the Forty-Niners store to get the jeans and jacket. Initially, I was worried about wasting too much of his time, but he was more than happy to show us around and explain everything that he could to us. Not once during the hour or so that we were there did I feel like we needed to leave. I did not know this previously, but he actually owns the store as well. I had previously thought that it he was associated with them, but he does in fact own the store. In addition, I noticed a very nice Mercedes outside of the store that I can only assume is his because other than he and his staff, the marketplace he was at was basically deserted. Google translate was our best friend again here as neither Konaka-San, nor either of the store workers had great English and my Japanese is limited (the store workers were of course, very nice and we did manage to have a pretty nice conversation.) He had some raw models, but also had some one-wash versions as well. I gravitated to these simply because I wanted to make sure I nailed the fit. I ended up with the size 36 WWII San Francisco jeans and size 42 WWII jacket despite initially thinking that I would fit in the 35 and 40 respectively. The best part about going with the one wash versions was having Konaka-San himself do the hem on my jeans. This was great because a short guy like me would never have been able to do this if I ordered online and is extra special for these jeans in particular considering that he is the only one who makes these. We did a gift exchange here as well. Along with Goto-San, Konaka-San was probably the most excited about the Bourbon we brought. He gave us each a Fortyniners towel and CSF denim coasters. We even met his mother who was at the shop and had the best English of anyone there! He seems to make his work a family affair more than anyone else I have met (besides Ooe Yofukuten). 

Everyone there was extremely kind and friendly and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to meet Konaka-San and be able to try on the jeans and jacket first to avoid the issues that many have had with sizing his clothes. Of course, the jeans and jacket themselves are stunning. Like many, I would not say they are sloppy, but they certainly aren’t surgically clean the way Flat Head/RJB and Roy make their jeans. However, it is very obvious that Konaka-San is very skilled with his sewing machines.
 I’m actually impressed at how clean they are considering he folds everything by hand. Trying these on and handling them, I really do get why these are so sought after by people. I don’t own any other jeans that have this much personality right from the get go and I absolutely love the fit of both. They definitely have a unique fee due to his production methods and it really shows. My Roy jeans are so surgically clean, it’s like a robot made them, but I feel like I want to wear these CSF jeans more. I actually attempted to explain CSF to my fiancé once and expected her to not understand what makes his products so special when compared to other brands and especially with other repro makers and I was surprised to find that she summed up his work better than any way I have heard. She told me “Oh, I get it. It’s art.” Honestly, after having tried on and handled the jeans myself, I couldn’t agree more. These garments are the closest thing I own to art. I don’t need to go into further detail as others have already done a better job than I could of explaining the quality of Conner’s Sewing Factory, but I will say I am extremely happy with my tux and here are some pics! I’ll try to get better ones of me wearing them soon.

The final major event was the visit to Konaka-San of CSF. We had to take a train out from Kyoto to get to his shop and we were greeted by a nice lady at the workshop (who I believe is his wife) and we saw Konaka-San great us while doing what he does most- sewing. As he finished up, we had a chance to look around and take pictures of his extensive collection of sewing machines. It was quite the experience to finally see this place in person.

Once he was finished, we talked and he took us over to the Forty-Niners store to get the jeans and jacket. I did not know this previously, but he actually owns the store as well. I had previously thought that it he was associated with them, but he does in fact own the store. Google translate was our best friend again here as neither Konaka-San, nor either of the store workers had great English and my Japanese is limited (the store workers were of course, very nice and we did manage to have a pretty nice conversation.) He had some raw models, but also had some one-wash versions as well. I gravitated to these simply because I wanted to make sure I nailed the fit. I ended up with the size 36 WWII San Francisco jeans and size 42 WWII jacket. The best part about going with the one wash versions was having Konaka-San himself do the hem on my jeans. This was great because a short guy like me would never have been able to do this if I ordered online and is extra special for these jeans in particular considering that he is the only one who makes these. We did a gift exchange here as well. Along with Goto-San, Konaka-San was probably the most excited about the Bourbon we brought. He gave us each a Fortyniners towel and CSF denim coasters. We even met his mother who was at the shop and had the best English of anyone there! He seems to make his work a family affair more than anyone else I have met (besides Ooe Yofukuten).

Everyone there was extremely kind and friendly and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to meet Konaka-San and be able to try on the jeans and jacket first to avoid the issues that many have had with sizing his clothes. Of course, the jeans and jacket themselves are stunning. Like many, I would not say they are sloppy, but they certainly aren’t surgically clean the way Flat Head/RJB and Roy make their jeans. However, it is very obvious that Konaka-San is very skilled with his sewing machines. I’m actually impressed at how clean they are considering he folds everything by hand. Trying these on and handling them, I really do get why these are so sought after by people. I don’t own any other jeans that have this much personality right from the get go and I absolutely love the fit of both. I don’t need to go into further detail as others have already done a better job than I could of explaining the quality of Conner’s Sewing Factory, but I will say I am extremely happy with my tux!

That’s about it for denim sort of stuff, but we did do some other fun things. The best was going to the Yamazaki distillery- Japan’s oldest whiskey distillery. The tour was fantastic and we made a couple of English-speaking friends while there while trying some world class whiskey. They downside was that all of their best products were out of stock there and at any store we went to L We also stream-sniped one of my brother’s favorite twitch streamers and met him and Andy Milonakis in the lobby of our hotel because as luck would have it, it was the same one they were staying at. My brother asked for a picture and Andy just told him to give him a kiss instead Also, here’s a picture of my brother wearing an octopus on his head because reasons.

That’s about all I can think of. Sorry I wasted a whole thread for this. I’ll be reposting a decent amount of this in the respective threads (CSF, Clinch). If anyone has any specific questions or wants to know about anything else we did, let me know. If you actually read all of this, then you are very patient and are my new best friend! Another bonus is that we walked so much and the food was so healthy that my fat ass has lost 10 pounds since leaving for the trip!

I hope it’s OK that I made a new thread for this. Much of my trip involved activities that are quite related to this forum and I like to talk/type too much, so I figured this was better than clogging up another thread with too many posts.

We landed in Tokyo and our hotel was pretty damn nice. We could actually see Shibuya crossing from our room, which I really enjoyed. We wandered around for a few minutes after checking in and had the best ramen of the entire trip on the first night.

The next day, we went to Akihabara and we found the anime boobs quite easily It was pretty fun, though. The arcades there were insane in the best way possible. Enough of that though, our first big appointment was going to meet Goto-San of White Kloud boots.

White Kloud has been the ultimate grail item for me along with a Himel Bros jacket. I got my Himel jacket last year, but a pair of White Klouds always seemed like a pipe dream. I contacted Goto-San a couple of years ago when I figured I had enough money, but was told that it was required to go to his shop to get a pair made. I did not really understand this way of thinking at the time and was very disappointed,  but obviously I had no choice but to respect his rules and basically gave up on getting a pair any time soon.

Fast forward about a year and I had the opportunity to go to Japan with my brother. I messaged Goto-San immediately and made plans to get my measurements taken. He was very nice as far as I could tell and he even offered to meet us both at the train station and take us over to his shop personally.

We had a 2pm appointment, but after experiencing the meaning of punctuality with Japanese trains (seriously, how can America screw up trains so much while the Japanese do them so perfectly?) we decided to arrive a little early. Just as I figured, we recognized each other quite easily. Despite Japan’s fascination with vintage American clothing, those who would fit in on denimbro are needles in a mountainous, humid haystack.

Despite the fact that he said his English was poor, it was surprisingly good as far as I was concerned. We walked out of the station and he gestured us into a taxi. I tried to pay for the ride, but he refused me. The shop itself is beautiful. It appears to just be the bottom floor of his house, but it’s quite nice and was of course covered with boots.

Once we sat down, Goto-San gave us some Japanese snacks and cold tea and told us he would need around 3 hours to get everything done. The time actually passed quite quickly. Google translate was our best friend and we managed to make decent conversation during the process. The measuring process was more thorough than anything I could have imagined. I was measured personally by Brian from Role Club and I thought that he covered everything, but Goto-San is on a whole different level. He measured my feet from every angle, felt them with his hands in certain areas, etc, and then had me try on some sample boots. He had set aside a size 10 for me, but after measuring, figured out that I’m the equivalent of a size 9 in his boots. This is where he really started to go above and beyond. He didn’t have a pair of size 9 boots that were ready, so he took the most finished pair he had and started nailing heels to them so I could try them on properly. Once he had got them on my feet (of course he tied them for me as well) he had me walk around for a bit. As soon as I said that they felt pretty good, he motioned me outside. We went on a 15 minute walk of his neighborhood so I could really get a feel for what fit right and what didn’t. We got back and after some consulting, he added a thin insole to each boot and we had another nice 15 minute walk and I gave him my final notes on the fit of the boots.

Finally, we went through the options list. I pretty much went all out with these. If I’m going to have one pair of lace up boots, they might as well be exactly what I want. They will be essentially the same model as the one shown below. He calls this the blucher, which is his standard trench boot/packer boot model. I went with the smaller round last and without the toe bump. His leather choices are quite extensive, despite having only two actual leather types (chromexcel and badalassi). There were at least 8 colors of badalassi to choose from and as tempted as I was by the blue and green colors, I went with the cognac so I could actually wear them consistently. I also went for handwelting rather than stitch down and of course chose his double row sole stitching. The final option I went for was to get the brown heel and sole from vibram so the sole would actually match with the outsole color.

Next came the gift exchange. I talked with Neil from Standard and Strange before going and he advised me to bring something for the most important people I was visiting. I brought 4 bottles of Angel’s Envy because 1. It’s one of my favorite whiskeys and 2. I looked and it did not seem readily available in Japan. Goto-San was very pleased with his gift and in exchange, he gave me a card holder made out of the cognac leather that my boots will be made out of. We told him that we planned to head to Mushman’s afterward and he offered to call a taxi for us and apologized for not having time to take us there personally. Once it arrived, he attempted to tell the driver where to go, but quickly figured out that the driver did not know where to go. He got in with us and directed the driver to the store and again paid for the taxi. I tried several times to give him money, especially because he was probably going to take yet another taxi back, but he refused again.

At Mushman’s, he translated for us and helped us around the store. I was mainly looking at getting one of their vests, but unfortunately, my size was not available. He then walked us over to the train station, taught us how to add money to our subway cards, took some pictures, and bid us farewell. I have to say, even my brother was blown away by this experience. I have met quite a few craftsmen and brand owners in my short time with this hobby/passion, but nobody has been as kind, thorough, and committed to perfection as Goto-San. He took that pair of burgundy boots out for me to take pictures, but handled them with gloves and wouldn’t even touch the uppers. He also made sure to tell me not to touch them. It seems that once he has finished and polished up a pair of boots, he does not allow even himself to touch them with his fingers. It turns out that I am only the 5^th non-Japanese person to get a pair of his boots (and I think a couple of those people are from Iron Heart and possibly Good Art as well) and I told him that there are actually quite a few people that would like a pair of his boots, but can’t get them due to his policy of meeting the customer at his shop. When he heard me say this he thought for a second before saying something along the lines of “Maybe, but meeting is better.” That basically sums him up right there. He makes less than 60 pairs of boots every year, but if I am anything to go by, he treats every client like family and I can really see now why he is so committed to his policy. Just from seeing his boots in person (they are stitch perfect as I expected) and spending time with him, I can pretty much guarantee that his boots will be my most prized possession, even above my Himel jacket. I’m sorry for typing too much, but it is very difficult to express just how incredible this experience was. He even remembered the day I told him we were leaving and on that day, messaged me a picture of the whiskey bottle I gave him and wished my brother and I a safe flight home. In fact, that right there may be what sums him up best. Not only was it a kind and thoughtful gesture, but only he would be so detail-oriented to send the message on the exact day we were leaving. Anyway, it will probably be around a year before I get my boots, but you can bet you’ll be seeing them quite a lot once I get them.

I know I didn’t mention Mushman’s in too much detail. It was a nice store and the staff were friendly, but the stock there was not as extensive as I was expecting given what their online store looks like. Obviously, they had quite the collection of Rainbow Country jackets, but I’m not in the market so I didn’t look into them too much. If you’re in the neighborhood, I recommend it anyway. It was not the most impressive shop that I visited, however.