Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

[Double 0 Soul]

Looking to the future.. i think we need 2 internets.. this www. piece of shit which has been completely ruined by algorithms and capitalism and a second internet, entirly free from advertising where we can all chat and share our interests.. funded by fines imposed on big tech under the digital marketings act?

[indigoeagle]

I'm surprised, that there are no new search alternative coming up.
To me the nature of the search results has changed tremendously in the last five or so years.
Also often it says "millons" of results, but I cannot go further than page 7 or so. Ten years ago or so I would often deliberately jump to the results on page 15.
Same with youtube. You only get ten results pertinent to your query and then some others.
Plus many videos, that one could find ten years ago, won't show up anymore.

[Double 0 Soul]

7 minutes ago, indigoeagle said:

To me the nature of the search results has changed tremendously in the last five or so years.

Same with youtube. You only get ten results pertinent to your query and then some others.
Plus many videos, that one could find ten years ago, won't show up anymore.

100%

YT is completely unusable .. you can't even have the 'history' turned on.. if you accidentally watch something your YT feed is completely fucked.. for instance, around a year ago, i watched 5mins of an American couple doing a walking tour around Sheffield neighbourhoods, they tried the local delicacies, visited the Peak District and so on..

Then everytime i turned on YT (which was usually to post some music here) there was folks (usually fat, bald and white) walking around Sheffield neighbourhoods.. always the most deprived and poverty stricken, the streets covered in rubish, emphasizing that these used to be proud working class neighbourhoods, but now they're just full of immigrants.. with strong implications that the rubish and deprivation was cultural.. i had to trace my actions back to figure out what i'd done to deserve this xenophobic discourse.. 

Oh that's right!? i watched some Americans eating fish, chips & peas..

[ATWM]

^ I mean in YT’s defense no one ever came out for the better having watched ‘Merican tourists go dining on local fare. I mean what sort of free time do you have!?  

In seriousness though, this is the last internet community I’m a part of - other than a bunch group text messages with people in my outside of computers real life - probably why I comment so damn much these days. I’ve deleted everything else and it was an adjustment at first but I’d do it 10 out of 10 times. It’s becoming more and more of a wasteland, the early internet is essentially gone to my mind, so I try to just move on when I’ve got the presence of mind to do so.

[Double 0 Soul]

This'll make you laugh @ATWM .. a English friend of mine has been living in Killarney for the last 10yrs, he lives in a converted outbuilding on a remote farm in the middle of their National park and works as a mountain leader, guide ect.. most of the folks he takes out are American tourists visiting Ireland.. one Saturday i called him at 1pm.. the phone rang for ages until he eventually picked up "hellloooo" i said, shit man, you sound like you've just woken up?.. "yep you've just got me out of bed" .. i said, what the hell, it's 1pm and i know you have no social life..

Turns out he had a booking to take an American couple kayaking on one of the lakes.. he asked if they'd done it before and they said "yes when we were a bit slimmer".. they were both 300lbs+ it took him a while to even get them in the kayaks.. 500m out she capsized, her huband tried to help her get back in the kayak and he capsized too so my friend told them both to just float on their lifejackets, he towed both their kayaks to shore.. then swam back out and swam in pulling the women.. then swam out again to rescue the man.. got home exhausted and went straight back to bed

[Geeman]

8 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

You can get something similar from Age UK.. £23.99

Bangers 🔥

[Geeman]

4 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

A bit after my time.. it was Limewire for me, followed by Pirate Bay, both great and equally terrible. 

My ex wife used to get me to download music for her via limewire and burn to cd etc  I used to randomly add  stuff like Sioux tribal chanting or obscure pan pipe music to the playlists to wind her up. 

My 2 eldest kids, now adults, still laugh about how much it wound her up when it came on half way through a 90s R&B playlist! 

[ATWM]

1 hour ago, Double 0 Soul said:

This'll make you laugh @ATWM .. a English friend of mine has been living in Killarney for the last 10yrs, he lives in a converted outbuilding on a remote farm in the middle of their National park and works as a mountain leader, guide ect.. most of the folks he takes out are American tourists visiting Ireland.. one Saturday i called him at 1pm.. the phone rang for ages until he eventually picked up "hellloooo" i said, shit man, you sound like you've just woken up?.. "yep you've just got me out of bed" .. i said, what the hell, it's 1pm and i know you have no social life..

Turns out he had a booking to take an American couple kayaking on one of the lakes.. he asked if they'd done it before and they said "yes when we were a bit slimmer".. they were both 300lbs+ it took him a while to even get them in the kayaks.. 500m out she capsized, her huband tried to help her get back in the kayak and he capsized too so my friend told them both to just float on their lifejackets, he towed both their kayaks to shore.. then swam back out and swam in pulling the women.. then swam out again to rescue the man.. got home exhausted and went straight back to bed

Knowing your current limits compared to your past ones is one of the hardest things to do as you grow…older. 

[tg76]

When I was younger (and slimmer) I too liked Kayaking, mentioned this as part of a conversation to my partner when we were first dating. Next thing he's gone and bought plans for kayaks and a whole lot of fancy marine ply, we spent the next 9 months building kayaks.

Have to say it was a great test of the relationship, seeing how each other dealt with problem solving, following instructions, communicating etc. 

It was when the ROY comp was on so there were loads of pics of me looking all capable and woodcraftery. I really hate sanding. 

Still in the relationship, no longer kayak, think the neighbours cat sleeps on them.

 

 

[redragon]

9 hours ago, indigoeagle said:

I'm surprised, that there are no new search alternative coming up.
To me the nature of the search results has changed tremendously in the last five or so years.
Also often it says "millons" of results, but I cannot go further than page 7 or so. Ten years ago or so I would often deliberately jump to the results on page 15.
Same with youtube. You only get ten results pertinent to your query and then some others.
Plus many videos, that one could find ten years ago, won't show up anymore.

Give Kagi a try: https://kagi.com/

[Double 0 Soul]

Google used to be great.. we had a symbiotic relationship, i knew they were r*ping me but it worked brilliantly!

I tried duckduck but it sucked in comparison, then maybe 5yrs ago, i bagged google entirely and swapped Gmail for Protonmail but that was too klunky which irritated me.

Now google sucks, it's no better or worse than any other search bar.. initially i thought it was a cookie preference thing.. ie- i used to research denim daily, especially Japanese sites and google always knew exactly where i was going.. When i had a few years denim hiatus, i thought it had forgot?.. alas, it never recovered and researching has become impossible.. my brain works better with image as opposed to txt but searching google images (for let's say variety's of Sugarcane jeans) it's either images of sugarcane plants or links to retailers of Sugarcane jeans.. nothing of any interest to me..

[indigoeagle]

Yes, it's mostly shop results.
Same with insta search.

[indigoeagle]

While we're talking about techy stuff:

any recommendations for fully working VPN?

[julian-wolf]

@indigoeagle What are your goals? Are you hoping to just set up a VPN between your own machines on different physical networks (e.g., to get around firewalls), or are you hoping to find a VPN service that also gives you access to shared nodes around the world (e.g., to get around location-blocked content)?

[julian-wolf]

On 4/29/2025 at 3:51 AM, Broark said:

@julian-wolf I had no idea you were on What, I was super active on Waffles (and was a mod at one point) and tried being more active on What before the end.
Had a very similar experience as yours on Waffles, met a lot of cool people that I still keep in touch with to this day.
Formative years online!

That's awesome. I do think we talked about Waffles at some point, maybe not What though. I was never very active there. I think I joined the two at around the same time (I was never around for Oink's, so I missed the very start, but not by much). Before I got into the community aspect, though, I was really there just for the music, so I think I gravitated much more towards What since their collection was so much more complete and so much better organized, and I guess that just transferred over to being more active on their forums. It's a shame, 'cause I did get the impression that the community on Waffles was really tight-knit.

Despite never having been that active, I do still take credit for having made the post that led pretty directly to the end of the mutual ban on offering invites between sites—although, at the time, I think my only intention was probably just to poke fun.

 

 

On 4/29/2025 at 7:21 AM, nick682 said:

Very cool story, which brings back a lot of memories.  I wouldn't be surprised if we communicated on What at some point. I'm still a member on several private trackers, some for over 15 years.  I'm not really active in any of their communities, but I do still download stuff.

No, I wouldn't be surprised either. What subforums / IRC channels were you active on?

I still download from HDBits and Redacted, but that's about it at this point. A lot of the regulars from What do seem to have made the transition over to Redacted, but I haven't been active on the forums there since around the first year. Every now and then I think about trying to jump back in, but at this point there's a decade's worth of inside jokes and lore that I'd need to catch up on, and it just seems like such a hassle ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[zachary12]

i got into waffles in 2013 or something, used to chat on irc but not really a forum poster (not really one here either). i don't know what i'd do without PTP/BTN/HDB and the book trackers, it's been a source of entertainment for what feels like two decades now... i have watched / listened / read so much that i wouldn't have heard of without collages or posters

[indigoeagle]

23 hours ago, julian-wolf said:

@indigoeagle What are your goals? Are you hoping to just set up a VPN between your own machines on different physical networks (e.g., to get around firewalls), or are you hoping to find a VPN service that also gives you access to shared nodes around the world (e.g., to get around location-blocked content)?

Good question:
I guess, two things mainly:

1. Access say German state television website from abroad. I think, like in many countries you can only access from a connection within the country.
2. When travelling to make sure, that when I do online banking, etc. that my information can't be recorded/accessed.

[redragon]

On 4/30/2025 at 4:22 PM, indigoeagle said:

While we're talking about techy stuff:

any recommendations for fully working VPN?

I use Express VPN for some time now, overall great experience. 

 

[Cold Summer]

On 4/25/2025 at 5:00 AM, Double 0 Soul said:

So, the stage is set for Double 0s question of the week "The Internet" has it always been part of your life? what were your first memories or experiences.. did you post on Myspace or any other fora before sufu?  if yes.. what kinda shit did you post, have you been part of any other groups or communities? any folks who entered their teenage years without the internet and left their teenage years as part of the internet..

I'm late to catching up here, but the answer is: Yes, sort of. I was an older elementary school aged kid in the late 90s when I started using the internet but it was mostly to download new levels and mods for computer games I enjoyed. In the early 2000s, I'd say 2001-2005 or so, I started branching out into other interests like music/playing guitar, Japan interests, and a whole lot more video game-related stuff, and internet access was integral to all of that. I didn't know anything about fashion at the time, or think to look online for style-based communities, until I discovered raw denim in late 2009 and came across the MyNudies forum, and later SuFu.

As an early adopter (well, relatively speaking) internet user, I perceived it entirely as a tool for engaging in nerdery. It felt like everything I was using it for was well outside of the mainstream, and it didn't seem to me that internet use would ever be universal or mainstream, besides ordering things online; the rise of social media was a bit hard to see coming. It was very much relegated to sitting at home in front of the computer, when I was out and about I barely thought about it. Heck, I hardly even used a cell phone in those days, basically just using it for emergency contacts, and despising texting. I did like using the computer for instant messaging with friends, particularly online friends with shared interests, and this is one aspect that feels long gone to me now.

Edited May 6 by Cold Summer

[Double 0 Soul]

I've just been reading an article in the Guardian titled "Cringe! .. How Did Millennials Become So Uncool"

The source of derision with zoomers mocking millennials is there choice of tight or worse still mum jeans 

It's baggy all the way for the cool kids.. if they see folks in mum jeans "pfft! millennials"

That'll teach em for mocking our 2009 styles and inability to txt with both thumbs

[StuartM]

On the same theme. https://www.vice.com/en/article/an-obituary-for-millennial-culture/ 

[Double 0 Soul]

It seems we've had a recent and very much welcome expansion to our group of online denim-misfits.. @okimoto @Lorcan @Well27 @TripicalMidbooster @LoneWolfWelding and others.. (a belated welcome to the forum) but i can't help but wonder.. this doesn't seem like your first rodeo, have y'all come here from other denim fora or have or just been lurking for the last decade?

[Lorcan]

Well for my sins I was on styleforum off and on 😅. Early 2010s I was more into Engineered Garments and the early Soloist collections, stuff like that. I had APCs and black LVC 1978 501 but wasn’t really a denim nerd. Late 2010s- weaker pound post-brexit I slowed down on proxying anything from Japan and less interested in clothes in general for a bit.

In 2020 I got some TCB 50s and that ended up being a tipping point for me (should post some pics of them come to think of it). Lots more denim and repro stuff followed and I found myself lurking over here often and eventually felt like I might as well join in. Like, if I’m browsing anyway to see what people are saying about Slash Overalls or something then why not? It’s a more relaxed vibe here as well. styleforum still seems prone to odd nonsense and drama in the main threads. And like other people on here I'm of that age that grew up with forums and find the new social media landscape just weird.

[Double 0 Soul]

Who else is a new kid on the block. @reubensangwich.. @PartTimeBarista.. you've already wasted $10 on your joining fee, you might as well waste 10mins telling us how you found us here at sufu-land.

[Well27]

Thanks Double 00

I also joined due to the friendly and familiar(?) tone in this forum. This is the first and only time a have an online present, but I got so much from the forum so I wanted to contribute with what little denim knowledge/experience I have

my origin story I posted in another thread, but here it is:

"

I’ve always been interested in clothes, doing the vintage 70’ies hippie style in my teens, then more streetwear and skateboard style the first part of my 20’s. When I finally had some money finishing uni, I was in a rut. Now I had money but felt too old for streetwear and did not really like the prep or business style.
Luckily I had a great colleague who one day brought me 4 pair of his old selvage jeans for me to have, and then I was hooked!
This is now 6 years ago and I’m been reading here the last 4 years, due to the purchase of the FC 1110XX which has the red tab and arcs, but when I found photos of the model elsewhere there were no arc or tabs – then superfuture taught me why.

"

Bonus info:

What made me sign up, was because I wanted a belt from duke  (received it yesterday!) and I thought the denim blunders was fun and wanted to chime in once in a while

[Double 0 Soul]

21 minutes ago, Well27 said:

Luckily I had a great colleague who one day brought me 4 pair of his old selvage jeans for me to have, and then I was hooked!

Wow! what a hero .. even giving my jeans away to my only son ( a' la @Dr_Heech  ) .. feels like a major trauma at this point

What jeans were they?

[Well27]

He's a really nice dude, changed jobs 2 years later, so don't talk to him anymore, but I hope he reads in here sometimes.

They jeans were Edwins, Kings of Indigo, Just Junkies, all selvedge. 

[PartTimeBarista]

I’ve been lurking since about 18 months. Though I also think I must have come across this site 15 years ago when I was in high school and somehow stumbled across Evisu. I never ended up getting any, likely due to price and confusion about raw denim. Or maybe I just realized they would be very out of place in my rural farm town and I most probably wouldn’t have been able to pull them off. Sometimes I wish I had gone for it.

For some years I have been drawn toward more conscious consumption, mostly interested in pursuing products made in the US. However, I never felt I could afford to. I ended up just not really buying clothes for most of Covid (I’ve been the same size since high school). In researching for my Christmas list for my mother in 2023, I came across madeindex.com, which led me to some American denim brands, which led me to Heddels, r/rawdenim, and ultimately here. I bought for myself a pair of Tellason Stock (non-selvedge) during the Black Friday sale. I wish I had spent more time with that pair and kept lurking and learning before buying more, but over the next few months I backed a Gustin campaign, bought a like new pair of Left Field NYC, bought and sold a pair from 3sixteen, and fell victim to Oni Crushed Concrete hype. 

I don’t fully regret those purchases, but I’ve taken the last year to wear what I have and keep learning from you all! Still haven’t figured out what I might want next, and not sure I have a lot to contribute, but I appreciate the community. Thanks to all of you for the thoughtful denim and non-denim conversation!

[reubensangwich]

Thanks for the welcome @Double 0 Soul!
I’m a couple years younger than most of you fellas, so traditional forums like this were once a bit foreign to me. After being on all the big social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, tumblr, twitter) heavily as youth, I ditched it all around the time I graduated high school. Reddit was really the only social media platform I interacted with and how I eventually found this place (from the cesspool that is the raw denim subreddit.) I think @beautiful_FrEaK or @shredwin_206 mentioned SuFu over there, I was delighted to find people who were not only much more knowledgeable, but could actually dress well posting here. It only took a couple of months of lurking for me to decide to bite the bullet and pay the initiation fee, you guys are such a wealth of information and entertainment that I feel the 10 bucks is truly worth it (though it’s cost me just a bit more than that in jeans!)

As for how I got into denim, I’ve always enjoyed clothes. I got my first pair of raw jeans in high school during the APC/size down craze, a pair of 511s that never really fit me how I wanted (I couldn’t size down, I actually used to size up to fit my calves and quads.) I tried a couple other slim-fit budget pairs over the years (Uniqlo, Naked and Famous) but I couldn’t get the fit right. Eventually as the slim-fit started to fall out of fashion, I realized that higher rises fit me better. I started wearing old 501s almost exclusively, and after a couple of years I got bored of basically being restricted to mid and light wash jeans. I decided it was time for a pair of raw denim and headed into the city, after Self Edge had nothing that fit me in my price range they recommended I go over to 3sixteen, where the classic straight fit was perfect for me. They were my only jeans for a good while, getting worn to the office occasionally and on weekends, but eventually my will power gave out. I recently caved and have acquired a few pairs of 40s repros 😂

[Dr_Heech]

9 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Wow! what a hero .. even giving my jeans away to my only son ( a' la @Dr_Heech  ) .. feels like a major trauma at this point

What jeans were they?

No trauma for me Neal, simply thinning out the herd of a few pairs of too- small, hardly worn jeans was a blessing. Plus l get to see them being worn and they are getting some much needed love again.

The raw lvc 1937s put by for his birthday? - l've owned and worn an identical pair back around 2007-2009 and they faded great but l'm not a great fan of the arcs. 

I have enough jeans for now 🙂