Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

[Cold Summer]

Because "AI" is utopian marketing fluff for large language modeling and (thankfully) not an actual artificial intelligence, and I have a very low opinion of the whole thing in general.

After I wrote that post, it occurred to me that someone might also respond that such an idea isn't new and 20 years ago you could photoshop your fades to cheat at a denim competition/general clout for posting pictures online, which is quite true, but the difficulty of doing this (especially convincingly) is a lot higher than telling ChatGPT to Enhance The Fades.

Actually now I'm wondering if there have been any documented cases of somebody being found out for faking/photoshopping fades, whether for a contest or anything else. I can't remember hearing of that happening, but perhaps I missed it.

[julian-wolf]

I think the use of “filters” (in the modern, Instagrammy sense) to enhance fades has been prevalent in contexts like the Indigo Invitational for a slew of years now, and that takes a lot less effort than something like Photoshop 

[ATWM]

Contrast enhancement looks to be quite common last time I checked - which admittedly was some years ago. 
 

As for Ai being all marketing fluff, agree there’s a hype machine reminiscent of the crypto/NFT boom. It’s gross.

but LLMs are also rapidly changing many things in a lot of fields. To personalize it, if AI helps in leading to more specialized and targeted treatments that can eliminate the rest of my son’s brain tumor - which is possible - I will absolutely sing its praises. It was already modern tech development that played a large role in why he’s still alive today. Or if it leads to something similar for someone else, same thing. And it very well may. 

AI generative imagery is also based on the theft of artists from everywhere is rapidly leading to an internet full of even shittier (and nonsensical) ads while killing many parts of the photography industry, where I started my career and still participate some.
 

So my feelings are complicated but if I had to choose I’d take advances in healthcare which are real and which techno detractors have not yet answered to in a satisfactory way. 

For an anti Kingsnorthian sort of take I think it’s worth a read. Personally sort of fall in between this writer who is too high on it and Kingsnorth who writes with the same sort of comprehensive blinders he had when he was an environmental writer. Though I’m still a fan. 
 https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-peculiar-persistence-of-the-ai

 

[JDelage]

On 7/31/2025 at 6:36 AM, nick682 said:

The de minimis exemption is now ending next month for the US. Get your jeans ordered from Japan before August 29th

Ah, thank you. I was just wondering about that.

[buler]

File this under reflections. Home recovering from surgery and I realize how often we take for granted how nice it is to just be "normal". I would love to be able to just normally go to the bathroom, shower, or put on a pair of jeans right now. I will try to remember this when I return to normal.

[MJF9]

@buler hope your recovery passes smoothly matey! 

[buler]

Thanks @MJF9! Hope to be added to the list of cancer survivors.

 

I guess I'll make this a PSA (public service announcement) on the PSA (prostrate specific antigen). All men should know (eventually) about their PSA level. It is a possible indicator of prostate cancer. If your general physician doesn't do an annual test for this in your blood labs, have them add it. While it's not a 100% fool proof test, if it is rising (hence the annual check to keep tabs) and you also have other symptoms (which can be very vague) then an MRI may be warranted. My story is no drug use, no smoking, low alcohol use and only one person with cancer in my family background. But the symptoms can be very little things that add up over time and you may pass them off as "I'm getting older". Pay attention to your urinary function and your sexual function and give all details (even minor) to your doctor. It can add up to an aggressive tumor in your prostrate, which can also spread cancer to other regions (luckily, mine did not).

I'm just putting this out there because it may help even one of you catch things early!!  Stay healthy and listen to your body.

 

Cheers

Edited August 10 by buler

[ATWM]

@buler good post. A family member of mine (sounds like) just had a similar surgery last month. They are doing fine right now, but the first week or two seemed like it sucked. Thankfully the prognosis is good, but in part because of checking their PSA as you note. Hope your recovery is quick and smooth and indeed, things being normal is a sort of amazing that’s easy to overlook. 

[MJF9]

@buler thanks for sharing and the advice.  Shocking how these things just come out of nowhere.  I’d never heard of tracking the trend on the PSA score – appreciate the tip.

A mate of a mate, who I know, recently had prostrate C.  He had zero symptoms.  He did a test (PSA and the dreaded rubber glove) because his brother came down with it so he got worried.  He also caught it early, had the treatment and is in recovery.

Best wishes – looking forward to your next ‘normal’ WAYWT in due course!

Edited August 10 by MJF9

[Maynard Friedman]

Hi @buler, sorry to hear about your diagnosis but it sounds like the medical intervention went well. Here’s to a thorough recovery and I hope the next time you mention PSA, it’s in this context

[buler]

@atwm, thanks! Glad your family member is doing fine. Yes, the initial recovery sucks, mainly due to the catheter. If you've never had one, count yourself lucky. I also had a hernia that was fixed (got a buy one get one free), so my recovery is a little more painful and restrictions are longer.

@MJF9, yep the dreaded rubber glove test. Which has been skipped at some of my annual physicals. My advice don't skip it! Ask for it if they aren't going to do it. They did detect a "nodule" during mine which was a cancerous tumor (found by followup MRIs). My doctor recommended the PSA check starting at age 55 or so for me. I had just switched to him. It increased each year (big warning sign). I think everyone should include it in their bloodwork, along with other things that can be tested (google all of the blood tests that can be done). Typically, at least in my area, that annual physical covers a "general" battery of tests on your blood. Including your PSA and testosterone level should be added at the least. If you baseline those now and test each year, it can help as an indicator of health changes.

@Maynard Friedman thanks! Because my cancer didn't spread beyond the tumor, I have a great chance of being cancer free going forward. I'll have to order up some Studio D's from PSA for a WAYWT, 

[mlwdp]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/european-postal-services-suspend-shipment-123630002.html

[CSL]

^^^Last week I put in orders for 'big want' items from Europe and Japan, hoping to get them before the tariffs kick in. One item arrived already. Hoping the rest are well on the way and ahead of this suspension.

I'm not overly put off at the prospect of a 10-15% tariff which I think applies to much of Europe and Japan.

Not sure how the Chinese brands will fare. There appear to be a couple of layers of tariffs for that country.
 

 

Edited Sunday at 05:29 AM by CSL

[Cold Summer]

I've been thinking some about the subject of Instagram's place in driving the denim hobby, for lack of a better term. Back in The Day of the mid-2000s-mid-2010s, SuFu and similar forums were the center of denim nerd community outside Japan, plus Reddit and some blogs like Indigo Shrimp, Raw Denim/Heddels, and Denimhunters. But by the mid-2010s things had shifted dramatically toward Instagram. There was a big rise in the "relaxed tapered" fits, lots of guys wearing those jeans with really long flannels and Red Wing Iron Rangers or moc toe boots, Snake Oil Provisions being a big tastemaker, those stupid "cuff check" posts, and all that. But this was reflected much more on IG than SuFu.

I initially started doing Instagram in about 2015 or so and posted on it through about 2017, deleted my account for a bit, and started another one that's been around since about August 2018. When I go back to old posts from early on, I'd get easily 100+ likes, and tons of comments on everything I posted. But in the last two years or so, when I've had periods where I'm much more active with regularly posting fit pics and stuff, the level of engagement is far lower. I have a pretty good follower count of over 800, but little interaction on my posts. I don't follow a ton of people and like/interact with a pretty small number of posts on there, so it's possible the algorithm is just punishing me for being insufficiently enslaved to their platform.

Now I don't really care much about IG as a popularity contest, it doesn't really matter to me whether I get a million likes or ten, to me it's just another platform for sharing something about a hobby of mine and I don't derive much satisfaction in particular from it. But I am starting to wonder: does this suggest that Instagram, as a center of raw denim/Amekaji/vintage Americana style/etc., is in decline or dying? Has it moved somewhere else? It sure doesn't seem like raw denim is dying, there's plenty of interest and arguably more awareness than ever when you've got guys like primarily-automotive YouTube guy James Pumphrey making pretty good videos about the history of jeans and at least one decent store in most major American cities now. 

My gut feeling is that raw denim has been "de-nerdified," more people than ever are aware of it and have some level of interest in it, but a smaller percentage of those guys are hardcore fans of the sort who would post on a forum like SuFu. I could certainly be wrong about that, though. I also suspect there's some Big Tech fatigue involved in all this, as a lot of people are tired of social media and dropping out. Or maybe they've all just migrated to TikTok or something. I've never used TikTok and never will, so this is a total blind spot to me. 

 

[Broark]

I think one of the biggest challenges facing niche communities like ours is the dwindling attention span of the overall populace. Especially when something like a pair of jeans can take months on end of commitment to get any sort of real "accomplishment" from. Instant gratification and dopamine hits from short form media are things that are already having a big impact on society and I'm personally concerned it'll only get worse. I just saw another headline recently that said reading for enjoyment is down 40% compared to ~20 years ago. I'm not sure if this is necessarily directly applicable to your point, but it's been on my mind lately.

I recently saw a clip from NPR from a few years back talking about screen time for children and the difference between good and bad screen time. Essentially breaking down why we've never seen this sort of societal disconnect that some of the younger generations are exhibiting. And the psychologist talking said a big part of it has to do with the instant dopamine hits that kids get out of short form content, they're trained at a young age to continuously consume and seek those short term fixes. He went on to say that "good" screen time is watching something together (either with family or friends) that has a clearly defined time limit and story or meaning where you learn details about the characters and plot (even if they're menial). I've been trying to find the clip to share but no luck so far.

[Cold Summer]

Those are all great points. Makes me wonder if part of the issue is that, in general, most active users have migrated to other platforms like TikTok and Instagram is itself somewhat passe. For that matter, I'm surprised by how much YouTube content there is related to the denim hobby, at this point - ten years ago I contemplated the idea of starting a denim-based YouTube channel, but I figured it would never go anywhere. Turns out I might've been wrong on that account.

[chicote]

A lot of the lower engagement is due to how Instagram structures their algorithm; I don’t remember the figures but I read a piece last year about how, for the average poster, an infinitesimally small fraction of your followers are actually shown any of your new posts on their news feed. That number goes up a bit if you’re posting a ‘reel’ (basically at that point you’re on TikTok though) but either way you still have astonishingly low—like, single digit low—natural reach for any new post. So I guess I’d argue that, unless you’re shilling sponsored content or just re-posting your made-for-tiktok viral videos, instagram kind of made itself obsolete. If the goal was to share photos and writing about your life or hobby with a group of say 100 friends you’d be better off writing them all postcards, at least they’d probably get read!

Edited 20 hours ago by chicote

[ATWM]

2 hours ago, Cold Summer said:

I have a pretty good follower count of over 800, but little interaction on my posts. I don't follow a ton of people and like/interact with a pretty small number of posts on there, so it's possible the algorithm is just punishing me for being insufficiently enslaved to their platform.

As an aside from your other points, this is the answer. 

I deleted my account about 3k followers a good while ago (photo, not denim). As a photographer I work slowly on more long form and often conceptual projects - I work a way that is anathema to the sort of constant posting IG would want. I never was one for showing anything but my actual work and IG wants you to put your whole (best, curated, bullshit) life on blast.

Back in 2012/2013 I actually was decent enough at social media, had a pretty good Tumblr presence, had a fairly active early IG account and derived a good bit of work, visibility and even publications and opportunities to show work in gallery from them. But I posted a lot, a lot I wouldn’t want to now, and my inner critic was far less developed. It was also a different time before everything had been so pushed towards monetization (of course all the founders knew that was coming, they just needed the participants first). A lot of my colleagues in industry thought I was nuts for deleting IG but man, my life is so much better without it, and my personal connections that I have derived work from haven’t cared a bit. Long term, it’s not a great marketing strategy but a lot of years of very specific living and planning have allowed me to do that. 

I know this isn’t about denim here, but this forum is good because you get dialogue, information, opinions, ancillary discussions (like this). All I ever saw on denim IG (and I never looked hard, so I’m sure I missed stuff) was purely based around consumption and posing. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not above that. But it’s not what really holds my interest the most.

Anyways, yes, if you’re not spending active time on their platforms and engaging, they are punishing you. And also, excuse me, but fuck meta. 

My primarily “online” engagement these days consists of forums - this one and a photography one, group text threads with friends, voice calls, and I write an occasional letter from my website that I have a few hundred people with me on - which occasionally leads to some really nice and personal email exchanges. Way less volume than social media but feels more right, for whatever it’s worth. 

Edited 20 hours ago by ATWM

[ATWM]

26 minutes ago, Cold Summer said:

Those are all great points. Makes me wonder if part of the issue is that, in general, most active users have migrated to other platforms like TikTok and Instagram is itself somewhat passe. For that matter, I'm surprised by how much YouTube content there is related to the denim hobby, at this point - ten years ago I contemplated the idea of starting a denim-based YouTube channel, but I figured it would never go anywhere. Turns out I might've been wrong on that account.

Anything can work on YouTube - it’s just as much about the person and the approach as the subject matter itself. The world is full of people doing the same thing but a more charismatic denim dude, or whatever, can still get traction. The question is, to what end? If you want to monetize it, it will make you a slave of online strategy. A lot of the lives of the people who do this stuff honestly make anonymous middle management jobs look like a nice way to go. 

[Cold Summer]

5 hours ago, ATWM said:

Anything can work on YouTube - it’s just as much about the person and the approach as the subject matter itself. The world is full of people doing the same thing but a more charismatic denim dude, or whatever, can still get traction. The question is, to what end? If you want to monetize it, it will make you a slave of online strategy. A lot of the lives of the people who do this stuff honestly make anonymous middle management jobs look like a nice way to go. 

Exactly. Now it's my wife who's always telling me I should do Denim YouTube because I'd be good at it, but the last thing I'd ever do is jump through hoops trying to make money off of it. I have a stable job that pays the bills and all that, so I just view the whole denim thing as a hobby that I share with other people because I enjoy it. It frustrates me that YouTube people I like, even, often seem to admit that they feel like the algorithm pushes them this way or that, and they don't feel like they have the freedom to do what they really want because those videos don't get views.