Options for Buying Japanese Denim

[poly800rock]

Sugarcane is an exception because there is an incredibly high markup stateside. Samurai, PBJ, Oni, and others are a lot closer to what you'd pay from rakuten + shipping.

Either way, buy wherever you want For some people, a better price is outweighs the benefits that go with buying locally.

i agree also. Sugarcane is probably the only exception I would see. But if I EVER buy a pair of sugarcanes again, believe me, I would probably fork over the extra cash simply because I'd buy them from Deep Sleep. I like supporting businesses that take the time to know your name and stuff. For everything else, I go to Blue In Green. I guess I might see if differently if I were never to step foot in these stores and only buy via the internet, but since Deep Sleep in in Philadelphia, and Blue In Green is in NYC, I frequent both of those store enough to warrant me spending the extra cash to support their businesses. Never has any of my purchases been based solely on having a arcurate and/or red tab, so I honestly give two shits less if I get those. But for me at least the way I look at it is that Blue In Green stuck their necks out to bring something we all love here to the US (Selfedge on the west coast) and Gordon is probably one of the most friendly dudes I've met, he literally bends over backwards to please a customer. And with giving business to a storefront comes perks as well. . Deep Sleep is a brand new store trying to give Philadelphia a good clothing store. I've been in there a bunch and usually just sit around shooting the shit with Phil for an hour...I've known the sad sad state of trying to find anything good in Philadelphia, so if anyone tries to change that, it for me, is worth supporting the business, even if the price of sugarcanes is significantly (~$60-80) more..just my 2 cents.

[kiya]

Just to add my two cents..

I'm the kind of person that would spend quite a bit more just to support a local business that's taking the risk of stocking product and having a physical storefront.

I also like face to face communication and building a long standing relationship with shop owners/employees. so i'll pay the extra cash for that, along with the piece of mind knowing that if something goes wrong with my jeans in a month or two after i bought them i can have them repaired or replaced free of charge.

That was my personal, non shop owner point of view.

My shop owner pont of view is that the only real time i get heated over this subject is when a person comes into the store, tries on a pair of sugarcanes or samurais or flat heads, doesn't purchase anything and leaves.

then the same customer comes in two weeks later and has that pair on, but didn't buy them from us, they most probably bought them from a bidding service or a rakuten shop. and even goes to the extent to come to us to get them hemmed or asks for soaking advice via phone/email/in-store, then does this all over again.

does this happen often? at least once a week. do i know who these people are? definitely. do i stop giving them great service? so far we've just continued to give them the best help we can.

not sure how else to go about a situation like this, other than to just suck it up and deal with it. but as a store owner, nothing sucks more than what i just described above.

[poly800rock]

Just to add my two cents..

I'm the kind of person that would spend quite a bit more just to support a local business that's taking the risk of stocking product and having a physical storefront.

I also like face to face communication and building a long standing relationship with shop owners/employees. so i'll pay the extra cash for that, along with the piece of mind knowing that if something goes wrong with my jeans in a month or two after i bought them i can have them repaired or replaced free of charge.

That was my personal, non shop owner point of view.

exactly....for some reason, and i'm not even that old, i'll even say that with the rise of the internet and kids never having to leave their house for anything now, the brick and mortar stores don't have the impact like they used to.....

My shop owner pont of view is that the only real time i get heated over this subject is when a person comes into the store, tries on a pair of sugarcanes or samurais or flat heads, doesn't purchase anything and leaves.

then the same customer comes in two weeks later and has that pair on, but didn't buy them from us, they most probably bought them from a bidding service or a rakuten shop. and even goes to the extent to come to us to get them hemmed or asks for soaking advice via phone/email/in-store, then does this all over again.

does this happen often? at least once a week. do i know who these people are? definitely. do i stop giving them great service? so far we've just continued to give them the best help we can.

not sure how else to go about a situation like this, other than to just suck it up and deal with it. but as a store owner, nothing sucks more than what i just described above.

i wouldn't even know what to say if someone tried on a pair of jeans JUST to get the sizing at your store and then proceed to order elsewhere, then have the audacity to show up at your place again asking about shrinking/repairs....i guess people have no shame today huh? I've never bought anything from Selfedge, but if I'm ever in SF, i'd be sure to stop in and say hello, not to try on sizing and order elsewhere... Congrats for having the patience with those people Kiya..

[tec761]

Just to add my two cents..

I'm the kind of person that would spend quite a bit more just to support a local business that's taking the risk of stocking product and having a physical storefront.

I also like face to face communication and building a long standing relationship with shop owners/employees. so i'll pay the extra cash for that, along with the piece of mind knowing that if something goes wrong with my jeans in a month or two after i bought them i can have them repaired or replaced free of charge.

That was my personal, non shop owner point of view.

My shop owner pont of view is that the only real time i get heated over this subject is when a person comes into the store, tries on a pair of sugarcanes or samurais or flat heads, doesn't purchase anything and leaves.

then the same customer comes in two weeks later and has that pair on, but didn't buy them from us, they most probably bought them from a bidding service or a rakuten shop. and even goes to the extent to come to us to get them hemmed or asks for soaking advice via phone/email/in-store, then does this all over again.

does this happen often? at least once a week. do i know who these people are? definitely. do i stop giving them great service? so far we've just continued to give them the best help we can.

not sure how else to go about a situation like this, other than to just suck it up and deal with it. but as a store owner, nothing sucks more than what i just described above.

you could charge a lot for hemming jeans they didnt buy from you.

[jasonm]

japanese people, please help.

i just got this email from 2nd, after i confirmed my order with them and all that. can someone translate it for me, the conclusion im getting at is that their saying shits not going to happen.

いつもお世話になっております。2ND(セカンド)の井瀬です。

今回は残念ながらカード決済が不可能なようです。

もし今なら大丈夫な場合は再度ご注文をお手数ですがよろしくお願いします。

それでは失礼します。

[parachutes]

japanese people, please help.

i just got this email from 2nd, after i confirmed my order with them and all that. can someone translate it for me, the conclusion im getting at is that their saying shits not going to happen.

いつもお世話になっております。2ND(セカンド)の井瀬です。

今回は残念ながらカード決済が不可能なようです。

もし今なら大丈夫な場合は再度ご注文をお手数ですがよろしくお願いします。

それでは失礼します。

"it seems we can't file a credit payment with your card. please place another order if you are sure the card has enough balance to handle the order."

[dobolina]

you could charge a lot for hemming jeans they didnt buy from you.

yeah you could do this

[jasonm]

"it seems we can't file a credit payment with your card. please place another order if you are sure the card has enough balance to handle the order."

parachutes, thanks a lot. that made a lot more sense than the google translator made of it.

[unklesteve]

Why do you need come here with your pointers and tell people what to do?

I don't, and I wasn't. I was just putting forth the question that, in the long run, isn't it better to support local retailers? Because I think it is.

I've seen plenty of small, independent retailers of a variety of products go out of business. People open physical storefronts out of a special combination of vision and insanity. It's one of the roughest, most ambitious things you can do these days, especially considering how easy it is to shop online. But there is a lot that you can get from a brick-and-mortar store that you'll rarely, if ever, get from shopping online. And while most stores fail because they don't understand what it's their job to provide, there are plenty more that give people the most amazing shopping experience imaginable, only to die anyway because people would rather sit home in their underwear, and save $10 on a $300 item by sending their money somewhere else.

As someone who is trying to open a storefront myself here in Cleveland (no denim, i'll leave that to people who know more than me), I see a lot of the situation that Kiya described, and I see a lot of penny-pinching with people buying something online to save minimal amounts of money.

I can see going for the collector value of the "lawsuit denim", but I can also see great benefit in supporting the new designs from the manufacturers. They've got to be crapping themselves over all of this, and terrified that their new stuff isn't going to sell. I know I would be. If I had the money, I'd would totally support the new designs with my dollars, even though I know for a fact that I can get the stuff with the offending tabs and arcuates if I want. Because I see that as not just buying something, but investing in a brand that is doing something I appreciate.

I'm sure some stuff is cheaper. I'm sure that some stuff you just can't get anywhere else. I'm also sure that talking to the retailers, you can sometimes be surprised at what they will tack on to an order to make a customer happy with some odd item that they want. I've had retailers special-order all kinds of stuff for me, from books to import CDs to ridiculously expensive shoes, on nothing more than my verbal promise that I would come in and pay for it once it arrived.

I do appreciate the verbal punch in the throat, though. I'll consider that my "noob beat-in", and leave it at that.

In the meantime, I thought this was an internet forum for people to express opinions. So, until I get a memo otherwise I'll continue to do just that, on the rare occassions that a conversation comes up that I think I can actually contribute something to. I'm new here, and doing my best to stay quiet and learn. So far I've learned a lot about denim, and I'm grateful for this resource. I've also learned to steer clear of you, which i'll be sure to do in the future so as not to cause you any more undue consternation.

Thanks for the love.

S

[joshua]

As there's noone doing any buying service from Japan at the moment, I'm trying to buy a pair of Samurai S5000vx from 2nd through Rakuten.

I've managed to set up a Rakuten account and have added some stuff from 2nd to my shopping cart, but how do I tell them that I want the jeans hemmed. I think it cost a bit extra, but you can't add it anywhere.

Do you just buy the jeans and notice them that they should be hemmed, and then they will automatically withdraw the correct amount from your credit card?

Also can someone please tell me how to write in Japanese that I want them to be hemmed to an 31 inseam(in raw condition).

Thanks

[Oldboy]

After you place your order, you will get 2 e-mails: one from Rakuten with details of your order and another from 2nd to confirm the cost of shipping. You need to reply to 2nd and confirm the shipping cost (they don't ship out until you do) and in the same e-mail you can ask them to hem your jeans. Use google translator to write in Japanese.

[joshua]

Is it safe to use an online translator though.

For in stance it can't translate "inseam". I've thought of writing length instead, but is it possible they could misunderstand it for total length of the jeans and not inseam.

It would be a great help for people ordering from Japan themselves if a few common phrases could be translated to Japanese. Like:

"Can you please hem the jeans to an inseam of .... inch/cm?"

"Can you please ship the item as a gift and declare low value of ..... YEN?"

[joshua]

I guess there is no Japanese speaking people in the forums

[seafinch]

I just ordered some jeans from cpoint/rakuten. I got the confirmation email and obvioulsy don't understand a thing. I tried copying and pasting it into babel fish - nothing. Can i forward the email to anyone here just so they can make sure it looks ok.

Thanks

[ayn]

the confirmation email is just a confirmation email... if you get another email that is probably to get you to okay the extra shipping cost, and it should be in English...

[synthi]

For all who are asking, when referring to chainstitching, write it as 'hem lifting' and the translator should do an adequate job to get the correct message across.

[Sais]

direct for samurai is much cheaper

s5000bk would be about 200 shipped opposed to about 300 from BiG

but for some reason i dont mnd the extra 100 from BiG

baaaaaaaaaalllllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin

[tomenugen]

Could someone fluent in Japanese help me translate something? I can PM you, or vice versa.

Regards.

[joshua]

For those who have ordered a pair of Samurai S5000VX/BK(or other Samurais similarly price), how much have the total cost been shipped to your destination?

Please help.

[LeicaLad]

I ordered my pair of S5000BKs directly from Toshiko-san at Samurai.

Shipped to me (USA postal code), the total cost was US$242.43. This was charged on 20Feb. The exchange rate fluctuates, of course.

They are, of course, fantastic!

[PG2G]

Sounds like they (Samurai) have been pushing people to BiG recently.

[joshua]

But when ordering from Rakuten and 2nd they add 5 % to the item cost don't they, so it would be about the same price compared to ordering directly from Samurai.

Anyway, does anybody know if it is still possible to order the S5000VX from Samurai and if they will hem the jeans for you?

[keyko]

I am not sure if this service was discussed here already but it appears to be a good alternative to bid-services. Basically they provide a shipping hub in Japan and charge only the EMS shipping fees + very reasonable commission.

http://www.dankedanke.com/en/

[LeicaLad]

Anyway, does anybody know if it is still possible to order the S5000VX from Samurai and if they will hem the jeans for you?

Toshiko-san does not hem the jeans, as they've had problems with people unhappy with later shrinkage (even one-wash). Better to buy 'em intact, hot soak, then wear 'em cuffed until the next wash, and THEN think about hemming. OR, hot soak, hot dryer action, then hem. Or, never hem.

Toshiko DOES have the S5000VX, as I just got an email from her yesterday trying to entice me into buying a pair. I'm in love...

[horriblyjollyjinx]

so, to those who have ordered from 2nd, will they mark down the value and mark the package as a gift if asked to?

I will have to pay customs for sure if they don't.

[Denim Phenom]

I've ordered from 2nd twice. The first time I didn't pay customs fees but the second time I did. Not sure what the difference was. I'm not sure about marking down the price. You might just want to ask them that in an email.

I just got a pair of SO500XX from Samurai and I didn't have to pay customs fees.

I guess it all depends on their mood.

[horriblyjollyjinx]

I'm in Sweden so a marked value over $70 always means I have to pay customs. I don't live in a free country you see, that's why I need to have things marked down.

[edmond]

here in manila i only pay 35 pesos or .75 cents for watever duties... this is good for up to 500 us dollars worth... this is free country hahahha

[Chponglasia]

so, to those who have ordered from 2nd, will they mark down the value and mark the package as a gift if asked to?

I will have to pay customs for sure if they don't.

I've ordered from 2nd twice, and both times they marked it as a gift without me asking.

[joshua]

so, to those who have ordered from 2nd, will they mark down the value and mark the package as a gift if asked to?

I will have to pay customs for sure if they don't.

I have actually just ordered a pair of S5000vx from 2nd.

I originally planned to get them directly from Samurai, but they were out of stock there.

Fortunately I had the pleasure to talk to the lovely Toshiko, who translated some of the sentences I asked about earlier. Very, very nice of her to take her time to do that, so I will certainly order some other Samurai from her at some point.

What she translated for me was:

I would like to buy S5000VX from you.

私はS5000VX(サムライジーンズ）をあなたから購入したいです。

Would you send jeans as a gift and declare low value?(4000 Yen for instance)

梱包には、贈り物(gift)と記入してできるだけ安い金額を書いて送ってくれます

か？(4000 YEN)

Would you hem it to 31 inch with chainstitch?

チェーンステッチで31インチに裾上げしてから送ってくれますか？

In my reply to 2nd I just copied the 3 sentences in Japanese and sent it to them.

This was their reply:

上記の件了解いたしました。

裾上げの件は先ほどのメールの注意事項を必ずお読みください。

4000円の記入の件も了解いたしました。

どんな場合でもどんな理由でも自己責任になり、

当店では一切の責任を負いかねますのでご容赦下さい。

それでは作業が終了次第、発送させていただきます。

あとは御到着の方をお楽しみにお待ち下さい。

それではこれからもできる限りの努力をさせて頂きますので

今後とも2ND(セカンド)をよろしくお願いします。

失礼します。

Put it through a online translator and I guess they said they would declare a value of 4000 Yen and that they would hem the jeans. And a reminder that the jeans would shrink.

I just replied it was ok, and their final reply, I guess, was that they would ship the jeans.

いつもお世話になっております。2ND(セカンド)の井瀬です。

ご返信ありがとうございます！！

ご理解ありがとうございました。

それではご到着をお楽しみにお待ちください。

これからもできる限りの努力をさせて頂きますので

今後とも2ND(セカンド)をよろしくお願いします。

失礼します。

Hope it helps.