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Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.


cmboland

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Never knew there were so many levis jeans models nowadays (and why would l ?)

The only 'sits AT waist' model with no taper is the 501, if you discount the 517 as that is 'slim fit/boot cut. There's not even a zipper fly version of the 501 any more as 505 'sits below waist'. 

 

 

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Here's my nonsense thought for the day - from my (long ago) studies in advertising. 

Some of the really nice makers out there really cheapen their brand by reposting instagram stories with from some of these goofy influencers (who confuse themselves with runway models in the way they're posing). Maybe it's just me, and I know it's not rational (but advertising doesn't appeal to rationality).  

Less is more. 

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45 minutes ago, AlientoyWorkmachine said:

Here's my nonsense thought for the day - from my (long ago) studies in advertising. 

Some of the really nice makers out there really cheapen their brand by reposting instagram stories with from some of these goofy influencers (who confuse themselves with runway models in the way they're posing). Maybe it's just me, and I know it's not rational (but advertising doesn't appeal to rationality).  

Less is more. 

Nailed it.

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Ooe Yofukuten seems like a prime example. I was honestly a lot more interested in them before I started following their Instagram and saw the sort of folks that make up their stories. It feels stupid to admit, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(For whatever it’s worth, the cossack and the sachel that I have from them are still two of my absolute favorite items)

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12 minutes ago, julian-wolf said:

Ooe Yofukuten seems like a prime example. I was honestly a lot more interested in them before I started following their Instagram and saw the sort of folks that make up their stories. It feels stupid to admit, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(For whatever it’s worth, the cossack and the sachel that I have from them are still two of my absolute favorite items)

Didn't want to mention the brand, but I thought the same thing.

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Yea - they are definitely one of them. I had deleted IG for awhile and got back on and it just got reminded of this silliness, just reacting to it. I still have a pair I'm looking forward to wearing, but just because someone tags you in their cosplay ensemble doesn't mean you need to repost it.

So many of these makers are inaccessible in person for most of us, and so their online presence is all we have to go off at first - which is admittedly a poor substitute for getting a sense of the actual pieces. 

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3 hours ago, julian-wolf said:

Ooe Yofukuten seems like a prime example.

Amen, I've kind of lost interest in their products because of this to a certain extent. Especially the influencer crap.
This combined with perceived hype / limited availability makes me look elsewhere.

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On the one hand, I sort of get it - because IG becomes the source of business for a lot of artisans now (a different problem) - but on the other hand, there are different ways to go about it. Some brands do it just fine - focus on their work, news, interesting bits from the studio etc. I kind of like that stuff. It's one reason I like Tender's newsletter - focusing on the craft and the work - the thing that's interesting about all of it.

I'll be honest though - the thing that triggered my post was actually a different maker, though Ooe is maybe an even better example. I don't think I would have picked up Ooe jeans if they hadn't almost fallen into my lap, so to speak, but I am happy to have them - I liked when they posted stories of all their travels in the US researching textiles, for example. 

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^ There is also this @Duke Mantee guy... ;)

 

On another topic:

Grailed is (now?!) so nice to collect the VAT on your bought items which you would have to pay when importing to your country (EU in this case).
So in this case you would pre-pay the taxes. Grailed would then pay the taxes to the specific government of your country. So far so good (?).
But, like in my example, they delegate the responsibility to fill out the customs form corretly on some random dude you bought from (in my case an Indonesian seller): how the hell should he know how to do this? Et voila, when my item arrived I had to pay the taxes as well.

I somehow expected this.

I complained about the whole situation and to my big surprise, Grailed reimbursed me my costs (not only the taxes but also the DHL handling fee).

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I had sold a shirt on grailed a month ago for $90.
I received from paypal $76. They took $14 for I don't know what, an effective fee of 15,6%.

It was a sale within the EU. From Germany to the Netherlands. So there shouldn't be any customs or tax collections.

 

Edited by indigoeagle
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20 hours ago, AlientoyWorkmachine said:

On the one hand, I sort of get it - because IG becomes the source of business for a lot of artisans now (a different problem) - but on the other hand, there are different ways to go about it.

I think this is sort of the core of it. Keeping with the example of Ooe: Look how quickly they sell out at S&S: Clearly they don’t need to be concerned with continuing to build their image as viewed / interpreted by Western audiences. Meanwhile, getting a pair from Barnstormers is still generally no problem, at least in terms of stock—maybe they know that they have more to gain from appealing to a broader domestic audience, and maybe they have genuine reason to believe that a story full of [mostly white] “influencers” is a good way to make that happen. I can’t claim to have any sort of a good read on what motivates Japanese consumers, but it doesn’t seem out of the question that this would be a more successful / productive brand building technique there than we’re giving it credit for

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For many Japanese manufacturers the domestic market is already quite sufficient.
When I was in Japan many years ago, a Japanese friend had told me that.
We can see, how quickly Freewheelers or Warehouse items are sold out. The CSF fan festival with big queues of people, all wearing jeans and jeans jackets shows similarly, how sought after these brands are.
Also brands like Cushman, Jelado and others are not that widely available outside Japan.
I think, the international market is nice additional revenue, but not of large importance. But it might have changed in recent years.

I can imagine, that it's a difficult decision.
With many businesses.
Do I want to expand? Internationally? New product categories? Not only raw denim, but distressed/washed denim?
It can pay off, but it can also causes organizational challenges or alienate the original customer segment.

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4 hours ago, indigoeagle said:

For many Japanese manufacturers the domestic market is already quite sufficient.
When I was in Japan many years ago, a Japanese friend had told me that.
We can see, how quickly Freewheelers or Warehouse items are sold out. The CSF fan festival with big queues of people, all wearing jeans and jeans jackets shows similarly, how sought after these brands are.
Also brands like Cushman, Jelado and others are not that widely available outside Japan.
I think, the international market is nice additional revenue, but not of large importance. But it might have changed in recent years.

I can imagine, that it's a difficult decision.
With many businesses.
Do I want to expand? Internationally? New product categories? Not only raw denim, but distressed/washed denim?
It can pay off, but it can also causes organizational challenges or alienate the original customer segment.

I think Covid really hurt some of these companies, especially those without large international reach. I’d argue that a lot of these companies would have gone under without their international customers 

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I flicked the TV on last night and there was a docu on BBC2 called 'Fight The Power, How Hip-Hop Changed The World' .. i thought this might be good so i put it on and they was talking about Obama's links with Hip-Hop (ikr?) .. then it cut to Ice-T sitting in industrial unit and he said and i quote "and that's when Obama became the first Hip-Hop president" .:rolleyes:

Nope! switched that off.. wtf Ice-T, you used to be cool

..in 1988

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