Jeans of the Old West: A History

[Sansome1877]

Wow! You find all this stuff just hopping between desolate mines in the dessert? Do you ever come home empty handed? It seems like your pulling crazy stuff out every week although maybe these are photos from a lifetime's worth of collecting. Great stuff nonetheless. This is one of the few truly substantive threads on sufu.

We have come back empty handed more times than I can remember, even though I got this boot 9 months ago, I have been roaming the desert since 1987 and my father in law since 1968. You are seeing a lifetime of collecting.

[Sansome1877]

Wow! You find all this stuff just hopping between desolate mines in the dessert? Do you ever come home empty handed? It seems like your pulling crazy stuff out every week although maybe these are photos from a lifetime's worth of collecting. Great stuff nonetheless. This is one of the few truly substantive threads on sufu.

We have come back empty handed more times than I can remember, even though I got this boot 9 months ago, I have been roaming the desert since 1987 and my father in law since 1968. You are seeing a lifetime of collecting.

[rnrswitch]

Those boots are nuts Sansome.

Those denim defects, look like a missing warp yarn and some missing weft yarn. I wonder how that happens. I assume when one portion gets out of whack other portions around that get out of whack too, (That's my technical language), until someone overseeing the operation noticed something going on and untangled the yarns.

pacioli, you know anything about this? Anybody? How do inconsistencies in the denim like the posted pics occur?

[rnrswitch]

Those boots are nuts Sansome.

Those denim defects, look like a missing warp yarn and some missing weft yarn. I wonder how that happens. I assume when one portion gets out of whack other portions around that get out of whack too, (That's my technical language), until someone overseeing the operation noticed something going on and untangled the yarns.

pacioli, you know anything about this? Anybody? How do inconsistencies in the denim like the posted pics occur?

[Sansome1877]

Those boots are nuts Sansome.

Those denim defects, look like a missing warp yarn and some missing weft yarn. I wonder how that happens. I assume when one portion gets out of whack other portions around that get out of whack too, (That's my technical language), until someone overseeing the operation noticed something going on and untangled the yarns.

pacioli, you know anything about this? Anybody? How do inconsistencies in the denim like the posted pics occur?

Hopefully Pacioli has time to explain this one, I believe he used to work for cone denim.

[Sansome1877]

Those boots are nuts Sansome.

Those denim defects, look like a missing warp yarn and some missing weft yarn. I wonder how that happens. I assume when one portion gets out of whack other portions around that get out of whack too, (That's my technical language), until someone overseeing the operation noticed something going on and untangled the yarns.

pacioli, you know anything about this? Anybody? How do inconsistencies in the denim like the posted pics occur?

Hopefully Pacioli has time to explain this one, I believe he used to work for cone denim.

[Sansome1877]

My wife a few months ago, stumbled on some interesting information. Levi Strauss was listed, along with many other companies as being clothing manufacturer's in the mid 1860's (in San Francisco,) which means they were manufacturing clothing for years prior to Jacob Davis....hmmm I wonder what a pair of Levi's looked like pre-Davis...with no rivets.

[Sansome1877]

This furry jack ass might look innocent but he has a taste for old leather. He didn't tear this boot apart but he did shred another one (not pictured here.) The top part of the boot was separated when it dried out in the mine, I think I will have to soak it in oil, in order to match it back up with the bottom half.

[SLAB]

haha, that dog looks hella guilty.

nice finds Sansome; always a pleasure to see what kind of stuff you found in the mines

[Sansome1877]

haha, that dog looks hella guilty.

nice finds Sansome; always a pleasure to see what kind of stuff you found in the mines

A guilty mutt indeed, it would take a whole page on Sufu to list all of the things this guy destroyed.

[crownzip]

Great desert photos Mike. You're giving me the itch to go high desert hiking again.

[airfrogusmc]

Nothin to do with jeans but desert maybe. An old church in Domingo New Mexico.

[Sansome1877]

awesome photo....wonder what the age of that church is.

[airfrogusmc]

awesome photo....wonder what the age of that church is.

Thanks, I donno, I would guess its pretty old.

[wgmds]

A guilty mutt indeed, it would take a whole page on Sufu to list all of the things this guy destroyed.

He might have to go the way of old yeller.

[Sansome1877]

most of the time he's good, but when he's bad, he's bad.........he chewed up a couch last week, ate our rooster, ate our bunny (who the 4yr old let out), ate our parakeet, oh and one very old boot.....hes getting better with age thankfully he loves people(and animals), he just turned 2.

[mtchfrnk]

I was wondering--it's come up that your jeans company, Deadgrass Overalls, is named after one of the early color options offered by Levi Strauss & Co. Is that right?

I think I also remember you writing that when you found the tool-pocket pants, possibly early Levi's, you thought at first it was just a handful of dead grass. Or something like that?

Anyways the recurrence of that phrase, "dead grass," made me wonder if there was any connection to your company's name. Maybe just a coincidence?

[Sansome1877]

I was wondering--it's come up that your jeans company, Deadgrass Overalls, is named after one of the early color options offered by Levi Strauss & Co. Is that right?

I think I also remember you writing that when you found the tool-pocket pants, possibly early Levi's, you thought at first it was just a handful of dead grass. Or something like that?

Anyways the recurrence of that phrase, "dead grass," made me wonder if there was any connection to your company's name. Maybe just a coincidence?

Yes, we named our company Deadgrass after we saw a Levi's ad in an old newspaper in the 1800's (duck pants were offered in deadgrass, brown and mode.) We were trying to figure what those colors actually looked like(yellowish brown like the color of grass that is dead would be deadgrass).....and the name Deadgrass seemed kind of unique, so we used it for our company name.I believe I have an example of a Levi pant in the deadgrass color. But I don't have the mode color, which is a drab grey. Brown is a rich chocolate brown color, we have that example in a neustadter pant.

I think you might be remembering the story I told while digging for bottles, I found what looked like a pile of mulch. It turned out that the pile of mulch was a pair of levi's, because I found the suspender buttons and rivets. The tool pocket pair I found I knew right away what those were.

[Rivet Head]

My wife's boots got nibbled on by my dog Toby...they were an old stock 1980's Made In USA pair of Carolinas:

BTW, there was no leather lying about, so I can only assume he safely digested it!

[Sansome1877]

Looks like a shark got ahold of that boot, our dog buckley.. didn't leave much of our boot behind, to take a picture of.

[rnrswitch]

Thank god I have only a cat. He likes to scratch my boots. Dude went to town on some cordovan shoes i have, but after a polish and a buff the scratches weren't even noticeable. I guess the cordovan lived up to its reputation.

[Paul T]

My cat, FLuffy, once shat all over my Velvet Underground boxed bootleg set.

What was really weird is that about three months after it happened, there was a cartoon in a rude, funny comic called Viz (a bit like the furry freak brothers)... where a cat shits on its owners Velvet Underground record.

Morphic resonance is a very powerful phenomenon.

rnrn, wait till your nipper breaks your guitars/hifi/DVD player etc...

[Sansome1877]

Well I hope my new kitties, charlie and colin don't read this thread. I don't want them getting any ideas, but since i am not lucky enough to own a Velvet Underground boxed set or a pair of Cordovans....I don't have too much to worry about.

I think i need to start a new thread, the cool things my pets destroyed, how about it guys? haha

[Sansome1877]

This is all that's left. The men that worked in these jeans exist no longer........but their imprint on the Denim and Duck remain.

CH

[rnrswitch]

You should post those ducks in the duck thread. That thread is rife with brand new barely worn duck and could use some beat up old duck.

[lostinthesupermarket]

One of my dogs fucked up the lacquer on the body of a pre-CBS Fender Telecaster. I didn't know whether to kill her or myself so luckily I ended up doing neither.

I've grown to like it though, and it still plays/ sounds the same.

BTW This thread is fantastic. Great work Mike, rnr, PaulT and all the other contributors. It's stuff like this that really puts this forum ahead of all rivals.

[Sansome1877]

One of my dogs fucked up the lacquer on the body of a pre-CBS Fender Telecaster. I didn't know whether to kill her or myself so luckily I ended up doing neither.

I've grown to like it though, and it still plays/ sounds the same.

BTW This thread is fantastic. Great work Mike, rnr, PaulT and all the other contributors. It's stuff like this that really puts this forum ahead of all rivals.

Sorry to hear about your Telecaster!!! Our first dog, got into my father in laws garage where he kept his old bottles in tube socks. The dog was swinging the socks around like toys and ended breaking a dozen or more bottles( father in law blew his stack) Pets do stupid shit all the time, good to see your enjoying the thread, thanks for the compliments.

[Sansome1877]

We received our order the other day, for 5 western newspapers (this is how a lot of our research is done) We found a Banner Brothers ad, you really never know what your going to find.

[SLAB]

all this talk about pets devouring/thrashing valuables has me LOL.

Luckily I am stuck with this sorry excuse of 'killer dog' ; she can't even bite decently because of her jaw bone structure

[Paul T]

I think i need to start a new thread, the cool things my pets destroyed, how about it guys? haha

When you do it, please make it "dogs and children". My cat might have shat on the Velvets, but that's definitely not as bad as coloring in the top of a 1953 Fender Champ in red (non water-soluble) felt tip.

Gorgeous duck, Mike.