Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

[unders 5,635]

Looking back through the mists of time, my first post would have been sometime between 2002 - 2004. I remember I’d have been at the Uni library as I didn’t have a laptop and smartphones weren’t around. I think I was asking advice for a hat (which I didn’t buy). 

I didn’t post regularly until years later as I didn’t have the tech, and as BF says it was fucking savage around here. In them days you needed a decent camera and a PC or laptop. I was more interested in paying for beer and lodgings than getting abused online.

First JP purchase was a FH 7001 western shirt. I think I used the very same post that explained the Rakuten forms. Then closed my eyes, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. 

[Double 0 Soul 13,381]

I didn’t know anyone with tech back then, even Mark & Lard on Radio1 would laugh about being “On Liiiine” first laptop I had, I bought was from some smackheads who robbed it, one of them used to drive a car full of sex workers to Tesco, they would rush it and flee with arms full of booze which got sold around the nearby works. Last time I saw him he sold me a litre of Jamiesons (green bottle) which he’d previously drunk and filled up with water... see kids, crime doesn’t pay.. well it did for him 

[Broark 16,881]

8 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Do any of you remember your first sufu post? interested in all.. but more so those folks who go way back..

Haven't been here as long as some others but I lurked before eventually creating an account. People were pretty harsh back in the day so I was a little scared. 
I started over on StyleForum early on in college, eventually started reading about Momotaro and other brands which lead me over here.
I probably was posting about Rogue Territory and a lot of other stuff I don't care for now, my tastes have changed a lot (for the better).

Been thinking about my consumerism lately, I look back at what and how I was buying in the past and it was really careless at the time.
I should've been more selective and thoughtful, but I also don't regret any of the purchases as it's given me a lot of experience in this "hobby".
Now I try and plan out purchases and really think it over, whereas before I would just dive in impulsively.
Just focusing on enjoying what I already have instead of focusing on what I don't.

[Cold Summer 4,177]

I think I started posting sometime in late 2011 or maybe early 2012. I'd been into denim stuff for a year or two but mostly hung out at MyNudies as it felt like a less severe community than the Sufu of those days. 

I'm always down to jabber about my ridiculous denim hobby to anybody who will listen, I'm not particularly shy about it or worried about coming across as a fanatical nut, since the other party will inevitably get that vibe from me one way or another.

[Double 0 Soul 13,381]

^^I've enjoyed watching your style evolve over the years B, the move from modern cuts into vintage repro did wonders for your steeze 

[Double 0 Soul 13,381]

@beautiful_FrEaK has a nicely rounded denim collection.. i remember a time when a large % was Samurai.. I never saw the appeal myself, there was always a lot of Samurai chat around the forum from folks who's opinions i have a lot of respect for so obviously i'm the one who's missing something but why does nobody chat about them anymore?

[Broark 16,881]

17 minutes ago, Double 0 Soul said:

the move from modern cuts into vintage repro did wonders for your steeze 

And I think buying stuff that's actually cut to suit my frame / body type has helped out massively as well. 
I remember buying slim / tapered stuff because I thought it was the cool thing to do...lo and behold they never fit me well to begin with!

[FurnitureMaker 222]

8 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

 

How did ya'll acquire your first Japanese denim purchases?

In the late 90’s, I was a roadie for the Japanese rock band Guitar Wolf. They had become friends of mine from past tours of the U.S. and when they needed someone to lug their gear from the van to the stage and back, I jumped at the chance to hit the road with them. 
 

We all loved vintage clothing and would stop at every thrift store we happened across while driving from city to city.  I wore nothing but vintage tops, but I was not hip to selvedge denim.  Over the years that I had known them I had noticed that their jeans looked so much cooler than mine. But I didn’t know why. 
 

Anyways, at a dinky little store on the Washington coastline, Billy (Basswolf) came up to me with a pair of ‘Big E XX Redlines’ he found and told me to try them on. They fit and luckily I had barely enough cash to buy them for $5.25. At the time I didn’t realize how generous he had been by giving me the opportunity to purchase them. As it turns out, I was a quick study under their tutelage and  before I knew it I was headfirst down the slippery slope. They were true enablers as we called one of their friends who was about to leave Japan to come see Guitar Wolf play in San Francisco. 
 

All this to tell the story of the meaningful  memory of how I had my first pair of mij Levi’s proxied and hand delivered to me in the middle of a national tour. If I remember correctly, the pair of 503b were paid for with an advance of my tour salary. Over the next few years,  Billy would have me send him a pair of Red Wing engineer boots and he would send a new pair of jeans.  
 

A few years later Dry Bones made Guitar Wolf a signature pair of jeans and I was lucky to get a couple of pairs proxied from them.  All this time later, their friendship and denim stewardship are some of my favorite memories. 
 

 

[Duke Mantee 14,792]

12 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Do any of you remember your first sufu post? interested in all.. but more so those folks who go way back..

Mine is just a couple of years ago because you coerced me into ‘energising’ the FW thread

[Double 0 Soul 13,381]

Yeah, I remember.. what happened with that?

[Josh'N'Roll 163]

37 minutes ago, FurnitureMaker said:

In the late 90’s, I was a roadie for the Japanese rock band Guitar Wolf. They had become friends of mine from past tours of the U.S. and when they needed someone to lug their gear from the van to the stage and back, I jumped at the chance to hit the road with them. 
 

We all loved vintage clothing and would stop at every thrift store we happened across while driving from city to city.  I wore nothing but vintage tops, but I was not hip to selvedge denim.  Over the years that I had known them I had noticed that their jeans looked so much cooler than mine. But I didn’t know why. 
 

Anyways, at a dinky little store on the Washington coastline, Billy (Basswolf) came up to me with a pair of ‘Big E XX Redlines’ he found and told me to try them on. They fit and luckily I had barely enough cash to buy them for $5.25. At the time I didn’t realize how generous he had been by giving me the opportunity to purchase them. As it turns out, I was a quick study under their tutelage and  before I knew it I was headfirst down the slippery slope. They were true enablers as we called one of their friends who was about to leave Japan to come see Guitar Wolf play in San Francisco. 
 

All this to tell the story of the meaningful  memory of how I had my first pair of mij Levi’s proxied and hand delivered to me in the middle of a national tour. If I remember correctly, the pair of 503b were paid for with an advance of my tour salary. Over the next few years,  Billy would have me send him a pair of Red Wing engineer boots and he would send a new pair of jeans.  
 

A few years later Dry Bones made Guitar Wolf a signature pair of jeans and I was lucky to get a couple of pairs proxied from them.  All this time later, their friendship and denim stewardship are some of my favorite memories. 
 

 

In a perfect world this post would win the day. Thank you for sharing. Such a cool story. Legendary band. RIP Bass Wolf.

[Duke Mantee 14,792]

Page 19, now page 96 … I’m taking a breather

[fre-co 895,065]

I joined in 2007 and posted about seeking out and buying samurai jeans in Tokyo after seeing the original contest thread evolving. I didn’t even get flamed…. 

ive been wearing Japanese repro denim since about 1998 when I got my first pair of Evisu in Tokyo but sufu introduced many new things to me. 

[youngofthesoonest 4,490]

12 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

How did ya'll acquire your first Japanese denim purchases?

I bought 3sixteen t-shirts from Johan who I had met through my girlfriend in college and when they made their first run of jeans, I bought a few pairs. Through that, I discovered self edge, met kiya, ginno, Craig and eugene at Self Edge SF and ended up hanging out there way too much and spent way too much money. I'm pretty sure my first pair of Japanese made jeans were iron hearts and from there discovered that I preferred more midweight jeans and then got a pair of the self edge flat head rjb SExRJBxFH jeans which is still one of my favorite jeans. I sold most of my older jeans but kept that pair around for memories. 

14 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Do any of you remember your first sufu post? interested in all.. but more so those folks who go way back..

I had a lurker account prior to this one.. @KID KIORA back in 2008

Prior to this i briefly had another account linked to my long defunct hotmail address, i'll try and track it down, i was still using it when i swapped a Buzz CPO with @Foxy2 many years ago.. Kaj, if you've still got my old hotmail in your addresses can you pm it please?

..anywho, my first post as @Double 0 Soul was in the boots thread.. my old Lone Wolf Mechanic's, I think they were the second thing i bought from JP, i've still got them, they must be 20yrs old by now..

I discovered Sufu I first bought a pair of raw denim jeans at a store in SF on haight st. I cant remember the name of the brand nor the store now...memory is so shitty nowadays. this was back in 2006 I think. I didnt post much and just visited it once in a while because it was an intimidating forum to jump in at the time. I cant remember what my username was at the time but when I got back on in 2013, I couldn't get my old login to work so I created a new one. No clue what my first post was...probably a stupid question about indigo bleed. 

[Cold Summer 4,177]

9 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

@beautiful_FrEaK has a nicely rounded denim collection.. i remember a time when a large % was Samurai.. I never saw the appeal myself, there was always a lot of Samurai chat around the forum from folks who's opinions i have a lot of respect for so obviously i'm the one who's missing something but why does nobody chat about them anymore?

Samurai's target market outside Japan has completely shifted as a result of retailers like Denimio and Okayama Denim presenting the brand quite differently from Blue In Green. Initially Samurai was one of the bolder/more adventurous brands that was pushing the limits (at the time) of what denim could do, but still somewhat grounded in vintage-inspired designs. Now they're one of the brands constantly doing weird stuff in response to the demand of those retailers/Instagram/Reddit. Very different from when Blue In Green was pretty much how you got them outside Japan - they presented the brand a lot better. 

I don't care for the "new" Samurai stuff but still quite like their classic models - I'm wearing a S3000vx for Indigo Invitational and really love the cut, denim, details (I need to get around to snapping some pics, been real lazy lately.) They don't feel too over the top and are an interesting blend of vintage inspiration and innovation. The S0510xx, S710xx, S3000vx, S5000vx are still (in my mind) iconic models and easy for me to recommend. 

[Double 0 Soul 13,381]

I remember BiG carrying them.. i also remember Gordon damaging his hand having spent all day chainstitching hems, was that for the Samurai contest here? i can't quite remember, there was a TV interview when he had his swollen hand bandaged up and his wedding ring in his coin pocket

 

[beautiful_FrEaK 1,675,580]

12 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

@beautiful_FrEaK has a nicely rounded denim collection

it's less round these days. It's rather straight but still enough to keep me warm until the end of my life

I think @Cold Summer summed it up nicely about Samurai. They were always more flashy than the other brands but I think from 2013 onwards the models intersted me less and less. A new release every week, with white or red contrast stitching, tripple stitched arcs, a red tab at every pocket (I might exaggerate a bit...)...

True, I love(d) the standard models and the S0500XX with the classic arcs were long in my possesion and one of my favourites. But I came to realize heavy and too slubby denim is not my cup of tea (anymore) and I just prefer the normal weight denim and thus all heavy jeans had to go.

 

That said the S0500XX contest and the Evisu World Tour are milestones.

Seeing a pair of Evisu like this still makes me smile and I wanna have a pair

[Maynard Friedman 570,720]

31 minutes ago, Double 0 Soul said:

I remember BiG carrying them.. i also remember Gordon damaging his hand having spent all day chainstitching hems, was that for the Samurai contest here? i can't quite remember, there was a TV interview when he had his swollen hand bandaged up and his wedding ring in his coin pocket

 

Warehouse 660 contest I think but I might be wrong.

[youngofthesoonest 4,490]

38 minutes ago, Double 0 Soul said:

I remember BiG carrying them.. i also remember Gordon damaging his hand having spent all day chainstitching hems, was that for the Samurai contest here? i can't quite remember, there was a TV interview when he had his swollen hand bandaged up and his wedding ring in his coin pocket

 

Hemming heavy, unwashed, rigid jeans all day is a pretty painful experience but needing to bandage your hand must have been next level bad...maybe his technique was a tad aggressive lol. The worst days were going through the jean piles that needed to be hemmed that day and finding 20+ pairs of FH 3202, Iron Heart UHR, and whatever other heavy ass jeans that got released. Those were def moments I remembered to wear safety goggles 

[youngofthesoonest 4,490]

32 minutes ago, beautiful_FrEaK said:

Seeing a pair of Evisu like this still makes me smile and I wanna have a pair

 

agreed! I'd love to have a pair but they'd also be filed in the category of clothes I like but never really wear. 

Edited April 26, 2022 by youngofthesoonest

[Double 0 Soul 13,381]

20 minutes ago, youngofthesoonest said:

Hemming heavy, unwashed, rigid jeans all day is a pretty painful experience but needing to bandage your hand must have been next level bad...maybe his technique was a tad aggressive lol.

It was pretty bad, it was months before he could get his wedding ring back on his finger or operate the chainstitcher, he had a coin pocket ring fade

[Geeman 3,737]

I  knew @Maynard Friedman (nearly) posting a fit pic in the WYJADT thread was just the start . 

Copped him in his latest fit out and about today.

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Geeman

[goodrain 1,403]

bruh there needs to be a warning for this type of shit

now i gotta work hard to get that image out of my head

[Maynard Friedman 570,720]

I just popped out for a cheeky snack.

[Geeman 3,737]

Where to cop?

[Double 0 Soul 13,381]

20 minutes ago, Geeman said:

Where to cop?

Grindr..

[Maynard Friedman 570,720]

As you can see, I had to cut the arse out of my vintage Levi’s to make a mask! I call it my marsk.

[ColonelAngus 427]

Are there any denim brands you guys dislike, for whatever reason? Could be aesthetics, business model, etc. Not asking so we can collectively bash anyone in particular. 

[beautiful_FrEaK 1,675,580]

This is the perfect question for some hate
Didn't we have thread some years ago "Brands I despite"? Brought some heat.

I'll play.

I wouldn't say dislike but brands I actually don't care for:
Naked&Famous, Tanuki, Oni and still Iron Heart.

Edited May 6, 2022 by beautiful_FrEaK

[Double 0 Soul 13,381]

7 minutes ago, beautiful_FrEaK said:

I'll play.

I wouldn't say dislike but brands I actually don't care for:

You're too pleasant and mild-mannered for this game Tilmann!

I don't hate those brands either, i would never consider wearing/looking at them so i don't think about them any differently to the 1000's of other (meh) brands out there..

Brands have to irritate me in some way to cause hatered so RMC & CSF f'sure and to a lesser extent FC..

I could also add Levi's into the mix but it's not really hate i feel.. it's more like pity..

Let's get @goodrain in on the action.. i've got a feeling he's got some spare hate he could share with us